Read Online The Curse Defiers by Denise Grover Swank - Free Book Online

present at the birth of the gods. They have no control over that part of you.”
    I still resisted. I knew it was stupid, but to go into the ocean felt like accepting what Ahone had done, and there was no way I’d ever accept it or him again.
    Collin stopped pulling and I fell against his chest. He took advantage of me being off balance and scooped one arm around my back and the other under my knees, picking me up and holding me to his chest.
    “Put me down, Collin!”
    He was in the water in only a few strides, walking farther out until the waves hit his waist and he dropped my legs into them.
    The power hit me as soon as my toes touched the water. I started to fall as the onslaught of power shot through my entire body. This was my most intense experience yet, and I struggled to stand once my feet hit the sand.
    Collin wrapped an arm around my back and pulled me to his chest. “Fuck, Ellie. You’ve been without the ocean for longer than a week.”
    But I was too overwhelmed to answer. Before I realized what he was doing, his right hand reached for mine, pressing our palms together.
    The Manitou of every living thing filled my head at once, and I felt like I was drowning in the sea of life. Collin and I were even more powerful than the last time we’d joined our marks. His emotions pushed through our connection—guilt, worry, love. Deep love and deep lust.
    I looked into his face and wasn’t surprised to see that his eyes were dilated and filled with intense longing. His mouth hovered over mine, waiting for me to close the distance of an inch. I stretched up on the balls of my feet, but I sunk into the sand when I felt something else seep through our connection.
    Deception.
    Even after his confession, he was still purposely hiding things from me.
    “Don’t fight it, Ellie,” he groaned, and his mouth covered mine.
    It was all too much for me to resist. Getting lost in the intensity of the experience, I wrapped my free hand around the back of his head as his tongue coaxed my lips apart and explored my mouth.
    I wanted him. All reason fled and my only thought was to be with him in every sense of the word. Nothing made me feel so complete as when I was one with Collin, and I was desperate to feel whole again. I reached for the button of his shorts . . .
    Suddenly I felt myself falling into a dark abyss.
    I was in the valley where I’d seen my father weeks ago, only now the sky was overcast, tinting the scene a dingy gray. The flowers were wilted and dying, and the air was thick and heavy and difficult to suck into my lungs.
    “I wish we were meeting under different circumstances.”
    I’d recognize that voice anywhere. I spun around, my heart racing. Okeus sat on a tall-backed wooden chair that resembled a mini throne. The tall grass was trampled flat underneath the chair and in a three-foot circle around it. He was dressed in modern clothes again—a pair of dark gray dress pants and a pale-gray dress shirt tailored to fit his toned body, the first two buttons of the collar open. His black hair was cropped short, and his piercing, dark, almost black eyes were pinned to my face. “Ellie, come speak with me.” He gestured to the path of flattened grass that led from me to him.
    “I don’t want to be here. Send me back.” I spun around in a circle, looking for an escape. The last time I’d met Okeus like this had been in a dream. The only reason I had escaped was because I’d screamed for David, who had woken me up and saved me. Who would save me now?
    Okeus crossed his legs, his mouth twisting in irritation. “There’s no need to be so dramatic, Ellie. I don’t plan on stealing your virtue today, although I have to wonder how much virtue you actually possess.” He placed both hands on the arms of the chair and grinned. “You were about to fuck Collin on a public beach in front of families with children.”
    Horror flooded me. He was right. What had happened to me?
    He shook his head and tsked. “No need