Feigning sleep.
We both know he isn’t.
The cave is silent except for our ragged breathing. Everyone is awake. Everyone saw. Everyoneheard.
I should feel shame.
I don’t.
“Darian.” Kaia’s voice is wrecked. Her hands find my face. “What was—”
“The bond.” I’m still trembling. Still inside her. Still trying to remember how to breathe. “The corruption. It’s— I felt it break. I felt—”
I can’t explain it.
But she feels it too. I know she does. Through the connection that’s finally,finallyclean.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she whispers. Wonder in her voice.
“No.” I press my forehead to hers. “It doesn’t.”
The cave floor is cold. The air is freezing where sweat has cooled on my skin. My knees ache from the stone. And I’m still buried inside her, softening now, our combined release slick between us.
None of it matters.
“Stay,” she says quietly. Echoing what she said to Finn. The same word. The same weight.
Across the fire, Finn clears his throat. “So. That happened.”
“Shut up, Finn,” multiple voices say in unison.
Despite everything — the awkwardness, the exposure, the fact that I just fucked Kaia in front of all of them — I laugh.
She laughs too.
I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve her.
But I stay anyway.
Chapter 34
Kaia
The silence is deafening.
My body is still buzzing — pleasure, exhaustion, something electric I don’t recognize humming under my skin. Sweat cools on my bare shoulders. The cave floor is cold beneath me. Darian is still inside me, softening, his weight a warm anchor against the chill.
But I don’t regret it, not even a little bit.
Everyone is awake.
I know this without looking. I can feel their eyes on us like physical pressure. Finn’s shock. Malrik’s steady calm. Torric’s embarrassed heat. Aspen’s stunned confusion. Kieran’s—
Kieran’shunger.
It hits me like a wave, and I gasp.
“Kaia?” Darian shifts, concern flooding his voice. “Are you—”
