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For a moment I feel what he feels, and the double stimulation is almost overwhelming, sending white-hot pleasure surging through me.

His fingers slip between us, finding my clit, rubbing, strokingjust right. Pleasure spirals tighter, higher, until I can barely stand it.

“Stay with me.” His voice is strained.

When I break apart this time, it’s different. More complete. More devastating. Silver light explodes outward, not in delicate patterns but in a blinding flash. His shadows surge through me, covering the brightness, drawing it down until it’s nothing more than a subtle glow.

His name leaves my lips. My body unravels around him.

He follows me with a final, powerful thrust, and a shuddering groan as he buries himself deep, spilling into me, magic entwining, mingling, sealing something unspoken between us.

We collapse together, limbs tangled, breathing ragged, and in this moment, I understand the truth that’s been building since the tower.

Ibelongto this now. Tohim. To whatever we’re becoming together.

We lie in silence as our breathing steadies, bodies still humming from what we’ve done. But it’s more than that.

Silver and shadow still flow between us, moving in slow, lazy currents where our skin meets. The energy is quieter now, softened, but stillthere.

His fingers trace idle patterns along my arm, shadows skimming over my skin, silver answering with slow, pulsing light. I watch, mesmerized.

"Whatisthis?" I ask finally, my voice barely above a whisper. His hand rests on my waist, and I see it again. The way our energies weave together, not blending but binding. "Between us. What’s happening?"

His gaze meets mine. The black has receded now, but they’re still different. Deeper, darker than usual. Shadows stir in his irises, shifting like restless tides, occasionally parting to reveal something else buried beneath.

"I don’t know," he admits. The honesty should unsettle me, but strangely, it doesn’t. It steadies me.

"That’s not very comforting." The corner of my mouth betrays me with a small, tremulous smile.

"Would you prefer a convenient lie?" One eyebrow lifts.

I shake my head.

"No." I lift a hand, tracing the sharp line of his jaw, feeling the warmth of his skin, the way my silver rises when I touch him, as if answering a call only he can make. "I've had enough of those to last a lifetime."

His fingers close around mine, pulling my hand to his lips.

The moment his mouth brushes my skin, a ripple of power skates through me. Shadows curling upward, silver streaking toward them in a mesmerizing swirl. The reaction is slow, almost lazy. His lips part slightly against my palm, pressing a light kiss in the center.

I want to stay here. I want to stay in this moment where nothing else exists.

But then this head lifts, and the connection strains, and frays. The space between us suddenly feels colder, as though a tether has snapped.

"Whatever this is." His voice is rough, low, stripped of its usual guarded edges. The shadows around us seem to pulse with his heartbeat, reaching for my silver light even as his words push me away. "It can’t change what comes next. My ring. Your way home. We must continue as intended."

It feels like a door closing. A quiet, irreversible severing. The warmth of moments before cools, replaced by the familiar weight of purpose and plans. Of course he would pull away. He’s spent years working toward freedom and revenge. This …Iwas never part of that plan.

I swallow, the intimacy of our tangled limbs at odds with his words. Even now, after everything we've shared, he still holds himself apart.

Still thinks carefully about what he wants to share with me … and what he doesn’t.

For a moment, I can’t speak. Can’t breathe past the ache rising in my throat. But I can’t stay silent for long.

"What if my dream was a warning?" My voice is softer now, less certain.

The images from my dream fill my mind again—shadow consuming everything, silver light burning through darkness, screams breaking the world open.

"What if something goes wrong?"