23. The Only Goddess

It was the span of a breath. The yawning of the dawn over the horizon. As a goddess, Naia had lived hundreds of them, and yet, never did one feel so infinite as when her mouth collided with Ronin's.

The kiss was tender, lingering; a light brush of lips; curious and slow; easing into one another the way one slips their fingers into a new glove. Then, a drowsy pause.

The uncanny familiarity of their kiss took Naia aback, as if they were two souls reconnecting after a long separation.

She brought her hand up to his jaw, the stubble on his skin rough beneath the pads of her fingertips, and rubbed her thumb over his bottom lip. His breath danced across her tongue as he held her gaze with a ferocity that invigorated her.

But suspicions about his motives continued to linger in her mind.

"Why did you help me that night?" she asked.

He pushed her silver strands behind her shoulders. "Do you trust me?"

She bit back her bottom lip. "More than I should."

"I'll show you why, if you'll let me."

Naia nodded in understanding—it would be through a spell.

He flipped over her hand. The tip of his finger followed the lines sketched in the shallow trenches of her palm to the bracelet he'd given her. The single crimson jewel in the center of the chain glowed.

"You contradict everything I've ever known about the gods. They murdered most of my clan." His other hand lifted her chin to look at him. "Nothing good ever came from them, my mother used to say." As he spoke, his lips caressed her own. She shivered. "And then I met you."

His mouth closed over hers, swallowing her breath as he activated his spell.

Naia's palms planted on the smooth plane of his chest over his dress shirt, her movements stalling as Ronin continued to kiss her.

Like a seed dropping into soil and sprouting, a memory flourished behind her eyes—one that did not belong to her.

He was transferring the image to her through the connection of their kiss.

In the memory, he was a child—maybe twelve—standing at his father's side. A man who wore the same deep-set gaze and ebony strands curling from beneath a cap. The years of sun exposure had etched deep wrinkles into his skin, but his physique mirrored Ronin's tall and lithe frame.

The misty morning hour provided a serene backdrop as they cruised on a fishing boat.

"You hold a fishing pole like this, Ronin." His father guided him. "No, you're still not doing it right. Here, let me show you. Every Kahale boy needs to know how to hold a fishing pole. Yes, good. Just like that. Now, look at the sunrise. Isn't it beautiful?"

It was dutifully obvious Ronin, full of pre-adolescent angst and displeasure shown by a not-so-subtle eye roll he gave his father, did not wish to learn the art of fishing.

He moved across the boat's deck.

"Ronin, be careful. That part of the deck stays slippery. Ronin!"

Headfirst, Ronin plunged into the waves. The current swallowed him, the water brutally cold against his sun-kissed skin. Saltwater crammed up his nose and filled his lungs. His arms thrashed in the water as he tried to resist the forceful tide.

The sound of silence enveloped him as he sank deeper into the abyss of the sea.

A set of arms cradled his body.

His cheek rested on her chest.

Sleek, silver strands as luminescent as the moonlight floated around her face. She had lips as pink as cherry blossoms, eyes as green as a rainforest—an unnatural shade of green. An inhuman shade.

She brought her lips to his.

His eyes widened in response, causing him to jerk away, but she kept a firm hold on his chin.The burning sensation in his lungs slowly subsided. It was then when he understood what she was doing—transferring oxygen into his mouth.

She was trying to save him.

He blinked through the bubbles and stinging of salt water. Everything about her was surreal and lovely, but the one finite detail he couldn't shake out of his mind was her eyelashes. They were like little shards of ice that froze off the ledges of roofs and the bottoms of vehicles, and they were the same shade of silver as her hair.

A goddess.

Naia broke their kiss to look at him, cutting the string of his memory in her mind.

They'd met before.

She had to delve into the deepest corners of her mind and sort through years of memories to find her own recollection of that day. Until now, it had not been significant.

After Cassian cursed her to Kaimana, it became a hobby to explore the scape of Mira's sea in her shape-shifted form as a mermaid. She'd perch on sea rocks and watch in fascination as the mortals sped by on their boats or crowded the beach line with fold-up chairs and blown-up loungers, in funny shapes of animals or food items, floating on the water.

Whenever she needed an outlet for her frustration, she took pleasure in tormenting the marine biologists who explored the shallow coves in search of intriguing sea creatures or organisms. Her favorite game, though, was to intentionally expose herself to the tourists, relishing in their excited squeals as they jumped around and pointed in her direction.

"Mermaid! Look, do you see?"

