Chapter 45

Cole

Beau Chêne, Mandeville, Louisiana

C ole watched as his family filed out of the kitchen before turning his attention to the witch in his lap. “You know they’re just going to eavesdrop from the hallway, right?” He loved them all, but they were nosey on a normal day. For a conversation like this with potentially world-ending implications, he just assumed that they would become even more overbearing. “I’m pretty sure I can see Charlie’s shadow on the floor right there.” The dark splotch on the floor moved subtly, proving his point.

“I kind of figured they would be a nuisance.” From the hallway beyond the kitchen where he knew his family was gathered, there was an indignant snort (Cole was guessing Hayden) followed by a grunt of pain (undoubtedly one of the others trying to quiet Hayden). “Is there someplace else we can talk?”

“Yeah, let’s go out on the deck.” He gestured her through the French doors separating the kitchen from the porch, making sure to rest his hand on her back as he escorted her outside. If she was going to align with or not directly oppose the witches’ prophecy, he wanted to touch her as much as he damn well could before the world imploded. He shut the door behind him his free hand.

Evie stepped away from him, and he almost grabbed her back, only just stopping himself. She opened her mouth to speak, but her focus was torn away by the deck’s view, which looked directly down on the Tchefuncte River through ancient cypress trees. “This is where you grew up?”

Cole nodded, even though her back was to him, hiding a smile as he watched her reach a hand towards the bald cypress nearest the deck. The tree’s thin limbs swayed towards her, oddly gentle as they stroked along her palm.

“Did you mean what you said?” The question came seemingly out of nowhere, breaking the comfortable silence surrounding them.

“About what?” She twisted her head, threw him a disbelieving stare over her shoulder. “I’m just asking, Angel. I’ve meant everything I’ve said to you, and I’ve never lied to you, so you’re going to have to narrow it down.”

“Fine.” She was finally facing him, stomping over to him with a look that, under any other circumstance, would have him bending her over the nearest piece of furniture or, in a pinch, his knee and seeing whether her ass was just as spankable as he imagined it was. “Did you mean what you said about me picking a prophecy. That it was my choice, and you would stop anyone who tried to force me into anything?”

The sharp winter wind blew the wispy tendrils escaping her braid around her face. In the late afternoon sun filtering through the trees surrounding the property, her eyes took on an almost violet hue, and he was certain she could see straight into his soul. He reached his hand out, cupping her cheek in his palm. “Angel.” He paused just to drive his point home. “I meant every fucking word.” She gasped, but he wasn’t done. “The world's going to shit, and while of lot of that can be attributed to the shades, humans play a big role because they're, y'know terrible. Do I think they need to be apocalyptically purged? Not necessarily. Will I support you every step of the way if you decide they do? Fuckin’ a.”

She took another small step towards him, almost close enough to touch his chest.

“And I want to make this crystal clear to you in case you didn't believe me before. You’re it for me, Angel. I don’t want any part of this world, this life, or any lifetime that comes after if you’re not in it with me. So we need to end this world tour on an apocalyptic bang because you want it? Yeah, baby, I’ll do that for you.” A tear slid down her cheek. God, that one tear fucking wrecked him. “Please, sweetheart, don’t cry—”

His breath flew out as she took the final step into his arms and tugged his head down to hers. “I made my decision that night I sat in the trees while you slept. What the Moirai told us doesn't change a thing. I just found you, Cole.” Gaze steady on his, her pulse raced under her skin, so pale that he could see the blood rushing through it, as her voice rose. “And I’m not giving you up for anyone, especially not some blood-soaked, apocalyptic prophecy passed down millennia ago that most witches think is fable anyway and violates every nonviolent belief we're expected to hold.”

In her passion, she was every inch a queen. He would never deserve her, but he would do his best.

“I get to choose? Well, then I’m deciding to follow you into the Underworld, rule beside you, and keep this world from self-destructing. And it’s purely for selfish reasons because I’m not going to let you go until we decide that we’re ready to… turn into stars or become part of the universe or whatever it is deities do when their time is done.”

