'The Peaches and Honey Duology' - R. Raeta
- jdouglas96
- Nov 29, 2024
- 3 min read
Peaches and Honey: These Immortal Truths # 1
&
Pits & Poison: These Godly Lies # 2
A shapeshifting god,
an immortality granting peach,
and a woman gifted with forever.
England, 1184: Anna is used to hunger and hardship. Ever since she was seventeen, when the pale shadows of her vitiligo were spotted, she has spent more than a decade struggling to survive alone and in exile. Then a single act of kindness towards a beautiful stranger and the taste of a divine peach changes Anna’s life forever.
Suddenly, her body is as untouched by time as it is by harm. As she watches the world change around her, knowing every human connection is only temporary, there is only one person she trusts to always return, no matter the years or distance...
The shapeshifting god who gifted her with immortality.
“So you won’t keep me.”
“Keep you?” he echoes, amusement flirting at the edges of his lips. “Are you something to be kept, Anna?”
She shrugs, nibbling at a corner of the jerky. “I was, once. Until they no longer wanted me.”
The hint of a smile dims, turning thoughtful. “I do not keep you because you’re not mine. You belong only to yourself."
&
Eyes drifting down, he watches her fingers comb through Piers’ fine blonde hair.
“This will hurt, you know.” He says it as simply as one comments on the weather.
Anna wonders if that’s what Time does—wears the humanity out of you until the promise of death pulls no more emotion than the promise of rain.
Anna doesn’t have to ask him to clarify. It’s a truth she’s already uncovered for herself with every sweet smile Piers gives her, every touch of his smaller hand resting trustingly in her own. There is only heartbreak waiting for her and she knows it.
“It already does.”
&
He leans down, their noses touching and his lips so close Anna can feel them whisper against her own. “This wasn’t meant to happen.” His fingertips thread into her hair, her jaw cradled in his palms and his eyes burning with such an intensity that she’s drowning in it. “You weren’t meant to possess me so completely. You haunt me, Anna.”
&
“I’m well aware of what I am.”
He grins against the line of her jaw, his breath a hot whisper in her ear. “I doubt that, but you’ll learn. If it takes me centuries, I’ll spend each and every one showing you how devastatingly beautiful you are.”
&
“You are everything I never knew to hope for.”
&
“Wait. You’re married?”
Oh. Anna’s lips part soundlessly. They’ve never discussed how to refer to each other— they’ve never needed to. They’re tied together in ways that went beyond mortal ceremonies and vows.
The corner of Khiran’s mouth twitches, a suppressed smile. “What do you think?” he asks in perfect French. “Shall we admit to living in sin, or will you drag me to the nearest chapel and make an honest man out of me?”
Anna rolls her eyes, swatting his arm. “I’m a modern woman. I demand a proposal on bent knee.”
His eyes darken, the curl of his mouth turning suggestive. “You know I have no qualms kneeling for you. Shall I remind you of my devotion tonight, my love?”
&
“You really do love her… don’t you?”
Anna stills, listening for his response.
Khiran breathes a laugh. “Love is too small a word,” he murmurs, “but I suppose it will do.”
&
"You put your marriage above your faith?”
“For me, they are one and the same,” he says, turning to face her. His eyes are warm, his smile soft. “Loving her is the closest I will ever come to enlightenment.”
&
“What’s this?” he asks.
“A gift,” she teases, an echo from their past.
“Is it magic?”
He means it to be a joke, but there is a light in her eyes that robs him of his breath. In his chest, his weak, fragile heart stutters when she answers.
“Yes.”
Comments