He pulls out of me, and the world tilts.
It’s not pain. It’s not pleasure. It’severything— sensation flooding in from six different directions at once, crashing through me like a dam breaking.
Darian.
Warmth. Guilt dissolving. Awe. Devotion. Relief so overwhelming it steals my breath.
Finn.
Shock. Jealousy tangled with pride. Concern. His chaos magic sparking at the back of my skull like static electricity.
Malrik.
Steady, heavy calm. Protective tension. Something sharp and dark beneath it — possession, maybe.
Kieran.
Hunger. Restraint. A deep, primal thrum I’ve never felt from him before. The weight of his attention even with his eyes closed.
Torric.
Embarrassed amusement. Heat he doesn’t want to acknowledge. Awe at something shifting.
Aspen.
Pure shock. Emotional overwhelm. Empathy so heightened it bleeds into my own panic.
All of them. All at once.
Too much.
My breath stutters. My chest tightens. My fingers go numb against the stone floor. My shadows ripple around me — frantic, disorganized, like leaves in a windstorm.
I try to sit up.
The cave tilts sideways.
“Kaia—” Darian’s hand finds my arm.
Another wave crashes through me. His guilt, his fear, his desperate need to know he didn’t hurt me — all of it flooding the bond so intensely I flinch.
He yanks his hand back like I burned him.
“I’m sorry—” His voice cracks. “I didn’t mean to— I shouldn’t have—”
“No, that’s not—” I can’t finish. Can’t explain. The words won’t come because everything istoo loud.
The fire crackles. Too loud.
Someone shifts on stone. Too loud.
Breathing. Heartbeats. The rustle of fabric.
Too loud.
Heat rises in my face — humiliation and want tangling until I can’t tell them apart. Every single one of them saw. Heard. Watched Darian take me apart on the cave floor. And now I’m falling apart in a completely different way, and I can’t even hide it.
“Something’s wrong.” Finn is already moving, chaos magic sparking around him as he scrambles toward me. “Kaia, what’s—”
