“You can’t say that… you could get into trouble,” I implored, hating the idea that something bad could happen to him and all because of me. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if he were punished for this. His jaw tightened, something darker slipping into his expression before he said,
“I will go to the King myself and tell him he either allows me to have you…” he continued, his voice lowering further,
“…Or I will burn his fucking world to the ground.”My stomach dropped at the dark threat, one that terrified me, and not only because each word had been edged with demonic menace.
“You can’t be serious,”I said, my voice faltering despite myself.
“You’ll get into trouble!”
“Oh, Eliza…” he murmured, something almost dangerous curling into the softness of it,
“You have no idea what I am capable of, do you…my sweet, innocent little Inanna.”His voice dropped again, deeper this time, as if carrying something far more ancient beneath it. He ran the backs of his fingers down my cheek.
“No one would dare deny me.” A beat passed as my heart hammered against my chest.
“And besides, it is a moot point anyway,” he added, quieter now, though no less certain,
“Because no matter what you think that mirror showed you, I know the truth.” He stepped closer again, close enough that I could feel the heat of him, the weight of his presence pressing into every inch of space between us.
“Every Enforcer who has been granted a fated Siren knows it instantly. As I knew it with every beat of my dark, twisted soul, that it was you,” he said, his voice hard and unyielding in this knowledge.
“But…” He shook his head and demanded,
“No buts. For it is simple… I am not letting you go.” My breathing continued to falter just as my thoughts spiraled. Because everything came back to one thing,
“You love me.”
He closed his eyes briefly, exhaling before his fingers tangled in my hair, pulling my head back as his arm wrapped around my waist. He then lifted me up with one arm and settled me against the sideboard.
“I don’t just love you,” he growled, his voice rough, unrestrained,
“I am fucking obsessed with you!”
And then he kissed me.
A kiss that stole the air from my lungs, that burned through me, consuming everything in its wake. My gasp was swallowed by him, claimed, tasted, as the intensity of it left me breathless.
He pulled back just enough to murmur against my lips,
“Fuck… how I have missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” I admitted before taking it one step further and giving him a piece of my heart.
“And I…I love you too, Wye.”
For a single, suspended moment, everything in him stilled.
It was subtle, but unmistakable. The way his breath caught and the way his gaze locked onto mine. As though the words had struck somewhere deeper than anything else I had ever said. Something raw flickered there, something unguarded, almost disbelieving, as if even he hadn’t expected to hear it.
His hand tightened slightly where it held me, not enough to hurt, but enough to anchor me there. Like he needed to be certain I was real, that I hadn’t slipped away again.
“Say that again…”he whispered, his voice rougher now, quieter, the control in it fraying at the edges.
I barely had time to draw breath.
Because something in him broke.
Not violently, but absolutely.
