The truth rocketed through me. I had done to Viper what Azrael had once done to me. I had touched his soul. Except, I hadn't touched Viper's soul with my hands, I'd touched it with my soul. We had connected more deeply than anyone before us. I knew him; the real him. Not the truths or lies or traits that we think make people who they are. Not the stories we'd shared. I knew the man beneath all of that. The enduring splendor of Viper's soul. I had seen him from the start. I had loved him from the moment his magnificent soul settled within the embrace of mine. I hadn't been barricading my heart from him; I'd been blocking off my mind. I had pushed away the memory of that first glorious touch so I could come to terms with losing all of the love I'd known before him. I needed to let go of the old before I could give myself to the new.
I licked Viper's neck gently and watched as his wound closed. He was still inside me, softened but there. Mine. I squeezed myself around him, and he groaned. Hardened. Lengthened. I smiled against his throat then leaned up on my elbows to kiss him tenderly. To kiss him as he'd been kissing me.
“I remember now,” I whispered. “I remember holding your soul in mine. You and the others.”
Viper's eyes, glowing with happiness, started to blink and dim when I mentioned the other star gods.
I smiled and nipped his nose. “I touched their souls too, but yours was the only one I fell in love with. I respect them, and I love them as brothers, but I don't feel for them what I do for you. You were right; they were meant to lead my armies but you were meant to love me.”
Viper smiled and swiftly pulled me down into a savage kiss. He rolled us so that he was above me again but instead of starting the savage, triumphant thrusting I'd been expecting, he began a gentle, deep, rocking. A sweet slide that connected more than our bodies. Viper's hands bracketed my face as he slowly kissed my temple, my cheek, my jaw, and then my lips.
“I have been waiting for you to say that from the moment you first stood before me,” Viper whispered, his voice thick with emotion. “Waiting and hoping that you would remember me.”
“I'm sorry that I left you alone in our love for so long.”
“That doesn't matter. I would have waited years for you. Centuries, if that's what it took.”
I went silent. His vow was too similar to what Odin had done; waited centuries for me to return to him... only to betray me in the end.
“I have a confession to make,” Viper went on as if he hadn't noticed how his words had affected me. “I've only had one life before this one. I let you believe that there have been others but there hasn't. I never left the Void; I never became a god. You gave me divinity, Vervain. You made me great.”
“No, I didn't.” I stroked my thumb over his lips. “You have always been great. I just recognized it and gave you a bit of magic.”
“You did far more than that.” He regained his rhythm, slowly bringing our passion back to boiling. “But I don't want to argue about godhood right now. Let's focus on us instead.”
“And love,” I added.
“And love,” Viper agreed and drove himself deeper.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Brother, wake our goddess. She has a visitor,” Snake's voice eased me from my slumber.
“Snake?” I blinked awake and sat up, out of Viper's arms.
“Who is her visitor?” Viper asked as he climbed out of bed and fetched me a robe.
“He says that he's not exactly a friend but that he saved her life once.” Snake scowled in a baffled way. “He's a very strange man with the look of the desert to him.”
“What do his eyes look like?” I asked with the beginnings of a smile.
“His eyes are the oddest thing about him,” Snake said. “They sparkle with several colors like a—”
“Rainbow,” I cut him off. “Bring him to my dining room and please tell the servants to bring breakfast for us.”
“Right away.” Snake bowed his head respectfully and left.
“Who is this rainbow-eyed god?” Viper held the robe out for me.
I climbed out of bed and slipped into it then headed to the elevator; my dressing room was on the floor below. “His name is Qaus. He once freed me from an enchanted mirror and the god who ruled it. But he was partially responsible for putting me in there so we called it even.”
“An enchanted mirror?” Viper lifted a brow as we got on the elevator together.
“It's a long story.” I trailed a hand down his washboard abs appreciatively; he hadn't bothered with a robe.
As soon as I touched him, Viper made a rumbling sound of arousal and pinned me against the wall. “Tell me you love me again.” He lifted my legs around his waist and speared himself into me.
I moaned and started to say the words but the elevator door was already opening. Viper made a frustrated snarl, gathered me against his chest, and carried me out of the elevator. He took me into my dressing room and kicked the door shut behind us. Viper had started keeping his clothes in my dressing room; he had never slept in the suite I'd made for him on the 15th floor. But neither of us were concerned with clothes when he laid me down on the large, round, tufted ottoman in the center of the room.
“Tell me,” Viper demanded again as he started pumping into me steadily.
“I love you,” I gave him what he wanted, and he returned the favor.
“I love you too,” he whispered in bliss as he slid even deeper.
Then Viper began to shine.
Just a soft glow at first, his
