“No.” The word fell from my lips like a plea.
My breath caught, my heart thundered—and the truth slammed into me like a blade through my ribs.
The bond.
It had claimed her.Us.
She was fae. I was a wrath demon. I was rage and ruin. A weapon with no softness left. I wasn’t meant to behers. She deserved peace. A future. Someone who didn’t wear scars like armor.
Not me.
I stumbled back, shaking my head, cold sweat crawling down my spine.
“Taeyang?” she said, her voice so soft it could’ve undone me.
But I couldn’t look at her. I couldn’t breathe. It was real. The bond had found me, too. And now I was terrified of what it meant. Of what I’d lose if I let myself believe I could have it.
Yuna
It finally burns
It started as a throb beneath my skin. Dull. Rhythmic. Almost like a second heartbeat.
I froze mid-step, breath catching as something—no, someone—seemed to tug on the thread of my very soul. My hand lifted to the base of my throat, where warmth radiated like a pulse under my fingertips.
Then came the fire.
It wasn’t painful. It was…alive. Golden heat unfurling like a sunrise across my chest. I looked down and gasped.
The mark had appeared.
Swirling script shimmered just below my collarbone, glowing with hues I didn’t recognize—somewhere between fae and demon, beautiful and terrifying. It moved like it was breathing. Like it had always been there, just waiting.
I was marked.
Not justchosen—claimed.
The bond.
My soul-mate.
My heart raced as I slowly turned, eyes finding the only person they ever seemed to seek lately.
Taeyang.
He stood like a statue, just across the clearing. His chest was rising and falling too fast, his hand pressed to his own mark like it wasburninghim. Like it scared him.
Our eyes locked.
And in that moment—one that should’ve been filled with wonder, with relief, withsomething—all I saw in him was fear.
Not awe.
Not need.
Notme.
“Taeyang…” My voice was soft, cracked. “You feel it too, don’t you?”
