His words were so clipped that I didn’t press him for more. Despite what he said about his memories being faded, the loss of a child must have been an awful thing to bear. I wasn’t going to force him to relive that. If he wanted to tell me, he would do it in his own time.

  “And now you appear as a demon because you're in Matteo's body…” I continued.

  “But once I reclaim my own, I cannot be certain I will remain that way.” The corner of his mouth turned down in a half-frown I doubted he was aware of. “The crystals which Matteo does not echo suggest I shall, but my power remains in bargains, as it did when I was stuck on the other side of the veil.”

  “And you keep making bargains with me because I'm your mate.”

  “That is another hopeful sign,” he admitted. “Your bargains provide me with a hundred times more power than any other, just as a demon's mate would.”

  I wanted to ask about Matteo's sub-caste, but I knew Neo wouldn't tell me. As arrogant as my god mate was, he was oddly honourable. He would see it as beneath him to betray Matteo's privacy.

  Thinking about Matteo dragged my mind back to his fading. Neo said it had been going on for a week, and that worried me more than it should.

  “How long does he have left?” I asked, my eyes glued to my feet. “How long until…”

  “Until he dies and I'm returned to the shadow realm? A fortnight. Maybe less. The process is sporadic. It speeds up and then halts for days. It appears his soul is fading faster than his body, but there are signs of physical decline as well. I have found I have… weaknesses… I didn't have before.” He seems reluctant to continue, but he does anyway. “My eyesight is not what it was—though it's not yet intolerable—and I'm losing weight, but I've noticed no other effects yet. Though there will be more the longer it takes.”

  I bit my lip to suppress the urge to scream. The idea of watching both of them fade, of watching their body fail until I lost them completely was nauseating.

  “Marcus has to die.” I'd do it myself if it came to that. “He must be in Rio…”

  Neo nodded, but didn't say anything.

  It seemed selfish of me to care about a mating ceremony when their lives were at stake. All of my arguments started to die on my tongue as we finally crossed the library threshold.

  Lilith might have been my best friend, but I couldn't ask Neo to indulge such a fanciful event if it took away from time searching for Marcus. I'd have a thousand more meaningful moments with my friends in the future, but as things stood, I might only have a week or two's worth with my mates.

  “I was hasty, earlier.” Neo broke my train of thought with his quiet words.

  Without realising, I'd instinctively headed straight for the window, taking in the snowy peaks beyond without really seeing them. At his words, I turned to find him close enough to touch.

  “No. I was foolish. If my absence makes it easier for you to focus, I'll stay here and keep out of your hair until the end.”

  Because one way or another, it would end. I could only pray that when it did, I'd be allowed to get to know more than the glimpse I'd been given of the two men I was fated to.

  The alternative wasn't something I could contemplate.

  Neo's eyes tensed at the corners, the reaction so subtle that I almost missed it.

  “I'd prefer you remained a safe distance from my hunt for Marcus,” he replied. “But the longer this plays out, the more we need to accept this might not end the way I'd planned.” His words are dark, his mouth turned down at the corners in disgust at the thought of failure. “If that happens, I would rather our short time not be spent apart.”

  I blinked. “What are you saying?”

  “I'm saying that, although I'd rather you remained in the fortress while I hunt, I will facilitate short, accompanied trips to the outside world. Amongst them, Lilith's mating ceremony.”

  “Don't.” I shake my head. “It's not important.”

  “There will be conditions, of course. You shall remain protected at all times⁠—”

  I silenced him by crossing the space between us and sealing my lips to his. My hand landed on his shoulder, so I felt the second his whole body tensed under my sensual assault. Then he groaned against me, the sound rumbling through our connected bodies as I stroked my tongue against his in a bold move. Tangling the two in an erotic dance before I finally drew back.

  “Cornelia,” he said, eyes burning with dark fire as power flooded me. “If this is how you thank me, I'll have to try my damndest to stay on your good side.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  That was how, two days later, I stood at the back of a crowd in front of Lilith, watching her open her mating presents with her mates surrounding her. My heart ached for my best friend as I watched her finally start to enjoy her happily ever after with her mates. She’d fought so hard for this and it had been one hell of an emotional day.

  She'd almost cried at several points, and more than once, I’d almost joined in with her. Only Lu's presence nearby kept me grounded.

  Then there was Enzo. Patiently going through the trials, glaring at Neo the entire time.

  If Neo's bargain didn't own my silence, I would have confessed everything right then and there. He deserved to know his twin was alive.

  I'd argued that point with Matteo himself the night before, only for him to shut me down.

  “I'd far rather my brother didn't have to know the pain of losing me a second time,” he'd said. “If the first time broke him, I'd rather not do it again if we fail.”

  That conversation played on my mind as we patiently waited for the other guests to leave so we could give Lilith our gift. Babette, Viv, and Rina all joined us the second they were all gone, and I felt Neo draw closer at the last second. Lilith's face lit up with confusion, but she didn't speak. She bit her lip as she waited for one of us to start, but my mouth had gone dry. What if she disliked it? What if she became angry that we'd even consider removing her mother's powers a gift?

