Page 64 of Blood Marked

She blinked, not expecting that.

“Which time?”

He exhaled. Shaky. Unsteady.

“Tonight. Last night. Every fucking moment since the bond chose you.” He turned toward her now, and his eyes wereglowing faint gold. “You didn’t see yourself. You didn’t feel it the way I did.”

“I felt enough,” she said softly.

“You burned,” he said. “Lit up like a goddamn star. And then you fell.”

Selene drew her knees up to her chest, watching him.

He wasn’t angry at her.

He was angry athimself.

Kael always carried the weight of everything like it had nowhere else to go. Like if he didn’t hold it, it’d crush the whole damn world.

“I’m not a candle,” she said after a pause. “I don’t burn out that easily.”

“No,” he murmured. “You’re wildfire. And I keep forgetting wildfires don’t obey anyone.”

Kael finally looked at her and the storm behind his gaze wasn’t rage. It was hunger. Longing. That unbearable, bone-deep ache of wanting something he was too afraid to hold.

Selene stood and stepped toward him.

He didn’t move.

Not when she crouched in front of him. Not when she reached for his hand and peeled it gently away from his dagger.

Her voice was soft when she spoke. “I’m still here, Kael.”

He looked at her like he didn’t deserve it.

“Are you sure?” he asked, rough. “Because I keep watching you slip through my fingers.”

She didn’t respond. She just kissed him.

His lips parted against hers with a groan that vibrated through her ribs. His hand found her waist first—calluses catching on the thin fabric of her shirt—then her jaw, fingers splaying against her pulse point as he dragged her closer. She straddled his lap, knees sinking into damp earth, her cloak slipping off her shoulders. The night air bit her exposed skin,but his palms skated over her collarbones like he could brand warmth back into her.

“Selene—”

His voice frayed at the edges. She caught his bottom lip between her teeth, gentle, before pulling back just enough to speak.

“I’m not breaking.” Her thumb brushed the scar cutting through his eyebrow. “And I’m not running.”

He growled, low and ragged, and crushed his mouth to hers again. No hesitation this time. His tongue swept against hers, insistent, and her grip tightened in his hair. The dagger clattered to the ground behind him, forgotten. His hands slid under her shirt, rough palms scraping her spine, and she arched into him with a gasp. Teeth grazed her throat. Her mark flared—a sear of gold beneath her skin—and his answering pulse glowed against her fingertips where they pressed his neck.

Magic coiled between them, thick as resin smoke. Not the jagged, splintering force from before, but something older. Deeper. The air hummed as their marks brightened, threads of light weaving a second lattice across their joined skin.

He pushed the cloak fully off her shoulders, fabric pooling around her hips. His breath hitched when she rocked against him, hands freezing mid-motion.

“Kael.” She nipped his earlobe, felt him shudder. “Lookat me.”

He did. Blue eyes flickering gold, hair mussed from her fingers, mouth reddened. A goddamn ruin of a man.

His thumb traced the edge of her mark. “This… it’s not just the bond.”

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