Sera finally managed to press her palms to his chest, not to push him away, but to stop herself from climbing into him.They broke apart only because neither of them could breathe.The silence that followed was thick, charged, their foreheads still nearly touching.
Sera swallowed hard. “So there are no rules.”
Alaric’s eyes were dark, his composure visibly shaken but not gone. “Not ones that stop this.”
She nodded slowly, the realization settling in her chest with equal parts fear and want. The Brands still flared between them.Untamed. Unruled.”Then what can we control?”
His mouth curved, just barely. Not a smile. An acceptance. “We control who knows about this. And who doesn’t. And we hope to control how fast this can get us killed.”
The word hit her like ablow.
Killed.
Chapter 7
SERA’S BREATH CAUGHT,sharp and involuntary. Her mind lurched, scrambling for context, for reason, for some rational frame where that word made sense. People didn’t kill over marks. Not in the world she understood. Not over a bond, not over something as intimate and private asthis.
“Who would kill me?” she demanded, the question tearing out of her before she could soften it. “And why? For what? For the Brand? For leverage? For what it represents?”
Her pulse thundered, acold edge cutting through the heat. This wasn’t theoretical anymore. This wasn’t abstract danger. This was someone deciding her life was an acceptablecost.
Alaric didn’t look away. “Because the Brand isn’t just connection,” he said quietly. “It’s legitimacy. Succession. Power. It tiesbloodlines, claims, and loyalties in ways people can’t afford to let stand if it threatens them.”
He paused, just long enough for her to hear what he wasn’t saying.
“You weren’t supposed to be protected,” he continued. “You were supposed to be expendable. Someone I could doubt. Someone I could be pushed to eliminate if the story was clean enough.”
Sera went very still.
“The Brand makes that impossible,” Alaric said. “It hardwires my response. Iwill protect you. That means any plan built on me turning on you dies the second the bond exists.” His voice hardened. “Others will decide that removing the bond removes the problem.”
Sera stared at him. “And I’m the problem?” she asked quietly
“Yes,” he agreed without hesitation. “For several reasons. Because the Brand doesn’t give us leverage. It gives everyone else leverage over us. And because if they remove you, the effectively remove me, too.”
The truth of that landed hard in her chest.
“It reacts to us,” he finished quietly. “Not just physically. Strategically. The closer we get, the louder it gets, and the louder it gets, the harder it is to hide whatyou are to me.”
Their palms hovered close enough that the heat burned between them without touch, aliving pressure in that narrow space. Not desire alone, but awareness. The kind that sharpened her senses and narrowed her focus until everything else receded. Close enough that it seemed inevitable, not because she lacked restraint, but because restraint itself had become an exhaustingact.
Sera’s hand trembled slightly. Not from fear. From the effort of not closing the last inches standing between them, from holding herself still when every instinct she had was leaning toward him. It took concentration to keep that space intact, to remind herself that distance, right now, was the only thing standing between them and consequences neither of them could afford.
“What does your family say about it?” she asked.
Alaric’s expression hardened. “My family doesn’t get to say anything about it yet.”
Sera’s stomach tightened. “Yet.”
“Yes.”
“Because no one can know,” shesaid.
“Because no one can know,” he agreed.
Sera struggled to speak. “That’s a general rule. Because I’m pretty sureVidar is aware of our Brands.”Alaric’s eyes sharpened, the acknowledgement silent.Sera let her hand drop, breaking the heat between them. It eased, but didn’t disappear.”Do you think he suspects?”
Alaric didn’t answer immediately. That was his version of honesty.”He knows we slept together,” he said finally. “That’s not enough.”
