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Cerri planted both hands on my chest and shoved me back so that I dropped onto my ass. That way, she could climb into my lap and straddle me as she looked down into my eyes. My heart thumped wildly, and the beastly hunger deep in my core came back as strong as ever. I put a hand on her waist and tried my best not to squeeze like I wanted to. I would be gentle with her, even if my beastly side begged to take her fast and rough.
When she gripped my chin and gave me that imperious, half-lidded stare, I knew that I was done for. A growl rumbled in my chest and up my throat. I couldn’t help but tighten my grip on her.
“You are not allowed to die without your queen’s permission,” she declared.
“And if I do without your permission? What then?” I ran a hand up her back so I could feel the smooth planes of her body.
A smile curled along her lips. “Then I will do everything in my power to bring you back. I will dream of you and pluck you from my dreamscape to bring you back to life here in the mortal realm. There is no escaping me.”
I pulled her close so that our breaths mingled. “I do not want to escape you in the least.”
“Good,” she purred right before her mouth crashed into mine.
I explored the taste of her mouth with my tongue. The sweetness of her love overwhelmed my senses and left my head spinning so that I didn’t notice that we had visitors until one cleared their throat.
Cracking open one eye, I didn’t break the kiss. Hilda sat atop the nearby vent, kicking her feet gleefully. Beside her, Ness leaned against the vent and waited patiently for us to finish. Since there was no way I would darefinishwith onlookers, I finally broke the kiss.
Cerri seemed breathless. The wind tousled her hair as she pulled away and turned her attention to her friend and the brownie woman. I couldn’t take my eyes off my queen. I committed every inch of her being to memory so that when I finally fell, I would be able to see her one last time even if only in my mind.
“Can I talk to your girlfriend for a little bit?” Ness asked. “Or are the two of you attached at the hip right now?”
Cerri started to protest that we weren’t that bad, but Ness held up both hands and said that she completely understood the feeling. Just being away from Ryder for this long had her itching to run home. Which was why she wanted to talk now, that way she could run back to her mate.
“Don’t worry.” Ness caught my eye. “I’ll keep your princess safe. It was always my first priority.”
I grinned, wide and menacing. “If you don’t, you’ll find me in your nightmares. I could use the practice.”
Ness gave me a queer look before shaking her head. As Cerri and I stood, Ness shoved past me and grabbed Cerri’s arm to pull her to the other side of the rooftop. That left me alone with Hilda, which was both good and bad.
19
CERRI
“You look like shit. I’m just going to say that now.” Ness didn’t pull any punches.
She shoved a rainbow concoction into my hand and gave a stiff nod. Relief hit me the moment I wrapped my fingers around the drink. I took a long sip from it and felt the toxic carbonation bubble against my insides. Considering I didn’t drink these that often, if at all, it would hit hard and fast.
Ness nodded. “We can all tell you didn’t sleep. I know you want to see what kind of sex-capades you can get up to with that man of yours, and no one blames you—I mean look how pretty he is—but you need to be sleeping, too. Don’t die a horny dipshit.”
I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped me. The conversation came on so fast, and Ness made sure to word it as crudely as she could, perhaps to keep the energy uplifting while she berated me for what she assumed was a night of only lovemaking.
“I won’t lie, we were up late. That’s not the reason for these dark circles, though.”
Explaining the nightmares and how they were connected to the day that we’d visited Beryl helped shine a light on the situation for Ness. She nodded along like she could understand. I knew she’d had her fair share of nightmares in her day, too.
Hadn’t we all?
“I’m tired,” I said, not at all talking about my physical state.
“This is the last thing we have to do.” Ness squeezed my hand like what she’d said was the absolute truth.
I found it hard to believe. There was no way to know that without tampering with the threads of fate, and Addie didn’t want to do that anymore. I would have begged her if I thought it would change her mind.
Seeing Rhoan’s acceptance of his possible fate nearly broke me. I’d tried to kiss him with enough fervor so that he could taste the potential of all that could come for us, but I didn’t think it really worked. Once he’d set his mind to something, he stuck to it. He’d always been like that, and I loved it up until now.
“I wanted to ask, before everything went to shit, if you would be my child’s godparent.” Ness shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Exhilaration burst like a dramatic fireworks display in the depths of my chest. My eyes went wide and I bounced on the balls of my feet.
