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Taly clenched her jaw, willing herself to stay still, but her body had other ideas—breath hitching, thighs tensing, heat curling low in her stomach.

She tried to hold onto the anger, but it was slipping.

And beneath it, the want was still there, low and hot, treacherous as ever, because Shards , she’d missed him too.

“What do you say, Tink? Can you be nice?” Then he nipped her, hard enough to sting. Only pure will and stubbornness kept her from arching into him as he followed the small hurt with a featherlight kiss against too-sensitive skin.

“Oh, please, good sir,” she cooed breathlessly, “won’t you let me up so I can make you eat sand?”

“Big words for someone that already got themselves pinned.”

Then he thrust against her. Taly let out a startled cry, pure will and stubbornness utterly failing her as her hips bucked into him.

“Thought so,” Skye murmured. The words were rough. “It’s nice to know I’m not the only one that can’t stop thinking about this.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she rasped as a rush of heat flooded her. His growl let her know that he’d scented it. Arrogant ass knew exactly how flimsy her temper was becoming. “Who says I’m thinking about you?”

Skye chuckled, dark and low. She felt it in her ribs, her stomach, her thighs—everywhere. “Whenever you look at me, your pulse jumps, your breathing goes shallow, and you smell like heat and want. Lie all you want. Your body always tells the truth.”

Her cheeks blazed. “You’re an asshole.”

“Yes,” he said, smug as sin. “But I think you like it. You like when I push you. When I play rough.” His lips brushed hers, taunting. “I think you like getting exactly what you’re too afraid to want out loud.”

Then, quieter, his mouth moving against hers, every word a breath she could feel. “I think you’re so in love with me, you feel just as crazy as I do most days.”

He nipped her bottom lip, pulling away before she could close the distance. “I know you, Taly,” he said softer, meaner now. “Every instinct. Every tell. Which is why I know you want this bond the same way I do. You’re just too much of a coward to admit it.”

Too many truths she wasn’t willing to face. “Em—”

But the next thrust of his hips filled her—actually filled her.

Taly cried out as the ache between her legs clenched around a phantom force.

“For someone who claims to hate bloodcrafting, you sure seem to like this,” he said, the edge of control wearing thin.

She didn’t know how he did it. Some manipulation of his aether or hers. She could still feel him—hard and straining behind his trousers—at the same time that she could feel the slide of something warm and solid.

She managed to wrench one hand free, gripped his hair tight, just to feel him growl against her throat as he thrust again.

“Fuck, you’ve got some nerve, Tink. I’m the hypocrite? Like you don’t have secrets.” He pulled back to look her in the eye, his breathing as heavy and uneven as her own. “Were you ever going to tell me? About the voice?”

Taly went still beneath him, her hips no longer chasing his. “Who told you about that?”

“You did.” There was no humor in his eyes. “ Corinna .”

It took a moment for the realization to click.

CV

She’d seen the abbreviation in his notebook, the mysterious third spotter helping Skye with his bloodcrafting experiments. Ivain and Aiden had been designated by name, but CV…

Corinna Venwraith.

The truth slid in like a knife—and lodged.

She’d done this. She’d helped him.

Or rather… some version of her had.

A person who was no longer Taly. Who had worn that name like a costume and shed it when it no longer suited her. Because that’s what you did with things that were never meant to exist. You buried them.

It built too fast—too wild.

Not just fury. It was everything.

A tangle of rage and grief, loss and shame, and the choking, frantic terror of realizing that she’d been right all along—that she would be erased. That she was already disappearing.

Her lungs seized. Her pulse pounded. Aether rippled through her, thickening the air like a thunderclap waiting to land.

She lifted her head so they were eye to eye, nose to nose. Her voice came low and shaky. “You want to stop fucking around? Fine.” Her lip curled. “Let’s stop fucking around.”

Her magic surged.

One second, she was beneath him—

The next, gone.

She phased. Pressure snapped as space distorted—her body pulling through the gap between now and next.

Then she dropped from the air, boot landing hard between his shoulder blades.

Skye grunted and collapsed into the sand. Twisting, he grabbed her foot before she could land another kick and yanked her off balance.

Taly hit the ground with a thud and a hiss of breath. Sand sprayed. They were both back on their feet in seconds.