The particular day in Ronin's memory, she just so happened to be nearby sunbathing on a cluster of sea cliffs with her hand lapping the water, forced to keep one of her limbs connected to the place she was chained to, when she heard the splash of a small child's body in the water, followed by the shouting of a frantic man as he attempted to untangle himself from his fishing lines to dive in.

Naia had not hesitated to save the boy.

After returning him to the boat, she remained out of sight where his father could not see her. Peeking through the bottom railing, she held herself propped up on its edge, unwilling to leave until she saw him conscious with her own eyes.

The boy sprung up and coughed out the river of water caught in his lungs.

Realization dawned on him as he swiftly turned his head to find her.

Their eyes met for a brief second.

Naia winked at him before hopping back into the water.

There is a divine fate that awaits you, the words the High Goddess of Fate spoke to her as a child resounded. Every word humming to the rhythm of her blood, etching itself into her being.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Ronin's lips lightly feathered the place her jaw met her ear. "I wanted to hate you. I tried. All the gods have ever brought me is pain. But you…"

An amalgamation of emotions and sensations flooded her. The way his fingers delicately touched the side of her neck, the silky strands of his hair brushing against her, she had never realized how intimate such simple gestures could be.

As their mouths met again, her hands glided up his chest, his heartbeat quickening beneath her touch, until they settled on his jaw as she deepened the kiss.

Another memory unfolded in her mind.

Ronin looked to be a little younger—eight or nine—walking down a busy sidewalk with a bag strapped over his shoulder. Lost in the world of his handheld device, he remained unaware of the man silently tracking him from behind.

It happened quickly.

The burly man snatched Ronin by his arm and threw him into a dead alley. Ronin cried as he attempted to run away. The man murmured an incantation under his breath. Ronin tripped and hit the pavement.

The man pinned Ronin's arms behind his back and slit the side of his neck with a pocket knife. "Sorry, kid, but Lord Finnian wants your blood. Don't take it personally."

Ronin whimpered, squirming in the man's hold.

The man pulled out an empty vial and stuck it beneath the cut on Ronin's neck. A roadway of blood drained down the collar of Ronin's t-shirt.

"Let me go!" he shrieked.

The glass vial shattered, suspending the blood into scarlet brambles, and coiling around the face of his attacker. The thorns mercilessly drove into the man's eyeballs, embedding themselves into the bridge of his nose and his cheeks and forehead.

He screamed and flailed about, trying to pry the briars from his flesh.

Naia pulled away from the kiss again, gritting her teeth. Tears burned the back of her nose.

Ronin was only a boy. How could Finnian do such a thing?

"It was the first time I killed another," Ronin said. There was a palpable heaviness in his voice exposing the shame he carried."I've killed many more since."

Her heart thundered and ached all at once, disappointed in her brother. Sick for all the lives Ronin had taken. She asked herself what she would do in his situation, but in all honesty, she couldn't say. Because, the reality was she had no idea what it meant to be mortal; to fear her life ending by the hands of another. Ronin only did what he had to do to survive.

Naia wanted to barge back into her brother's home and rip his head off for the torment he'd forced upon Ronin.

With a gentle touch, she softly caressed Ronin's cheek. "I am sorry for what he did. Is that why you moved to Hollow City?"

"I was sick of living in fear, so I moved to the city to confront him and end it once and for all."

She held his eyes, stepping into their rich brown layers down to his soul. No judgment, no lies. Delving beneath his exterior, she uncovered a well of loneliness, fear, and pain she resonated deeply with.

"You know who I am now," he said.

Her previous doubts and suspicions about his intentions faded away completely. The feeling expanding in her heart felt bigger than her, bigger than anything she'd ever experienced.

Naia curled her fingers in the collar of his shirt and guided him onto the couch with her. He reclined on the cushion while she positioned herself on his lap, her legs straddling him.

Naia was hardly confident, barely a goddess, but this, she was well versed in—the act of meshing her body with another and losing herself in the dance. And right now, she wanted to lose herself in him.

Ronin reached his hand up to grip the side of her neck. His palm was cold against her skin as she curved her head to rest her cheek on his wrist. Tension twisted in her core, prompting her to settle her full weight into his hips. She could feel him, hard and pressed into the inside of her thigh.

"Naia." His voice was faint, a gentle warning. Using his fingers, he traced down her clavicle and across the inside of her arm, eliciting a shiver out of her. His gaze flitted down to her mouth, and his pupils flared. He brought his hand slowly back up to hold her neck. "You started this."

