Page 305 of Fated to be Enemies

“You don’t need me to come right now then. You can come back and get me.”

His grip tightened. “The coven will be safe here, especially if she believes me here, but just in case, Elle, I need to know you’re okay. She’s gone after you twice now.”

I tugged at my collar. It suddenly felt warmer in here. “I suppose it would be interesting to see the others.”

He smirked. “Also, your company isn’t terrible. It wouldn’t be the worst thing to have you come along.”

I opened my mouth but closed it again. Before I could say anything, a small earthquake trembled the mansion. I grabbed ahold of the window ledge, but Raiden wrapped his arms around me. Thunder pounded in the sky, followed by flashes of lightning. I held onto him until it stopped. “What the…”

Maddox appeared in the doorway a minute later. “Oh, good. You’re okay.” He whistled out a breath. “We never get earthquakes.”

Chapter Eighteen

Iwas never going to get used to being whisked through a forest in the arms of a god, but it wasn’t a bad place to be. We got to the first prison realm in under fifteen minutes and had traveled to the edge of the province. We’d encountered another two earthquakes on the way there, but they were minor, and Raiden could withstand them.

He placed me down carefully. Holding onto his arm for support, I stumbled as my senses reoriented. I didn’t want to admit I’d almost thrown up a few times on the journey. He thumbed my chin and tilted my head upward, examining me. “You’re hurt.”

I reached my fingers to the stinging on my temple. Something had whacked me as he’d run us through the trees. A twig, I thought. I touched the blood, then rubbed it between my fingers as if it were silk. “Oh, yeah.”

He touched the scratch tenderly, the callused tips of his fingers feathering the cut, and the stinging went away. I touched it again, but there was no pain. Nothing. “You can heal?”

His smile dimpled his cheek. “I can heal minor cuts, like those. It’s my sister who possesses true healing powers. She could have had Maddox fixed up in a second that day.” He paused, his gaze drifting up to the moon. “I wanted to, but his injuries were too severe.”

“You did what you could,” I said. He was different out here, among the trees. “You said when you first came that you liked the woods.”

“I did.” He played with one of the keys, passing it from hand to hand. “It’s where I found the most solace when I was sent here from the otherworld.”

“What’s it like?”

He chuckled. “Nothing like here. It’s vibrant and beautiful, filled with never-ending beauty, no pain, no suffering.”

“Sounds divine.”

The muscle in his jaw twitched. “It is until it isn’t. There’s no growth there. No humanity. People learn through pain, and without it, existence is boring and without purpose. When I was given a body and sent here, I vowed to never go back.”

“You want to stay here?”

He leaned down, bringing his fingers up my bottom lip and running his thumb across. “You feel that? It’s being alive, Elle. There is no touch in the otherworld. It’s just spiritual. They say everything is sins of the flesh, but I call it living.” He looked around us. “The feel of the breeze against your skin and a touch of rain as the skies fill with clouds… every single thing you love, whether it’s laughter or just feeling the grass beneath your feet, it doesn’t exist in the otherworld. It’s a place of passivity and peace masquerading as eternal joy.”

My heart was hammering hard in my chest, to the point where I wondered if it would stop. “Dora will be heartbroken.”

He nodded slowly. “It’s not awful. Most might find it serene, but not me. It’s no match to being here.”

My eyebrows shot up. It probably wasn’t enough for someone like him, with a fiery heart and an electric soul. “Is it really that bad? It’s where I’ll go one day—well, I hope.”

His gaze searched mine. “It’s worth living to your fullest here first. Trust me.”

I turned my attention to the stone arch ahead of us, which stood on three stone steps. “Is this it? Is there a keyhole? It’s hard to see much in the dark.”

“Oh, right. You have mortal eyes.”

I smirked. “Damn these mortal eyes.”

He summoned a ball of light, floating it over the arch. “Here.”

“Thanks,” I murmured. The arch was out of place compared to everything else. The forest hadn’t claimed it for herself. Not a speck of ivy climbed the stone, nor any leaves carpeting the steps. It was pristine. Otherworldly. Etched in the stone were words in Lor. Below them was a key-shaped hole.

“I assume this is it?” I shifted my weight from one foot to the other. “Your sister’s or brother’s prison realm.”

---