There were no rules now.

She came at him with everything. Punching, jabbing, kicking—she didn’t stop. Didn’t slow. Her magic blazed through her, driving her forward, bending space around her edges. Each strike came faster, sharper, her limbs a blur of rage and aether.

Her knuckles split, blood slicking her fingers. It was like hitting solid brick. Pain ricocheted up her arms, but she kept going.

Because he had to see. Had to understand how stupid he was to keep standing beside her—to keep making sacrifices that should never have to be made!

She drove into him, fists flying—faster, harder, meaner with every hit.

Now he was the one struggling to keep up.

Her Sight blurred with possibilities. Every move he could make. Every choice that came after, branching and shifting—then collapsing as she cut off each escape.

And then he couldn’t block.

Couldn’t dodge.

She saw it all. Every feint. Each staggered step. The smallest chinks in his defense lit up like a beacon.

“Taly—”

“No! You wanted to talk, so let’s talk!” she screamed, and oh, how it hurt as she landed a hit on his shoulder and heard something in her own hand crunch . “What the hell is wrong with you?”

He grabbed for her, but she slapped his hand away.

“I can’t believe you would be so fucking stupid! When were you planning to tell me, huh? Before or after you went crazy?”

“Ha!” His laugh was bitter and breathless. “Like you have any room to talk. When were you going to tell me about Weave beasts? Huh ? Before or after you almost died?!”

“That was different.”

“How, Taly?” He took a step forward, eyes wild. “How was that different? You used to tell me everything. We never had secrets.”

Taly couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Shards, Skye. If I don’t hand over every stray thought, I’m hiding something. But what about you? You’ve got a whole other life that you never tell me anything about.”

“That’s… different.”

“And that’s a double standard.”

She lunged, her fists crackling with golden aether. She aimed a punch at his jaw, but he anticipated her move, sidestepping and grabbing her wrist.

His touch was cold, a stark contrast to the heat of her magic. With a flick of his hand, he diffused the temporal energy, sending sparks into the air.

“Careful, you’re slowing down,” he taunted, twisting her arm behind her back.

She gritted her teeth and kicked backward, her heel connecting with his shin.

He grunted, his grip loosening just enough for her to slip free.

“Fight me all you want, but I will never stop trying to keep you safe! You’re my bondmate.

Protecting you is the same as protecting me! ”

That was the wrong thing to say.

Red bled into her vision as time fractured around her. The pressure in her veins twisted space until nothing held its shape.

“Are you insane?”

Skye actually blinked at the quiet venom in her words, at what she was sure was white-hot rage contorting her face.

Taly swung. And kept swinging.

Each impact split her knuckles wider, sent pain screaming up her arms. Her body wasn’t made for this. She couldn’t use aether to heal her wounds or harden her bones.

But she didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.

Tears burned down her face, mixing with blood and sweat as she poured all the hurt, the anger, the confusion into every blow.

Her voice shattered from her throat, ragged and trembling with fury. “Have you absolutely no sense of self-preservation whatsoever?! Who in their right mind would ever want to bond with a time mage?!”

Skye caught her at the waist. He grunted as her magic slammed into his. “Someone who’s in love with one, idiot.”

Aether snapped around her like a vice, the sudden weight of it crushing in from all sides, choking off every spell before she could fling it free. She thrashed, but he was relentless, wrestling her back down until her back hit the ground.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and flipped him. “Bondmates share magic, idiot .” She brought her fist down, punching into the sand beside his head. “You should not want this. Not me, not the bond—”

He kicked her off. She landed in a roll that carried her back to her feet.

He immediately swept her legs, dropping her flat.

Sand sprayed as he grappled for her arms and legs, aether burning bright as he smothered the rest of her magic—until all she could do was thrash, then tremble, then go still.

Skye held his body above hers, his breathing jagged. His lips were smeared with blood, but his gaze was steady. Daring her to struggle. To fight back.

She snapped her teeth in a last act of defiance, the rage draining out of her no matter how desperately she grasped for it.

He’d won.

This time, there would be no second chances.

And this— this —was his prize.

Her fury, spent.

Her defiance, broken.

Now, finally, she was out of ways to keep him out.