Page 120 of A Fate in Flames

Her presence stilled, suddenly dense and oppressive.Her silence pressed down on me like a physical weight.

“Zaheera?”I called out, knowing full well she was still here, lurking in the shadows of my thoughts.

“Yes?” The word was clipped, almost irritated.

My hand rose unconsciously to my face, touching my cheek.

“Can you see me?”I asked, genuinely curious.

It felt like she could.She had warned me not to speak with the Seer at the market, and whenever something happened between Dalkhan and me, she seemed know.

“Not always.” Her presence wound tighter.“The bond we share through the bargain gives me access to speak into your mind, but when your emotions or feelings escalate, the bond almost sharpens to the point where I can see glimpses through your eyes.”

The knowledge was unsettling.

Zaheera’s departure was marked by a soft, almost affectionate caress against the barrier of my mind.

She was right.Why did she have to be right?

I had thought the hardest thing to do would be to find the stone and kill him.As it turned out, I was wrong.So incredibly,stupidlywrong.

There was another battle raging inside me.One I was already losing.My own selfish, dangerous desire was burrowing deeper, sinking its hooks into me.I had to stop.

I will never do that again.

Even as I made the vow, it already felt like a lie.

I yanked the blankets over my head and screamed into them—a ragged, furious growl dragged from the pit of my soul.My whole body shook.The thick fabric muffled the sound, but it wasn’t enough to drown out the mess inside me.

The pressure in my chest eased, but barely.

The moment I flung the blanket away, gasping for fresh air, I realised I’d had an audience.

Theo lay sprawled beside me on the bed, his hair a tangled bird’s nest.His face was half-buried in the pillow, one arm hanging limply off the side of the mattress.Tavrik, ever composed, had slumped into a chair, his shoulders tense with exhaustion and one leg thrown over the armrest at an angle that couldn’t possibly be comfortable.

Both had pale faces and bloodshot, sunken eyes.

Good.At least I wasn’t the only one suffering.

Theo groaned, dragging a hand down his face before propping himself up on his elbows.

“What in the hell happened last night?”He shook his head and winced, eyes squeezing shut.“That was too much, even forme.”He poked his own chest for emphasis, nearly toppling over.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, forcing what felt like a smile, but probably looked more like I was in pain.I couldn’t let them know what had happened after I’d left.

“Yeah, it was—” I stammered, nervously pleating the edge of the sheets, “just as Mira said it would be.Intense.”

Tavrik hummed in what might’ve been agreement, his head bobbing.I wasn’t sure if he was nodding or just struggling to keep it upright.He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms, then stretched his arms above his head in a series of concerning cracks and pops.

A thick silence stretched between us, broken only by our collective groans and the occasional whispered curse.

“I almost fucked my shadow.”Theo muttered, staring at the ceiling with a faraway look.

Tavrik and I whipped our heads toward him—a mistake we both immediately regretted as we winced in pain—eyes widening to perfect circles before we broke into hysterical laughter.

Theo didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed, as if recounting a perfectly reasonable experience.

Tavrik leaned forward, elbows digging into his knees and lips stretched into a grin so wide it must’ve hurt.“What do you meanalmost?”