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But something is breaking inside me—that last fragile hope that there might have been love beneath her cruelty. That we could somehow find our way back to those gentle moments between the pain.

Her lips curve in that familiar smirk. "Are you sure about that?"

I release her suddenly, stepping back. The loss of contact makes her stumble, catching herself against the wall. Without my touch, without the haze of feeding, I see her clearly at last.

There is no future here. No redemption. Only poison wrapped in honey, thorns hidden beneath rose petals. I was a fool to think otherwise.

I freeze, my fingers finding the dark bruises marring Zin's throat. The marks stand out like ink stains against her pale skin. My claw traces the edge of one particularly nasty bruise, and she flinches away from my touch. Pain flashes in those bottomless dark eyes.

Something twists in my chest. Despite everything between us, seeing her marked like this...

"Who did this to you?" The words come out rougher than I intend.

Zin's lips curl into a bitter smile. "Your brother."

The temperature in the room drops. My hand falls away from her throat as if burned. Rook did this? But looking at the bruises again, I recognize the pattern. The shape matches Rook's fingers perfectly.

The taste of her desire turns to ash in my mouth.

"Where is my brother?" The words tear from my throat, all pretense of seduction forgotten.

Zin's dark eyes widen with understanding. Her lips part, then press together in a thin line as realization washes over her face. "So that's why you're here."

"Tell me." I press closer, my silver fingers finding those bruises again. This time, I don't touch them gently.

Pain flickers across her features as I dig into the tender flesh. Her pulse races beneath my grip—not from desire now but fear. Good. Let her be afraid.

"You never came back for me at all," she whispers, and beneath the acid in her voice, I hear genuine hurt. Those bottomless dark eyes can't hide her disappointment.

I bare my teeth, letting her see the predator she helped create. "Did you really think I would? After what you did to me?"

Her breath catches as I tighten my grip. The bruises my brother left provide perfect targets for my fingers to press against.

"Tell me where he is, Zin. Now."

She tries to look away, but I force her to meet my gaze. Something breaks in those dark eyes—perhaps the last of her illusions about us, about what we meant to each other.

"The Forgotten Tower," she breathes.

Ice floods my veins. The words hit me like physical blows, each syllable a knife to my gut. I know exactly what awaits him there—the darkness, the chains, the endless silence broken only by guards’ footsteps and distant screams.

My fingers spasm against her throat as memories overwhelm me—the weight of iron around my wrists, the bite of winter wind through barred windows, the crushing solitude that nearly broke my mind.

The moment of weakness costs me. Zin's hand flashes with dark energy, striking my chest. I stumble back, losing my grip on her throat. Pain blooms across my ribs as her magic burns through my defenses.

"Don't make me do this," Zin says, her voice soft despite the crackling power in her hands. "Please, Lark."

Another blast catches my shoulder, spinning me into her desk. Herbs scatter across the floor, their sweet scent mixing with the acrid smell of her magic. My broken horn throbs with remembered agony.

She advances, shadows wreathing her fingers. "I don't want to hurt you."

Rage burns through my paralysis. "You already did!" The words rip from my throat, raw and jagged. My voice cracks on the last word, and I hate how it betrays my pain.

My vision blurs, but I refuse to let the tears fall. Not here. Not in front of her.

Zin's fingers trace my collarbone, and before I can react, something cold presses against my skin. The aellurium jewelry gleams gold against my silver flesh. Pain lances through me as it fuses with my skin, spreading like molten metal through my veins.

"What have you done?" I stumble back, clawing at the metal that's now part of me. But it's too late—I can feel it coursing through my body, binding me to something. To someone.

"Now you'll understand." Zin pulls down her collar, revealing matching gold lines threading beneath her skin. "We're bound together. Your pain is my pain. Your life is my life."

Horror crashes through me as the implications sink in. I can't kill her without killing myself. The perfect trap—she knows my vengeful nature, knows I'd gladly sacrifice myself to destroy her. But not when it means leaving Rook alone in that Tower.

