Dinner.
I couldn’t remember the last time my life had followed something as ordinary as a shared meal. The structure of it felt foreign. Comforting.
Daemon stood. The Fae turned toward the hall.
He paused beside me, leaning just slightly.
“Don’t get drunk this time.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He smirked. “Or do. I didn’t exactly mind.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was smiling as I followed him out, half a step behind.
CHAPTER 13
SERIS
A few days passed after I began training with Lyralei.
On the third morning, I finally felt it. A thread of the Veil brushed against my senses. Faint. Fragile. But real.
I told myself it was the breathing exercises. The discipline. The repetition.
But if I were honest, something else had shifted inside me.
Daemon.
The constant hum of anxiety that had once lived beneath my skin had quieted. My thoughts no longer felt jagged. My body, once perpetually braced for loss, had begun to soften.
And he was the reason.
After that first night, we stopped pretending. With the infirmary empty and the halls quiet, we stopped denying what had been building between us. Morning. Night. Sometimes in between. He learned my body with ruthless precision, and I let him.
He hadn’t taken me fully yet.
The restraint was deliberate.
And infuriating.
That morning, I decided I would stop letting him set the pace.
After a heated kiss that left us breathless, I shifted, guiding him back against the mattress. Surprise flickered in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by interest.
“Oh?” he murmured.
I didn’t answer. I let my hands trace downward slowly, intentionally. His breathing changed, controlled, but thinner now.
“Careful,” he said lightly. “You look like you have a plan.”
“Maybe I do.”
When my touch turned deliberate, the composure he wore so effortlessly began to crack. His head tipped back slightly. A low sound escaped him.
Power flooded through me.
Payback.
