Page 139 of Claimed In Darkness

Fainter.

Like she is already standing on the precipice of something I cannot reach.

Her lips part slightly, letting out a breath.

A whisper of something close to recognition.

As if some small, broken piece of her still knows me.

Still remembers me.

Still wants me.

And I crave it.

I fucking use it.

I lean in, pressing my forehead against hers, closing my eyes, pretending?—

Just for a second?—

That she is still mine.

That she never left.

That she never made her choice.

And then?—

I kiss her.

The kiss isn’t mean to save. It is a kiss meant to destroy us both.

A clash of teeth and breath and too many things we never said.

A last, violent claim on something already lost.

A reminder?—

That I was hers first.

And she was mine.

Before the High Council.

Before the relic.

Before the hunger inside her grew too deep to fight.

She was mine.

If this is truly the final moment before she becomes my enemy?—

Then I will make sure she fucking remembers.

Her body presses into mine, her fingers curling in my shirt, pulling me closer, anchoring herself in this moment, in me.

She does not kiss me like a woman who has already made her choice.

---