  “We got you a gift as well, but it's not exactly conventional,” Viv began, taking away any hope I had of backing out.

  “It's a choice,” Lulu explained. “You don't have to say yes.”

  They were dancing around it. So I took a deep breath and just said it. “Neo can take away your parents' ability to generate power. They wouldn't be able to gather more than the base level they need to survive.”

  “The demonic equivalent of forcing them to go cold turkey,” Rina added, still just eager as she had been when I'd told her about the 'gift' the first time. “And a bit of poetic justice at the same time.”

  “The point”—I glared back at Rina—“is that once they look back on their life and realise that they should be grovelling to earn your forgiveness for how they treated you, you might be able to build a better relationship with them.”

  “It might take a few decades,” Babette piped up, finally breaking her silence. “It still might not happen. But they don't deserve to have their power if they're just going to abuse others to get more of it.”

  Lilith didn't look like she knew what to think, glancing between her mates like she hoped they'd decide for her.

  “I…” Her voice broke off, and she had to swallow before she continued. “Thank you. But she's made her choices. I'd offer them both the chance, if they wanted, but I think they're satisfied with the life they've led. The best thing for me now is to cut them out of my life.”

  It was a far more gentle refusal than I'd expected, and I nodded automatically, studying her for a long second to make sure she wasn't angry before I let myself feel relieved.

  Then Neo shrugged. “That's unfortunate.”

  I turned, mouth falling open in disbelief. He wouldn't. “What do you mean 'that's unfortunate'?”

  He smirked, and that stone in my stomach sank once again. “Astoria's known all along that it was her mother who wanted Lilith dead. She was hedging her bets, seeing which one of you would win whilst staying out of it the whole time. What kind of god would I be if I let that kind of cowardice and disloyalty to my Chosen go unpunished?”

  “You already did it.” I couldn't believe it. He'd come up with the idea of a choice in the first place, but of course there'd been a loophole. There always was with him. “We said we were giving Lilith the choice!”

  “And you did.” Neo grinned, completely unrepentant. “Lilith had the choice. She refused it. Gift given. I just happened to have the opportunity earlier, and I took it. Astoria deserved it. I'll admit, I had no quarrel with Lilith's father, but he asked me to do it. Sometimes the weak know that they're not made to have power.”

  I had a cutting retort hovering on the tip of my tongue before Lilith caught my attention. She waved my anger away with a tired gesture and a slight shake of her head.

  “It's done now,” she said. “You guys made my mating ceremony the best ever, but now I have plans to thoroughly smudge all of this paint.” She gestured to the sparkling swirls we'd painted across her body hours ago. “We can deal with everything else in the morning.” She fixed my rebellious mate with a frown. “If you'll recall, we were trying to keep your existence here a secret?”

  “I got that general impression.” Something in our combined expressions must have broken his indifference, because he sighed. “Very well. I'll try to refrain from handing out any more divine justice. I made sure to wipe your parents' memories, anyway.” He glanced back at me. “I'm trying to remain on Cornelia's good side.”

  The lick of power which accompanied that statement reminded me of the blazing intensity of the kiss I'd given him before.

  “You know I'm staying with you anyway, stupid god.” I shoved my hair out of my face as I spoke. “You're too dangerous to be left unsupervised, and someone needs to force you to make amends for what you've done.”

  Neo just grinned like the predator he was and pulled me closer, tucking my arm into his elbow.

  “Why, Cornelia, what will it take for you to admit you actually like me?”

  I liked him far too much, that was the problem.

  “If you're looking for ideas, maybe you could start by getting it through your head that my name is Nelly.” I put on a scowl, but we both knew there was no heat behind it. “Now come on, we're getting in the way of an orgy.”

  Neo obligingly flapped his wings, tugging me into the sky so quickly that I lost my breath.

  Then I looked down and lost the air in my lungs all over again.

  “You've never flown me before,” I whispered, snuggling closer to the heat of him as we coasted over the mountains which hid the Abbey from humans.

  He still heard me. “I meant to. I… Matteo has helped me see that, perhaps, when it came to our courtship, I may have neglected you more than I intended. In my defence, I was certain a mortal would not cause me half as much trouble as Marcus has.”

  I snorted at his arrogance. Of course Neo would consider taking down the leader of an ancient cult a tiny task. In some ways, every failure to find Marcus must be a lesson in humility for him.

  “I will never apologise for putting your safety above your happiness,” he continued. “But I will… try not to confine you to the fortress in the future.”

  From him, that was a huge concession, and I smiled against his chest. “I'll try my best not to get kidnapped in return.”

  “It's a bargain,” he muttered, making me grin again.

  Everything was always going to be a bargain with him.

  “You hated every second of that, didn't you?” I asked.

  He let out a long sigh and kissed the top of my head. The sound of his steady wingbeats filled the silence until he spoke again, so quietly that I had to strain to hear him.

  “Before I died, I was a man, just like any other. I had a wife. I had plans for our future and growing old by her side and watching our children have their own children. When I wandered into the shadow realm and got trapped, I died. But I didn't. I woke up… different, but still a captive. I could no longer interact with the people I loved. I was a god, but—for all my power—there was no way for me to hold the woman I loved.”

