Page 9 of Darkness and Deceit (Obsidian Academy #2)

Seven

LILITH

The word still rings in my ears.

Mate.

Kai said it out loud. In front of the others. In front of me.

I stare at him, at the way he stands like all the Keepers and predators and ghosts of the realm could come at us together and he’d still not bend. Maybe not even blink.

My mate. He said it so simply. Like it was already decided.

Neither of us moves. I can’t look away from the deliberate calm on his face, the stillness he wears like armor.

His jaw is sharp, carved from tension, and that black hair keeps falling into his eyes like it’s trying to hide the truth in them.

But I see it anyway. That quiet fire. That steady, unshakable resolve that clings to him like a second skin.

He doesn’t fidget. Doesn’t soften. Doesn’t shift the way I do when I’m unraveling.

He just waits.

Waiting, always.

For me.

Kai keeps distance between us as if he’s determined not to push. I should be grateful, because I can’t think when he’s close, but every second of empty quiet builds up in my head, filling it with noise only I can hear.

Memories tumble in like falling bricks: the candle on the desk, the cold hands of the Keepers on my skull, the blue sigil flaring from his palm, the look on Kai’s face as he fell seven fucking stories.

Each one clings like static in my head, buzzing louder the more I try to quiet it.

He watches me like I’ll run. Maybe like he wants me to. I force myself to speak. “Did you mean it?”

Kai tilts his head, the movement almost predatory. “Mean what?”

“Back there,” I whisper. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you admit out loud that we’re mates.”

He studies me for a long moment. “It isn’t something I needed to say to make it true.”

My stomach flips at his certainty, at the confidence in which he says it.

The hall is so silent I swear I can hear my own pulse.

“You don’t have to stay. You know that, right?” My voice is hoarse. “I don’t want anyone getting hurt. Not because of me.”

Kai’s mouth curves, but it’s not quite a smile. “You think I started getting hurt when you came along?” He steps closer, the motion slow and deliberate, like he’s giving me time to run if that’s what I want.

He stops a breath away. “I was broken before,” he says, voice soft and matter-of-fact. “This isn’t new. It isn’t worse. It’s just... different, now that there’s something to fight for.”

I don’t trust my mouth to form words. There’s a tearing behind my ribs, as if a wild animal is trying to escape, but it’s not the fox or the deer. It’s just me.

He lifts his chin and meets my gaze. “If you want out, say so,” Kai says. “If you don’t want this, tell me.”

The words sit between us like a sword laid gently on the floor.

No pressure. No demand. A choice— my choice.

I open my mouth, but I don’t know what to say. The truth feels too big, too raw.

I want to reach for him, to knit myself into his gravity and let everything else go. But I’m scared. I’m terrified of what it means to want something that might never be safe.

When I look at him—all of him, the scars and ice and steadiness and the hurt buried under the surface—I see the same thing I see in the mirror at my worst: someone who’s survived.

I bite the inside of my cheek, hard, to center myself.

When I finally manage to speak, my voice is so small I almost don’t recognize it. “I want it. But I’m scared of what that means for you.”

He doesn’t flinch, doesn’t mock my fear. Instead he nods, like he understands better than I do.

“You’re not responsible for what happens to me,” he says, and there’s a calm certainty in it that makes me want to believe him.

“But I am.”

Kai steps closer. His hand hovers close to mine, not quite touching, and I realize he’s waiting for permission.

The control, the care in that—I can’t take it.

I close the gap, clutching his hand like it’s the only real thing left.

The contact is stupidly electric, like the bond between us is singing. It steadies me instantly.

He squeezes lightly, as if to prove he’s really there. “You’ve got me. And I will eliminate anything that stands between us.”

I stare at him, my heart pounding.

“I climbed seven stories to reach you,” he says. “And I’d do it again. A hundred times. I didn’t care what waited at the top. I just needed to get to you .”

“Even knowing they’d throw you off?”

“Especially then.” His voice doesn’t waver. “Because if there’s even a chance you’re not safe, I will act. That’s what being your mate means to me.”

My breath stutters, caught between want and warning.

“Then show me,” I whisper.

