Page 259 of Starside

“I left,” he says, gaze blazing into mine. “To save you.”

To save me? I almost laugh. Save me by leaving me for dead? By stealing my sword? I spit the words. “From what?”

“From me.”

My breath hitches. I swallow, looking over his perfect face, seeing the mixture of hurt and wrath, waiting to feel the cold whisper of fear down my spine. He’s the God of Death. I should be terrified.

But I’m not.

His eyes narrow, as if sensing that. As if telling me I should be. Still, he doesn’t move away from me.

Hands still threaded through my hair, he pulls me closer, and in his heated gaze, I see chaos. Conflict. An internal battle I don’t understand. He finally shakes his head.

“I tried to do the right thing. I tried to leave you. But you summoned me.” His pulls me even closer, like he can’t stop himself. Like he can’t survive with any distance between us. “And if you’re still intent on killing the gods … I want you to join me.”

I blink. “What?”

“Our swords. They’re meant to be rejoined. They’re meant to work side by side. Together … together, we could change this world. All the godswords combined are nothing compared to ours. Joined, this one sword … could shatter and claim them all.”

Claim them all.

Because that’s what great swords do. I read about it in Vander’s library. They absorb the power they conquer.

I remember the Astral Queen’s words. The destruction she said would be unleashed.

He seems to sense my hesitance and shakes his head. “I want the same thing you do, Aris. I want the gods to fall. I want power to be restored to the other side. I want everything to be as it once was.”

That is what I want. It’s what I believe.

“Join me,” he says.

Then his lips brush mine, and that simple touch drags a brutal truth from the pit of my soul.

I want to join him. I don’t want to be alone anymore.

Who was I kidding? Did I really think I could come here, see him again, and feel nothing? Did I really think all those emotions, all those moments, died in that cave?

They didn’t.

So I kiss him. This time, it’s me surging forward, and he groans like he’s been waiting, like he’s been missing my touch, like I am a drug, and he’s already addicted. His lips are cold as my warm tongue parts them, but his taste—it’s the same. His hands are hard as marble and just as freezing as he runs them through my hair, and I sigh as his mouth trails down my neck, as he pays extra attention to the place he bit last night, as he gently runs his sharp teeth against the same sensitive skin. “You left me alone,” I repeat, because it’s something I can’t forgive.

“You’ll never be alone again,” he swears against my pulse, and then his lips capture mine. And this kiss—it’s the ultimate blade; it cuts through everything. The pain. The rage. The purpose. His tongue meets mine, and the rest of the world just vanishes.

I kiss him back just as fiercely, sucking, biting, speaking in this wordless, desperate language, every part of me aching for every part of him. We kiss until we’re both panting. Until I have to pull away to breathe.

“Raker?”

“Yes, Aris?” he asks, right against my mouth. And he says my name like it’s the most important word in the universe.

My eyes prickle. Finally, I’m telling the truth. I’m being honest with myself about what this is.

“I think—I think I love you,” I say.

And then I plunge my blade through his heart.

48

Raker’s eyes widen. Widen. At my words or at the fact that I just plunged my sword through his heart, I’m not sure.