“Someone out there is hunting you.Hunting us. And I will keep you here kicking and screaming if that’s what it takes to make sure there’s still ayouleft to kick and scream.”
A bitter laugh slips out of her, and it lights something ancient in me like a fuse. The frost in my blood catches flame. “Kaelorin ves’kai.Eyn’thelûn ves kaemorin.”(Your breath belongs to me. I’ll drag my death behind me before I let you go.)
“You think I want you to stay?” My voice breaks, just a fraction. “Every second you’re near me, I’m holding back the beast inside me with bare hands, and it’s clawing me apart,Veskarya.”(You who cut me, and still I crawl to bleed for you.)
I pause to breathe through it.
“I don’t know how much longer I’ll win.”
My claws itch to run down her thighs. To leave something on her that says she’s mine. That she’s claimed. The defiance in her only taunts the monster inside me.
A cold silence stretches between us. She still refuses to acknowledge me. My jaw tightens.
“Do you think I don’t know what I look like to you?” I rasp.“Just some beast in the woods. Some...thingthat says it has a claim on you.”
The air turns brittle. My breath fogs around us. Crystals spiral from my fingertips.
“I didn’t ask for this either, Lumi. I didn’t ask the gods to pair me with a mortal I could ruin in a single careless breath. But thesecond the bond recognized you—it sparked a wildfire I’ll never be able to outrun.”
I edge a knee forward, slow enough not to spook her, but the air tightens anyway.
My hands flex at my sides. The pressure builds between us like steam in a sealed chamber, desperate for relief.
“I dream of you screaming my name.” My voice is barely a whisper now.
“I wake up with your scent burning in my lungs. I have tasted your fear, your arousal, your grief. And still—I am starving for more.”
She hiccups.
“There’s this wild creature inside me,” I murmur, “and every time you pull away, it claws at me to lock you down. And if I lose this war, Lumi?—”
My throat catches.
“There will be no one left to save you from me.”
Still, she stares through the window, like I’m nothing more than a shadow.
And that...
Sends ice trickling through my veins.
I would take anything from her. A scream, a sob, a fist to my chest. But this pretending—Like I’m not even real?
No.
“Do you really think you’re the only one falling apart right now?” Her voice is cold, void of emotion.
“What’s so wrong with your life, Andrik? You have this whole goddamn forest, and magic, and immortality. I’ve got a sister in the ground, and a killer who wants me beside her.” She turns to face me.
“And you wanna talk about war?” Her eyes flash. “You have no idea what it feels like to lose everything and still be expected to keep moving like nothing happened.”
Lightning cracks, almost striking the window. Thunder shudders the cabin walls.
She steps off the bed. Shoulders squared, her fury barely leashed.
“So don’t you dare tell me you’re keeping me here for me. You’re keeping me here because it’s the only way you can pretend you’re not alone anymore.”
Something inside me snaps, hard.
