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"Last chance to reconsider," Leo said, though his voice carried little conviction as his lion prowled with barely contained need.

"I'm not reconsidering anything," Aerin replied, her hands already working at the remaining barriers between them. "I'm choosing you, Leo. Completely. Whatever the consequences."

When they came together on the cleared stone floor beside the betrayal sigil, it wasn’t composed. It wasn’t sweet. It was a collapse—violent, sacred, necessary.

Leo’s mouth crashed onto hers like a storm breaking over the cliffs, a kiss that stole the breath from her lungs and replaced it with heat and hunger. His hands dragged over her ribs, down her back, anchoring her to the moment as if the magic pulsing between them might otherwise tear her away.

He kissed her like she was already his, like the claiming had happened long before either of them admitted it.

His fingers tangled in her hair, pulling just enough to make her gasp.

That sound lit something inside him. The way he devoured her was nothing short of carnal reverence, and when his hands slid down to the waistband of her pants, she didn’t hesitate.

She arched into him, her body demanding more contact, more friction, more of him.

“I’m not going to be gentle,” he rasped, his voice frayed and raw, lips dragging fire along her jaw. “I’ve wanted this too fucking long.”

“Then don’t be,” she whispered, already tugging his shirt up and over his head. The silver blaze of the curse mark glowed against his skin, reacting to their proximity. It pulsed like it had its own heartbeat, hungry and waiting.

She touched it—barely a brush of her fingers—and felt her magic respond instantly. No resistance. No threat. It welcomed her, threaded through her like it knew her.

Her shirt and bra came off in one motion. Her pants were next, her panties following fast. She stripped for him with the urgency of someone who didn’t care if the sky fell tomorrow.

He looked at her like it already had.

“Lie back,” Leo ordered, and the rough edge in his voice had her obeying before she could think.

The carved stone beneath her spine was cool, grounding. But Leo’s body above her was heat, lightning, possession. He knelt between her thighs and kissed the inside of her knee, then trailed up slowly, deliberately, eyes locked on hers.

“Keep your legs open. Don’t look away.”

She didn’t.

Not even when his mouth landed on her pussy in a long, slow lick that had her biting down on a moan.

He hummed against her, pleased by the taste, then licked again. Slower this time. Teasing. His tongue circled her clit, then flicked it—again and again—until her hips bucked.

“Fuck, Leo—” Her hand fisted in his hair. “More.”

His response was a low growl. He wrapped his arms under her thighs, anchoring her to his mouth as he devoured her. There was nothing restrained in the way he ate her—it was relentless, dirty, perfect.

When he slid two fingers inside her, curling them just right, she gasped his name. He pumped them slowly at first, then harder, matching the rhythm of his tongue on her clit.

“You’re soaked,” he rasped against her. “Dripping for me. Fuck, you taste—gods, I could stay here forever.”

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. Her body arched, her magic flared, and pleasure slammed into her in a blinding wave that ripped a scream from her throat.

The sigil beneath her pulsed brighter.

Leo rose, mouth wet, eyes burning gold.

“I need to be inside you. Now.”

She grabbed at him, dragging him into a kiss that was like power and need and the edge of disaster. She shoved his pants down. His cock sprang free—thick, hard, leaking at the tip. Her breath caught, stomach tightening.

“Condom,” she said, breathless.

“Not tonight,” he growled. “This is a ritual. It has to be real. No barriers.”

She hesitated. Only for a second. Then nodded.

He lined himself up, head of his cock sliding through her slick folds.

“I want you to feel every inch,” he muttered.

Then he pushed in.

Her body stretched around him, inch by inch, until he was buried deep. Her back arched as pleasure bloomed through her, thick and sharp. He was big, hot, perfect. She clenched around him without meaning to.

“Shit—Aerin,” he groaned, hands tightening on her hips. “You feel like fucking heaven.”

She hooked her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper.

He began to move. Long, hard strokes. Each one hitting something inside her that made her gasp, made her dig her nails into his shoulders. The sigil beneath them glowed brighter with every thrust. Their magic tangled, fused, burning brighter and brighter between them.

“I can feel it working,” she gasped, nails dragging down his back. “The corruption—it’s reacting.”

“Then let’s finish it,” he snarled, grabbing her wrists and pinning them above her head as he fucked her harder.

The sound of skin meeting skin echoed in the chamber, each thrust driving deeper, rougher, their bodies crashing together in a rhythm that felt like the heartbeat of something ancient.

Then he pulled out.

“Turn over. On your knees.”

She obeyed, breath ragged, body trembling.

Leo grabbed her hips and slammed back into her from behind. She cried out, the angle deeper, devastating. His hand found her clit, rubbing tight circles while he pounded into her.

“This pussy is mine,” he groaned, breath hot against her ear. “Say it.”

“It’s yours,” she choked out, bracing herself on shaking arms. “Fuck, Leo—it’s yours.”

His pace turned brutal, the slap of his hips against her ass echoing off the stone walls. Her orgasm built again—harder, meaner—curling in her spine like a snake about to strike.

When it hit, she shattered.

She screamed, her whole body convulsing as pleasure burned through her. Her elbows gave out. She collapsed forward, face against the glowing sigil, while Leo kept thrusting, chasing his own edge.

“I’m gonna come,” he growled, grabbing her hair, pulling her back upright so her spine arched perfectly. “Gonna fill you up. Let the sigil take every fucking drop.”

She moaned, clenching around him.

He drove into her one final time and came with a roar, cock twitching deep inside her, spilling heat. The curse mark flared once, then shifted—glowing silver, no longer corrupted. No longer twisted.

Just clean.

Sacred.

Leo collapsed beside her, breathing hard. Their bodies tangled, skin slick and glowing with magic.

The betrayal sigil pulsed beneath them. Stable. Whole. Fulfilled.

But they didn’t speak. There were no confessions. No sweet declarations.

Just the sound of their breathing, the crackle of magic in the air, and the undeniable truth of bodies that had finally stopped fighting what they needed most.

"Did it work?" Leo asked a few minutes later, his voice rough with exhaustion and satisfaction.

"Look at your curse mark," Aerin said, tracing patterns on his chest that now glowed with silver light instead of corruption.

Leo looked down to see that Kieran's curse had been transformed into something entirely different—still visible, but now radiating protection instead of malevolence.

The mark that had once carried corruption now carried the signature of their purified bond, a permanent reminder of love that had conquered ancient magic through the simple expedient of absolute honesty.

"The network," Aerin said, checking readings on equipment that had somehow survived their magical explosion. "Leo, the corruption readings are dropping across all the founder sites. Salem's seal is stabilizing. Seattle's showing normal parameters."

"We did it," Leo said, pulling her closer as the magnitude of their success began to register. "We actually did it."

"We did it together," Aerin corrected, settling against his side with contentment that felt like coming home. "Just like Mordaine always intended."

Above them, the betrayal sigil continued to pulse with steady light, its purpose finally fulfilled after centuries of waiting. The corruption that had threatened to destroy the founder network was gone, cleansed by the kind of love that made deception impossible and betrayal unthinkable.

But as they lay together in the basement of Moondrip Market, surrounded by the warm glow of purified magic and the satisfaction of crisis averted, neither of them noticed the faint shadow that detached itself from the darkest corner of the room and slipped away through cracks in the foundation that were too small for anything substantial to pass through.

The immediate threat had been neutralized, but something else had been watching their success with interest that had no direct conncetion to the corruption they'd just cleansed.

Something that had been waiting much longer than the Mistbound, and had very different plans for the founder network's future.