Hooked [Complete]

57. Beltane Part 5: A Divine Kiss, A Divine Risk

Author's Note: Cerridwen will do whatever it takes to make sure Cernunnos wins this hunt...

Song for this Chapter: This Kiss by Faith Hill.

Cerridwen's POV

"Admit you made a mistake, Goddess," Cernunnos is saying to me.

I bite my lip. I am a goddess who can admit her mistakes. It just takes me awhile.

It took me two thousand years to admit it was a mistake to believe I could stop loving Cernunnos. Though I still profess that it wasn't a mistake to leave him. It was the wake-up call he needed and leaving him also broke our wheel of despair. It may have also broken humanity's connection to nature, but I'm not that kind of goddess—the kind that feels guilty for creating a little negative shift in human consciousness. Nope. Humanity losing its way for a couple of thousand years was worth it, to make Cernunnos a better man.

Yes, I'm still convinced leaving him was the right thing to do, for him. I was only wrong in thinking I could get over it. Especially now, as he's standing before me shirtless, all muscled and tatted up and coiffed like the best of these modern men, his glowing eyes and horns as magnificent as they have ever been in all the thousands of years he has existed. Stag, he's so hot when he's angry at me. It's taking everything in me to remember I promised my Cutie I'd be faithful to him. Because right now, what I really want to do is give Sucellus the big Beltane show he's been wanting. I want to stride right over to Cernunnos, leap up, grasp his horns and wrap my legs around him and stick my tongue down his throat...

"Admit it, Cerridwen," my magnificent former mate says sternly. "You fucked up."

I sigh and lean against the fence. "Okay, I admit it. Keeping Sir Kittyhart in a cage for two thousand years was perhaps not my best idea. I guess he was more aware of the passage of time than I realized."

Sucellus laughs as the Questing Beast roars and strikes the ward directly in front of me with his serpent's tongue.

"He's really pissed off at you, Dwennie."

"No shit," I say. In the hour since I reanimated him and restored his size, and while Trivia has been performing every counter-curse known to witchkind, he's been stalking back and forth, glaring at only me, and trying to invenomate me. "That's the one hundred and ninety seventh time he's struck at me. He seems to be holding a grudge."

"Dammit," Cernunnos growls and grips his horns. "That thing is dead set on killing you. Change of plans, Sweetheart. You need to leave the field."

That is the last thing I want to do. It's the first time he's ever offered to take me hunting, and I have my heart set on seeing my god sweat and strain. I know, it's scandalous how horny I am today. But it's Beltane, and I should have expected this. I've never been with Cernunnos on Beltane without Rites. This is going to be an uncomfortable first.

"Cerridwen's not going anywhere, unless you want to concede right now," Minimus comes striding up, waving the contract under Cernunnos' nose. "Any alteration of the contract results in forfeiture, remember? Trivia," he snaps, "for Jupiter's sake, will you make a judgment? Is the beast clear of Cerridwen's magic or not?"

Everyone is getting bored, waiting on Trivia. Apollo and Diana are leaning lazily against the fence. Mercury's godspawn are all trying to keep alert by pacing and stretching. All except Finn. He stands deathly still, staring into the distance. Poor boy. The Greenspark he makes with Lana is simply too intense for mortals. When this is over, I'm going to have to brew a potion to ease the effects of their bond. And I should begin to prepare Cernunnos and both of them for the truth...if they continue their love affair, their Greenspark is either going to culminate in Divine Union or disaster. Perhaps Cernunnos can sense whether these two are fated to be gods...or fated to tragedy like Angus Og and Druantia.