Page 105 of Bound to the Dreadlord

She takes a step closer. I feel it more than I see it. The shift in the room. The gap between us—dangerously thin.

“You’re lying.”

I smirk, teeth flashing in the candlelight. “I always do.”

Sera moves so fast I barely register it. She kneels in front of me, hands pushing mine away, fingers pressing against my side. A spark. A shift. Something pulses in her touch, something neither of us understands.

I catch her wrist. Hard. “Don’t.”

Her lips part. The candle’s glow dances in her eyes. “You have never been this vulnerable, have you?”

I should snap at her. Should shove her away. Instead, I do something worse.

I let her touch me.

She presses her palm against my chest, skin against skin. My jaw clenches. A breath slips between my teeth, sharp and unforgiving.

Magic stirs between us. A warmth, a pull, an unraveling.

She feels it too. Her fingers tremble.

She moves closer.

I should stop her. I don’t.

Her lips are inches away. The moment thickens then he tension snaps.

I grab her. Hard. Drag her onto my lap, one hand fisted in her hair, the other gripping her waist. This is not possession. Not war.

This is something else.

She gasps, but she doesn’t pull away.

She leans in.

The kiss is brutal. Desperate. A clash of teeth, heat, and hunger.

She bites back.

I groan, tightening my grip. The cot creaks beneath us, my body pressing hers into the thin mattress.

This isn’t enough. I want more.

I need?—

A sound interrupts the moment. Too sharp and too close, and it doesn’t belong to either of us.

My dagger is in my hand before the realization fully hits.

Sera freezes just seconds before the door explodes inward.

Bounty hunters.

Sent by Hazeran.

Before the enemy can use his weapon to attack, I’m already moving, faster than thought, it’s more of instinct rather than a conscious reaction. My blade sings through the air, slicing clean through flesh and cartilage. His eyes go wide as blood erupts from his throat in a violent spray, painting our surroundings red. He collapses in a twitching heap at my feet before his scream ever leaves his mouth.

The second one charges Sera. A mistake.

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