Relish: A Vicious Feast Book 2 (37 page)
Read Relish: A Vicious Feast Book 2 Online
Authors: Kate Evangelista
Turning in a tight circle, he located a path to the tower. Surprisingly, it was clear, unlike the drawbridge and the palace entrance. He rushed to the spiral staircase carved into the stone and took the steps two at a time. When he reached the top, he burst through the door and paused just inside the circular room. At the center was a four poster with sheer white curtains. On the mattress, in a cream dress, with her hands folded over her stomach was his reason for living. Even in repose, she took his breath away. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders and fanned out on the pillow.
With unsteady steps, Luka approached, his lungs burning with every inhalation. He pushed aside the curtain when he reached her side. She looked so peaceful, her lips plump and red. Her long eyelashes cast shadows on the tops of her rosy cheeks. The sight of her almost brought him to his knees. His gaze dropped to her left hand and the silver band on her ring finger. The last time he’d seen her, truly seen her, was the day he’d placed the ring on her finger. The day when their lives went to hell because of a girl who couldn’t accept that he loved someone else.
All his need to hurry gone, he gently took her hand and brought it up until his lips touched the ring. On the underside intertwined their names for all eternity. She was his as much as he was hers.
Gripping her hand to his chest, he bent down and placed a kiss on her forehead then down to the tip of her nose, his love for her swelling until he finally claimed her lips. A gust of wind burst into the room, rustling the curtains and sheets. Luka paid no attention to it, all his focus on the woman he would forever give his life to.
She gasped into his kiss and his heart leapt to his throat. Before he could pull away so he could look at her, she curled her free hand on the back of his neck and kept him in place. His blood roaring in his ears with joy, he obliged, taking their kiss from chaste to something filled with his desire for her. In his mind he urged her to wake further, and as if she’d heard him, she plunged into his mouth until their tongues tangled.
Energy gathered in the space between their chests. It crackled as it grew. Behind Luka’s eyelids, he saw light, brighter than the sun. Without taking his lips from hers, he sat on the side of the bed and snaked his arm behind her, urging her to a seated position. She went willingly, fisting his hair. When he crushed her to him and there was no longer any space between them, the power building burst. It rippled outward in a sonic boom. The wind in the room gusted wildly, as if it celebrated them finally finding each other.
“Luka,” she said against his lips then peppered his face with quick kisses.
He chuckled, holding her close without fear of crushing her.
“You found me.” Then, as if she realized what those words meant, she met his gaze with a wide-eyed stare. “How?”
Unable to stand any distance between them, Luka rested his forehead against hers. “Doesn’t matter how. I said I would find you and I did. But Moira? Did you—”
She shook her head, rubbing her forehead against his, and kissed him before pulling back. Then she cupped her hands over her chest. A tiny ball of pink light emerged from her body. She cradled it close, showing it to Luka.
“She’ll be alright now,” she said, a hint of sadness in her eyes. “She just really wanted to be loved.”
Warmth suffused Luka’s chest. He knew how that felt. To be loved was the greatest gift someone could receive. “You didn’t kill her?”
Dakota’s eyes flooded. “She doesn’t deserve to die, Luka, despite what she put us through.” The pink light pulsed, as if in response to her words.
“Then what happens to her now?” He took one of her hands and interlaced their fingers. He’d spent years without her, and wouldn’t let her go if he didn’t have reason to. He needed her touch. Craved it. It was his way of knowing she was real and with him.
“Your arrival broke the final protective barriers my parents put in place over the Strega Compound. Everyone should be returning soon.”
“What would have happened if I hadn’t come?” Worry beat against the happiness inside him.
“I would have figured something out.”
The chill entering his heart melted at the earnestness of her expression. “I guess you would.”
She smiled and leaned in. Powerless against the request, he cupped her face and gave her his lips. With her by his side, all was right in the world.
***
Luka walked hand-in-hand with Dakota toward a clearing at the very center of the Wik Woods. It had been two weeks since the spell and Moira’s possession had been broken. All their people had returned and were slowly rebuilding their lives. Dakota had fully ascended into her Vessel powers and a coronation was planned. There were nights when she woke up weeping for the loss of her parents. Sometimes she’d wake up to remnants of the poisonous dreams Moira had pumped into her head. Luka was right there beside her, tucking her onto his chest and easing her sadness with gentle strokes of his hand until she drifted off to sleep. When she’d asked, he sang to her. He still believed her consciousness was the woman he’d met in their other reality, the one scarred and forced to hide beneath an eye patch. She still struggled with the idea of returning to their world and leaving the one she knew behind. He saw it on her face when she became pensive and distant. He had conjured a camera for her just to ease some of the pain.
