“Everyone needs somebody.”
“Everyone isn’t me.”
Several seconds passed in silence, and when he couldn’t stand it anymore and finally forced his eyes open, he realized she was smiling down at him. A wide gorgeous smile that lit up her face and made her violet eyes absolutely sparkle.
“Why are you grinning like that?” he asked.
“Because I’m right.”
She leaned down to kiss him but he stopped her with his hands on both of her arms, holding her back. “Don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because they were right. All those people who said I was a monster… Every single one from your world… They were right.”
She stilled and met his gaze, but she didn’t speak, and she didn’t try to kiss him again. And though he told himself that was good—it was the only way it could be—something in his chest cinched down tight all over again.
“Every single awful thing they said I did…” He forced the words out. “They were right. I did those things. No one made me to do them. I did them because I wanted to. I did them because I could. I earned the title the Prince of Darkness. Because that’s exactly what I am.”
Her gaze skipped over his features. Unsure but also filled with… defiance. A defiance that lit him up in a million different ways and made him want her even more. “I don’t care.”
She leaned toward him again, but he tightened his hold on her arms, keeping her back. “Then you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were.”
Her luscious lips curled on one side. “Oh, I am. I’m very smart. And you know it too or you wouldn’t be protesting so much.”
“Talis—”
“When a soul has endured terrible things, Zagreus, it can become capable of terrible things. And you have lived through things no one should have to live through. But those things don’t define you. And they don’t control you. Not unless you let them. I don’t care what you did in the past. I don’t care what people have said about you. All I care about is what you do now. And what I’ve seen you do these last few days has not come from a place of darkness. It’s come from light.” She laid her palm back on his chest. Right over his heart. “A light I know is still in here.”
He could barely believe her words. That she’d said them. That she’d said them while looking at him as she was now—with tenderness and honesty—as if she truly believed them.
His heart raced beneath her hand. Disbelief churned inside. And when she eased forward again, he flexed his arms, fighting to keep her away even though he was losing the strength to do just that. “Don’t. You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing,” she said softly. “I’m not fighting something that started a long time ago.”
Her lips grazed his temple, and his resistance wavered. For once he was trying to do the right thing, only she was stopping him. Something that was completely fucking ironic considering their past. “It’s better if you just go now. I’m letting you leave.”
“Too late. I don’t want to go anymore.”
“Talis—”
“I know what it’s like to be alone, Zagreus.” She drew back and met his gaze, the intense look in her violet eyes stopping him more than her words. “Maybe not as long as you’ve been alone, but I know how isolating it is. I know how it feels not to fit in with the people around you. To be told you’re not strong enough or smart enough or special enough. And I know what it’s like to fight against all that because it’s the only thing you’re good at doing.”
His heart raced even faster as he stared up at her.
She brushed her fingertips down the stubble on his cheek, her touch sending zings of electricity all through his skin. “But I also know how it feels to finally find the one person who gets you, who understands you, who accepts you, even with all your flaws.” Her lips tipped up. “Even if that person is not at all who you expected him to be.”
His chest grew so tight he was surprised it didn’t burst, right there in front of her. Her words bathed him in warmth—so much warmth he wanted to grab her and never let go. But he held back. Because if he took what she was so blindly offering, nothing would change. They would both be stuck in the same cycle of life and death and misery that had plagued them for so long.
“It isn’t real,” he whispered.
“What isn’t real?”
“This. How you think you feel. It’s a set up by the Fates. To bring us together for whatever fucking reason they think we need to be together. They’re moving both of us around like pawns, and I’m sick of it. They’ve been doing it my whole damn life and the only thing that’s guaranteed is that you’ll suffer for it. Just as you’ve suffered every other fucking time they’ve thrown us together.”
“You’ve suffered, too.”
“I don’t matter.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” She tipped his chin up when he tried to look away. “You’re also wrong about the Fates. They might have sent me back before, but not this time. This time there’s something stronger at work here. A bigger reason you and I are together in this time and place.”
He frowned. “You’re naïve. There’s no reason some higher power or whatever you want to call it would ever look twice at me.”
“Why not? We all know that the gods are nothing more than fallen angels, and each angel was created in light.” When he scoffed and looked away, she tipped his face back to hers. “And every fallen angel—no matter how dark—can reignite that light. Including you.”
His chest contracted again, only this time it was laced with a bitter reality he could never change. “I’m no hero, Talisa. If that’s what you’re expecting, you’re going to be bitterly disappointed. Even if there is a smattering of light left inside me, it’s overshadowed by a shit-ton of darkness.”
One side of her lips curled as she leaned in close. “If I’d wanted a hero, I could have easily found one in my realm.” Her hand drifted down his abs and into his open pants, her warm breath tickling his lips. “And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, dios, I like the dark.” Her slim fingers wrapped around his cock, already lengthening and swelling in her grip. “It’s what I was looking for the night we met.”
He sucked in a sharp breath as she drew him out of his pants and shifted so the head of his erection could slide through her wetness.
“I’d much rather have a devil in my bed.” She brushed her lips against his temple again, flexed her hips, then shivered as his cock passed over her clit. “A devil who is dark and sexy and wild and wicked.” She moved so he was at the perfect position, then tipped his face up to hers so their lips were almost touching. “A devil with just enough light to lead me right to him.”
She was a drug, one this close he couldn’t resist. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he pulled her down, until all her tempting wet heat surrounded him and she was all he knew.
He groaned at the tight fit, at the way she gasped as he stretched her. Pressing his mouth to hers, he tasted her deeply, drawing her into his soul in a way she’d never been before.