She still looked like a Prime Luminae from the old temple paintings, and so did the other two human females who followed, both with the same easy confidence that said they belonged out here among the stars instead of locked in cells. I felt some faint echoes of a mental connection to them, but it was too fragile to hold on to. Interesting.
And behind them… three golden gods.
My breath locked in my throat.
They were massive, radiating power the way the old Ascension dais used to thrum with light. But it was the one in the middle whose face hit me like a physical blow.
Thyros.
The name carved itself into my bones before I could stop it. Golden skin, framed by a crimson-gold aura which flickered like a living flame wrapped in shadows, his eyes burned straight through me. The same impossible male who had haunted my dreams for years, taller, broader, more dangerous in the flesh.
The bondsnappedtaut between us.
Heat flooded my veins so fast my knees almost buckled. My core clenched hard, a rush of slick heat soaked my panties before I could even draw a breath. My nipples tightened painfully against my shirt. I felt him—felthim—like a phantom hand sliding down my spine, cupping my ass, spreading me open. A vision that felt more like an impossible memory flashed behind my eyes: his mouth on my throat, his cock buried to the hilt inside me while I screamed his name in a language older than the stars.
No.No.
I was a Prime Luminae. I had spent five years burning every bridge the temple built, refusing to be bred, refusing to be owned. And now this golden god was staring at me like I already belonged to him.
“You,” I snarled, forcing the word out before the bond could steal my voice. “Of course it’s you.”
Thyros’ aura flared; crimson bled into molten gold. His hands curled into fists at his sides hard enough that I heard knuckles crack. His gaze dropped to my mouth, my throat, and over the rapid rise and fall of my breasts, then lower, as if he could already see how wet I was for him.
The corridor opened,and the bondslammedinto me like a meteor strike. Naeris.
She stood dead center of the cell, braid half-undone, dark strands framing a face that made every dream I’d ever had look like pale shadows. Strong jaw. Sharp eyes. Curves I already wanted my hands on.
Mine.
The word tore through me, raw and undeniable. My cock hardened so fast it hurt. I couldsmellher, citrus and rebellion mixed with the sweet, unmistakable scent of her arousal. The bond flooded me with images: her thighs spread wide on my bed, my mouth between them, her fingers fisted in my hair while she came screaming my name. Her tight heat clenching around me as I fucked her so deep, she’d feel me for days.
I wanted to shatter the barrier. I wanted to drag her against me and never let go. I wanted to mark her so thoroughly, the entire universe would know she was claimed.
Naeris. Her name slammed into me with the same force.Naeris, I repeated, before I took one deliberate step back, every ounce of executioner’s discipline the only thing keeping me from lunging.
She felt it too. I saw it in the way her pupils blew wide, the faint tremor in her hands, the way her thighs pressed together like she was fighting the same flood of need.
Her mouth curled in defiance. “You. Of course it’s you.”
My voice came out rough, cruel, because cruelty was the only shield I had left. “The nightmare you’ve been dreaming of for years. How disappointing this must be for you, little human.”
But even as I said it, the bond pulsed hotter between us, a live wire of raw lust and bone-deep recognition that made my aura flare darker, hungrier.
The others were talking. I barely heard them. All I could see was her. All I could feel was the terrifying certainty that she was mine, and that I was the one thing in the universe that could destroy her.
My hands clenched at my sides until the knuckles ached. She was speakingArkhevari. Not the clipped, battle-worn version we used among the Hall of Seven, something far older. Ancient. Primal. An accent I had never heard in all my centuries, pure in a way that made the marrow in my bones hum with recognition. The words rolled off her tongue like they belonged to the time before the First Collapse, before the wound, before we were ever broken. Deep, instinctive parts of me I didn’t even know existedknewthat cadence instantly, as if my blood itself remembered it.
How—?The question barely formed before I crushed it.
Through the haze of my emotions, I heard Xandros exclaim, "You understand each other?"
Zapharos stepped forward. “She speaks Arkhevari. It's an older form, purer, untouched by the Collapse.” I felt his curiosity bleed from him, his sensors probing my mind, and I locked it down. I would not give anything away about her.
Dravok’s shadows rippled, disbelief sharpening his tone. “How is that possible?—”
I barely heard them. She was looking straight at me. Her gaze locked with mine, and the bond snapped taut between us like a live wire. I felt her recognition hit her the same way it had hit me, raw, staggering, impossible. For a single breath, her expression flickered with something dangerously close to hope. Then her armor slammed back into place.
Zapharos took over Xandros' palmtop and adjusted the settings to update all the translator chips for the mortals among us, and I supposed, Naeris. Did she qualify as a mortal? She was human, but… my thoughts stopped when I noticed my brothers' eyes on me. Zapharos and Dravok, two minds, one thought. Their realization pulsed through my mind like hammer strikes:Aelyth. She’s his Aelyth.The word moved between their minds, unspoken but deafening.