“I love you, Angel,” he murmured, dropping his head the final inch needed to bring his mouth to hers. Her lips fell open at the smallest swipe of his tongue, and he took full ownership of her lush little mouth. She was his. Mine. It was with that one thought in mind that he seized her waist, lifting her effortlessly. She wrapped her legs around him right before he turned and pushed her up against the expanse of windows lining the desk of his uncle’s home, his hands quickly making their way under her fluffy sweater. She chose me .

Arms wrapped around his neck, she lined herself up against his rock hard dick, letting out a muffled cry against his mouth as she ground herself against him.

“Fucking hell, baby, you’re already soaking for me,” he murmured, feeling her wetness even through both of their pants. “God, I need to be inside of you—” He had one hand on the button of her jeans when the French door beside them swung upon and Hayden stepped out, looking everywhere but at the two of them. Cole dropped his head to Evie’s neck with a groan of frustration. He just wanted one interruption-less day with his witch. Was that too much to ask?

Hayden’s face was pained, and he was staring pointedly at the sky. “Charles said that it looks like you two have made up your minds so please come inside and don’t fornicate on his porch where his neighbors can hear you.”

“You are a 5,000-year-old immortal god,” Cole snapped. “Get better timing or you won’t make it to 6,000.”

Hayden, prick that he was, snickered. “Cole, buddy, I know you can smoke me in a fight, but I’m more scared of Charles than I am of you.”

“Guess you better work on that,” Evie whispered into his ear. He cast her a fake betrayed look. “Can’t have a ruler of the Underworld whose own court doesn’t fear him.” Her eyes were wide in mocking innocence.

“Don’t think I’ll forget that, naughty little witch.” Cole dropped her to her feet and swatted her ass as she walked away. After adjusting himself for what felt like the thousandth time since they had arrived at Charles’ house, he followed Evie and Hayden into the kitchen where the rest of the family made no secret that they had been watching.

Essi fanned her face lightly. “Damn, Cole, if I hadn’t been around during your childhood and seen what a nasty little beastie you were then, I would be climbing you like a ladder.”

Cole smirked at the idea of the old woman doing anything of the sort. “I’m sure you would, Essi.” A hard pinch on his inner bicep brought his attention down to Evie, who was staring at the two of them mutinously. He loved this possessive, jealous side of her just as much as he did the sassy troublemaker. “Relax, Angel, there’s no comparison.”

“Oh honey,” Essi jumped in with heartfelt reassurance. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I see the way this boy looks at you; you will never have anything to worry about with that one.” Although her tone was jovial, her face fell. “I’m just a lonely—” She paused. “A lonely, old lady is all.”

Evie moved towards Essi, her brow furrowed in concern at the Fates' flat tone, but Charles interrupted her march to check on the woman. “So am I to understand that the two of you have reached a decision?”

Evie glanced up at Cole, but he spread his hands, indicating the floor was hers. It had been her decision to make; it was hers to announce as well. He wouldn’t take a single ounce of agency away from his witch.

“We’ll be fulfilling the Moirai prophecy,” Evie announced, her voice steady even though her hand shook in his. “Cole and I will be taking the throne and setting the Underworld and the human world to rights.” She turned to Essi, Cleo, and Addy. “Please roll your bones or tie your strings or… however you divine so we can find the entrance to the Underworld.”

"Very well." Charles bore a proud expression on his face as he watched the closest thing he would ever have to a daughter toss around orders. “For those who would like to stay, dinner will be served soon. Magda is just putting the finishing touches on a lovely meal now. Cole, can we chat?”

Cole nodded, following his uncle out of the kitchen and down to Charles’ study. Once they reached it, though, Cole paused at the threshold, battling the childish impulse to talk to his uncle from the door. As a kid, he had been expressly forbidden from entering the room given his tendency to wreck everything he touched. As an adult nearing thirty-six years old, that inclination to never enter his uncle’s inner sanctum lingered even still.

