A thousand lifetimes spent right here, in this moment, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Especially not when I remember that I almostlost her again.
I don’t let the intrusive thought in often, but it’s a very real possibility. A hundred scenarios from that single harrowing night could've ended with the woman I love dead. With the color in my life fading back to the dullest shade of gray.
“What are you waiting for?” Poppy plunges her hands into my hair, her lips finding their home on mine. “Be a good king, and fuck your queen.”
I do, tasting my name on her tongue and listening to her body sing for me. This, being inside her, reminds me that she’s still here.
Alive and beautiful and certainly not a hallucination.
NORTH STAR
Poppy
“How are you feeling,mon amour?”
“I don’t know.” I fist the skirt of my black lace yukata, my palms sweaty. “It feels weird to be celebrating something as mundane as my birthday right now. Leviathan is still out there, waiting to make their next move.”
Brontë bobs his head in consideration as we drift into the lot at Beelzebub’s. “Haven’t we earned the right to take a night off from worrying about what lurks around every dark corner?”
“I guess.” We’re not even inside yet, and I already want to return to the manor. This place was once my home, my haven. Now, it feels almost foreign. Like an old friend I haven’t seen in so long, there’s no familiarity left to find comfort in. “Let’s just get this over with.”
I grab the door handle, but the locks click into place.
A gun’s muzzle skirts my jaw. Hot breath brushes the shell of my ear as Brontë growls, “Did I say you could leave?”
My core throbs in response, desire licking at my veins. “There is such a thing as wrong place and time,mon ange.”
“Relax.” He ghosts the Kimber over my cheek and through my hair as I turn to face his mischievous grin. “Give me your vape.”
I paw through my purse until I find the abysmally low pen. “Bax is cooking up the new batch for me, so this is it for now.”
“We’ll just have to share it, then.”
Brontë takes the vape and hits it, draining the blue juice down to the dregs. I gape, caught between admiration and agitation.
“Greedy pr—”
He grabs my nape and latches onto my mouth with his, breathing cotton candy smoke into my lungs. I drink it down, cherishing every last vapor.
How is he this sexy without even trying?
Licking my tongue, he seals my lips with a mind-altering kiss. “Better?”
Serenity seeps into my nerves, and I lean my brow against his with a long sigh. “Better.”
“Magnifique.Come on, let’s get moving now that you’ve made us late.”
Chuckling at my scoff, Brontë grabs my door and walks arm-in-arm with me into the café. I clutch his sleeve as we head to the corner space by the coffee bar. My friends’ bright smiles greet me, and I’m passed from Brontë to Emi with a squirming Hades, then Cas and Circe and Bax, Dr. V, Dantë, and finally, Nikolai.
“Happy birthday,printsessa,” Nik murmurs as he hugs me close. “You look radiant as ever.”
Itsk.“Don’t compliment me.”
“Too weird?”
“Too dangerous.” I hike a thumb over my shoulder at Brontë, whose fists are clenched in his lap as he pays half his attention to the others while watching us. “Guard dog, remember?”
Nik peels back with a smirk. “I’m notthatthreatening, am I?”