Page 154 of Demon's Beauty

“Make me your mate, Finn.”

50

Soleil

Finn and I step up to the Veil, and there’s not a single doubt in my mind.

Washed in the light and the magick of the Goddess—in our bond made manifest, in the ether’s swirl, in the waxing hunter moon—I feel nothing but certainty.

This is what I was meant for.

Meant for Finn.

Meant to Ascend.

Meant to be right here, making my own path.

He swings me into his arms like a groom carrying his bride over the threshold. “Ready?”

“Ready.”

We step through.

For a moment, there’s nothing but chaos. The world-bending, stomach-lurching, reality-twisting tempest of entering the Goddess’ realm.

But it doesn’t last.

In the space of a few heartbeats, the chaos smooths out.

We float, nearly weightless here in this place, and the preternatural stillness is almost as unnerving as the chaos was. Finn’s wings spread wide, pulsing a few times to keep us level,but there doesn’t seem to be any need for it as we hang suspended in the Goddess’s domain.

I’m so distracted by the strangeness of it that for a few moments, I forget why we’re here.

“You know,” Finn says wryly, startling me back to the present. “I should have asked around about this part. I’m not actually sure what we’re supposed to do.”

I wriggle a little in his arms until he catches my intent and shifts me so my legs are wrapped around his hips, my arms around his neck, his hands on my ass pressing me into him.

“Aren’t you?” I tease. “You can’t think of anything we might do to seal our bond?”

His crimson eyes gleam and his grip on my ass gets tighter. It brings me closer to him, spreads my thighs wider, and the hard ridge beneath his trousers presses into me in just the right spot.

“Perhaps I have an idea or two.”

“Oh really?” I run my lips over the side of his throat, drag my teeth against his skin. “I’d be interested in hearing more about theseideas.”

Finn claims my mouth in a hard, possessive kiss, and all around us ether swirls. Like the power of our bond has been amplified a thousand-fold, magick rushes through us, so needy and insistent I moan into his mouth.

Oh yes, I don’t think the Goddess’s requirements for sealing a mate bond are much of a mystery at all.

That proves even more true as we tear at each other’s clothes, as we kiss and touch and grab and bite, graceless in our frenzy to be as close to each other as we possibly can.

All the while, the ether holds us steady. It keeps us here, together, in this place where he and I are the only beings in the thirteen realms who actually exist.

I’ve never felt anything like it.

I’ve never felt a magick that even comes close to this as I wrap my hands around his horns and push his head lower in wordless command.

Finn complies immediately.