I'm pretty sure I missed the part where I died because I must be dead.

Nadine stood on the other side of the sky. Clouds grew from the ground, soft snowy fingers that cradled a violet heaven powdered with nebula dust. Hot white rivers of stars cut lines and shapes into space. The constellations told stories of shaped women dancing with swords and strong men standing among flames. There were vengeful gods standing over worshiping humans that reached and reached but couldn't even glimpse at those they wished to find. And in the middle of it all, crowing the sky with a golden aura, was the sun.

"This." Nadine took an unintended step forward and the ground was warm. She looked down and saw her unblemished reflection showing the dumbfounded expression on her face. It mirrored not only her and her lavish dress but the entire world around her, creating parallel lands on an infinite sky. She was tiny, floating, but not insignificant. Unlike the humans frozen among the stars, she was here, her big toe pressing on the sun itself. She tried to find her voice again. "This is..."

"Beautiful," a voice beside her finished the sentence.

Her eyes shifted to the reflection that appeared next to her and even through an image, Nadine felt like she was staring up at Gardus. He was beautiful. A god. She was standing next to a god.

Nadine flinched.

A god. I'm supposed to do something. Bow. Bow, right? I should bow.

But she couldn't bow because Gardus had the palm of his hand up against her back. "Welcome to my creation and your new home, my lovely."

She swallowed. "Thanks."

He stared as if expecting more.

"Thanks but I'm not a virgin."

And this is why I don't have any friends.

Gardus froze for a half a second before he laughed and Nadine swore the clouds swayed with the rumble of his voice. "I'm glad it ended up being you I saved," he said.

"Yeah, about that." Nadine moved away from his touch. "Why?"

"Let me show off my skies to you before I answer." He offered his hand to her.

"No. I wanna know now."

Again that look that said Gardus was not used to being told no flashed across his face before it crinkled with laughter. This time Nadine was sure she saw the stars zoom quicker around them. "I promise you," Gardus said, "you will be impressed."

The ground broke off into a perfect, wide rectangle followed by another and another, tiers of floating steps leading a path up to a building of crystal that was not there before. Nadine's jaw dropped. It looked like a fortress of ice, frosted walls hiding its secret rooms and piercing towers promising a greater view, a closer touch to the sun above.

Gardus' finger closed her mouth. "I told you it was impressive."

Nadine cleared her throat. "It is, but I'm concerned about these steps."

"Oh?"

"You'll be able to look up my dress as I climb them. There's a mirror for a floor, and I'm not wearing any underwear you know."

A playful eyebrow perched. "Why yes I do know. I was the one that gave you those clothes. Is underwear really that necessary?"

"In some cases, yes."

"Some cases? And what cases wouldn't it be necessary?"

Nadine grinned. "Can a god that doesn't know that really be called a god?"

"Are you challenging me to show you, Nadine? I can easily take away what I gave." His fingers threaded through the soft fabric of her dress.

She stepped away, a playful smile on her face. "So you do just want to see my butt!"

Gardus placed a hand on his bare chest that was still as remarkably toned as Nadine remembered. In obvious mock and dramatic anger, Gardus spoke, "Oh this lovely and beautiful mortal saw through my plan. Now she knows I saved her all so I could see her supple butt go up these steps."

This time Nadine laughed. After all, she was dead and floating on the lake because gods don't want to look at her butt or give her pretty dresses, but at least her post-death hallucinations are fun, and so she went along with it.

"Well now that I've foiled your plans, I think you should go first, so that way I can watch your butt instead," she said.

"Oh, my lovely," Gardus said as his fingers swept her short hair, "you are welcome to that whenever you want. You don't even have to ask."

Nadine was again very aware of how his muscles stretched when he touched her and how the golden shine in his eyes made her feel warm and giddy. A flush crawled up her neck and overtook her face. He smiled, took her hand, and the two ascended the steps side by side. A rising wind drew Gardus' long hair across her arms causing goosebumps to race across her skin. The wind shifted and hit them head on before dying.

"This will be your quarters. It has everything you need but should it not, let me know and I will fix it," Gardus said.

"Do you think maybe my so called quarters can be lower to the ground?" Nadine asked, her legs hot with the promise of future soreness.

"Yes, it can. Though it does look grand up so high, no? I can instead offer to carry you to and from it."

"I think I'm fine with it being lowered."

"As you desire. But do indulge me for today. I'm enjoying your hand in mine." He squeezed.

Nadine wondered when this dream would end and she would awake to her new existence as a lost spirit floundering in the watery depths of Yirrel's lair, a slave to his whims and servant to her fate. She nodded. "This is fine."

They arrived at the top and Nadine could only briefly admire the crystal clouds and white-blue sunrays on the door before Gardus opened it for her. The inside was a lot bigger than what was implied. She figured it was ten times bigger than her single-roomed hut in Marr—I wonder who's going to be living in it now—and furnished with basic, and more, items she would expect from a dwelling. But there was something at the end of the room she didn't recognize, and it was the grandest piece in the room.

It was a giant white vase frozen mid-pour with the lip facing forward. Below it was a wide dish too deep to be a plate but too shallow to be a bowl. On the vase's belly were swirls of stars on a night sky where both the sun and moon revolved around each other. Literally. The image was alive as if manifesting something inside, but Nadine could see nothing in it but empty darkness. Or at least it looked empty.

