Immortally Ever After by Angie Fox Page A

shook his head. “I never planned for it to turn out this way.”
    Neither one of us had. The prophecies came with terrible costs. He was trapped and so was I. There was nothing we could do about it as long as this war raged.
    “I know it’s wrong, but I can’t stop believing in us,” he said. He touched my cheek, let his fingers trail down my jaw. “It can’t end this way.”
    I didn’t have the heart to tell him it must. It had.
    He’d never lost faith. Galen always believed, even when I’d found it so hard.
    He drew my hand down into his. “When we were escaping, I took Leta across four quadrants. Through enemy lines. Then we hit an old army unit twenty miles from here.”
    I’d known the armies were advancing. This was war. But I’d had no idea they’d gotten that close.
    “You were the only one I could trust. I don’t believe in accidents,” he said, his back rigid, his features taut. “I was meant to come back to you again. And now the knife has returned—”
    “Not yet,” I said quickly, as my brain struggled to take it all in. I couldn’t think when I was around him. That was the problem. “I don’t know when that dagger will show up.” Just like I hadn’t expected him. In fact, “The bronze dagger should have been here by now.” It had never been reluctant to harass me in the past. Unless … “What if I screwed up? Didn’t see it? Oh, God. What if it’s loose somewhere in camp?”
    He seemed amused at that. “You can’t lose an enchanted knife.”
    He was one to talk. “You ever had one before?”
    “No.”
    “Then don’t go telling me about cursed daggers.”
    He let out a small snort and I considered it a victory.
    I missed this. Him.
    There was a time when I would have given anything to get over Galen of Delphi. Now, I wasn’t so sure.
    “You can’t avoid it forever,” he said pragmatically.
    “The knife or you?”
    “Both.” The corner of his mouth quirked. “Believe it or not, I’m trying to comfort you.”
    “Then maybe you should put on some clothes. Like a parka.”
    He gave me a cat-ate-the-canary grin. I had a sudden urge to kiss it right off his face, like I would have when we were together.
    He had an odd look, as if he knew, before shaking it off. “I admit that every time you’ve had the dagger, it’s been hard. Hell, it was hard on me to give it to you.”
    “Considering I pulled it out of your chest.” My fingers itched to touch the spot.
    He was so close I could almost count his individual eyelashes. God, I could feel the heat rolling off him. “It’s like Father McArio said. The dagger is a tool.” The tips of his fingers caressed the top of my hand. “It’s an insane test every time the knife comes up. But we’ve succeeded.” He closed a hand over mine and I felt it down to my core. “We’ve changed things.”
    I slid my hand out from under his, used it to shove my bangs out of my eyes. Wouldn’t you know, I instantly regretted losing his touch. “No we haven’t. The gods are still fighting. What good is a cease-fire if it only delays things for a while?”
    He looked at me, steady, sure. Hades, I’d missed that. “We stopped fighting for the first time in seven hundred years. That’s all the proof you’re going to get right now. You know the rest is faith.”
    My heart warmed and suddenly it was all too intimate, too real. “Thanks,” I said, feeling my eyes go moist as I let go of some of the worry. I studied my fingers and the red dirt floor of the tent. “I needed to hear that.”
    Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his deeply handsome features clouded with tension. “You know I’d go to hell and back for you.”
    I snorted. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
    He hesitated, which was very unlike him. “Holly says you’re no longer with Marc.”
    My throat felt tight. “Holly has a big mouth.”
    He watched me, the pure affection in those deep blue eyes nearly undoing me again. “This is our second