“Gods, apart from Keras, I do not even know what they look like. How grown they are. The idea that they have all settled down is… unbelievable.”
Thanatos chuckled at that and stood. Water sluiced down his powerful body, making her a little hazy and warm, to the point where she forgot what she had been talking about. She forgot the ability to think at all as he waded to the edge of the pool, giving her a glorious view of his firm backside between his black wings.
When he stepped out of the pool, he spread his wings and shook his feathers, spraying water everywhere.
A woman could get used to having a view like that in her life.
He stole it from her by pulling his black leather pants on and fastening them, gave her a look that said he knew she had been ogling him. She stood and walked towards him, let him get a good look at her too. It was only fair.
Thanatos growled as she stepped from the water, raked his silver gaze over her in a way that made her shiver and heated her blood. She denied the urge to walk up to him and kiss him, pulled back on the reins of her lust and dressed instead.
He stalked to the fire and lit it again, and she slipped her arms into her black tunic jacket and followed him. She held her hands out to the blue flames, savouring the way they heated her chilled skin and dried her.
Thanatos eased down to sit beside it and shook his wings out again, and started preening them.
He paused and looked at her. “Your brother, Ares, and his wife have a daughter.”
Her eyes widened. “A daughter? I’m an aunt?”
He nodded, a flicker of amusement in his eyes. “She was born soon after we vanquished Eris and her minions.”
“I can’t wait to meet her and—” All the light that had been filling her turned to shadows that swamped her as she thought about what she had wanted to say.
She looked at Thanatos, knew how bleak she had to look when his brow furrowed and he held a hand out to her. She stared at that hand. One she could touch without fear.
She slipped hers into it and he pulled her down to him, settled her between his bent knees and curled his arms around her, tucking her close to him. She leaned back into his chest and stared at the fire, no longer feeling the warmth of it.
“We will find a way for you to control your power, Calindria.” He held her a little tighter, a little closer, and she relished it and the spark of warmth and light it awakened in her.
If anyone could help her master this terrible power of hers, it was Thanatos.
She stroked his hands, staring at them now. “I think I need skin contact for my power to be effective.”
“What makes you say that?” He rested his chin on her shoulder.
“The Messenger put gloves on and when he grabbed my hand, I didn’t hurt him. I remember that the guards always wore gloves when they had to move me, or came to give me food or water.” She snuggled closer to Thanatos. “When I touched the Messenger’s bare skin, I hurt him then… I killed him. So, skin contact must be necessary.”
“It is possible.” He rubbed her arms, warming her. “We will run some tests… but you must still learn to control this power.”
“I know. I don’t want to spend my life starved of physical contact.” She flinched when he tensed, hadn’t meant it like that. She cursed herself for not thinking about how it would sound to him, a male who had done his best to avoid others. She had the feeling it was being intimate with another that made him lash out, that the demigoddess had done something to him to make him react that way whenever someone touched him. As she tried to think of a better way to put things, she stroked his arms, marvelling that he let her do such a thing. “I meant, I don’t want to fear hurting others all the time. I don’t want to worry every second that if someone touched me, accidentally brushed my skin, that I would kill them.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple. “I will teach you. Together we will master this power, Calindria. You will not have to fear harming those you love.”
“I’ll practice while we go to that building you saw.”
He stiffened. “Why would you want to go there? It is not the route home.”
She stifled a yawn and fought the urge to close her eyes. “Because I think you need to know whether or not it’s real. I think it’s important to you… and that makes it important to me.”
He gathered her a little closer and sighed as he pressed his cheek to hers. “Thank you, little goddess. We will investigate it and then we shall go home. Sleep now. I will watch over you.”
She nodded and closed her eyes, curled against his chest and let sleep take her.
Sure that she would need all the strength she could get in the days ahead.
Escaping this realm wasn’t going to be as easy as he made it sound.
“Calindria?” That softly murmured word caressed her ears, drew her up from a deep peaceful slumber.
She frowned and resisted, snuggled closer to the warm pillow that cushioned her right side. A rich, deep chuckle teased her ears, sending a shiver through her, a wave of warmth that almost succeeded in rousing her from her sleep.
“First you do not trust me near you while you sleep, and now I cannot get you to wake.” He petted her hair, brushing long fingers through it, and she sighed as that warmth grew hotter, soothed every muscle in her body and made her feel peaceful. “Come now. We must move.”
She didn’t want to move. She wanted to stay here in this warm cocoon, safe in the arms of Thanatos. Strange how a god of death, one so brutal and savage, could make her feel that way—as if no one in this world could hurt her while she was here, tucked within the sheltering embrace of his wings.
“I shall just have to move you while you sleep then.”
She gasped as he lifted her, as cold air swirled around her backside and legs, and opened her eyes and glared up at him, her lips flattening as an urge to hit him rushed through her.
“There is my little goddess.” He grinned down at her.
Good gods.
Her eyes widened.
His face fell. “What?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head. “Just… You are gorgeous when you smile like that.”
He huffed and scowled at her. “Do not tease me.”
“I’m not.” She pulled herself up in his arms by looping hers around his neck, bringing their faces closer together. “You’re gorgeous.”
He still didn’t look as if he believed her, so she kissed him. He was quick to seize control of it, to deepen it and wreak havoc on her body. She would never tire of him kissing her like this, desperately, as if he feared she was an illusion and would disappear at any moment.
When he broke the kiss, he didn’t put her down. He carried her towards the tunnel that led to the canyon and through it, didn’t even release her when they reached the valley. He spread his wings and beat them, lifting them both into the air, and the ground fell away, revealing the winding crevasses that formed the canyon and then endless mountains.
“No protest?” He slid her a look and then went back to staring at the horizon as he flew with her, his great wings beating the air in a rhythmic way that her tired mind found hypnotic.
She could fall asleep to that steady, constant sound.
She shook her head and nestled closer to him, liked it when he tightened his grip on her, his arms flexing against her back and the underside of her knees. She settled her head on his shoulder and gazed at his profile rather than the world around her.