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His lips are warm and surprisingly soft as they yield under mine.

I barely part my mouth, nor does he. It’s a whisper of a kiss, but it settles low in my belly as I linger for a long moment.

I want more, but I hold back, afraid of overstepping and revealing the depth of my longing.

After another lingering, breathless moment, I pull away.

But before I can fully retreat, his hand shoots out, not to steady me but to pull me back to him.

His fingers tangle in my hair with a possessive grip, and the next moment, his mouth is on mine.

His other hand finds the small of my back, pulling me closer until there’s no space left between us, and I can feel the hard length of his body against mine.

This kiss is nothing like the first. It’s hot, insistent, demanding, claiming, searing. He tilts his head for a deeper kiss, and my mouth obeys eagerly. Our tongues meet in a slow, sensual dance as he devours me, exploring every curve of my mouth.

He tastes of rain and earth, of something dark and dangerously addictive.

I’m burning. My body is alive. Every nerve ending sings with a symphony of sensation. I kiss him back just as fiercely, scraping my teeth over his lower lip as he moans and pulls me closer to claim every piece of my mouth.

My hands find his chest, reveling in the solid muscle under his shirt, then move upwards, circling his neck. Finally, my fingers tangle in his hair, holding him close as if I’m afraid he’ll disappear.

I didn’t know a kiss could be like this. Transformative. All-consuming. I feel like I’m dissolving, melting, becoming someone new, someone bold, someone desirable, someone… seductive.

Darian’s right hand cradles the back of my neck, and the other roams down my back with a possessive touch that ignites a firestorm inside me.

Time, logic, reason… they cease to exist. There’s only this.

This kiss. This moment that I can stay in forever.

And yet, still want more. Want him even closer .

He abandons my mouth and trails his lips down my jawline against the pulse point in my neck, and I surrender completely. I gasp as my head falls back, offering him more, as I feel myself melting into him. His breath, warm and ragged, ghosts across my skin, sending waves of heat crashing through me.

He is all tongue and teeth, sucking at my neck, kissing his way up and nipping, playfully, at my earlobe, making me gasp, then whispers in a husky, ragged murmur, “Arien… you taste so good…”

He groans, and my insides melt at the sound.

He claims my mouth again, and this kiss is softer but deeper.

It’s a slow, sensual exploration that steals the air from my lungs.

I’m lost, drowning in sensation, in him.

My mind empties, and my thoughts scatter like leaves in a storm.

There’s only the feel of his lips on mine, the taste of him, the heat of his body, and the overwhelming need.

A sharp, searing heat at my wrist yanks me back to reality. Darian reacts instantly, pulling back slightly, his eyes widening in alarm. Our gazes drop simultaneously to our wrists. The coins are now glowing, radiating with an almost unbearable heat that threatens to burn our skin.

The spell is broken. I look up and see Darian’s eyes.

Moments ago, they were filled with a dark, intoxicating desire.

But now, there’s something else. Clearer.

Still intense, but different. The blue is a deep and vibrant shade, like the ocean illuminated by the midday sun.

I realize, with a strange, detached clarity, that this is my favorite shade of his blue.

“Arien,” he whispers, “I want to take you to your room. I want to kiss you wherever you allow me to kiss, taste you wherever you allow me to taste. I’m dying to know if you taste this sweet everywhere.”

Need pulses in my chest, then lowers into my belly and thighs. And I realize that there is nothing that he would want to do with me that I wouldn’t welcome.

“I want to kiss every part of your skin. I want to touch all of your soft parts until you gasp from pleasure in my arms. We can forget this summons and just go back to your room. And then, after it is all over, I’ll take you to Izadrock, and we won’t leave my room for days.”

The temptation is unbearable. I want to lose myself in him.

In the heat and the hunger that’s blazing between us.

To explore this sudden, overwhelming desire.

It would be so easy. To pretend, just for a little while, that the trial doesn’t exist. To let him take me.

The heat pools low in my belly, like a molten ache, spreading through me, making my skin tingle and my breath catch.

I want his hands on me, tracing that heat, stoking the fire. I want…

But reality intrudes. The coin on my wrist burns with a constant, throbbing pulse, dragging me back from the edge. It’s a reminder of the impending decision, a choice I can’t escape, no matter how desperately I want to lose myself in this moment.

I’ve come this far and fought too hard; I can’t run away now. Not yet.

“I can’t,” I whisper .

“Are you going to join Martysh?” His voice is rough, and his eyes search mine with an anguished plea.

“I don’t know,” I admit. “But I can’t avoid this moment. I have to choose. If I don’t… if I run from this, I’ll regret it forever.”

Darian’s grip on my back tightens with a possessive, almost desperate pressure, his fingers digging into my flesh.

His eyes, now a stormy, turbulent sea of blue, reflect his internal battle and conflicting desires.

He opens his mouth as if to argue but then closes it again, swallowing whatever words he was going to say, and instead takes a deep, shuddering breath, forcing himself to regain control. It’s a visible effort.

When he meets my gaze again, his expression is resolute and determined.

“Stay with me. Just for this trial. I swear, I’ll help you.

I’ll do whatever it takes to get you through it, if you ask me to.

But… but I have to lose. If this is the final trial, I have to fail.

For Izadeon. I can’t abandon my people.” His voice softens into a gentle caress.

“And if, after all of this, you decide you want to lose too… just tell me. Say the word. And tomorrow, when we wake up in that inn, I’ll find you.

Then I’ll take you to Firelands. I’ll face Emmengar; I’ll do whatever it takes to bring you home with me. ”

Home…

He leans in and kisses me again, so softly it feels like a feather.

Cupping my face, his thumbs trace the curve of my cheekbones with such a tender touch that it makes me tremble.

“This is your choice, Arien. But I swear to you, on my life and on Bahador and Faelas’s lives, and on the future of Izadeon, I will never lie to you again.

I will protect you with everything I have, for as long as you’ll let me. ”

Then, a playful, teasing light returns to his face, chasing away the shadows.

His familiar, disarming smile, the one that seems reserved just for me, breaks through.

“I really hope, if you choose to come with us to Izadeon, you’ll ask me to kiss you again.

” His thumb strikes a soft skin under my ear, and his gaze drops to my lips.

“And I promise you, Arien,” he whispers with a husky voice that sends a thrill of desire through me, “if you do… I won’t ever stop. ”