Page 35 of Shadowkissed

Not here. Not now. Not ever.

I take a deep breath, trying to slow the tremor in my hands. And that’s when I feel it. The bond.

Him.

A jolt shoots through my chest, sharp and sudden, like someone punched a live wire into my ribs.

Dante.

He’s hurt.

Not just scraped or bruised—wounded.Bleeding. In pain.

I feel it radiate down the thread between us, that strange, stupid, sacred thread neither of us asked for butexistsall the same. His pain wraps around my lungs, squeezing, and my whole body leans forward instinctively like it’s ready to move, to find him, to?—

No.

“No,” I whisper, clutching at my chest like I can claw the ache out. “No, no, no—he’s already in this because of me.”

I force my legs to stay folded beneath me, not rising.

If I go to him, I’ll lead them straight to him. To the one person who’s seen me without my glamor, who’s touched the raw power beneath my skin anddidn’tflinch. The one person who might make mewantto live, not just survive.

But if Seraphiel’s enforcers find him again because of me?—

I choke on a sob, curling tighter.

I can’t let that happen. Even if it kills me to stay away. Even if I feel like I’m beingripped in half.

He’ll come to you,Seraphiel whispers, like he knows I’m unraveling.He can’t help himself now. He’s tied. Entwined. You opened that door, and now you’ll both drown in it.

“Then drown me,” I snap, breathless. “But leave him the hell alone.”

Laughter hums through the void like the rattle of chains.

I press my palms to the ground. My magic spikes, shadows bleeding out from me in tendrils. The runes twist along my skin, shifting with the surge of energy.

I can’t contain it much longer.

Not here. Not in the in-between.

And gods, ithurts—this holding back. The bond. The burning. The way Dante’s pain threads through me like a song I can’t silence. I want to go to him. Wrap around him like the night and promise I’ll make it stop.

But I don’t because I’m thereasonhe’s bleeding. And Seraphiel was right about one thing: Iamchanging.

Something inside me is stretching awake. Something that’s been sleeping since the day I was born in a circle of bone and stolen light. It stirred when Dante touched me. Ithowledwhen he kissed me.

And now? Now it wantseverything.But I can’t afford that. Not if it means destroying the one person who looked at me and didn’t see a weapon. He sawLiora.Hesaidmy name like it wasn’t cursed. Like it was worth something.

I press my forehead to the ground, shadows curling protectively around me, sealing me in. And I do the only thing I can. I wait.

And pray to gods I stopped believing in long ago that he survives whatever they just did to him.

16

DANTE

The bleeding stopped, but I still feel like I got hit by a semi made of silver and bad decisions.

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