“Forget about donuts, Cookie,” Axle said, gazing up at the swirling Flame with a dazzling, arousing smile that made my heart flutter and my core ache, even though I didn’t have the physical organs at the moment. “You can have crème brûlée from Paris, your favorite, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. As many as you want.”
I nearly smacked my imagined lips.
“That’s not a healthy diet,” Paxton said. “We need to consider what is best for Buttercup.”
“Now you think you’re the expert and chime in every time I talk to Cookie?” Axel snorted. “You might think you’re her new favorite, but it’ll pass, bro. Cookie is a Titan, and much more than a Titan. A human diet and rules don’t work for her.”
Maybe this wasn’t going to work. They kept arguing, which inexplicably gave me a headache even without my physical body.
“Stop fighting!” Zak barked at them. “Or she’ll leave us.”
Paxton and Axel blinked at my Flame that was flying higher and putting more distance from them. They called my name in panic.
“We’ll invite your friends to have crème brûlée with us,” Zak said. “Everyone can have as much wine as they want. Nat, Yelena, Circe, Jasper, and your new shifter and witch friends from the Other Academy will be very happy to see you again.”
Zak was my only mate who remembered all of my friends’ names.
Tears nearly floated to my imagined eyes. And the Flame stopped rising higher. I missed my friends so much. They were probably in their second year now while Hell and the Void had delayed my academic education.
“Yes, invite all your friends,” Axel said. “You can party all day and all night if you want. I’ll host the party for you as it’s my expertise, and you don’t need to worry about a thing. You don’t even need to go to any of the classes anymore if you don’t like them. You can live anywhere you want. We can even stay in the backwoods Crack if you so choose. Cookie, we’ll give you everything. We’ll pluck the stars for you if that’s what you want.”
Zak gave him a harsh look. “I haven’t finished my pitch, and you stole my thunder.”
“He’s always like that,” Paxton said. “Very annoying and immature.”
Zak ignored them. “We can travel to other worlds and universes if you want, Rosebud. We don’t need to stay at Half-Blood Academy and Earth. I’ll make love to you in every corner of the universe with tenderness and passion.”
He still talked like an old-fashion demigod, yet it sounded so sweet and sexy in my ear.
As Paxton, Zak, and Axel kept proposing, my attention trained on Héctor. He hadn’t made an offer yet.
The death god smiled at the Flame—at me—supremely confident I would never leave him.
He shot up toward me, his obsidian wings brushing my Flame, caressing it. I nearly moaned in pleasure. His demigod’s death light infused into the ripples of my Flame. His love, devotion, and passion wrapped around me, cocooning me and my Flame. He offered me his demigod soul.
No matter what form I took for myself, Héctor would always love me and be with me. All my mates would stay with me to the end, but if I stayed as a Flame, I wouldn’t be able to go skin-to-skin with them.
I wouldn’t be able to ride them raw and hard. Would I want to give up carnal pleasure?
Héctor kissed my Flame, projecting through the mating bond how he would ravish and cherish me after I returned to being Marigold, starting with driving into my heat with loving, brutal force with my ankles on his shoulders, his large, hard shaft filling my every inch and stretching me. He would thrust and thrust, enjoying and claiming me…
I wanted that.
I wanted all the irresistible offers my mates made, and I wanted all of them. They were my heart, my anchor, and my home.
The Flame shifted.
“Ta-da,” I called with a mischievous and satisfied grin. I was Marigold in flesh and blood. “Guys, I’m back.”
My mates rushed to me, all reaching me at the same time and pulling me into their arms. Hunger, tenderness, and desire for me burned in their eyes. They murmured their endearments for me, touching and feeling to make sure I was real and solid. Then they planted kisses on every bit of my exposed skin and made satisfied noises, confirming that I’d indeed returned to them as Marigold.
“That was amazing,” Tartarus said with awe in his voice, though he watched cautiously from outside our circle some distance away.
None of the remaining sentinels could get past the walls of flesh that were Lilith’s warriors, who guarded me as their Princess. I hadn’t punished the warden and the guards who didn’t fight us, but that didn’t mean I trusted them.
In this world, trusting anyone could cost a lot.
Dad’s Titans parked themselves solidly outside the open door of the silver dome. They had discarded their rudimentary tools and upgraded to spears and swords—spoils of war. They’d shifted their roles from inmates to jailors to prevent the gods and other Titans from fleeing the dome. And now they shared raunchy jokes that I didn’t think were even slightly funny. But all of them threw their heads back and let out a belly laugh at every joke. A couple of Titans sang a bawdy song that had something to do with battle and bedding maidens. Men, gods, and Titans all behaved the same when it came to singing vulgar songs about humiliating women.