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She responds instantly, melting into my touch, her body pressing close, her magic pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. I feel her warmth against my ice, creating a perfect, intoxicating balance as I lift her effortlessly, guiding her to sit across my lap, holding her firmly in place.

Her legs shift around me, our magic entwining into something powerful and undeniable. Water and ice. Chaos and control. Everything I am, needing to be swallowed whole by her.

“I promise,” I tell her, meeting her gaze, our faces mere inches apart now. “I belong to you forever.”

“And I belong to you,” she whispers back. “Always.”

My lips linger against hers for one more moment before the steady hum of the jet engine reminds me we’re not alone. T is just beyond that cockpit door.

But I don’t care. Because Sapphire is in my lap, her hands buried in my hair, her magic twining tighteraround mine with every breath. And she’s looking at me like I’m not a prince, or a weapon, or a monster.

She’s looking at me like I’mhers.

Our bond pulses bright and sharp as she kisses me again. It’s deeper this time—hungrier, needier, threaded with everything we’ve endured and everything that’s impossible to say as my hands roam her body like a prayer, savoring every detail of this moment. The curve of her spine. The warmth of her hips. The way my body ignites when we finally shed every last inch of clothing that’s keeping me from being exactly where I need to be.

When she finally makes me whole again, my breath catches, my magic flares, and I wrap my arms around her like I’ll never let go. Because I won’t. I can’t.

And so, right there on this seat in the plane, we give each other everything. Slowly. Desperately. Without hesitation. The bond surges between us, wild and consuming, pulling us deeper until there’s nothing left but magic and love and need.

Eventually, the intensity fades into something softer, like a storm finally calming. And as the wild magic quiets, a gentle warmth remains. A peaceful intimacy that wraps us up in its soothing embrace as she stays curled against me, her fingers tracing lazy circles over my chest in a way that’s setting my body on fire all over again.

“As much as I’d like stay like this forever,” shemurmurs, making me brace for words I expect I won’t want to hear, “perhaps we should get ourselves presentable before our pilot decides to check on us.”

At the suggestion, I only pull her closer, relieved when she doesn’t resist.

“Another minute,” I whisper against her skin, a plea more than a request. “I want to remember exactly how this feels. Just in case the world tries to steal it from us again.”

She moves back slightly, her thumb brushing my jaw, anchoring me to her warmth. “Even if it tries again,” she says, fierce and determined in a way that makes it clear sheneedsme to believe it, “it won’t win.”

Another rush of love flows through me, so intense that I swear it’s going to break me.She’sgoing to break me. And I’ll let her, every single time.

“No. It won’t,” I agree. “Because I won’t let anything ever take you from me.”

Her eyes darken, her magic surging against mine. She’s temptation incarnate, wrapped around me like sin and starlight, and every instinct I have screams to keep her right where she is, connected to me in the most intimate, primal way possible, until the end of time.

Instead, I gather every ounce of control inside myself as she lifts herself from my lap, even though it feels like peeling myself out of the only truth I’ve ever wanted to live inside. The space between us feels unbearable as wegather our clothes from where they’ve ended up strewn across the cabin to get ourselves together.

Eventually, I make my way to the small galley at the back of the jet, frost trailing in my wake as I struggle to rein in my magic.

The cold metal of the refrigerator handle feels grounding against my palm as I pull it open, revealing an assortment of drinks. After a moment’s consideration, I select a bottle of sparkling wine—something about the bubbles reminds me of Sapphire’s magic when she’s unraveling in my arms: wild, electric, and impossible to contain—and pour us each a glass.

When I return, she’s tucked one leg beneath her, looking out the window at the clouds drifting by. For a moment, I just watch her, memorizing this moment of quiet beauty amid the chaos of our lives.

“This doesn’t sparkle nearly as much as you do, but it’s the closest I could get to capturing starlight in a glass,” I finally say, offering her one.

She takes it from me, watching me with that smile that sets my world on fire. “To getting the Ember,” she says, raising it in a toast.

“No,” I say, fierce and unfiltered. “To the only thing that matters.You.”

Her smile softens, her eyes holding mine as if she’s seeing straight into my soul. “To us. Because that’s the only thing that makes any of this worth it,” she says, andthen she laughs softly, her magic shimmering around her like constellations on a mirrored lake. “You really know how to distract a girl from an impending war, don’t you?”

I tilt my head, giving her a teasing look. “You’re not exactly making it easy to focus.”

She takes a deep breath, then reluctantly gestures toward the bag beside us. “Before your inability to focus wears off on me, maybe we should take a look at exactly what we risked our lives for?”

“I suppose we should,” I say with a sigh, my eyes drifting along every part of her body as she opens the satchel, removing the box that contains the Ember of Prometheus.

Inside, the Ember pulses steadily, a rhythmic heartbeat of molten gold and deep crimson.