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“Ready for me as always. Desiring me beyond all else.” He became creepily gentle then as he ran his lips over Malrik’s cheek, tasting the blood at the same time and growling in pleasure. “I know you have waited. And you have waited well. It won’t be long now. You’ll be able to take me without it damaging you.”

“Ungh… yes,” Malrik rasped as Draco teased his cock with his vicious grip.

“Your fondness for pain is exhilarating.”

“Everything about you is exhilarating to me. It cuts through all else.”

Draco smiled in that eerie way again, then released him, and stepped back. “When you receive me, we will cut through everything together. We will reign unchecked, and those who hunt us now will fall in spectacular agony.”

“How close are they?” Malrik asked, fixing himself and pushing off the wall, healing quickly, cuts sealing, bruises dissipating.

“Close enough that we must act now. And that is why I called you here. The spell is ready. I have obtained what we need in its entirety. The time is now.”

Malrik’s breath caught. “Now? This very night?”

“Yes.”

“House Titanus will break free from its leash. There will be freedom for my bloodline.”

“You still accept the price?”

Malrik scoffed. “Draco, I am already paying it. My own are turning against me due to the discovery of my alliance withyou. And you’ve reported that the True Celestials are aware now, as well.”

“They will come for us. I can coerce your own and turn them to our liking. But not those borne of the Celestial Plane. They won’t stop.”

Malrik’s eyes darkened. “Let them come.”

Draco smiled. “Very good.”

“Once this ritual is complete, we will become the hunters anyway. We’re rewriting the rules. You will no longer be pained by their despicable will. You shall walk free alongside me.”

Draco snarled. “We will devour their power. We will snuff out their light. We will undo what is written.”

Their eyes locked.

The Dragon King and the Celestial Weapon.

One cast in mortal flame. The other in divine corruption.

“How does it work?” Malrik asked, voice hoarse with the weight of what was about to happen.

My gut churned. I felt sick to my fucking stomach.

But I needed to see.

I needed to witness it with my own eyes.

What they’d done.

What they’d corrupted—how they’d corrupted me.

Draco drew closer, power reverberating between them that had me tensing.

“You accept me wholly. Let me bleed into you, and I will anchor the Celestial power to your being.”

Malrik reached out with a hand trembling from demented anticipation.

He brushed his fingers over Draco’s cheek. “I accept you in every way. Show me. Mark me. Bleed me.”