I wanted to claim her. Mark her. Make her mine in a way no one could undo.
I’d been alone for so long. Hollow. Going through the motions of existing without ever feeling truly alive. But Alice—she made me feel. Every stolen glance, every accidental touch, every moment she looked at me like I was more than the monster I’d become.
She made me want things I had no right to want.
And right now, with her body pressed against mine, her heartbeat racing in time with my own, I didn’t care about rights. I didn’t care about consequences.
I only cared about her.
“Darius,” she murmured, her breath warm on my neck. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
Not what I wanted to hear. I thought she wanted me as much as I wanted her. Maybe I was wrong.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly against mine. “You’re still recovering.”
I slipped my hands beneath the rough linen of her tunic, finding skin as smooth as river stones. The contrast made my fingertips tingle. “I don’t care. Sit on my lap.”
“Darius...” My name on her lips was half protest, half surrender. With gentle pressure at her waist, I guided her until she straddled me, her thighs pressing against mine through our clothes. The weight of her sent blood rushing downward, leaving me dizzy and aching.
I brushed my thumbs over her nipples, which had hardened into tight buds. Her breasts filled my palms perfectly—soft yet firm, warm and yielding to my touch. A hunger rose in me to taste her, to draw one rosy bud between my lips and feel her pulse quicken against my tongue.
“Darius.” She trembled, her spine arching slightly as her fingernails traced delicate patterns across my shoulder blades, leaving trails of fire in their wake.
I lifted her tunic with trembling fingers, revealing inch by inch of her warm skin. She gasped—a soft, breathy sound that made my heart race—as I gave into temptation. I latched onto one rosy nipple, feeling it harden against my tongue as I worshipped her. The sweet, salty taste of her skin set off a chain reaction inside me, heat spreading from my core to my fingertips.
But then my mind fractured—a fissure splitting through everything I thought I knew.
Memories flooded in—not gently, not slowly, but like a dam shattering. They crashed through me in a violent rush, drowning everything else.
Faces. Voices. Fragments I didn’t recognize and yet knew.
A woman with dark hair cascading over her shoulders, her smile warm, her hand soft against my cheek. She was singing something. A lullaby. My lullaby.
A tall man with broad shoulders, his laugh deep and rumbling, lifting me onto his back like I weighed nothing. His voice: One day, all of this will be yours, my son.
My son.
My son.
I couldn’t breathe.
King Gregori. Queen Abrianna.
The names surfaced from somewhere deep and buried, and with them came a truth I wasn’t prepared for. A truth I had forgotten—or had been made to forget.
My parents.
They weremy parents.
I stopped kissing Alice, gasping, my hands trembling. The cave spun around me. My chest heaved. My vision blurred with something I hadn’t felt since I’d been here.
Tears.
Alice gripped my shoulders. “Darius, what’s wrong? Are you in pain?”
Her voice cut through the chaos, pulling me back. I put my hand on my forehead, taking stock. Pain? No—not the kind she meant.
I pressed my palm to my temple. “No. Memories. They came so fast. It’s been so long.”
