Page 25

25

NORA

T he ruins still smell like ash and lightning.

My skin aches. Not due to pain, but from him—from the searing imprint of his touch, from the fire that burned through both of us and left nothing untouched. I’m sore in places I didn’t know could feel sore. And beneath that, something deeper thrums—an echo of his magic now tangled with mine, coiled like smoke in my bones.

I sit up slowly, wrapping my arms around myself. My body feels too light, like I’ve lost weight overnight. No, not weight. Something else. Something vital. I don’t know what exactly. Just that it’s gone—and he has it now.

Rhaegar sits across the room, silent, shirtless, half-shrouded in the shadow of a cracked pillar. His wings are tucked tight, his jaw clenched like he’s been chewing on guilt for hours and hasn’t yet decided to spit it out.

I stare at him.

He doesn’t look at me.

Coward.

“You’re awfully quiet for someone who just tried to set the ceiling on fire with sex magic,” I say, my voice still raspy from everything we didn’t say last night.

His eyes flick to me, molten gold and stormy.

“You almost died,” he says flatly.

I arch a brow. “Well, so did you. Frequently. Repeatedly. With enthusiasm, if I recall.”

“That’s not what I meant.” His voice sharpens, cutting through the tension like a blade.

“Then say what you mean,” I snap, standing. The blanket slips off my shoulders, and I don’t care. He’s already seen everything. Taken everything.

His gaze drops, then lifts again like he’s forcing himself to meet my eyes. “You’re weaker. I took too much.”

I laugh. It’s not soft. It’s not kind. “Congratulations. You finally admit it.”

“I didn’t want—” He breaks off, running a hand over his face. “I couldn’t stop.”

“No,” I say, my voice soft but lethal. “You didn’t try to stop.”

That hits. His jaw ticks. “You think I wanted to hurt you?”

“I think you needed me. And you let that need take everything.”

Silence stretches between us, thick and suffocating.

“I don’t regret it,” I say, just to see what he’ll do.

His head snaps up, eyes blazing. “You should.”

I walk toward him slowly, the stone cold under my feet, shards of broken magic still humming in the air. “Do you regret it?”

His silence says everything.

I crouch in front of him, searching his face for something—remorse, longing, hate. I’m not sure what I want to find.

“You fed on me, Rhaegar. Not just magic. You devoured .”

“I know.”

“You said I was yours.” I tilt my head. “Was that a vow or a warning?”

He leans forward until our foreheads almost touch. His breath brushes my lips. “It was both.”

The honesty of it stings more than any lie.

I want to hit him. I want to kiss him again. I want to scream and demand he undo whatever he’s done to me—but the truth is, it’s already too late. I can feel him inside me, magic humming where it never lived before. A tether wrapped tight around my soul, pulsing with heat and need.

“You changed me,” I whisper.

He nods once, grim. “You changed me first.”

I want to laugh. I want to cry. Instead, I sit down beside him on the floor, our shoulders brushing.

“Tell me the truth,” I say quietly. “How much did you take?”

He exhales slowly. “Enough that I don’t think I’ll turn to stone again. Even if you leave.”

I go still.

The bond was what kept him alive. The constant need for my presence. The endless drain. And now?

“You’re… free of me?”

He turns his head toward me, something unreadable in his expression. “No. I’m full of you.”

My throat tightens. I stare at the cracked wall across the room, heart pounding.

“So what happens now?”

“I don’t know.” He leans back, resting his head against the stone. “I’ve never been this. I’ve never had this.”

We sit in silence for a long time.

When I finally speak, my voice is tired, but sure. “We can’t keep doing this. If you take from me again like that…”

“I know.” His voice is quiet. “Next time, I’ll stop.”

There’s a long pause.

I murmur, “You shouldn’t have to.”

He doesn’t reply—but his hand finds mine, our fingers tangling together without fanfare, without force.

Just… there.

Together in the ruin of everything we were.

Bound.

Damned.

I think maybe… not alone.