His expression shifts and then he moves. One step and then another. Until there’s no space left between us. He plants an arm above my head, caging me in, and his eyes rake over my face like he’s reading something written in a language only he understands.

We’re still in the fucking hallway. Anyone could walk by. Any second now.

And Kai knows it. He wants them to.

He reaches up, and brushes a lock of hair behind my ear, before trailing those fingers down the curve of my neck.

His other hand slides up my thigh, and I don’t even realize my pants are half undone until he’s already there, claiming space like it’s always been his.

“Is this okay?”

I nod without hesitation.

He watches me for a heartbeat. And right before I start to say please something in him snaps. His mouth crashes into mine with an aching kind of control, a careful desperation that nearly unravels me on the spot.

It isn’t soft. It isn’t sweet. It’s claiming . Like he’s branding the taste of me into memory. Like he needs to remember this if the world ends tomorrow.

His hand tightens on my thigh, dragging me flush against him. His body is all heat and tension, corded muscle pressed to every inch of me. I gasp into the kiss, and he swallows the sound greedily, deepening it until I forget where we are and how to breathe.

I brace myself against his chest, not to push him away, but to anchor myself. His heartbeat is steady beneath my palms—steady like he never is. Like I’m the thing that calms him.

His fingers slide lower, until he’s pressing exactly where I’m aching, and gods help me, I let him. Want him. Need this proof that under all the silence and steel, I matter to him.

When he finally pulls back, it’s only by inches. Just enough to speak.

His forehead rests against mine. His voice is rough, wrecked, low. “If someone touched you—if someone tried to harm you—I wouldn’t just make them disappear,” he says, breath hot against my lips. He kisses the corner of my mouth softly. “I’d bury the entire reason they existed.”

A shiver rolls down my spine and I open my mouth—no idea what I’ll say—but he moves faster.

His hand wraps around my jaw, tilting my face up. “You asked if I’m all right,” he says. “I’m not. Not since they put their hands on me. Not since they put their hands near you .”

And gods, that undoes me.

That it wasn’t pain that broke him. It was proximity to my danger.

“I need you to know that if I ever have to choose between the Balance and you …” His lips press to my throat, just beneath my jaw. “There won’t even be a choice.”

My knees go weak and I cling to his shoulders to keep from collapsing. I’m enveloped in his scent—pine, stormy air, and something deeper. Something that belongs to me.

Kai pulls back only slightly, his eyes devouring mine. “Say something,” he murmurs, breath ghosting against my lips. “Or I’ll take this as permission to keep going.”

I answer by grabbing the front of his shirt and yanking him back into me. His mouth is back on mine in an instant and this time he’s rougher, like I’ve torn the last thread of his control. He kisses me like he wants to drown in me.

His hands are everywhere now. One fisting the fabric at my waist, the other dragging up the back of my thigh until he hooks it around his hip. He presses against me, hard through the fabric, grinding into the exact place I’m aching for him.

I whimper into his mouth, and he growls, the possessive sound vibrating through me.

“Say my name,” he says against my neck, nipping when I open my mouth and no sound comes out.

“Kai,” I gasp, gripping his shoulders like I might float away if I don’t hold tight enough. “Kai—please.”

He bites my lower lip, not hard enough to break skin, but enough to make my legs shake. “Tell me what you want.”

“You,” I whisper. “Here. Now.”

He tenses—ready to move—but I catch his wrist before he can. My fingers wrap around his wrist, guiding his hand lower, until his palm rests against the heat between my legs.

“I want to feel all of you,” I say, breath hitching. “And how wet I am for you.”

His breath shudders out of him. “Lilith…”

“Stop teasing,” I whisper, arching into his touch. “And don’t make me beg.”

“You never have to beg,” he murmurs, voice rough with restraint. “You only have to ask.”

I meet his gaze, bold and unflinching. “Then show me.”

That’s all he needs.

His fingers slide lower, slipping exactly where I’m begging for it. I gasp, and he swallows the sound with another bruising kiss, pushing me harder against the stone wall like he wants to become part of me.

My fingers tangle in his hair, pulling him closer even though there’s no space left between us. He shifts his hips and I cry out.

