Page 74 of Thorn Evermore
I raise an eyebrow in challenge, folding my arms across my chest. “I’m waiting.”
“Just, um, just pick you up?”
“Yep.”
He blows out a breath and wraps his arms around me, testing his strength before fully and easily lifting me off my feet. “Holy shit.”
“Now pretend you’re mad and just toss me over the edge. You can’t hurt me.”
He shakes his head, but I feel his mood shift to determination. He stomps to the edge and after only a brief pause, releases me. I fall back, winking at him before adjusting myself to land easily. Kyson watches me over the edge.
“Come join me,” I say in my normal speaking voice so he sees how connected we are.
His eyes open wide. “Wow. This is wild.”
“I know. Come on down.”
He nods, climbing onto the ledge. I hear him whisper to himself, “Three… two… one…” before he steps off the edge. A tiny yelp leaves his mouth as he crouches as I instructed and lands next to me. A little rough as he tumbles over, but nothing major.
He explodes into giggles, hopping back to his feet and scaling the building again with much more ease than the first time. This time when he jumps, he extends his arms like a bird, laughing all the way down until he lands softly this time.
His joy fills a part of me I didn’t know was empty. “All the gods, you are beautiful, Kyson.”
“I feel amazing,” he says, lying in the grass and gazing up at the stars. “The stars look like exploding kaleidoscopes. Incredible. It’s so much more than I imagined, even in all my fantasies. I never thought it would feel so good. I’m a new me.”
“You’re the same you, but enhanced. You’ve made me a very happy man.”
He giggles again, dragging his hands through the grass. “Are we, like, married now? Supernatural married? Is that a thing?”
I straddle him, placing my hands on his chest. “Sure. We can call it that. It’s not like mortal marriage though, or even mortal love. It’s so much more. Imagine if you could bottle all the stars. It’s more than that. If you could capture all the oceans, more than that. If you could count each individual grain of sand in the desert, even more than that. The bond of fated mates is not like anything that exists.”
“Is that why I feel so… light, but also full? As if my heart is filled with joy like nothing I’ve ever heard of or experienced. My body feels like it could float. My thoughts are just…” He pauses. “You. Everything is you, Thorn.”
I bend down to kiss him softly. “Yes. Everything is you for me too. It will always be like this. Yes, we have room for otherimportant people. My brothers, Viv and Viper, they matter. But you are my ruler, my sun, and my sky.”
His eyes soften. “I still want to cry, but I can’t.”
“No. No more tears ever again. You’ll never be unhappy, and if you are, the cause of it will be destroyed, even if I’m the reason.”
“That’s impossible. You’ll never be the cause of my unhappiness.”
“That’s the goal.”
“What should we do now?”
“Are you hungry?”
He shakes his head. “I feel okay.”
“I could show you how I hunt when I need to blow off steam.”
“Kill someone?”
“Or hurt them.”
“Hmm. Maybe we’ll work up to that. What if…” He shakes his head. “No, it’s dumb.”
“Tell me anyway.”