"What is this?" she asked, weaving through the powdery white couches that of course resembled clouds, past the sleek and smooth black dining room set standing under a mini moon that was asleep and dark, across the cerulean carpet that brightened into fiery yellows and reds and oranges only to deepen into cool magentas and violets and when Nadine stood on the midnight black threads she was in front of the massive vase.

"That is what will keep you fed and nourished," Gardus said, already by her side. "We don't have mortal food up there, but this will work. Just pluck the dish from up there and place it back. It'll never fall."

"What if I drop it?"

"It'll never break."

"What if I spill—"

"It'll never spill."

Nadine crossed her arms. "I guess that seems like a suitable plate for a god."

"It is for you."

"Yes. Hide the good and valuable plates from the mortals, right?"

Gardus chuckled. "I am fortunate it was you, Nadine, that I saved."

Saved. She still wanted to know why, but before she could ask, the winds picked up around them and howled like a storm.

"Yes, you can come in, Atros," Gardus spoke to no one.

She frowned. "Atros?"

A man appeared in front of them. From thin air. His untamed, white hair fooled Nadine into thinking he was aged, but then he smiled and now she thought he was younger than her. He only wore black pants and they were shredded as if a blind man attacked it with scissors. He was shirtless—Why always shirtless?—and across his muscular chest—Why always muscular?—several white lines and unrecognizable patterns crisscrossed as if alive.

"Is this her, Gardus?" he asked but stared at Nadine. The energy in his bright turquoise eyes felt enough to light an entire room. Before Gardus answered, the man stepped up to her. A soft gale swept her hair as he extended his hand. "Hi. I'm Atros."

She gawked at his hand. "Atros."

"Atros."

"The wind god," Gardus added.

Nadine's face wrinkled. "This beggar is the wind god?"

"Beggar!" Atros recoiled. "Gardus!"

The sky god snickered. "Oh she is quite lovely, Atros."

"I'm ready to wake up now," Nadine said.

She stared between the two gods. Gardus and his divine and glamorous beauty, his lean and graceful body. Atros the apparent wind god with his bronze skin and winding white tattoos that she swore really were moving on their own. And her, a dead girl floating on earth's river waiting to fall into the flow of the afterlife if she could just get over this damn death dream. All three of them in this perfect crystalline house that held the symbols of heaven.

"Ready to wake up?" Atros echoed her words.

Gardus grasped her hand and how odd that it always felt so warm each time he did. "Nadine, what do you mean wake up?"

She stared at them like they were idiots for not seeing the obvious. "I'm dead."

Concern overtook Gardus' expression and Atros now looked at her like she was the idiot.

"Right?" she asked.

"No, my lovely. You are not. I saved you, remember? And I'm so glad that I did," Gardus said, sweeping her hair behind her ear.

A strange sense was starting to settle into her, a numbness that was gradually leaving. "So I'm not dead?"

"Nope." Atros pinched her exposed shoulder.

Nadine yelped and slapped his shoulder blade.

"Gardus!"

She froze, the numbness gone and clarity hitting her like the first gasp of air taken when cutting through the surface of water.

Oh crap. Crap. Crap!

...

Shit. This is real.

"Oh gods!" Nadine gasped.

Gardus and Atros turned to her.

She held her head between her hands and paced around the room as the past half hour replayed through her brain. It started with her saying no to a god and escalated to her flirting with the same god and about her butt of all things! Her feet felt hot from the friction of the rug. She demanded her room be lowered and just now she struck a god.

Nadine fell to her knees and clasped her hands in front of her face. "Please forgive me! I'm so, so sorry! I didn't think this was real! I'm so sorry for flirting with you and for hitting you! Lord Gardus and Lord Atros!"

"Nadine," Gardus said.

She hardly heard him over Atros' laughter.

"Please stand up."

Nadine felt his finger on her chin as he lifted her head to face him. He was radiance and he was the sun with his halo of clouds and sky in his hair. She reached out to him and brushed her fingers on his cheek. His smile settled the snakes in her stomach.

"Are you sure she's the one?" Atros asked.

Her vision was now filled by Atros' face as he shamelessly inserted himself between the two. There was light stubble on his jaw and a mark by his lip that looked like a scar. But gods don't scar.

Gardus pushed him away with his hand. "Yes, she is the one. Now go, Atros. I'm sure Nadine would like to rest."

The wind god sat with the soles of his feet touching, staring at Nadine. The glow of eyes intensified only to die out just as quickly. "Yes, Gardus." He disappeared with a gust of wind that left her breathless.

"What did he mean if I'm the one?" she asked.

Gardus helped her to her feet. She was hyper aware of his hands now and they burned on her skin. His fingers trailed down her arm, the golden bracelets around his wrists silent. He pinched the base of the ring finger on her left hand and a light encircled it. When he pulled away, he revealed a golden ring that matched the band around his neck.

"I would like for you to be my bride," he said. "Wear my ring and give me your answer when you have it, but I promise you I will be the one you want. I am going to make you fall so deeply in love with me you won't be able to live without my touch."

~ ♡ ~

Hello! Thank you for reading! Now that I finished my trilogy, there should be a more steady flow of updates on this story.

How are you liking it so far? What do you think of Gardus and Atros? If you're enjoying the story, please hit that little star or leave me a comment. They fuel and encourage me when I've run out of chocolate and cake. Which is always because I have no self control.

P.S. I forgot what font I had used for the chapter heading, so...yup.