Authors: Ednah Walters
Gods
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1. MILLENNIUM OF ANGER
CHAPTER 2. POWERFUL MIDGARD WITCH
CHAPTER 14 SNAKES AND ONE SICK JÖTUN
CHAPTER 16 DARK SOUL TO THE RESCUE
CHAPTER 20 THE TRUTH COMES OUT
CHAPTER 21 UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS
THE RUNES SERIES READING ORDER
EIRIK
Celestia was awake. Finally. She was sitting up and smiling. I closed the gap between us and hauled her into my arms. I wanted to wrap her in damn bubble wrap and never, ever let her out of my sight.
“I’m fine, Eirik,” she said, laughing and squeezing me. The sound of her voice was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard. I was never complaining about her tendency to talk incessantly again. Never. “You brought me back. I heard your voice and I couldn’t…” Her voice broke. “I couldn’t stay away.”
I leaned back and cupped her face, my throat thick with emotions. “Don’t cry. Don’t you dare cry, Dimples, because I’ll look for someone to blame and rip them apart. Unfortunately, that person will be me.”
She laughed. “I shouldn’t have stayed away. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t say you are sorry either. You are back and that’s all that matters.” I looked into her eyes and desperately needed to connect with her in the most basic level. She must have felt the same way because we moved at the same time, reaching for each other.
The taste of her after weeks of worrying about her, begging her to come back, and scolding her when she hadn’t, went straight to my head. I tried to be gentle, but I was like someone who’d been deprived of all his senses and got them back all at once. She became the focus of my existence. Her touch, her taste, and her scent heightened my feelings so much that it hurt to breathe. I wanted to devour her.
Celestia whimpered and I froze, sanity returning. I’d gone into a partial shift and my scaly hands were gripping her too tight, leaving welts on her cheek and her stomach.
Damn! Three of weeks of learning to control the shift had gone out of the window. Kissing Celestia was usually like diving off a cliff into unchartered waters—thrilling, and at the same time, scary. Her touch filled me with an all-consuming need, but accompanying it was the partial shift. I could hurt her quite easily in that state. Not just with my scales and claws, but with my fire. I almost singed her clothes a few weeks ago in the forest in Kayville. That was the day I’d learned I could breathe fire while in a partial shift. She wasn’t ready for all that, and the last thing I wanted to do was send her running again. I had to protect her from me, no matter how difficult she made it for me to hold back.
Cursing, I tried to pull back, but she wouldn’t let me. She lurched onto me and rained kisses all over my face.
“Dimples—”
“You pull away from me again, and I will hurt you, Eirik Baldurson.” She was smiling, so I knew it was an empty threat. “It’s been three weeks. Show me why you wanted me back.” Then she grabbed my hair and pulled my face to hers. The kiss she laid on me was an invitation I couldn’t refuse, but I set the pace and reeled in my dragon side, my scales and claws receding.
I slid a hand under her pajama top, intending to ease it over her head, but she impatiently pushed my hands away and yanked it off. My stomach hollowed at the welts I’d left on her skin. They weren’t healing fast enough. I lowered my head to kiss the red marks and soothed them with my tongue. Celestia hissed as though I’d scalded her. Loving her response, I got bolder. I moved slowly up, trailing kisses to the half-moon scar on her chest, and up her neck. She tilted her head, but I wanted her lips, her beautiful, sexy lips. I moved to claim them.
“That’s enough!”
I wasn’t sure who spoke, but the annoyance and sharpness of the voice penetrated the fog in my head. I glanced up and caught the dreamy grin on Celestia’s face. She couldn’t have been the one who wanted us to stop.
“
Stjärna mín
,” I whispered, stroking her cheek. The marks were still there. Damn it. How could I be with her when I kept hurting her? “You are mine. Always.”
“Always,” she whispered.
“I said enough,” the grating voice said again, sounding closer. “You have five minutes, then I want you out of her room, young man.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Genevieve, Zack’s mother. The woman had made it clear she didn’t like me the few times our paths had crossed. Finding me all over Celestia was only going to reinforce her belief that I was bad for her.
“I’m leaving the door open, so both of you can cool down. Shameless,” she muttered, stomping away. “Right under my nose.”
Celestia tried to suppress laughter, but I felt its effect in every cell of my body. How I’d missed that twinkle in her eyes and the sound of her laughter.
“Your aunt hates me.”
“She’ll love you as soon as she learns what you mean to me.” She reached up and caressed my cheek. “I’m so sorry for staying away for so long.”
Guilt ate at me. She’d left to escape the pain caused by my family and my negligence. I moved to lie beside her and rested my hand on her stomach. I hated seeing those scratches on her skin, yet I didn’t want to use my artavus on her again. It might mess up her transformation. She needed her own blades, forged specifically for her.
“I’m the one who should be sorry for not protecting you. I should have been there to face my grandmother. I should have known she’d follow your energy. So, I don’t blame you for getting angry or running away.”
“But I didn’t run away, and I was never angry with you.” She sat up and reached for her shirt. “I did something stupid and now I have to deal with the consequences.”
“You tried to save my sister, Dimples. There’s nothing stupid about that. Still, I swore to protect you and failed. Again. That’s something I must learn to live with.”
She gripped my head and peered at me, not masking her annoyance. “Don’t ever say you failed me. You couldn’t be in two places at the same time and you brought me back. Your words reached me, Eirik. Knowing you needed me pulled me back.”
Had she heard my declaration of love too? Maybe I’d spoken too soon. “I should have opened a portal and kept an eye on you while destroying her camp.”
Celestia grinned. “Your tail at Niorun’s and your head at your grandmother’s camp? You’d be tailless, and I happen to love your dragon whole, thank you very much.”
“My horn is chipped,” I reminded her, knowing that she was letting me off too easy, and loving her for it.
“I love the imperfection of you.” She sighed. “Please, let’s not focus on the past.”
“But, I want to know what happened between you and my sister. Trudy won’t talk to her even though Einmyria explained what happened, and how our grandmother controlled her.” Celestia winced. “Wrong topic?”
“Yep. Just hold me.”
I did and she nestled in my arms, but I knew we’d have to discuss my sister. The tension between her and Trudy was getting to my mother, and I wanted everything to be perfect so I could focus on my number one priority—Celestia.