Gods, the noise I make does something to him.

He breaks the kiss to stare down at me, breathless and ravenous.

“Do you even know,” he rasps, “what it does to me when you look at me like that?”

I shake my head, dazed, lips parted.

His hand flexes where it rests on my throat, never tightening, just holding. Claiming. “It makes me want to ruin you.”

“You already have… and I don’t want anything less.”

That’s it.

He lifts me effortlessly and my legs wrap around his waist instinctively. The second my back hits the wall again, he’s grinding into me with slow, deliberate intensity, like we have all the time in the world and he plans to make me beg for every second.

“Kai…” I moan.

His mouth is back on mine—desperate and demanding—and this time, there’s no restraint.

No holding back. Just heat and friction and the quiet, violent truth of what we are to each other.

Mates. His hand slips between us, fingers stroking me through the damp fabric of my panties. My hips buck, aching for more.

“So responsive,” he murmurs against my throat. “And I’ve barely touched you.”

I whimper, beyond words now. He slides the fabric aside and traces lazy circles around my clit, building tension with maddening patience. When he finally pushes a finger inside me, I cry out, muffling the sound against his shoulder.

His mouth finds my throat. “Let them hear,” he growls, possessive and low. “Let them see. You’re mine.”

The thought sends a thrill through me, even when I know it shouldn’t. His finger curls, finding that spot that makes me see stars. His free hand comes up to cover my mouth as he adds a second finger, stretching me deliciously.

My hips rock against his hand, desperate for more friction. Kai's lips trail down my neck, leaving a path of hot, open-mouthed kisses. He nips at my pulse point, drawing a muffled moan from behind his palm.

“That’s it,” he murmurs, his voice a low rumble against my skin. “Let go for me.”

His thumb finds my clit, circling in time with the thrust of his fingers. The dual sensation is overwhelming. My legs tremble around his waist as tension coils tighter and tighter in my core.

Kai’s eyes lock onto mine, dark and hungry. “Come for me, Lilith,” he commands softly. “Now.”

The intensity in his gaze undoes me. My body arches as waves of pleasure crash over me. Kai works me through it, his movements slowing as the aftershocks make me shudder.

Suddenly he withdraws his hand and I whimper at the loss, but before I can protest, I hear the telltale sound of a zipper.

My breath catches as I feel him, hot and hard, pressing against my entrance. He pauses there, eyes locked on mine, silently asking for permission. I nod frantically.

In one smooth thrust, he’s inside me, filling me completely. We both groan at the sensation. He stills for a moment, forehead pressed to mine, breath ragged. Then he starts to move.

His pace is punishing from the start, each thrust driving me higher. My nails dig into his shoulders as I cling to him, overwhelmed by the intensity.

The stone wall is cold against my back, a sharp contrast to the heat of Kai’s body. His hips snap against mine relentlessly, driving deep with each thrust. I’m lost in the sensations—the stretch and fullness, the delicious friction, the way he hits that perfect spot inside me again and again.

He groans, his rhythm faltering for a moment before picking up speed. One hand grips my hip while the other slides up to cup my breast, thumb brushing over my nipple through the fabric of my shirt.

I’m climbing higher and higher, chasing that peak again.

Kai seems to sense it, angling his hips to hit even deeper.

And when I come apart in his arms, gasping his name like a prayer, he holds me through it, before following me over the edge.

I’ve never felt so claimed. And somehow, never more seen.

Both of us are breathing heavily as Kai rests his forehead against mine. His chest heaves with sharp, uneven breaths, yet his voice remains calm and steady when he speaks.

“I thought I was broken,” he whispers. “Numb. Beyond repair.”

His hand gently cups my cheek, treating me as though I’m something invaluable. His eyes—those dark, deeply haunted, eyes—search mine, as if he’s still trying to convince himself that I’m real.

“But then you touched me,” he exhales, “and I’ve never felt such a strong will to live.”

He pauses, his grip tightening just slightly, just enough.

“If the Keepers or anyone ever tries to take you from me… I won’t preserve the Balance. I’ll fucking shatter it.”

And gods help anyone who tries because I truly believe him.