AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I finally snap. “Touch me!” I cry out as another violent spasm gushes more liquid stars to drip between my thighs. Violent whirlpools of desire plague my belly, igniting heat deeper in my core. The tension between us electrifies my entire soul.
Thanatos does not ask for confirmation. No, his cold hand slips from my naked waist and dips inside my gown. All the breath strips from my lungs as his fingers slip across my flesh to sink, to dive, to plunge frost crystals right into my sex.
Arching my back, I fall over his arm, curls tumbling over his shoulder as the uncontrollable onslaught stems thanks to that ice. His soft fingers treasure my gold-dampened depths…just once. A slow and delicate stroke of my folds. I clench my thighs, wanting those fingers to plunge deeper. But he imparts a single touch of his fingertips to spread his hoarfrost.
At last, his hand returns to my spine. Feather light. I can’t tell whether or not my liquid gold has stained his fingers. In one way, he’s like Neo. He refused to touch me. But Thanatos has gone further. Instead of slowing the fire, the craving, he’sreapedit.
My breath finally returns to normal against his neck, and I murmur through tears, “Thank you.”
“You conquered that accursed agriculturist and his irritating limericks. I should be thanking you. And apologizing on my knees.” He hints in a frigid whisper in my ear. “But please…accept my gift of thanks.”
“What gift?”
Thanatos lowers me before another section of his Lake—little bigger than a large pond. A boundary marks this one, separating it from other areas. Several ferrymen soul-pawns row in crystal boats to record the souls. Erecting another pedestal, this one lower to the Lake, Thanatos stands behind me—his shadow like a dark throne as he summons a singular soul from the water and allows it to take shape.
Oh, heavens! I almost crumble. Tears glisten in my eyes as I behold a face I haven’t seen in months. A face, a figure that was reduced to ash right before my eyes.
“Thanatos,” I whimper, I sob and touch the Prince of Death’s chest.
“This particular soul had someunfinished business,” Thanatos utters and nods to my father, who touches his brow in fealty to the Prince. “I managed to capture him countless times and kept him here for this significant moment.”
“Dad. Can I…?” I wonder to Death, heart yearning, hoping that I may somehow hold my father.
“In a way,” responds Thanatos before circling his hand in the air and parading my Dad’s form in buds of frost. “They won’t last long.” Then, he grips a tether…no, a strand! A single strand of my father’s soul, which he tugs toward us before placing it in my palm.
“Dad…” I hold onto that strand for dear death and embrace him despite how he’s nothing but a cold prickling of frost. No, it doesn’t feel like my father’s arms around me. Not his dark velvet skin. I can’t hear his slow heartbeat, but it’s still his essence, his loving energy. In his arms, I cry as waves of heat and cold overwhelm me. Teardrops tumble onto the pedestal. “I’m so sorry for not saying ‘I love you’ back that day.”
Elysia! I love you!His desperate words haunt me because Dad knew they would be his last.
“Elysia…” is all he says with a smile as he holds me tighter.
“Isn’t there any hope?” I crane my neck back to Thanatos.
He shakes his head. “My damned brother left his ashes to scatter. He cannot restore him.”
Is he stuck here forever?
Now that his business is finished, his soul may rest and find heaven. It is both pure and strong enough.
“I love you, Lyssi,” Dad echoes, the frost already thawing. “Tell your mother I am at peace.”
I gaze up at his deep bronze eyes, his dark skin like moonlit shadow silk. One last tear flees from my cheek like the twinkling tip of a star. No, a drop of a fire-glass. It lands on my father’s soul.
And then—oh, Saints! The frost disappears, and my father evanesces until nothing but golden glitters exist without a strand for me to hold. Somehow, I understand—whether it’s the almighty burst of holy energy that escapes my chest like an atom bomb—energy that rockets me back into Thanatos’ arms—or some heavenly foresight searing a path through my soul, I know, I know, Iknow! His soul has traveled to heaven. Andmytear sent him there.
Fatigue crushes me, but before I pass out in Thanatos’s arms, he purrs low in my ear, “That was a gift, but I promised you one secret, Elysia. Now, I will grant it: Lux is your ancestor.”
Chapter9
“I am the blood bishop Neo is sending.”
In the morning, I wake in Neo’s enormous bed with Spitfire’s body cradling my back like a warm, fur-covered lantern.
One glance at the time confirms I’m late for breakfast. I blink, curious since that’s never happened before. At least not until Lux. I’m also entirely naked because Thanatos’ frost dress must have melted due to Neo’s flames. It makes me wonder if he or Lux tried anything with me this morning. My breath hitches at the thought until the hellcat at my side vibrates with a deep groan. I’d doubt it with Spitfire next to me, his mighty paw draped over my arm.
Did Thanatos send him through the Soul Plane portal with me? I smile at the gesture. How different, how unexpected Thanatos is compared to Neo. Color flushes to my cheeks with heat tangling in my nether regions as I consider our night together.
Only for an icy wave to crash into me when I remember my first encounters with Thanatos in his tower. His shade voice—like a specter in my mind.Ask him, little angel.I cringe, my skin crawling from the memory. Not once have I asked Death the reason for his charade of a persona, why this great change. He revealed it himself:Foryouare my salvation!
