Page 31

THIRTY-ONE

SERAPHINE

T hey found shelter in a ruined hall carved into the cliffside, half-swallowed by moss and ash, long since abandoned to whatever gods had fled this place first.

The Wyrdlands didn’t welcome them. They endured them.

Rain pounded the stone above like fists. Lightning cracked across the jagged sky, and the wind screamed through the broken archways like it remembered war.

Seraphine shucked off her soaked coat and shook out her braid, hands trembling only slightly from the cold—maybe the fear.

Cassian was pacing. Jaw tight. Eyes darker than they’d been even during the worst of the fights. The fire in him burned lower now, flickering—not from weakness, but restraint.

Too much boiling beneath the surface.

He hadn’t spoken since they left the ridge. Neither had she.

She sank to the cracked stone floor near a shallow alcove where the roof had only mostly caved in. “We should rest,” she said, voice rough.

Cassian didn’t stop pacing.

“You’re going to wear a hole in the floor,” she muttered.

“I can’t sleep.”

“You need to.”

“I can’t.”

She looked up at him. “Why?”

He froze. Just for a second. Then he turned, slow, deliberate. “Because every time I close my eyes, I see you dying.”

Her breath caught. She hadn’t expected that.

He moved toward her, boots dragging through the wet leaves that had blown in. He stopped a few feet away, arms crossed like he was holding himself together with muscle and will alone.

“You don’t think I know what we’re walking into?” he said. “You don’t think I’ve figured it out?”

“Figured what out?”

“That there’s no version of this ending where we both survive.”

Her chest tightened. “You don’t know that.”

“I do.” His voice was quiet. “Because I’ve seen it, Sera. When I died—when the Hollow touched me. I saw what it wants. And I saw what has to happen to stop it.”

She stood slowly. Rain dripped through the cracked ceiling, catching on her shoulders, her jaw, her lashes.

“I don’t accept that,” she said. “I won’t.”

Cassian stepped closer. “You think I want it?”

“You’re talking like it’s already done.”

“Because I’m trying to prepare you.”

She shoved him, hard enough that his boots scraped against stone. “Screw your preparation. I’m not a soldier following orders. I’m not going to just stand by and let fate take you.”

He grabbed her wrists. Not hard. Just enough.

“I would die for you.”

“Then live for me instead.”

The rain hissed through the ruins. Thunder rolled.

He let go of her hands.

She didn’t step back.

Cassian’s voice dropped to a rasp. “I don’t know how to be anything else. I’ve always been the weapon. The fire. The thing you throw into the storm and hope it burns long enough to matter.”

She reached up, cupped his jaw. “You’re more than that.”

He leaned into her touch, just slightly. “You shouldn’t have to carry this with me.”

“Too late,” she whispered. “I already am.”

The next breath collapsed between them as their mouths crashed together—hungry, desperate, real.

Cassian gripped her like he didn’t know how to let go, one hand tangled in her hair, the other sliding down the curve of her spine as she arched into him.

Her damp clothes clung to her like a second skin, but he didn’t stop to undress her delicately.

They tore at each other—buttons popping, leather groaning—until layers fell in a crumpled heap and only heat remained.

Rain hissed against the ruins, thunder cracking like a war drum. The stone beneath them was cold, but they barely felt it. All she felt was him .

Cassian pulled back for a heartbeat, chest heaving. His storm-gray eyes burned—lightning flickering in the depths. They raked over her bare form like he was memorizing her from the inside out.

“Gods, Sera…”

Her bronze-toned skin glistened with rain, the subtle shimmer of her scales catching the firelight from the flickering torch he'd tossed down earlier. Her gold-flecked eyes met his, blazing with something between fury and ache.

“I don’t want careful,” she rasped. “Not tonight. I want you. ”

Cassian cupped her jaw and kissed her again—deeper this time, more possessive, more needing . His mouth moved down her neck, teeth grazing the tender skin at her collarbone before he sucked a mark there, growling against her throat.

She moaned when his mouth found her breast, lips closing around one peaked nipple, tongue flicking with heat. Her hands fisted in his hair, pulling him closer, anchoring him to her.

“Cassian…”

He kissed lower, dragging his tongue down her stomach until he was between her thighs. Her legs parted instinctively, and the sight of her pussy—wet, flushed, glistening—stole his breath.

“Fuck, look at you,” he growled. “So wet already.”

He didn’t waste time. His mouth latched onto her clit and sucked, hard and slow, tongue circling, teasing. She cried out, hips lifting off the stone, but he pinned her with strong hands at her thighs, holding her down as he devoured her.

She tasted like salt and starlight and something dark and divine.

Seraphine writhed, panting, “Don’t stop—fuck—Cassian?—”

He groaned, the sound vibrating through her as he buried his tongue in her, lapping at her core with reverence and need. When he sucked her clit again, her body locked tight, a broken sob leaving her lips as she came, pussy clenching around nothing, slick gushing against his mouth.

She was still trembling when he rose above her, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, eyes blazing.

“I’m not done,” he growled.

He knelt between her thighs, lining his cock to her entrance. He was thick—hard and heavy, veins bulging along the length, the flushed tip already slick from need. Her breath caught as he rubbed it against her folds, back and forth, teasing.

“Please,” she whispered. “I need to feel you.”

“Yeah?” He leaned over her, his cock pressing just inside. “You need me to fuck this pretty pussy? Fill you up until you forget the world’s burning?”

“Yes,” she gasped. “Please, Cassian— now. ”

He pushed in slowly.

The stretch was glorious—deep, full, almost too much. Her walls fluttered around him, tight and hot and impossibly soft. His breath shuddered out.

“Fuck, Sera—you feel like you were made for me.”

She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him deeper.

“I was.”

He groaned and drove in the rest of the way, seating himself to the hilt. They both froze for a moment, breathless, sweat beading on their skin despite the cold.

“You okay?” he asked, forehead pressed to hers.

She nodded, lips brushing his. “Move. I want to feel every inch.”

Cassian began to thrust—slow at first, deep strokes that made her gasp and clutch his shoulders. Each movement drove him against something deep inside her that made her cry out, her body already building toward another release.

“You’re squeezing me so tight,” he groaned. “Like your pussy doesn’t wanna let me go.”

“I don’t want to let you go,” she moaned. “Not ever.”

He kissed her like he believed it, hips rolling harder now, the rhythm growing more urgent. His cock pounded into her, wet and relentless, and Seraphine met him thrust for thrust, her nails digging into his back, marking him.

Every slam of their hips echoed through the hollowed-out hall, mixing with the rain, the moans, the thunder and crackle of old gods remembering battle.

She was close again.

“Cassian—I’m gonna?—”

“I’ve got you,” he panted. “Come for me. Let me feel you fall apart.”

She did—with a scream muffled by his mouth, her pussy pulsing around his cock as her orgasm tore through her like a firestorm. Her body clung to him, shaking with the force of it.

That did it.

Cassian swore low, then thrust deep and hard, burying himself as he came—hot and thick inside her, his cock jerking as he spilled everything into her.

They collapsed together, tangled, gasping, sweat-slick and exhausted.

His hand found her jaw again, brushing her cheek with his thumb.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He held her tighter, like letting go would cost him his soul.

“I know.”

There, beneath the weight of old stone and shattered skies, surrounded by the remnants of gods and the threat of tomorrow. They burned for each other, for the only truth they had left.

In the dark behind her lids, the Hollow still waited.

But for now—they had this.

It was enough.