“The only fate I am certain of, Stargirl, is that you’re mine. The rest, I don’t know what to believe.” Fate was so fickle. I couldn’t see it, didn’t trust it.
Vale crossed her arms, lips pressing into a pout I wanted to kiss right off her. “If I can’t compliment you when we’re arguing then you can’t say sweet things.”
I smirked. “Deal.”
Vale stepped between my legs, and I spun her around so she was on my lap, her back pressed to my chest. Gently, I kneaded the spot around her tattoo. “I just don’t want to act before we know for certain.”
“My certainty comes from the Fates,” she swore. “I know their truths in my bones. It’s as instinctual as breathing.”
I dropped my lips to her shoulder, tracing the edges of that constellation with my mouth, one star to the next. Vale melted against me, the knot of tension between us slipping away momentarily.
“That sort of magic is still new to me,” I whispered. “I’m learning to trust it.”
I kissed up her neck, and Vale’s head rolled to the side. For a long moment, she let me nip and lick her skin—biting that spot just above her tattoo to leave my own imprint on her—and taste the starlight she always reminded me of.
On a breathy whisper, she asked, “Do you trust me?”
She looked at me over her shoulder, lips parted and one hand gripping my thigh, inching upward.
“Of course, I do,” I swore, my voice thick.
I slammed my lips to hers, and as my tongue slipped inside her mouth, her answering hum was an agreement to pause the argument for now, on this plateau of trust. I flipped her around so her back hit the feathered comforter, her hair and skin gleaming against the rich jewel-toned bed. Even the silver in her eyes shone.
Working kisses down her neck, I pressed the truth of my statements into her skin.I trust you. I believe in your power. I’m just so fucking scared.
The way she pulled me up to her and kissed me said she heard it.
I palmed her breast, pinching her nipple over the fabric, and Vale gasped against my lips, arching into me. “Please, Cypherion,” she panted, wrapping her legs around my waist and rocking against me.
“Please, what?” I asked.
But before she could answer, a knock sounded at the door.
“Go away,” I grumbled.
“I’m truly sorry,” Santorina’s stern tone echoed through the wood. “But I can’t.”
I sighed, cock still hard against Vale’s center. “Why the fuck not?”
But it wasn’t Rina who answered. Beneath me, Vale gasped—not in lust, but in the way that had me reaching for my scythe. Her eyes were pure silver, a reading forcing itself to the surface without even the aid of incense.
And she whispered, “It’s Valyrie.”
There was a fuckingAngel in the manor’s meeting chamber.
We’d seen the Angels—all seven of them—and their abundant power swirling in that theater in the mountains. But seeing Valyrie here, her silken silver hair tumbling to her waist, a galaxy of lilac ether undulating around her wings, and a gown that gleamed like the star-speckled sky draping her olive skin, was more striking than before.
When Vale and I entered, Valyrie spun, the train of her gown slithering across the tiled floor—fuck, she really stood on this ground. Walked on Ambrisk. I’d known the Angels were out there, but to see one in a place we’d been spending hours every day was another thing entirely.
And this Angel gave the woman whose hand was twined with mine a smile that was somehow both cruelly cold and warmly welcoming. “Hello, my Fatecatcher.”
“Prime Warrior.” Vale gave her a nod, dipping into a shallow curtsey.
I stiffened but gave a small bow out of respect. Meridat stood at the head of the long table, flanked by her three advisors, one of each dynastic family that headed their clan as symbols of Xenique’s three daughters. Tolek, Mila, Santorina, Jezebel, and Erista all lined one side.
Everyone either had narrowed stares or white knuckled grips, hard jaws and defensive stances. Even those who hadn’t been in the mountains knew what threat the Angels posed.
“What’s going on here?” I asked as Vale and I took up positions among our friends.
