Page 49 of Claimed In Darkness

49

ZEPHIRAN

I stop waiting.

I stop thinking.

I stop fucking breathing.

If I hesitate, I will lose her.

For good this time.

The battlefield is still wet with rain, but the bodies beneath my boots are already growing cold.

They sent men to kill me.

They sent her to kill me.

And she tried.

She did. And yet, I am the one still standing.

She thought she could walk away.

Naira thought she could leave me bleeding, let me rot in the ruin she created, and I would just let her.

I am coming for her.

I always was.

I move fast.

Faster than I should be able to, considering I am still bleeding.

The wound she gave me burns with every step, but I welcome it.

I need it to push me harder.

It is the only thing keeping me grounded.

The only thing keeping me from losing my sanity.

The only thing that reminds me?—

She is still out there.

And she belongs to me.

I don’t give a damn about what the High Council has poisoned her with.

I don’t give a damn what the relic is turning her into.

I don’t care that she stabbed me, walked away, looked me in the eye and made me watch her leave.

She is still mine.

And I will burn this entire fucking kingdom to the ground before I let them take her from me.

She thinks she is careful.

That she is covering her tracks.

She slips deeper into the shadows, sinking into the hands of the men who think they own her now.

But she’s wrong. I see the trails everywhere.

She was to be found.

By me.

I follow the scent of blood, the whispers of her name, the rumors of a girl too dangerous to be human, too wild to be controlled.

I follow the destruction she leaves behind.

Even when she tries to become something else?—

She is still Naira.

And Naira?

She was always destined to be chased.

The city is burning.

From her.

I watch from the shadows as she moves through the streets, her body coiled tight, her hands stained red.

She is already fighting.

Already killing.

Already giving herself over to the thing inside her.

And I know?—

If I don’t take her back now, I never will.

She is too far gone.

She is slipping between my fingers like sand, like smoke, like something I should have never tried to hold onto in the first place.

But I don’t care.

I never did.

She was never to be free from me.

I was never meant to let her go.

Her body stills, just for a second when our eyes meet, full of recognition.

Like she always knew I would come for her.

Then she moves.

But I move faster.

My hand closes around her wrist before she can slip away. Before she can make me watch her walk away again.

She inhales sharply, not of fear. Naira is seething in fury, thinking she can escape me.

She thought I would let her.

Never.

Her pulse flutters against my grip as she tries to pull away.

Too fast.

Too wild.

Too alive.

She snarls, jerking her arm, her eyes flashing with something close to fury.

"Let me go, Zephiran."

I laugh.

Cold. Rough. Broken.

I’m stubborn. I should have let her slip away before it came to this.

Before she fucking destroyed me.

Before I had no choice but to chase her to the ends of the fucking world.

Before she turned me into this?—

A man with nothing left to lose except the thing already slipping through his fingers.

"You think I’m letting you go?" I murmur, voice sharp, dangerous, fucking feral.

She exhales, short and sharp.

Her free hand moves fast.

A dagger, pulled from somewhere hidden, slashing toward my ribs.

I catch her wrist.

Pin her.

Hold her.

And I feel it—the way she still fucking melts for me, even now, even after everything.

The way her breath shudders, just slightly.

The way her lips part, her body straining against me, not because she needs to get away?—

But because she knows she won’t.

She never did.

She never wanted to.

And I feel it then.

That she is still mine.

Even now.

Even here.

Even with a blade pressed between us.

She is still fucking mine.

"This isn’t over, Naira."

She exhales, but does not deny it.

Does not tell me I am wrong.

Does not tell me to stop.

She belongs to me.

I will never stop chasing her to hell and back.

Not until I get her back.

Until she fucking admits that she was never meant to leave me.

I will destroy every single person who thought they could take her away from me.

And when she stops fighting me?—

When she lets me have her again?—

It won’t be as a thief.

Or a captive.

Or a traitor.

It will be as mine.

Forever.