He stays buried inside me, his forehead resting against my shoulder, his breath coming in ragged gusts. The infernal flames in the room slowly die down to a gentle, warm glow. He turns me in his arms, his expression one of raw, undisguised awe as he looks down at my thoroughly claimed body.
“Mine,” he whispers, and this time it is not a growl of possession, but a vow.
“Yours.”
The warmth of the fading hell flames settles around the cottage like a living hearth, gentle instead of wild, and the bond between us hums with a deep, steady power that no longer feels dangerous.
Threxian’s arms remain wrapped securely around me, one hand resting against my back as though he has no intention of letting me go anytime soon. When I lift my gaze to his, the fierce hunger that had burned there moments ago has softened into something quieter but no less intense.
The connection between us feels different now, deeper, anchored, as if something fundamental has finally clicked into place. The power inside my chest does not frighten me. Instead it feels shared, and impossibly strong, like the two of us standing together at the center of a flame that no longer threatens to destroy the world around us.
He lifts me into his arms like something precious, carries me to the bed, and we fall asleep wrapped tightly together while the bond stays warm and controlled through the night.
14
THREXIAN
The bond wakes me before the nightmare fully reaches her.
Panic does not rise gradually; it slams through the tether like a hammer striking iron, sudden and violent enough that I am upright before my mind fully leaves sleep. The cottage is dark except for the dying embers in the hearth, yet the fear pouring through the bond is bright and sharp as lightning.
Elowen thrashes beside me. Her breath comes in broken gasps, fingers twisting into the blankets as though she is trying to fight her way out of something unseen.
“No—” she whispers.
The word tears from her throat with a fragile desperation that sends a surge of wrath roaring through my veins.
I reach for her immediately.
“Elowen.”
My hand closes gently around her shoulder, drawing her closer as I pull her against my chest before the panic can spiral further. Her skin is warm against mine, her heartbeat racing wildly beneath my palm.
“Easy,” I murmur, brushing a hand through her hair. “You are safe.I am here for you.”
The bond flares turbulently anyway. Fear still grips her too tightly for reason to reach it. Somewhere beyond the cottage, my energy answers.
I feel the moment it escapes my control. A pulse of heat erupts through the bond and races outward across Briarthorn before I can fully suppress it.
Moments later the distant night cracks open with shouts.
Fire.
I feel it through the hell-born current like a flare of heat in the distance. A shed at the far edge of the village ignites, dry timber catching instantly as flames claw toward the sky.
“Damn it,” I mutter under my breath.
The sound does not wake her. She still trembles against me, caught halfway between dream and waking terror.
I tighten my arms around her, forcing the magic back into submission while guiding her breathing the same way I have done so many times before.
Pain lances through my chest as the infernal current resists the command to retreat. The power wants release. It wants destruction. It wants the simple satisfaction of erasing the source of fear and ending the threat the way my kind was designed to do.
Instead I crush it back down with sheer will. The effort burns like swallowing molten iron.
My wings twitch behind me, the muscles along my back locking with the strain, but I do not loosen my hold on her for even a moment. Elowen trembles against my chest, her breathing uneven as the nightmare slowly releases its grip on her mind.
None of the pain matters. Her safety matters.
