Page 22 of Beyond the Treaty

The room felt too small, too charged with something neither of us seemed ready to name. I should have turned and walked back out, leaving her to try to find whatever rest she could. But I stayed where I was, caught between wanting to protect her and desiring something more dangerous, something I couldn’t afford to want. And yet, as she watched me, unmoving, I wondered if she felt the same pull, if she, too, was fighting the urge to cross a line we wouldn’t be able to come back from. The silence stretched between us, heavy and unrelenting, like a tether pulling me toward her. I fought it, tried to resist, but with every second that passed, Elara standing there, her sharp edges softened just enough by the low light and exhaustion, I

lost ground.

I could see how her chest rose and fell, the faint tremble in

her breath, and the way her arms had slipped from their tight grip around her, as if even she didn’t have the strength to holdherself together any longer. And her eyes, those storm-filled eyes, were on me, searching, asking questions she didn’t dare articulate.

“Azrael...” she murmured softly, my name nearly breaking on her lips, as if she was uncertain about saying it.

It unmade me.

Before I realised what I was doing, I crossed the room in two strides. My hands moved to her face, framing her jaw with more care than I thought I still possessed, my thumbs brushing against the soft skin just beneath her cheekbones. She froze, her breath catching, but she didn’t pull away.

I told myself this was the last chance, the final moment to step back, to let her go, to pretend this was something I could resist. But I didn’t.

I was unable to.

“Elara,” I murmured, her name feeling rough and soft, the only word I could trust myself to utter.

Her lips parted as her hands reached up to grasp my wrists, not to push me away, but to hold on. That was all the permission I needed.

I leaned down, closing the distance between us, and captured her lips with mine. The world outside vanished. The storm, the war, the endless burden of what we carried, it all faded away, drowned out by the fire that ignited between us.

Elara’s breath hitched against my mouth, her fingers curling tighter around my wrists as if she were afraid I might pull away. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. I pressed closer, my hands sliding back into her hair, tilting her face just right as the kiss deepened, slow at first, almost reverent, but it soon gave way to a raw and undeniable hunger.

It was madness, and I recognised it. But I couldn’t stop.

Her hands left my wrists, sliding up my arms and clutching my shoulders, pulling me closer as if she wanted to lose herself in this just as much as I did. She kissed me back with the samefervour, the same desperation, like we had both been drowning in silence and had finally found the air we needed in each other.

Her taste, soft, sweet, and edged with something fierce, set fire to the parts of me I’d kept buried for so long. I’d spent years mastering control, burying want beneath duty, but Elara shattered that control like it was glass.

I pulled her closer, one hand splayed at her lower back, the other still tangled in her hair, tilting her head to take more of her. She melted into me, matching the fire I couldn’t hold back, her body pressing against mine as though we could erase the space that had ever existed between us.

For a moment, there was no Council, no war, no prophecy, no bond. There was only her, only us.

But even through the haze, some of me knew this wasn’t something we could undo. Once we crossed this line, there would be no going back. I should have cared more about the consequences and what this would mean when the war came crashing back down on us.

But when Elara sighed softly against my mouth, her fingers curling into my shirt as if I were something she needed, I didn’t care.

I broke the kiss just long enough to press my forehead against hers, my breath ragged, my heart thundering in my chest.

“Elara...” I whispered again, her name now the sole thing connecting me to the moment.

She didn’t open her eyes, her lips still parted as if waiting for more, her breathing just as uneven as mine. “You’re... here,” she murmured, the words so soft that I almost missed them.

I swallowed hard, my hands still holding her as if letting go would break the spell. “I’m here,” I echoed, my voice rough with an undeniable truth. She finally opened her eyes, those piercing, storm-filled eyes, and looked at me as if I were something more than I had any right to be.

Somethinghers.

“You were never just a queen to me.” The words left me before I could stop them, raw and untamed. I didn’t just want her in the way the bond demanded. I wanted her in a way that broke all the rules, defied all expectations. She wasn’t just the leader I had sworn to protect. She was everything.

CHAPTER 14

And just like that, I knew I was lost. There was no burying this, no pretending it hadn’t happened. Elara had worked her way into me, into every thought, every instinct, every guarded corner of my heart.

I knew the world wouldn’t allow us to hold onto this moment. I understood we would have to confront everything that awaited us on the other side of dawn. But for now, for this fleeting, stolen sliver of time, she was in my arms, and I wouldn’t let go.

For a long moment, neither of us moved. The only sound in the room was our breathing, hers shallow and uncertain, mine heavy and ragged as I tried to gather the little sense I had left. But my hands stayed where they were, one cradling the curve of her jaw, the other at her back, holding her against me as if she might slip away if I let go. I couldn’t bring myself to release her. Not yet.

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