He flipped to the next page as he emerged near the palace, agitated at realizing he'd get no privacy, not with the hundreds of assassins loitering. Instead of taking a portal to his cabin in the Everdark forest, he hiked through the woods. A trail formed in any direction he wanted to walk. The branches of the trees slithered overhead while brush and bramble scampered out of his way.
His cabin was tiny, two rooms, with the walls lined with weapons he'd collected over the years. He stretched out on his back on his bed. The picture of Deidre almost made him throw the iPad, but he forced himself to flip through the various surveillance pictures Rhyn's Immortals had collected. Until he saw the one of her kissing someone.
Then he set down the iPad, reminded of how often past-Deidre teased him by taking other assassins to her bed.
He couldn't think straight. Nothing made sense. The Deidre he'd spent the night fucking was not the same as the goddess who tormented him. And yet they were. The deity had purposely left the underworld in shambles then gone to the mortal world, probably knowing her reincarnated human form was his mate.
His mate.
It was too much. By Immortal Code, he was obligated to claim her and protect her as Rhyn had Katie. Seeing her made him want to explode.
Her scent lingered on his skin. Gabe hated her yet couldn't escape the memory of the compassion and spirit that made him take a stranger to bed last night.
Death lets you see the stars and the moon instead of how dark the night is.
He heard the unquenchable life in a dying woman. Her words touched him on a level he didn't expect, one he thought was dead, destroyed by past-Death.
She was alive. She was his. She was dying.
He sank into stormy contemplation, clueless how to handle the latest of his challenges. Thousands of years of love-hate memories left him conflicted. How did he follow the Code, when it felt like it was betraying him? He'd never resented the Code before. It was his life, a sense of comfort and structure. This time, it was suffocating him.
The forest outside his windows grew dark, and he forced himself to his feet. Sitting around wasn't going to solve any of his problems. Whenever he was frustrated by her before, he went back to doing what he did best: his job.
He pushed Deidre out of his mind. Composed enough to handle his duties, Gabe left his cabin. Wired energy made him edgy and his step quick. Harmony met him in the woods, coming from the direction of the palace.