Chapter 260 If He Wants To, He Will
The second time I wake up today, it’s a very different kind of awakening. I’m warm, content, boneless. There’s no
panic, no ghosts clawing at the edges of my mind. Just a steady heartbeat under my cheek and the faint hum of the
Underworld outside our window. Let’s just say… I’ve been missing out. Elliot, it turns out, knows exactly how to
make a girl forget that the world exists. He played my body like it was an instrument he was born knowing, and I…
definitely sang for him. I groan softly, stretching like a cat under the sheets. My muscles protest in a good way, the
kind that makes me smile into the pillow.
“Morning, sleepyhead.”
His voice is low, lazy, full of that smug satisfaction that only makes me want to smack him and kiss him at the same
time.
“Mmm,” I mumble. “Too early to exist.”
He chuckles, and then the bed shifts. A moment later, his lips brush the shell of my ear, then trail down my neck,
each kiss sending tiny sparks racing across my skin.
“Elliot,” I warn, though my voice comes out more like a laugh than a threat.
“There’s a family meeting in ten minutes,” he murmurs between kisses.
My eyes snap open. “What?”
“Ten minutes,” he repeats, still entirely too calm about it. “Well, technically, it was called about two hours ago, but
you looked so peaceful, I couldn’t bring myself to wake you.”
I shove at his shoulder, sitting up so fast I almost knock foreheads with him. “Two hours ago? Elliot!” He himsef
looks like he’s already been up for hours and must have just crept back into bed with me just now.
He grins, utterly unbothered. “You’re adorable when you panic.”
“I’m going to kill you,” I mutter, leaping off the bed. My hair’s a mess, my shirt, his shirt, is definitely not
something I can show up in, and my brain is short–circuiting because ten minutes isn’t ten minutes, it’s like no
minutes. I storm toward the bathroom, already muttering about soul–eater boyfriends and their terrible sense of
timing, and stop dead in the doorway. The shower’s already running. Steam curls around the room, filling the space with warmth and the faint scent of sandalwood. On the counter sits a cup of coffee–my coffee, exactly the way I like it: strong, a hint of caramel, and still steaming. And next to the sink? My favourite jeans, a soft white T–shirt, and a
hoodie that I immediately recognise as his.
I can’t help it. I smile.
“He knows me too well,” I whisper, shaking my head as I grab the mug and take a sip. Perfect temperature. Perfect
everything.
He does know us well, Saphra murmurs in the back of my mind, her voice still rich and amused. Maybe keep him.
“Yeah,” I mumble through a smile. “I’m thinking about it.”
Thinking? she teases. After last night, I’d say the choice has been made, little goddess.
My cheeks burn, and I roll my eyes even though she can’t see me. “We’re not having this conversation.”
You’re blushing, she singsongs, laughing as I yank off the shirt and hop into the shower.
Warm water pours over me, washing away the lingering ache in my muscles and the chaos of my thoughts. I close my eyes, letting it run down my face, and for a few precious seconds, it’s just peace. Everything feels different now. Lighter. Freer. Knowing what Hecate and Selene told me, knowing what’s coming, it’s not an unknown weight anymore. It’s a promise of a better life. One of which I am very excited to tell Mum about. When I finally step the mirror’s fogged, but I can still see enough of my reflection to know I look less like a rescued girl and more myself again. There’s colour in my cheeks, a little wildness in my hair, I don’t bother taming. I pull on the jeans, the shirt, and his hoodie–it hangs off me like a big hug–and take another sip of coffee. When I walk back into the room, Elliot’s exactly where I left him, lounging on the bed, hands tucked behind his head, watching me with that slow, infuriating smile that says he’s way too proud of himself.
“You’re impossible,” I tell him.
“I’m efficient,” he counters. “See? You’ve got coffee, your clothes, a running shower-”
“You’re lucky you’re cute,” I interrupt, pulling my hair into a ponytail.
He grins wider. “So I’ve been told.”
I toss him a look that could melt steel, but it only makes him laugh.
“Ready?” he asks, sliding off the bed.
I shrug my shoulders, taking one last sip of coffee before setting the cup down. “As I’ll ever be.”
He crosses the room, fingertips brushing my wrist before lacing our hands together. “Don’t worry,” he says softly.
“No one’s expecting anything from you right now. They just want to see you.”
I nod, heart thudding. “I know. It’s just… weird. Everything’s different now.”
His thumb strokes the back of my hand. “Different doesn’t have to mean bad.”
I smile up at him, and that little flicker of warmth spreads through my chest again, the one that always does when
he says the right thing without even trying.
“Let’s go,” I say finally. “Before Levi sends the hounds after us.”
He chuckles. “You say that like Layah wouldn’t join you for coffee first.”
“Fair point.”
Together, we walk through the portal, hand in hand, the steam of the shower still curling through the air behind us
and the smell of coffee clinging to my skin.
For the first time in a long time, I’m not nervous about what comes next. I’m excited, hopeful, curious, even a1 what all of our lives will become. I have a mate, not just any mate, but the best mate in all the realms. One going to treat me like a princess, just because he wants to. I’m exactly where I’m meant to be, beside him, wearing his hoodie, walking toward whatever new world waits for us.