Page 341 of Psycho Gods

Ascher launched into a disturbing but highly educational lecture about boys and sexual relations.

We lost connection while he ranted, which was a shame because I was learning a lot and he was just getting to the juicy part. Apparently men had needs that women didn’t because they had a prostate.

The rest of the night, Sadie planned our joint wedding.

According to her the House of Malum estate was perfect. She’d already decided we were having it at the pond, and it would be a five-hundred-person wedding.

I nodded in agreement while I mentally planned how to sabotage her—our—big day. No way was I letting people stomp around the estate.

It was our quiet home.

Our sanctuary.

However, I did not break it to her that we were having a small wedding because she was already acting like a bridezilla.

I’d wait a little.

Other than that, the night was perfect.

Sadie cried when she saw a miniature pony, and the next day, Cobra had to throw her over his shoulder to get her to leave.

She promised to return for dinner.

Three hours later she came back, and we ate a delicious cheese board underneath my favorite tree.

That night, after she’d left—again, by force, I blinked with surprise when I entered the bedroom.

A tiny baby bird with tufts of fluffy red-and-gold feathers was lying on my pillow. He was no longer just smoke.

“Horse,” I whispered, afraid to move and ruin the illusion.

He cawed with delight and flapped his wings at his name as he hopped across the bed toward me.

I sobbed and held his fluffy feathered body against my cheeks.

He smelled like fire and ice.

Somehow, against the most unimaginable of odds, we’d both risen from the ashes. The phoenix and the woman who was emotionally dependent on him were reunited.

Together again.

The next morning, the sun rose a little brighter.

We both rose with it.

Chapter 68

Aran

THE ART OF SEDUCTION

Wile (verb): to lure or as if by a magic spell, entice.

Like most great things in the world, it started with enchanted wine and a simple game of truth or dare.

The night was warm and comforting.

It was the first day when none of us had any sort of panic attack. No one had woken up screaming in the middle of the night.