Page 68 of Intense (Beneath The Blaze #3)

FINN

Song- Wires, The Neighbourhood

I never leave the room. I stand with my back against the door, watching them. I’m not even sure I’m breathing.

Nyx is measuring every part of Stephanie. Dragging herself effortlessly along pale skin that almost glows in the dim light.

A fucking picture.

Stephanie’s holding her breath, every muscle tight, ready to snap. But the longer Nyx moves over her, the more I see her start to give in. Shoulders loosening. Breathing shifting. That subtle surrender when fight or flight finally lets go.

She’s feeling what I feel with Nyx.

The calm. The stilling of a racing mind. The way danger can feel like safety when it’s in the right hands.

Nyx lifts her head, turning her gaze on me. She stays like that, unblinking, her body still.

She’s not just reading Stephanie. She’s assessing me.

My true feelings for Stephanie are laid bare to her. There’s no point in hiding them. Nyx sees in ways no human can.

I don’t move. My body loosens, my breathing evens. I let her decide.

Her head lowers again, and she glides back up Stephanie’s body. When she coils around her throat, my eyes close for just a second.

Fuck.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I take a deep breath and step forward, working on instinct.

I can’t lose this woman. Maybe that was fate all along, dragging us through this chaos just to shove the truth in my face.

She’s not just my wife on paper. She’s mine to defend. Mine to fight for.

I believe her.

When she told me she was blackmailed, my anger wasn’t truly at her. It was at them. At the men who thought they could use her to get to me. At the fact they pushed me to the brink and forced her into the line of fire.

I would never have let Nyx harm her. Not for a second. But now… now it’s gone further than that. It’s in my chest, aching like an old wound that never healed right.

Stephanie hasn’t just seen my pain, my anger, my darkness.

She’s embracing it. Right now.

That snake around her throat isn’t a threat. It’s a seal.

We’re not just bound. We’re fate.

Two people fighting against each other until we finally recognized the truth—that it was never a trial, never an obsession, never a test.

It was always this. Our ending. Our future.

I needed her to heal the parts of me I buried so deep they nearly killed me. And she’s letting me do the same for her.

“Hey, Nyx. You’re kinda heavy around my neck there, girl.” Stephanie’s voice is soft, almost teasing.

Nyx’s head tilts, and she rubs her face against Stephanie’s cheek, and fuck, my heart explodes.

She doesn’t tighten. She doesn’t coil. She just rests there, peaceful and still.

She’s made her judgment.

And so have I.