Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 502(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
I am coming.
I am becoming.
The orgasm hits me like a freight train, overwhelming me with pleasure so intense, it feels as though I’m going to burst. My entire body shudders, my muscles tensing and relaxing in waves of ecstasy. I cry out Tuoni’s name, lost in the intensity of the sensation, feeling like I’m soaring through the dimensions beyond on a wave of pure bliss.
It keeps coming and coming and coming.
Gods.
Where am I?
As I come down from my high, Tuoni’s hands never falter. He continues to touch me gently, even as my body quivers and shakes in the aftermath of my orgasm. His touch is tender and caring, a reminder he is here for me in every sense of the word.
Finally, as my breath begins to steady and my heart rate returns to normal, Tuoni raises his head to look into my eyes once more. The fire that burns within him seems even more intense now, searing and searching.
So much hope.
“Little bird?” he says softly, my desire shining on his lips. “Have you flown back to me?”
I close my eyes and breathe in deeply, feeling the heat of my divinity start to fade away into the darkness until it’s just a kindling, a single flame. It promises to burn there forever, but for now, it’s no longer wanted.
I want to be Hanna Heikkenen.
I want to be the Goddess of Death.
I want to be the wife of this God between my legs.
I want to be human and all that entails.
I want to love and be loved.
Tears suddenly flood my eyes, spilling over and down my cheeks as a sob of joy rattles through me.
“Yes,” I cry out, feeling it, everything, all at once. “Yes.”
I am home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DEATH
A hush drapes over Castle Syntri’s corridors, a quiet unlike the tense silence that ruled before the battle. This hush is heavy with exhaustion and grief, but also with a fragile sense of relief. It has been three days since we drove the Old Gods and Louhi’s undead legion back, long enough for the numbness of shock to wear off. Now, the pain settles in: the loss of General Pekka and so many troops who trusted me, the wounds that may never fully heal, the knowledge that victory was only a reprieve, not the end of our struggle.
I stand at a narrow window in one of the castle’s smaller towers, looking out over the courtyard. Snow still clings to the ramparts, though the storms have calmed ever since Hanna reclaimed her mortality, and in turn, her personality. I have a fucking wife again, which is the only thing that soothes me in this uneasy aftermath.
The Star Swamp beyond lies quiet, its surface crusted with new ice. We fractured the enemy’s forces here, but they will return, stronger, and if I know Louhi, with newfound vengeance and brutality. I can feel it. It will not be long before she unleashes another horror upon us, making sure to really make it hurt this time. There’s nothing worse than a demon woman scorned—I should know.
The morning light filters through thin clouds, casting a cool glow over my gloved hands. Three days past, those same hands gripped a blade that sliced through Old Gods’ flesh, directed gunmen, tried to hold our fragile alliance together. Today, they tremble slightly; not from fear, but from the weight of what lies ahead. Even though my role as God has been to welcome and steer the souls of the dead, I find myself burdened with their fragile hopes. It’s not just the dead of the whole world, this one and the one above, but these troops I have manipulated into being here. I wonder if that makes me no better than Louhi.
But desperate times…
I glance up at the sky and wonder if the snowbird will ever return. So far, I haven’t seen any sign of my sister Ilmatar. I wonder if the bird got as far as Shadow’s End or if it met its demise along the way. Another soldier lost.
Footsteps sound out from behind me, and I turn to see Hanna entering the room. She halts in the doorway, her eyes scanning my face. For a moment, I see the fear in them, and it cuts me to the core. She might be her old self, but the cost of invoking her sun-gifted powers still haunts her. She has told me how, in that blazing moment of unleashing solar wrath, she nearly lost herself for good. How she’d looked at us with no recognition, how the world had become alien. Now, restored to herself, she’s terrified that using her powers again might erase her memories once more. She says the powers are still there, burning inside her like coals, ready to burn.
I beckon her closer. “Hanna,” I say softly. Her name carries a thousand emotions. Just a few days ago, I feared I’d lost her forever. Now, she’s here, her expression anxious but determined. So damned beautiful.