Page 170 of Gods of the Sea

“It’s a little fast,” he said, stepping closer.

I nodded. “It’s your fault.”

He brushed my hair from my neck, tucking loose strands of it behind my ear.

“Yet somehow,” he added, “I’m unsatisfied.”

His wings tightened around us and pushed me close to him, our bodies now fleshed against each other. Blood rushed from my toes to my head so fast that it would have knocked me off balance had Luc not been holding me so close by his arms and his wings.

“Come back to the Den of Sirens with me,” Luc whispered. “Come accept your wings, so you can be mine.”

I put my hands on his chest, my feelings bubbling in my stomach. But the rush soon crashed, my heart sinking.

“I want more than anything to be with you. But my father’s illness…”

He nodded. “I won’t ask you to abandon him. I would have never abandoned Maria’s family given any circumstance. I won’t ask you to abandon a man who has treated you with such affection.” He stroked my cheek. “But regardless, I will offer my own affections to you whenever you’re ready to come home. Eternally.”

My lips parted in surprise. “That’s a very large promise to make, Rhys.”

“And I’m a man of my word, Astraea,” he returned.

My eyes searched his, trying to decide on an answer. He smiled.

“You keep yearning for it, don’t you?” he asked. “You keep looking at the sea from your window, wishing you were on it again?”

I laughed. “I forgot that you can see all my dreams and desires.”

He leaned forward. “And you can see mine, too, you know.”

I stared deep into his eyes, noticing the colors swarm once more, before something undoubtedly bubbled up in my mind.

Luc loved me.

No… Rhys loved me. Rhys had always loved me.

We were from a world where feelings were regarded as afterthoughts, but he had me first in his heart from the beginning.

He smiled. “You saw it.”

He held me close, his arms around my back in an embrace like a child holding a teddy bear. It was warm and affectionate, yet desperate for comfort.

“Please, Astraea,” he whispered, his lips grazing my ear. “I spent half of my last human life looking for the spirit of the woman I loved, only to lose her forever. I can’t go through that again.”

Something in my heart ached, knowing deep down that if I reincarnated again, Luc wouldn’t be able to find me for some time. Leaving him alone shattered something in me.

“Come back with me,” he said again. “I’ll make sure you and your father are taken care of completely, in whatever realm you want to live.”

His fingers dug into my hips as he held me close, the desperation in his voice sweet. I ran my hands from his chest to his neck, twisting the hair on the back of his head gently with my fingers.

I didn’t need to check his pulse to know that it was racing.

“I want to live in whatever realm you’re in,” I whispered back. “I want to stay by your side until you know how much you are loved.”

Luc seemed to freeze for a moment before his eyes locked with mine. He clenched his teeth, his eyes watering until a few stray tears spilled over. He smiled, licking the drops from his lips.

“Aye, my heart must be weak today,” he said. “You touched it so easily.”

I leaned forward and kissed the tears on his cheeks, the salt from his tears and his skin dancing across my tongue. His hands glided across my waist, pulling me impossibly close to him as I kissed his cheeks up to his eyelids.

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