Despite the rules that stated they should wait until she officially announced him as her consort, Luka refused to leave her side. In his mind, they were already as good as married. He told her he had years to make up for and insisted she be the last thing he saw at night and what he woke up to in the morning. Screw tradition, he said and she laughed. God he missed that lovely sound. He promised to keep her laughing until his last breath.
At the middle of the clearing sat a crystal coffin surrounded by wild flowers. A single sunbeam spotlighted it. Inside lay Moira, in the same slumber he’d found Dakota in. They’d discovered where she hid her body in the palace after an extensive search. In order for the possession spell to work, she needed to leave it behind. They had returned Moira’s essence into her body and had this coffin made for her.
“This is what she wanted?” Luka asked, placing a kiss on her temple.
She leaned into the kiss and squeezed his hand before placing her other hand on top of the coffin’s lid. She ran her fingers over Moira’s peaceful face. “The way True Love’s Kiss works is that she will sleep until the one who truly loves her wakes her with a kiss.”
“That sounds a little too extreme.” He frowned.
“Not when you’re hurting the way she is. Moira wanted time to heal without anyone disturbing her.” She smiled down at her best friend. “This way, when the time finally comes, she’ll be ready to have someone else in her life who will truly make her happy.”
“How did you convince her not to kill you?”
She tucked herself into his side and he held her close. “I told her that if our situations were reversed, I would find a way to accept your feelings for her and wish you both happiness. That’s what love is.” He tensed. Only when she rubbed his chest with an open palm did he relax again. He ached to have his mouth on hers, if only to show her how much her words meant to him. But she continued speaking before he could act on the impulse. “Right now, her feelings are still too raw. I think, in the end, she was feeling guilt over what she’d done and wanted a way out. She was never after my Vessel powers.”
Some part of him understood. When he’d been stuck pining for Phoenix, there were days when he wanted to stay in bed and not have to face the happiness she shared with Demitri. Then when Dakota left because of his monumental idiocy, he realized she’d been the one for him all along and did everything in his power to get her back, even infiltrate her dreams. If Moira found peace in this arrangement, he didn’t doubt the decision to place her under this spell. He knew that it would have killed Dakota if it reached a point where she had to choose between keeping her best friend alive or taking her life. No matter how angry she might have felt at the time.
Unable to help himself, he placed a kiss on top of her head. “Your parents would have been proud of you,” he whispered into her hair.
“You think so?” The question sounded choked out.
He tilted her head up by placing a finger beneath her quivering chin and saw the wealth of emotions behind her watery gaze. “I know like the sun rises in the east.”
A single tear fell and he captured it with his lips, reveling in its salty taste. She returned her gaze to Moira and said, “I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t find you again.”
“Hey.” He encircled her in his arms. “You have me. You will always have me.”
Through the welling tears, she smiled the sunny smile that never failed to warm him from the inside out. “I love you so much it hurts.”
“I jumped realities for you. And would do so again if I had to.”
She nodded, her smile turning into a rueful grin. “Remind me to tell you about how Moira discovered nothing would change your feelings for me.”
He chuckled. “Oh yeah?”
“Even in a world where I didn’t exist you were still longing for me.”
The truth of those words rang in his soul. “No matter where you are. No matter
who
you are. My place is by your side.” He brought her hand with the silver ring to his lips and kissed the band. “I pity the me of that reality because he doesn’t have you. Even through the bitter haze of my confusion over Phoenix, I found my way back to you. That will never change. I’m only complete when you’re with me.”
Heart in her eyes, she pushed up onto her toes and took his lips. Amid the kiss, he whispered that he loved her over and over again. He’d meant every word of what he’d said. He only accepted a reality with her in it. And nothing would change that from now until the end of time.
THE END
A
BOUT
THE
A
UTHOR
When Kate Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department and never looked back. Today, she is a graduate of De La Salle University - Manila with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature. She taught high school English for three years and was an essay consultant for two. Currently she writes full-time and is based in the Philippines.
For more information about Kate and her books, please visit:
www.kateevangelista.com
Table of Contents
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CONVERSATION
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO FRUSTRATION
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT DECLARATION
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE MUTILATION
