Page 24

The server nodded and turned to Kaos.

“Ribeye,” he said. “Medium rare. Roasted vegetables. One glass of dry red.”

The server gathered the menus and left.

Jaxi adjusted her napkin with too much focus, folding it like precision could erase the last thirty seconds.

Kaos remained still. Her recovery wasn’t complete—just redirected. The chatter, the movements, the shifts in tone all carried data. He continued to collect, watching her hands, the pace of her breath. The tension still held in her posture. Pressure had opened her. The clarity that followed gave him a sharper view.

He liked her this way. Exposed. Focus scattered, movements drawn from instinct, not design. Without his power, this state gave him what he needed—unfiltered access and answers.

He tracked this break to its source—the Queen. The bond. That word had shifted something in her, changed her voice, her movement, her everything. The fracture carried the shape of loss—like something had been ripped from her hands before she knew she was reaching for it.

He froze when the word came to him. Jealousy. Possession. A reaction when something valued drew attention from another source. He’d felt it once—with the Queen. But it hadn't come in pieces. It had entered like fire. Sacred. Consuming. Sharing her had warped everything inside him. Rage fused with worship. There was no separation.

But… this felt different. Jaxi hadn’t claimed anything. Her reaction rose from absence, not protection. No territory marked. No claim disrupted. Just the shock of craving something that suddenly became unreachable.

If jealousy could exist without the kind of possession he’d had, then it lacked structure. It moved without pattern. That made it unpredictable. Able to change.

Kaos shifted his weight, one hand curling around his glass of water. He needed to open her up again. To be sure. “You pictured the fireworks. What else did you picture?”

Jaxi blinked, seeming caught by the softness in the question. She looked at him briefly, then dropped her gaze. “I don’t know. It was just… a moment. One of those things you make up when you're young. Standing under all that color. Someone pulling you in close. Everything goes quiet. Like something important finally sees you.” She gave a soft laugh. “Sounds silly now.”

“It doesn’t,” Kaos said.

Her fingers adjusted her napkin again, as if that could undo the words.

“There’s nothing small about wanting to be seen,” he continued. “Wanting the world to stop when it finds you.” He kept his voice steady, but inside, the edge drew close. Her phrasing gave him the opening he needed. Her moment. Her fantasy. Her desire to be chosen.

“She had moments like that,” he said. “The Queen.”

Jaxi looked up, her mouth still held in a halfway smile that no longer matched her eyes.

“She burned too hot sometimes,” he said. “The power built until she couldn’t carry it. Then she passed it to me.” His words moved quiet and clean. “She used breath. And skin.” A pause. “She used everything.”

Her hand shifted, knocking her glass. Water spilled across the table and down her lap. She stood fast, chair legs dragging against the floor. “I need the bathroom.”

Kaos stood with her. “You’re not permitted to leave without me.”

She turned hard, her voice sharp. “Right. Because I’m a job.” He followed her pace as she stormed away from the table. “I’m not your Queen,” she said, not looking back. “I don’t need to be recharged or restored or whatever holy crisis she went through. I’mfine.”

He closed distance. “Jaxi.”

She took the stairs, her words trailing behind her like a trail of blood. “I don’t collapse under my own power, I don’t require divine touch therapy. I’m not some chosen receptacle for your sacred energy transfer.”

“Stop.”

She hurried faster. “I don’t want your training or your protection. I’m not some cracked container waiting for your hands to fix me—”

He caught her before the next corner, one hand gripping her arm, the other braced beside her head. He pressed her back against the wall, his body anchoring hers in place.

“Don’t move.”

Her breath rushed past his neck. Her skin burned against his hands. His power surged through the point of contact, drinking in every signal, every fracture, every need.

He touched her waist, her ribs. Felt the shape of her breath. All while her heartbeat fed directly into his restraint.

She stared up at him, lips parted, chest rising fast.