Leaning in, she brushed her lips against his, her long hair grazing his chest. Blurred by the ecstasy pulsating in her bloodstream, she could barely focus on what she wanted to say.

"And I want you to finish it."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the final thread of his self-control snapped. He used the fastened hold on her nape to haul her forward and devour her lips. A collision of teeth and tangling of tongues. She arched her spine, pressing her breasts into his chest. As his hand trailed down her waist, she could feel the gentle pressure of his fingers guiding her, anchoring her against him.

Heat dripped like molten into the bottom of her belly and gathered between her legs.

As she ran her fingers through his hair, his hair tie unraveled. She gripped the ends of his strands with a greedy haste.

When the closeness wasn't enough, she ran her palms over his shoulders, memorizing every curve and dip of his body. Solid and chilled beneath his shirt, like a slab of marble.

Ronin's hand glided through her hair, his fingers expertly weaving against her scalp. Gently, he tilted her head back for better access, tracing her jawline with his lips and lingering behind her ear. His teeth playfully nipped at her earlobe, and a flicker of pleasure zapped down her middle.

She ground her hips against his in a tantalizing rhythm.

He ran the tip of his tongue along the sensitive skin behind her ear and down her neck. Hungry and impatient for more of him, she clenched her jaws tightly.

"Stop playing with me," she said through a ragged breath.

Ronin chuckled, the sound reverberating in her chest and melting her insides.

He found the zipper of her dress.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stop?" His voice rumbled with a deep, gravelly timbre.

She wasted no time in unbuttoning his shirt, removing his arms from the sleeves, and tossing the bundle onto the floor. "Absolutely not."

He responded by unzipping her dress and slipping the tattered piece of clothing down her torso. The material pooled at her waist and his eyes drifted across to her breasts.

She had never exposed herself with such vulnerability in front of another person before. She preferred darkness or even leaving her clothes on, but not once did it occur to her to hide in front of him. It satisfied her to watch desire burn in his gaze as it flickered up onto her face. The sight of it had her stomach somersaulting.

"Remove your glamor," he commanded.

Ever since placing it before the Summer Solstice Festival, she had completely forgotten about it. It was for precautionary measures to avoid Ronin and other mortals growing suspicious of her divine appearance.

She let out a breath, and along with it, her glamor fell.

With his jaw tight, his heavy-lidded eyes drank in every part of her. In her entire existence, she'd never experienced the sensation of being revered as a goddess, like a precious gem in the eyes of mortals, as the middle and High Gods were. The power they were steeped in defined a deity's beauty, and exposed in front of Ronin, she felt the most powerful of all.

"Just like I remember." He lightly kissed the tops of her eyelids. "Your eyelashes."

Her expression flattened, remembering how she'd made them a more natural color underneath her glamor. "I am naked, and my eyelashes are what you find captivating?"

She was already lifting herself up to undo his trousers.Ronin grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back into place.Her mouth opened to protest, but he lifted his other arm slightly in the air. Employing his magic with a skilled flick of his wrist, he stripped away her dress and his pants, placing himself bare between her legs.The night's events werealso washed away from their skin.

Her head swam from the bundle of nerves exploding where his length touched her legs.

"Every part of you is stunning, Naia." Ronin's hands circled around the back of her thighs, and he hoisted her up.

Her back hit the cushion, and his arms pinned her down, palms planted beside her head on each side.

She gulped in a breath, and he punctuated his statement with a feral kiss. His tongue slid across her teeth, and the bitterness of his coffee filled her mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pouring bits of herself into the kiss. Dizzy with the chaotic need to be closer to him; to dissolve and mix with his blood. She wanted to smell of jasmine and sage, the incense he burned in his home, and the fabric softener embedded in his clothes; to feel his frenzied fingers and the scrape of his teeth marking her skin.

"You should have been honest with me." She hooked her legs around his waist.

His tongue explored her breasts, stopping to circle around her hardened nipple. "Right back at you, goddess."

Naia whimpered, riding her hips against his length.

He intensified the pace of his tongue, eagerly caressing her other breast with his hand.Her lower abdomen throbbed with a frantic need for release.

She threw her head back, her voice trembling as his name left her lips.

With a final flick of his tongue, his fingers grazed over her stomach like a whisper, settling at the apex of her thighs. Her heartbeat sped up.

He traced a slow, deliberate journey back up her curves."You're not leaving the city."

The desire to have him inside of her was maddening.

