Chapter 5

-Katherine-

“Goddess, I want you all the time,” he said, making me feel a wave of warmth. He was still inside me, growing hard again.

“We need to talk!” I told him, and he looked confused. “So let’s get dressed.”

“Dressed? Now?” he asked with a smug smile, as if he didn’t understand why there was a need to dress when we were naked and clearly burning for more. But this made no sense to me, and I believed Darius held the answers I sought.

“Yes, dress. Now.”

“As my queen commands.” He complied, moving away from me. I gasped as I felt him slip from my body. I watched him leave the bed, completely naked. His body was strong, and—Goddess!—how tight was his ass? I scolded myself. I had never had such thoughts before, and I was still so confused. My mind remembered Acan as my husband, and I should only desire him. But now, Darius…

“Why do you keep calling me ‘my queen’?” I asked as Darius put on a pair of pants.

He turned to me, smiling a little. It was strange to see him smile so much.

“It’s just for fun,” he said. “It sounds a little better than ‘my princess,’ but that is what you are, of course. Still, you’re as beautiful as any queen.”

“Wait… you’re not a king?”

“King?” he asked, sounding confused. “No.”

I narrowed my eyes, beginning to feel frustrated. The last thing I remembered before I… before I died was Darius.

“Darius!”

He looked shocked by my angry tone, but I didn’t know who else to turn to for answers. Darius had to have them. If not him, then who? I held the sheets tightly around me and walked over to him. He looked completely perplexed, clearly not understanding the source of my anger.

“What is going on?” I shouted.

“Going on?” he asked, sounding bewildered.

“Yes!” I insisted. “With you. With me. With Acan!”

“Acan? Why are we talking about Acan?”

“It’s not funny! I’m going out of my mind!” I yelled. “We are not married!”

“We are. Why do you act like you don’t remember?” he asked.

“Because I don’t! I don’t remember any…” Just then, a memory flashed in my mind, an unfamiliar scene where I arrived in front of a castle, but instead of Acan stepping forward to be presented to me, it was Darius. “It… makes no sense.”

“What doesn’t?” Darius asked, looking puzzled.

“You! Us!” I insisted.

“Us?” he echoed.

“Yes, us!”

“You must guide me, wife, because I don’t understand what’s gotten into you this morning. Except me, of course,” he joked. I looked at him, shocked, which made him look shocked as well. “What?”

“You don’t joke like that… Not like that,” I whispered.

“With you, I do.”

“No, not even with me. Do you not remember?”

“Remember?”

“Our lives,” I whispered. “My… Our deaths?”

“Our deaths?” he repeated, but as he spoke, something seemed to shift within him. He looked around, as if he no longer recognized the place, then his eyes landed on me. “Katherine?”

I nodded, hoping he was starting to understand.

“Shit…”

-Darius-

“You remember?” she asked.

“I remember,” I told her.

“So… can you explain it to me?”

“I think you know what happened that night.”

“I know!” she yelled, looking down. “I know… but the last part. You… saved me. Have you always… saved me?”

“You know I have.”

“Yes, but I thought it was accidents,” she said, meeting my eyes with a look of utter despair. “It wasn’t… accidents, was it?”

“No.”

“Did you know?” she inquired.

“I did,” I admitted. “Or at least I had a hunch.”

“A hunch… And you never told me?”

“Acan didn’t want me to,” I explained.

“I see why…”

“We both do,” I whispered, looking away as I held a shirt in my hand. “Goddess…”

“I know,” Katherine said softly.

It was clear we were both grappling with the reality of that night and our current situation. Katherine and I were married. Married! I had the woman I desired, but that didn’t change what had happened to us.

“Darius, did you die too?” she asked, her voice trembling.

“What?”

“I mean, I don’t understand how this happened. Did the Goddess grant us a new chance? Has she ‘fixed’ the problems of my past?” she inquired, searching for answers.

“No, I did that,” I told her, focusing intently on her.

“How?”

“You know I have the power to… take others’ powers, right?”

“Yes. You’re a Dark One.”

“I am… and I took these.”

“These?”

“Time-altering powers.”

“You absorbed someone?” she asked, her tone accusatory.

“No… or yes, but it was on a battlefield,” I explained. “He was very powerful, and he nearly defeated us by constantly altering time and the outcome until he got what he wanted.”

“Oh…”

“I’m not a monster,” I whispered, a pang of fear seizing me. Katherine shook her head, her expression filled with regret. She moved closer, placing her hands on my neck, then running them down my chest to rest over my heart, causing sparks to fly.

“Of course not,” she said gently. “I’m sorry I…” Her words faltered as the intense attraction between us became powerful. I had always been drawn to her, but it seemed our connection had reached new heights. I couldn’t help but pull her into a passionate kiss.