"This proves I never wanted to hurt you," she whispers, reaching for me. "Everything I did was?—"

I stumble away from her touch, but something new floods my senses. Emotions that aren't mine wash over me—longing so deep it aches, twisted with a darkness I recognize all too well.

Desire and hatred tangle together like roses and thorns.

"You're lying," I snarl, but the bond betrays her truth. Beneath all her cruelty, all her calculated manipulation, there's something genuine—a hunger that mirrors my own.

I can't bear it. Can't bear feeling her emotions coursing through me, can't stand knowing that some part of her actually cares, even now. It makes everything worse somehow.

I flee, my boots clattering on the wooden stairs. She doesn't try to stop me. She doesn't have to—she's already won. We're bound together now, her poison running through my veins like liquid gold.

I stumble through darkened streets, my heart pounding against my ribs. The aellurium burns beneath my skin, threads of molten gold weaving through my veins. Each pulse sends new waves of foreign emotion crashing through me.

Ducking into a shadowed alcove, I press my hands against the rough stone and try to steady my breathing. The bond pulses, and suddenly I'm drowning in Zin's feelings—a twisted tangle of possession and need that makes me want to claw my skin off.

My fingers spark with magic as I tear open a portal, not caring where it leads. Anywhere but here. Anywhere but near her. The void swallows me, but even its emptiness can't silence the echo of her emotions.

Longing hits me like a physical blow. Not mine—hers. Pure and sharp as broken glass, cutting through layers of manipulation and cruelty. Behind it all lurks a desperate hunger that matches my own, a yearning so deep it threatens to pull me under.

I emerge in the forest, falling to my knees in damp leaves. The bond throbs and fresh understanding floods me. Every cruel word, every harsh touch—they were armor, protecting something softer underneath. Something that still remembers gentle kisses and whispered promises in the dark.

"No," I choke out, pressing my palms against my temples. I don't want to feel this. Don't want to know that beneath all her poison, some part of her still...

Hatred follows, dark and bitter as wormwood. But even that can't completely drown out the underlying current of desire. Of regret. Of something that might have been love, if either of us knew how to love without breaking things.

The truth of it tears through me—she wasn't lying. Not about this. The realization makes everything worse, turns all our shared cruelty into something more complicated than simple revenge.

I curl into myself, silver skin gleaming in the moonlight, as our twisted emotions tangle together until I can't tell which belongs to whom anymore.

I press my forehead against the cool forest earth, trying to sort through the storm of emotions coursing through me. The aellurium binding pulses beneath my skin, carrying echoes of Zin's feelings across our newfound connection.

Like a fool, I ran before confirming Rook's location. The Forgotten Tower... My hands tremble at the thought of those cold stone walls. But through our curse-link, I might have sensed if she had lied about keeping him there.

My fingers dig into fallen leaves, crushing them. I could go back right now, confront her again. The bond would reveal her true intentions, strip away her masks of deception. Every word, every claim about my brother's imprisonment—I would know the truth of it all.

But returning means facing her. Means standing before those bottomless dark eyes and feeling everything she feels. Means wrestling not just with her emotions but with my own tangled response to them.

The thought of stepping foot in that room again makes bile rise in my throat. Even now, I feel phantom chains around my wrists, hear the echo of her boots on stone as she approached my cell in the Tower.

Yet Rook needs me. My brother, who came for me when I was imprisoned. Who never stopped searching, never gave up hope of finding me.

The bond throbs, sending fresh waves of Zin's emotions washing over me. Longing tangles with possessiveness, desire with cruel satisfaction. She wants me back—wants to chain me again, this time with gold instead of iron.

I push to my feet, brushing dirt from my knees. Dawn approaches, painting the sky in shades of gray. I need to return to Pyrah, tell her what happened. We'll find another way to locate Rook.

I won't go back to her. Won't let her sink her claws into me again, no matter what truths the bond might reveal.

But guilt gnaws at my chest as I open a portal home. Am I abandoning Rook to the same fate I had suffered, just to avoid facing my former tormentor?