Page 49 of Shadowkissed

I didn’t ask for any of it.

But that doesn’t matter now.

I drop onto Dante’s couch without ceremony, pulling the blanket from its usual place and wrapping it around my shoulders like armor made of flannel and exhaustion. I don’t speak. I can’t. Not without screaming.

Dante watches me from the kitchen, leaning one hip against the counter, arms crossed, expression unreadable but eyes—those sharp gray eyes—soft with pity and it pisses me off even more because it’s me who should feel bad. I knew the risks and fell anyway. This is all happening because of me.

“I’m sorry,” I mutter eventually, not sure why. “You stood up for me. All I gave you was a front-row seat to your official ‘rogue’ label.”

He moves without a word, crosses the space, and sits beside me. Close enough to feel his warmth.

“Don’t care about labels,” he says simply.

“You should, especially since you work for PEACE.”

He shrugs. “Maybe. But I don’t. And to be clear, I workwiththem, not for them.”

I look at him. Really look at him. The scuffed jaw. The way he carries himself like a man who’s been broken more than once but still chooses to stand.

“I don’t deserve you,” I say, quieter than I mean to.

He turns to face me fully, one hand finding mine under the blanket. “Yeah, well. You’ve got me anyway. And who decides what we deserve? I think that’s one of the only things we are in control of.”

And fuck me if that doesn’t break something in my chest.

Again.

Later, in his bed, wrapped in the scent of leather and the faint promise of rain, I lie still while his breathing evens beside me. He’s asleep within minutes, one arm thrown over my waist, keeping me tucked close.

I pretend I’m calm. That the warmth of his body is enough to make the fear go quiet.

It’s not.

My eyes won’t close.

My mind won’t stop.

Because something’s coming. Ifeelit. A ripple behind the Veil. A coldness outlining my thoughts.

When sleep finally takes me, it’s not kind.

The dream slams into me like a cold wind through shattered glass.

I’m back in the in-between.

Only this time, it’s different.

The world here isn’t quiet. It’showling.

Ash rains from a sky that bleeds red. Trees twist like they’re screaming, black and hollow. The ground cracks beneath my feet, pulsing with shadows that crawl like veins under skin.

And then he’s there.

Seraphiel.

And it’s not just his voice I hear or his presence I feel, but actually him. Tall. Beautiful. Terrifying. Those spectral wings stretch behind him, flickering in and out of sight. His golden eyes glow with that quiet madness that coats every word he speaks like honey over poison.

He smiles. My stomach churns.

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