She spread her legs, leaving deep imprints of her fingernails on the backs of his shoulders. "Ronin, I don't want you to get hurt?—"

He pushed inside of her.

A low moan slipped out of her.

His mouth came to rest by her ear, his breath thick.Slowly, he pulled out to the tip. "I want you here."

He pushed back into her, setting his thrusts to a languid rhythm. "By my side."

The world shrank away and everything in it until it was only the two of them.

She lifted her hips to coax him in further, craving more than their bodies would allow, twisting and working herself against him.

Ronin seemed to understand her silent request and sat up. He pulled her into his lap and drovefurther inside of her. The heat in her belly wound tighter. She bit back her bottom lip, bracing the tops of his shoulders.

Her mind was fuzzy as she tried to focus on what he'd said."Why?" The word left her mouth breathlessly.

His palm flattened in the middle of her back. The other tangled in her hair to hold her exactly where he wanted her. He thrusted deeper.

"You are the only goddess I worship, Naia."

She came undone in his arms.

A peaceful silencefilled the room. Naia lay with her head on Ronin's chest, tracing his tattoo over his left pec. It was the portrait of the woman. She hadn't asked, but she presumed she had been right about it being the Blood Heretics' insignia.

She listened to the strong rhythm of his heartbeat. The way blood coursed through the chambers of his heart was as beautiful as any melody she'd ever heard, while also serving as a reminder of his fragility.

Anxiety struck through her like a gong and her mind unraveled, envisioning the myriad of gruesome, bloody dangers awaiting him should she choose to stay in the city.

Marina.

Naia glanced up at his sleeping face. She resisted the urge to trace the delicate lines around his eyes, the ones that formed when he genuinely smiled, a rarity accompanied by laughter.

Those smiled were her favorite, because they always reached his eyes, turning them into waning crescent moons that made her chest melt like honey.

"The mortal you loved before…" Ronin said, his eyes still closed. She hadn't realized he was awake. "How did he die?"

She pressed the corner of her mouth into his shoulder to hide her frown. As if he could feel it, his arm curled around her waist a little tighter.

She rarely spoke of Kaleo, much less thought of him. It revived an ache so strong, it felt like being engulfed in a tsunami of excruciating pain.

"He was murdered," Naia whispered. "It is why I believe it is best if I leave Hollow City—without you."

"I can't be killed by a god."

Naia looked up at him, her pulse quickening with a glimmer of hope.

"The High Goddess of Fate won't allow it. A male and female must exist to preserve the Himura clan bloodline. It's the law of nature, or some archaic bullshit. My mother said it was what saved our clan from being wiped out during the massacre."

It was sensible, but Naia still questioned its authenticity. "Did you hear it from the High Goddess herself?"

"Well, no, but I know it's true."

"How?"

"Because." Ronin chuckled. "Your brother would've killed me already if it wasn't."

She propped herself up on her elbow and stared at him, stubbornly waiting for him to give an explanation.

He rolled his eyes, a hint of a smile chasing the gesture as he twirled a piece of her hair around his finger. "When I first moved to the city, I sought him out and attempted to kill him."

"Idiot!" Naia chided. "He's a High God!"

"I was fucking fed up with him constantly sending people to steal my blood."

She grimaced, unable to argue. How many times had he endured such relentless assaults after the memory he had shown her?

Ronin continued twisting her hair around his finger. "Only, when I found him, he was at Dead Night's, an underground club that acted as a meeting place for the organizations in the city. He'd been called there on business."

"What kind of business?"Naia asked warily.

"To resolve conflict between two organization leaders. Finnian rarely cares about that kind of shit—unless it affects him personally. The black market is full of all kinds of relics and magical items. It draws in lots of business. The money helps fund the city, so when the two organizations blew the market to bits with their magic, Finnian stepped in."

She narrowed her eyes. "The same black market you sell spiked bottles of your beer to?"

"That'd be the one," he said. "Anyway, when I showed up, he was sitting at a round table with the organization leaders. I almost shit myself and decided I needed to get the fuck out of there."

He gave a small, foreboding pause, his finger pausing its movement in her hair, that made Naia nervous to hear the rest. "But then your brother smiled at me, all smug and righteous, and it just went all over me. I had a knife in my hand, but before I could even cut myself, he shot his sorcery at me. Those fucking skulls that will end you with their teeth. It should've killed me."

"What happened?"

