There was a palpable fury in his silence that vibrated through the air. He stood roughly twenty feet away, fists coiled and shoulders tight. My brow pinched with concern. His gaze flicked between the blood on my arm and his own hands, the faint shimmer of magic pulsing across his palms.
Bastian’s voice broke as he whispered, “I can’t do this. Every time you bleed, it pulls at me. My magic won’t listen, and if I lose it for even a second…” His jaw clenched. “I’ll hurt you. Again.”
The memory of our training session in the Rebellion camp came to the forefront of my mind: his control failing the first time my blood called to his magic. I felt sick seeing the guilt and the fear that he would hurt me on his face.
I knew it was an especially heavy emotional burden after his brother was killed when he first came into his power.
Bastian turned before anyone could answer, shoving through the doors. They slammed behind him, the sound echoing through the hall, sharp and final.
Silence followed, thick and heavy. All my concerns about training fell away, my only focus on catching up to Bastian.
11
BASTIAN
My magic cravedher blood again.
The truth of it echoed with every heartbeat, loud and brutal. Hours later, my veins still pulsed with the chaos of it—the way her blood’s scent in the training room nearly knocked me off my feet. I could barely breathe through the need it stirred in me. Every time that rune instrument sliced her skin and crimson spilled across her golden flesh, it whispered promises that I didn’t want to hear. My control had frayed with every drop, every flinch of pain she didn’t let show.
I’d barely managed to get through the session. I felt her everywhere—on my tongue, in my throat, singing through my bones like a song written just for destruction.
And the worst part? I wanted it.
No, not wanted—needed. The kind of need that burned away reason and left only instinct. The kind that made me afraid of what would happen if I stayed too close.
I burst into the house, the creak of the door echoing behind me. My boots slammed the stairs as I took them two at a time, needing distance and a shower. The bedroom door shut behind me with a slam that rattled the frame as I rushed to thebathroom and turned the water in the shower as hot as it would get.
I didn’t stop moving until I was naked and under the blistering spray, willing the scalding heat to burn it all out of me.
The water hit like blistering fire but it wasn’t enough to burn away the guilt.
I let my forehead fall to the wall. Steam rose in thick waves around me, but it wasn’t enough. I braced my hands to the tiles, fingers splayed, breath heaving as if I’d run miles. The image of her bleeding played again behind my eyes, followed by the sound of her barely stifled gasp, the scent of her pain curling through the air like incense.
It had been a whisper at first, but then it grew stronger. Louder. Until it was all I could hear. All I could think about. I’d nearly walked across the training hall and yanked Steele away from her. The only reason I hadn’t was because I knew what that would look like and what it would mean.
It would mean I was losing control again, and I wasn’t willing to admit that.
I was lost in the noise inside my head until something cut through it. The door opened and light footsteps sounded. I didn’t have to turn to know it was her. My body recognized Kieran’s presence before my mind did. The bond between us crackled to life, stirring something deep and volatile.
“Bastian,” she said, and just the sound of her voice—so close, too close—made my spine go rigid.
“Not now, Kieran.” My voice was low and frayed from my barely controlled anger. “Please.”
“Too bad.”
She stepped into the shower, fully clothed, the spray soaking through her leathers and hair. Her finger pressed against my chest, her eyes blazing. “You don’t get to shut down and push meaway every time this gets hard. We don’t sweep this under the rug again. Not anymore.”
I looked away, jaw clenched. “You should stay the hell away from me. You know what happens when I smell your blood. It’s not safe.I’mnot safe.”
Her voice cracked with fury and something more desperate. “I don’t care. You are mine, and I am yours, Bastian. I’m not letting you sabotage this.”
I met her gaze then, the intensity in her eyes almost holy as she spoke. “If your body reacts to my blood, then maybe the solution isn’t avoidance. Maybe we need to embrace it. A little bit. Each day. Enough that your magic gets what it needs so it doesn’t lash out.”
The idea punched the air from my lungs.
“You think...feeding me your blood would tame it?” I asked, disbelief creeping in around the edges.
Her lips were set, determination clear. “We won’t know unless we try. I’ll call the dagger now.”
