Dianthe's Awakening by J.B. Miller Page A

and waves of warmth and tranquility.
    I wanted this... I wanted this peace and contentment. With each blissful wave, the feelings became stronger and I let it take me further away.
    "Just let go, Dia girl," I whispered to myself and I drifted away.
    I didn't know how long I floated before I felt the pressure of a palm upon my cheek. Ironically enough, it was in the same place my dad had struck me. As much as I really wanted to ignore the sensation, it began to pull me back.
    From a very far distance, I heard a voice calling to me. It took a few minutes before the vocals sharpened into words I could understand. The cadence of a deep masculine voice that was so very familiar called my name once again.
    "Dia, my heart. It is time to open your eyes and see me."
    The only thing I could compare it to was waking from a dream. I had to force my eyes to open even though I didn’t want to. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought I would open my eyes and the past months would just be a very strange vivid dream. However, once I was able to pry my lids open the whole theory was out the window.
    Cernunnos knelt in front of me, his hand cupping my cheek. This was not the male that I had been living with for what had to be several weeks now. This was the horned god.
    He towered above me even on his knees. Great antlers stood proudly from his head and green, brown, and gold shimmering lights played along his skin making the flesh itself iridescent.
    I fell into his eyes and began to drown in their decadence. In that moment, I totally understood how some animals were able to mesmerize their prey. I was glued tightly to that hypnotizing gaze.
    It took what seemed to be eons before my will became strong enough to break from his hold. The flickering glow around us finally caught my attention. Green, red, and gold blazed in a magnificent aurora. The colors danced over our flesh in licking flames that never burned but caressed in heavenly warmth.
    Beyond the flames stood the Hunt. Brónach and Caomhnóir stood closest, well knelt. She was on her knees with a deer in the headlights look going on. Caratâcos and Togodumnus were directly behind her. Each with a hand on her shoulders. They were in a protective position and looked ready to pull her behind them at the slightest movement.
    My eyes narrowed. Oh yeah, we would be talking about that later. It seemed that my Sorrow had been holding out on me.
    I was rudely pulled from my plotting by the mouth nuzzling my neck. Oh, God…it felt good.
    My concentration broken, I turned back to the male kissing a path along my shoulder blade.
    "What are you doing," I stammered.
    He ignored me but for a soft chuckle against my skin. Without breaking contact, the contact his voice whispered to me.
    "Open up, my heart. Open up those wonderful senses of yours and feel what is going on between us."
    Cernunnos's hand slipped into mine and lifted it up so I could see the entwined fingers. Our auras danced and played, blending the rainbow of colors into a melody of light. The light show entranced me and I began to lose myself in the dancing flames of our light.
    "Open, Dianthe," his voice whispered into my mind even as he nipped the indention between shoulder and neck.
    My eyes widened with the sudden sensation and with a gasp, a whole new world opened before us.
    We were the flames. They didn't surround us—they were born of us. Our bodies wove and danced together, barely corporal in form.
    'What is happening ,' I thought.
    Cernunnos answered my thought with his own.
    'We are merging, two becoming one. Our very beings are joining into one whole, just as our physical bodies soon will.'
    I was still barely aware enough to feel shock at that. The fleeting thought of public sex trilled through me but disappeared when Cernunnos nipped my tendon before rising up and taking my mouth in an all-consuming kiss.
    Then what little reason I had fled.
    We could have been in front of Buckingham Palace at the changing of the