"A barrier formed around me and blocked them. I was too stunned to react, but your brother's face said it all. My guess is that he wanted to kill me and drain me of my blood right then and there. The hassle of trying to track me down and send his guys for it, only for them to never return, must've been pissing him off."

The story was unsettling, but Naia was thankful he had confirmation of his theory. It was a relief knowing Ronin was invulnerable to any deity.

"Why didn't Finnian try to steal your blood himself?" Naia pondered aloud.

Ronin resumed weaving her strand of hair around his index finger. "Because, I think deep down, he was afraid of the slight chance my blood could actually kill him."

"But you are not capable of such? Your blood can only paralyze us?"

He slipped his finger free from her hair and tucked it behind her ear. "Yeah, and it comes in handy when your insane brother is trying to chop us to pieces."

"And to think I attempted to slit your throat with my hairpin the night we met," Naia teased.

His expression grew solemn, tightening his brow. "The hairpin that was flying around us in Alke Hall?"

She brought her hands together between her chest and Ronin's, fidgeting with her fingernails to prevent her hands from reaching into her hair as she remembered her precious hairpin was currently in Vex's possession. "Yes, its name is Wren. It was an ancient relic created by my father's hand. He gave it to me when I was young to help protect myself."

Ronin lightly tapped underneath her chin with his forefingers. "Wren seems loyal. I have a feeling they will find their way back to you."

She smiled sadly. "I hope so."

Ronin inhaled, brushing pieces of her hair from her neck. "The last thing I expected was for you to get my blood on you the night we met."

"I had just escaped Kaimana, fearful of Marina following me. I was convinced you were a hired mage or a shapeshifted god out to get me."

Ronin chuckled, the vibrations of the sound rattling through her ribcage pressed against him. "I was freaking the fuck out. Yuki had to calm me down and remind me over and over again that our blood can't kill you."

"You recognized me," Naia murmured, her heart warming into syrup at the thought of him forgetting all sense of rationality and convincing himself he'd killed her—when it was her who accidentally got his blood on her fingers. "You knew I was a goddess from the moment you laid eyes on me that night."

"Of course. I was stunned more than anything." He ran his fingers through her strands in a lazy, repetitive motion as he spoke. "I never thought I'd see your face again, despite how much I wanted to."

You are the only goddess I worship.

It was far from the night he told her how he despised gods.The praise he gave her felt undeserving.

"If I hadn't saved you, your father certainly would have." She traced unhurried circles on the contours of his chest, her fingernails following the shape of the tattoo of the Blood Heretics insignia on his left pec. His nipples pebbled to her wandering touch. "The High Goddess of Fate would have intervened somehow, considering your father was not of the Himura bloodline."

"My dad and I didn't have the best of relationships at that point." His words hung in the air like a rain cloud."He didn't approve of how many people I'd killed, despite their intentions to steal my blood, and I felt so fucking guilty for it. I wasn't the best at controlling my magic back then, and it wasn't something he could understand since he was only human. But add in disappointing him, or the idea he thought any less of me…"

While Naia hated the idea of violence, she empathized with Ronin and his actions. He was a child, relentlessly attacked. What else was he supposed to do?

"Tell me about him." Naia brought her hand up to move the pieces of hair caught in his eyelashes. "About your mother, too."

His gaze fell onto hers, somber and deep. "Only if you do too. The mom who threatens you, the dad you adore, your awful siblings, and the mortal you fell in love with. Tell me everything about you, Naia. I want to know it all."

She smiled wistfully. "His name was Kaleo, and I met him on Nohealani Island."

Ronin's arms constricted around her waist, pulling her closer to his chest. "It seems my home brings you luck then."

Cloaked in his chilly skin, she had an obsessive urge to warm him with her own body heat. "My father created the island, so I suppose you are not incorrect." She took a breath, wading through an entirely different ache cresting in her heart as she planted her hands on either side of his neck.

Ronin relaxed into her grasp. "Then it's a lie the High Goddess of the Sea founded Nohealani Island?"

Naia nodded, clamping down her frustration regarding such a topic and moved her hands down a little way to the base of his throat, defrosting his frigid skin.

"I want you to know everything about me, but finding the words is difficult." She lifted her hand wearing the bracelet and gestured to it with her eyes. "May I show you my life instead?"

His eyes softened, the flecks of bronze dissolving in his rich brown irises. "I'll see whatever you present to me. Tell me if you want me to stop the spell."

Naia nodded and the gem on the bracelet gleamed.

Ronin guided her chin up and his lips met hers, casting his spell to open her mind up to him.