Page 289 of Venom Sweeter than Honey
It takes concerted effort to divert my attention away from this microcosm calling to me.
I turn to find?—
Levi.
Oh, gods.
Memories come rushing back to me in a crushing and disorienting tsunami.
My heart is surely hemorrhaging, yet I see no blood.
Levi’s hands gently grasp my shoulders, and there’s a calm certainty in his gaze that steadies me.
“Be still.”
The words are softly spoken, but the timbre of his voice is no less a command—infused with power that reaches beyond this world and bleeds into all existence.
My heart rate steadies, and like a cask being uncorked, the fear and heartbreak suffusing me drains. Replaced with the peace I find in Levi’s eyes–the human ones I’ve come to know and love.
His gaze studies mine, and I his.
“What is this place?”
Levi opens his mouth to reply but stops short as his eyes lift to something—or someone—behind me. I turn to find the cervahnith several feet behind us, a frown creasing his face. “A place like this is forbidden from the living.”
Levi’s eyes darken. “Just asyouare forbidden from entering the living realms. Leave us, or I will dissolve every fragment of your being.”
The cervahnith’s expression tightens, but he turns to leave, briefly glancing at me over his shoulder. “There is nothing you can do to save him.”
Azrael.
I can’t breathe against the boulder that manifests in my throat; upon my chest.
“Is this my karma? That because I’ve denied my power and my nature my entire life, that I can now no longer control it, and am destined to destroy my father’s city and kill one of mysoulbound?”
Levi’s expression reveals nothing, but his words give me cautious hope.
“It is not written in stone. This is a liminal place of my own creation so that I could..."
That he created...
Sacred fuck, what kind of magic does he possess?
“Give you options,” he finishes.
My brows knit together as I wait with bated breath for him to finish his sentence, unconcerned about anything other than the mortalized god of death. “Is it true though? That we can’t save Azrael?”
Levi sighs, brow furrowing. “He doesn’t have to die beneath a slab of marble in your father’s palace, no, but changing his mind—his desire for thisreprieve—is not as simple as altering one single event. We cannot control free will, but you can change your reaction, and thus Azrael’s fate, to some degree, and that of Sinsól.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “So what are theseoptions?”
Levi raises his head to study my gaze.
“Tell me what you wish to change, and I will make it so.”
My brows knit together in bewilderment. “This is your power? You can control fate?”
He huffs a dry laugh. “Not exactly... To put it simply, I am able to access, and thus, impose my will to some degree upon time, space, gravity, and plasma. The four of which are, essentially, the foundation of physical reality. I wouldn’ttruly call thismypower—I can merely access the multiversal consciousness of higher, non-physical dimensions that don’t experience time in a linear fashion.”
