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“I believe you’ve exhausted your questions for now.”
The Prince of Death turns, leaving me to an inpouring of confusion and something like…grief. It’s cold, dark, and heavy. It weighs down my shoulders and makes my soul ache. And yet, I want to settle into that bed of grief and let my Halo feed on it, sample it until I understand why. Why am I so torturous to him? Is that why he never summoned me during those months Neo was gone? Why should I care?
Because you’re an Empath, you exasperating ignoramus, I tell myself. I prick my finger on a sharp crystal spire, wondering if Thanatos could bleed my heart more.
“It’s clear you have a blind spot with my twin, so please…” Thanatos sweeps his fingers down the length of my arm, brushing to my wrist, dipping into my palm so he may raise me from the floor. “Do you play chess, Elysia?” he purrs the question and conjures a board of white frost and black shades in the center of the room, along with two crystal chairs. He turns the black side toward me, which I appreciate, but knots twist in my belly.
Suspicious, I eye the board. “Only a little now and then with my father.”
“Was he good?”
“He was.”
“I am better.”
A smile tugs at my lips. “I’d say you have an unfair advantage over me,” I point out but still lower myself into the chair opposite of him, hinting at his centuries of experience.
“Yes, I do. And I do not like to lose.” Thanatos lifts his hand across the table to sweep his fingers across my cheek, eager to notify me, “However, I am also easilydistracted. And I give you free license to steal whatever piece you desire should you distract me. But…” he reaches over and scrapes his nails across my cheek, startling me, drawing blood and finishing, “careful that you don’t get caught. I will not show you mercy.”
Threading my brows low at his uncharacteristic invasion, I counter and nudge out one pawn with a feral grin. “Is it truly stealing if you grant me free license?”
Thanatos sweeps into his chair, looks down, and glowers because his rook is already missing. I stare up from heady eyelashes and wag the piece. “I’ll allow that, Elysia. Even if I wasn’t sitting down at the time. And despite you going first.”
With a proud breath, I smirk, toying with the piece. “Hmm…rules are ever so bendable, aren’t they?” I sharpen my eyes on his, iron to iron. “Perhaps you should draw up a contract. Like Father, like son, Natos?”
He bristles but recovers, moves his pawn forward to combat mine, and leans forward in his chair to scrutinize me. “Speaking of which, how are you finding Father’s little surprise? From experience, I can attest that she was quite exquisite.”
I thrust out another pawn. And so does Death as I swallow and seethe with a bitter edge, “You should know since you held her soul in your Lake, didn’t you?”
At first, I curl my fingers, itching to get my hands on his king, but when I look up, Thanatos’s brows have dived low in a fatal warning. He gives menothing.
I move my knight instead and sigh. “She’s like a plague but not adorable. And she looks better bald.” I offer a faint smile, recalling the first night she’d pressed Neo to bite me, and I’d burned all her hair off.
Thanatos seizes my knight, but I take his bishop. Leaning back in his chair, he raises one fist, rubbing his curved fingers together.
Smiling, I hold up his other rook that I’d managed to swipe with my Halo thread. I give it a little kiss. “Pride goes before the fall, Natos.” I love the way his frost nips at my lower lip, agitated.
“Take care, Ice Princess. There is more to her than meets the naked eye.”
“Oh, it’s not her eyes that she gets naked all the time.” I nudge my other knight toward the center of the board.
He mirrors my knight with his. “I hear a touch of envy in that lovely voice. A seven deadly sin.” Though I’m looking at the board, I can hear the slithering grin in Death’s voice.
“And justified.” I swoop my bishop in to claim that knight, a renewed stroke of pride because I am winning. At this particular game, that is. In the grand scheme of things, I somehow know Thanatos has already won the greater game.
“If there is one thing I can do better than my brother, Elysia, it’s taking a beautiful woman to my bed,” he offers, tone beyond suggestive, and I snap my eyes to his in a deadpan.
“Not. Fucking. Possible,” I answer and haphazardly jut out my rook and lean back, crossing my arms with a perma-scowl.
I can’t tear my eyes from his. I’ve protested too much, and his knowing and triumphant smile confirms it while a deep, dark storm brews in his eyes with secrets…and lust.
Could it be layers of wild dreams within dreams? What had he said? He wears the souls of the centuries. Which one is this? Something in the way he cocks his head to the side. Something in the way he twists his lips into a shit-eating smirk. Oh, hell no. I narrow my eyes to deadly slits.
Thanatos does not move. Instead, he merely observes. Not the board. Only me. Eyes dilating and reminding me of someone all too familiar. A predatory, brutal heat tangles within my core. Frustrated, I slip my hand under my curls and rub the back of my neck, digging my fingers into the tension. Because the sexual tension between Thanatos and I is undeniable—his frost and my gold star fire locked in a mating dance.
“Hmm…” Thanatos rises from his chair and meanders around the table. His macabre eyes mark mine as targets, luring them into that perfect storm. I swallow a tight knot in my throat upon his approach. Once he arrives before me, shadow embalming me, Thanatos curves his fingers onto the table and leans over to inhale my curls. “All he’s done since his return is try to violate you. If you were mine, I would never allow you to leave my bed, nor would you ever desire to, for I would worship at your throne until you forgave me of all my sins.”
Oh, Saints! My breasts grow heavy as my core overheats. He inhales deeply, scenting me, my undeniable arousal. I’m not prepared when he jerks my head back by my curls so he may mouth my neck, causing my breath to hitch, my heartbeat to stagger, and my blood to ignite.
