Shannon > Recent Status Updates

I swallowed. “I’m not completely fine, but I will be.” “Yes,” she whispered. “You will be.” Neither of us said anything for several long moments. Finally, I looked at her, and all I saw was devotion in her eyes. To be on the receiving end of that? It made my fucking heart skip.

“I would think very carefully about what you say next,” Kieran warned. Framont glanced at him. “Will you harm me? Threaten me with death? I fear no such thing.” “There are things far worse than death. Like her when she’s annoyed.” He jerked his chin in my direction. “She likes to stab things then. But when she gets angry? You’ll see exactly what a god is capable of.”

Whether I was a Maiden or Queen, a mortal or a god, I would never allow myself to become someone who would not take the very same risks I asked of others. Nor would I refuse to carry those marks Vikter had spoken of while expecting others to bear that kind of weight.

Kieran started to frown. “Are you about to cry?” “No.” “Doesn’t look that way.” “Then stop looking, and it won’t.” “That doesn’t even make sense, Poppy.” A burst of sugary amusement gathered on the tip of my tongue. I glared at him. “This isn’t funny.” “I know it shouldn’t be.” His lips twitched. “But it kind of is.” “Shut up,” I griped.

It’s not until the red, rising sun starts to peek through her curtains that we begin to doze off, her soft body curling further into mine. I lose myself to the warmth of her…and begin to worry that I might be losing my heart as well.

He’d turned the room into a planetarium. No, not a planetarium. A virtual galaxy. Brilliant stars splashed across the soaring walls and ceiling and swirled beneath our feet. Constellations dotted the “sky,” including Andromeda, Perseus, and a distinctive hourglass shape that made my breath hitch. Orion. My favorite. “You can’t see the stars in New York,” Dante said. “So I brought the stars to you.”

A concrete block formed in my chest. “Our families work in similar fields,” I murmured. “So there is a business element to it.” “Yes, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you.” She ran the last dirty dish under the water. “It’s not about business.” She was wrong, but that didn’t stop my pulse from spiking… “How does he look at me?” Janis smiled. “Like he never wants to look away.”

“You forget.” I pressed my fingers against her nape, forcing her to look up at me. “You’re my fiancée. Not Kai’s. Not anyone else’s. I don’t give a fuck how handsome they are or what type of accent they have. You’re mine, and no one…” I dipped my head, my lips brushing hers with each word. “Touches what’s mine.”

“Should I come back after you’ve finished ogling her?” Christian swirled the ice in his glass. “I don’t want to intrude on a private moment.” “I’m not ogling her.” I dragged my eyes away from Vivian, but her presence remained a tangible heat on my skin. I tried to shake it off to no avail.

Vivian pressed her lips into a stubborn line. The air was alive with the crackle of electricity and animosity. It sizzled against my skin, drawing my muscles tight and fanning the strange, hungry fire in my stomach. When she remained mutinously silent, I reached up and closed my hand around her throat. Lightly, just enough to feel the shallowness of her breaths. My voice dropped to a dangerous warning.

You can own your fantasies with me, Little Osha. There is nothing in this realm or the next that I won’t give to you if you desire it. All you ever need do is ask.

She had never been a collector of things. Never hungry to drape herself in finery. It had been my father who had purchased the silks for her. Gowns of every color and fabric. My strongest memories of my father all seemed to feature the quiet way he came alive and glowed with pride when he showered my mother with gifts from the other realms he visited.

“NI’ MIRELLE!”
The Old Fae came out as both challenge and curse.
For revenge.
For retribution.
For my friend, who the beast had taken, and for those who remained to mourn the loss of her ever afterward.
Ni’ Mirelle.
For Mirelle.”

I formed the gate without looking back. I knew they’d be with me. I didn’t doubt it for one second. We weren’t just warriors. We were family. And if one of us was ready to lay down their lives to protect the Ajun Gate, it went without saying that the others were, too… Their fear was a bright copper burn on the tip of my tongue. But I also felt their courage, and it was enough to bolster my own.

I don’t care if I die. Mirelle’s gone.”
“You’ll see her again one day, you fool,” I told him. “When the Fates deem it time and not before. But you’ll never see her again if you burn away your fucking soul.” It was harsh to speak so unkindly to him in this moment, when the wound was raw and hadn’t even begun to hurt as much as it inevitably would. But I wasn’t going to lose another of my friends.

A scent blew to me on the breeze, then, electrifying every part of me. Like lilies, and sugar, and light, and laughter, and smoke, and I couldn’t fucking breathe. “Who is that?” I gasped. “Up there on the hill with him?” No matter how hard I squinted, I couldn’t see her. The sudden ache in my chest was more powerful than anything I’d ever experienced before. It overrode everything.

The sound of the voice behind me damn near broke me. “Come on, then, you stubborn ass. We’ll do it together.”
The hands at my back were Ren’s. Lorreth’s. Strong. Steady. Firm. The hands of my brothers, who stood beside me on the wrong side of the gate, ready to help me. Ready to stand with me. Ready to die with me.

“We do not bow,” it raged. Many voices, all speaking as one. Forever a curse crouching out of sight in a dark corner of my consciousness, it rose up and spread through me like a wildfire, galvanizing my veins and dousing the pain. “We are not bound by foreign magics,” it seethed. “Nor shall you be.”

“I knew I should have stayed home,” Renfis hissed under his breath. Locking eyes with me, his hand closed around the hilt of his blade, and I saw from the furrows on his brow that he’d reached the same conclusion I had a moment ago: we were fucked. Laughing silently, I winked at him, “Not too late to turn back.” He snorted. “You’re joking. There’s no way down that hill now.”