“Eostre,” Crimson said in reverence. “Welcome to my home.”
“Thank you, dear,” the goddess said before turning her gaze to him. “Pete, you’ve been a hard one to find. If not for this witch invoking Morrigan, I’d still be searching.”
“Searching?” He tilted his head. “But you’re not Morrigan.”
“Of course I’m not. She notified me the second she sensed the subject of your friend’s spell.” She gave him a quizzical look. “Are you okay? Did your vampire friend agree to help us?”
“Umm…” He looked at Destiny, who widened her eyes and lifted her hands in anI don’t knowgesture.
Eostre took his hand, clasping it between both of hers, her brow furrowing as she seemed to read his energy. She stepped back, dropping his hand, her lips parting in a look of unease. She searched his eyes before her gaze wandered over his face. “Something has changed.”
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Destiny said, and the goddess snapped her gaze toward her.
A series of emotions flashed across Eostre’s face too quickly for him to identify. “It’s you.” Her eyes wide, she brought a trembling hand toward her face, resting her fingertips against her lips. “Loki’s lacy panties. Can it really be?”
“It was an accident.” Destiny held her hands up in surrender. “I didn’t mean for him to?—”
“It’s not her fault.” He stepped between the goddess and his angel.Hisangel. He liked the sound of that.“Whatever you’re here to accuse her of, she didn’t do it. She wouldn’t hurt a flea.”
“Destiny is awry,” Eostre whispered.
They all stood in silence for a moment. Destiny stepped out from behind him, but he stayed close by her side, instinct telling him to protect her at all costs. But protect her from what? Eostre was the goddess of spring. What beef could she possibly have with an earthbound angel?
“Do you believe us now, Pete?” Sophie asked.
Eostre closed her eyes for a long blink before squaring her gaze on Sophie. “What does he not believe? I need to know what’s going on immediately.”
Destiny cleared her throat. “He’s forgotten he’s the Easter Bunny, and it’s my fault.”
“Forget the past.” Eostre turned to him. “It’s just as I feared.”
CHAPTERNINE
“You are, indeed, the Easter Bunny.”Eostre sat at the table across from them, and Destiny took a deep breath to slow her racing heart.
She’d never met an actual goddess before, but the stories of their celestial beauty and commanding presence barely nicked the surface of a description. To say she was in awe would be a massive understatement.
Yes, Destiny was an angel and ethereal herself. She had her own otherworldly beauty and calming presence that awed the people in this realm. Big deal. Eostre was way further up the hierarchy than any earthbound angel, and she reigned in a different pantheon. As Crimson said before, the fae were an entirely different animal.
“You have to believe me now. Why else would a goddess be here?” Destiny rested her hand atop Pete’s, and he immediately turned his over, lacing his fingers through hers. Warmth expanded in her chest with his touch, and she didn’t know whether to yank her hand away or hold him tighter.
“And you have to believe what you did to him was meant to happen.” Eostre’s gaze drifted to their entwined hands. “However inconvenient it may be.”
Destiny pulled from his grasp. “I’ve done nothing but screw things up from the moment I met him.”
“Exactly,” the goddess said. “There is a prophecy in our realm, and it’s coming to fruition. You’re as much a part of it as Pete and I are.”
“That’s impossible.” She wiped her sweaty palms on her dress.
“This is what Frigg told me.” Eostre rested her hands on the table. “‘Balance dies when birds lie. Forget the past. Destiny is awry. An act of hubris is all it takes to bring about the end of days. A goddess, nay, her right-hand man will leave this land to devise a plan. A…’” She cleared her throat. “As Fate has willed it, so mote it be.”
Eostre paused, her gaze flicking from Destiny to Pete and back again. “She didn’t mean destiny in general. She meant you.”
Destiny blinked the dryness from her eyes and stared straight ahead. How in heaven’s name could a faery prophecy include an angel? Unless she was meant to destroy their oligarchy so the angels could finally claim their realm, it was simply… “Impossible.”
“Not really,” Sophie said. “Birdslieon the ground when they die. I assume that goes for your chickens as well, right?”
“Indeed,” Eostre said. “And three more have since been attacked.”
