I smile, sharp, cruel, reverent. “You already did that yourself. I’m just the one who gave you a place to shatter.”
I climb onto the bed, the chains rattling under my weight, the collar gleaming as she gasps for breath. My hands frame her face, bloodied thumbs smearing her tears.
“This is forever, little fairy,” I whisper, pressing my forehead to hers. “Not paper. Not vows. Iron. Blood. Chains.”
Her body trembles under me, bound so tight the only thing left free is her voice. She swallows hard, lips trembling, eyes locked on mine.
But she doesn’t speak.
She doesn’t need to.
I’ve already caged the word in steel.
Forever.
Tahlia
The chain rattles every time I breathe.
Collar cutting into my throat, wrists blistering under cuffs, ankles pulled wide and raw. I can’t move. I can’t hide.
And he knows it.
He kneels at the foot of the bed, hook resting on the chain between my ankles, eyes locked on me like he’s already digging my grave. His shirt is ripped, chest streaked with blood—my blood, his blood, ours. He looks ruined. And holy.
“You whispered forever,” he says, low, steady, the kind of calm that makes me want to scream. “Now we finish it.”
He pulls something from the box.
A blade. Short, sharp, gleaming. Not the hook. Something worse.
My pulse kicks wild, rattling the collar. “No?—”
He smiles, sharp and reverent. “Yes.”
The blade drags down the inside of my thigh, slow, teasing, slicing shallow until blood wells hot. I jerk, but the chains drag me back down. He leans forward, lips sealing over the cut, sucking until copper coats his mouth.
My scream shatters the silence, but he drinks it in like it’s the vow he’s been waiting for.
“You bleed, I drink,” he murmurs, licking the wound clean. “That’s how forever works.”
The blade rises again, kissing my other thigh. Deeper this time. The chain rattles. My back arches. My tears burn.
He laughs, low, guttural, blood smeared across his lips. “Your body’s the contract. Your blood signs it. And when I’m done—” he presses the blade to my chest, right over my heart, “—the world will know you were never yours.”
I choke, voice cracking. “You’ll kill me.”
His forehead presses to mine, his breath ragged, desperate, filthy. “No, little fairy. I’ll make you immortal.”
The blade kisses my skin again, not hurried—never hurried. He drags it down the line of my ribs, slow enough for me to feel every sting, shallow enough that he knows I won’t die. Not yet.
The chain rattles with my gasp.
Blood beads, trails down my side, soaking into the ruined sheets. His mouth follows the blade like it’s scripture—tongue hot, lips reverent, sucking until copper coats his teeth.
“You bleed beautiful,” he rasps, breath hot against the cut. “Every drop is a vow you don’t have the courage to say.”
My wrists jerk against the cuffs, metal biting deeper, but I can’t stop trembling. The collar chokes me when I try to arch away. He laughs, low, guttural, dragging the blade back up between my breasts until it rests against my sternum.