  Being jealous of a dead woman was stupid, I reminded myself, biting my lip so as not to interrupt him. I had the feeling this was a story I was never going to hear again after this. Our mating bond thrummed with the deep, steady pain of an old emotional bruise between us, but he continued anyway.

  “I sent imps to take my family to the cave where I crossed over. The one which now sits beneath Vice College. The shadow realm is closest to your realm there, and growing up in such proximity to it gave my children their showings. They were the first demons, and they could hear me and see me in visions. It took a while, but it eventually became apparent that they were immortal. I was so relieved that I'd never have to watch them die, but my wife remained unshown for years. She was no longer human, but she was ageing, and soon she started to get sick. Though she wasn’t my mate, I still felt deeply for her, and in my desperation, I forced my energy into her to try to make her a demon as well.”

  My breath hitched as my mind raced through the possibilities. Neo had gone quiet, and when I looked up into his face, his eyes were glazed over with memories.

  “She died?” I guessed, my voice soft with sympathy.

  He shook his head. “Nothing so simple as that. She became the first chosen. She gained talons, but I forced so much energy into her so fast… the results were grotesque. She could hear my voice, but she couldn't touch anyone without cutting them. Eventually… she couldn't take the lack of contact anymore. She dug her own talons into her heart and killed herself rather than live with what I'd done to her.”

  His eyes met mine, and a stone lodged in my gut.

  His wife had killed herself… just like I'd been ready to do weeks ago. No wonder he'd possessed Lilith to stop me. No wonder Matteo's reminder yesterday had enraged him so badly.

  What would that have done to a man who had spent thousands of years chasing after the hope of having me? To watch me take my own life just like his wife had taken hers?

  Long fingers caught my chin and tipped my face up until I had no choice but to meet those haunting black eyes.

  “Do you see now?”

  I couldn't speak past the lump in my throat, so I just nodded.

  Of course, this man was fiercely overprotective. Of course, he'd rather wrap me in cotton wool than lose me. The death of his wife might have tormented him, but we were mates. My death would ruin him.

  Just as his would ruin me.

  Instead of saying anything, I shimmied closer and pressed my lips to his.

  It was supposed to be a sweet, gentle kiss, but Neo was too raw for that. His lips took mine like he was desperate for as much of me as he could get. Power lit up my nervous system like a fireworks display. His arms tightened around me like steel bands, holding me in place as he devoured me.

  My own hand tangled in his hair, holding him to me as he flew us through the night sky with powerful beats of his wings. I had no idea where we were going, and as long as he kept nipping at my lips, I didn't really care.

  He had me mindless by the time I felt my dress disappear in a blast of cold from the shadow realm.

  Pressed up against his fully clothed form, wearing nothing but the racy lingerie I'd had on beneath, I became acutely aware of how vulnerable I was. Hundreds of feet separated me from the ground, but I forgot the momentary fear as Neo's lips whispered away from my mouth and across my cheekbone. He kissed a path down my jaw until he reached my throat. I gasped. My head fell back, allowing him better access, and he took full advantage.

  When he finally pulled back with a curse, I moaned.

  “If you keep distracting me like this, Cornelia, we'll crash into a tree before we make it to our destination.”

  I blinked up at him, myopically. In the desire-fuelled haze he'd woven around me, the only thing I could think was that I desperately hoped that our destination had a bed.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  We landed on the balcony of a large, yet surprisingly modern, cabin. It was surrounded on all sides by towering pines as far as the eye could see. I didn't have to ask if this was another of Neo's safe houses; that much had been evident from the lack of a driveway, or even roads. As far as I could see, there was no way to access this place unless you had wings, or planned on walking for miles.

  Of course, I didn't have time to prove that theory. Neo swept me through the huge glass doors and into a bedroom that was straight out of a five-star hotel. The bed had so many pillows that I had trouble figuring out how I was actually supposed to sleep on them.

  Neo saved me from my deliberations when he deposited me right at the end of the bed before pressing one hand to the centre of my chest and pushing me back until I fell into the plush softness.

  His eyes raked over me like he was trying to decide where to start. He looked his fill until I was almost dizzy with the power that was flooding through me.

  I made the decision for him when I used the toe of my stiletto to drag a careful line up his inner thigh. A single brow rose as he caught my foot easily, unbuckling the fastening at my ankle before chucking the shoe away. He pressed a kiss to the inside of my calf, followed by a teasing lick and then another searing kiss.

  Each kiss took him slightly closer to the junction of my thighs, each tiny touch of lips on skin eroding my patience until I was ready to burst.

  But the moment his lips came across the lace of my thong, he stopped, grabbed my other ankle, and started on the other shoe.

  My curse was followed quickly by his dark chuckle.

  “Have a little patience,” he chided.

  “You're going to drive me insane,” I whispered.

  “I've had a very long time to plan this,” he said, pressing another kiss to my ankle, followed by a tiny, punishing nip. “Several thousand years of imagining what I would do to my mate when I got you into my bed.”