“Come in, Cole,” Charles called from where he stood behind his desk, his back turned to Cole as he swung a painting off the wall to reveal an intimidating looking safe. Intrigued, Cole stepped forward—he never knew Charles had a hidden safe. “So, Evie, hmm?” Charles popped the combination on the safe, pulling open the door and rifling through the contents inside. “She’s a firecracker.”

“She is.” Cole had zero idea where his uncle was going with this. Might as well play along until he got the point, even though every instinct Cole possessed demanded that he return to Evie.

“And you seem quite taken with her.” After shutting the safe, Charles turned and settled into his chair, gesturing Cole into the wingback lounger resting on the other side of the desk.

“If by ‘taken with her,’ you mean ‘in love with her?’ Then yes.” He knew he was being short with his overly formal uncle but didn’t particularly care.

Shark-like eyes narrowed on his nephew, Charles finally asked the question he had been dancing around since entering the study. “Is this you in love with Evie?” He steepled his hands together on the desk. “Or is this the reincarnate in you recognizing the reincarnate in her?”

Cole stilled. They had never really discussed Cole’s own experience being the reincarnate of Aidoneus, the heir to the Underworld. It was just assumed that he was the one after he began meeting the signs of the prophecy. “You never asked me what it was like to have that side of me.”

“It was never relevant.” Charles didn’t waver. “It is now.”

“Why does it matter now?”

“Because now you are bringing a significant other into the fold, a beautiful woman who has made the choice to follow you. To tie her life to yours.” Tapping a finger on the desk in contemplation, Charles paused before finally finishing his thought. “She has given up her life as she knows it to be with you. So I’ll ask again. Why do you love her—is it because she's the fated reincarnation? Or do you love your Evie for her?”

“The original Aidoneus’ memories and powers are a part of me,” Cole began. “But they don't control me. They never have. They’re just there, same as you knowing the experiences of your own past.” He leaned forward. “And in this? In Evie. This is me, my love as Cole for her as Evie. I’ve loved her since I was a kid when I first saw her in my dreams. You know that, even though you didn’t believe she existed. She is brilliant and kind and funny and snarky and fucking gorgeous. She makes me feel alive for the first time in my life. She is everything that matters to me. Does that answer your question?”

Charles grinned widely, a look so out of place on his face that Cole almost found himself checking his uncle’s temperature. “I thought that might be the case.” With that, Charles dropped a hand to his pants pocket and drew out a jewelry box. Flipping it open, he displayed a vintage ring with black diamonds inset into a floral design cresting either side of the ring and bordering a large alexandrite stone set in the middle.

“A ring, Uncle Charlie? It’s a backwards state, but I think even Louisiana frowns on blood relatives marrying.”

The levity dropped from Charles’ face, and he stared across the desk, unamused. “This was your mother’s engagement ring. Before your father died, he gave it to me to give to you if you ever found a woman that you loved and wanted to share your life with. He made me promise that I wouldn’t give it to you for just anybody. She had to be someone that you would burn the world for, the same way your father would have for your mother.” He slid the ring box across the desk. “I think you’ve found her. Whenever you’re ready for that step, whether it be now or in three months or in 300 years, I wanted you to have this.”

Cole wrapped his fingers around the small box, feeling the weight of his father and mother’s love as he picked it up. They died too early for him to really see them together—his mother passing unexpectedly when he was four and his father following her a few short months after—but he knew that they had loved each other more than life itself. “Thank you, Uncle Charlie.” He stood, rounding the desk to give his uncle a hug. “This means the world to me.”

His uncle clutched him close, and Cole was struck, not for the first time, by the vicious realization that not only had he lost a father, but Charles had lost a brother too. “You’re welcome.” Charles’ voice was thick with emotion. “You look so much like him that it’s hard for me to remember that he’s not here anymore. Regardless of how long he has been gone.”

Cole patted his shoulder gently until his uncle stepped away, clearing his throat. “Now, let’s get back to the kitchen and see what Magda has prepared for us tonight.”