Page 82 of Blood Marked

“Hey,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.

He let out a sound that wasn’t quite a sob, not quite a laugh. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“You started it,” she rasped.

And he kissed her like it was the first time. Like he was memorizing every breath.

She kissed him back. Not because fate said to. Becauseshe wanted to.

THIRTY-SIX

SELENE

She was alive.

That was the only thing Selene could process for the first few moments after she gasped into Kael’s chest, arms clawing weakly around him like she’d climbed out of the fucking abyss.

Her breath was shallow, uneven. Her lips were cracked. Her skin still held the chill of death’s edge.

But she was breathing. Andshe was looking at him.

She smiled. “Hey.”

“I thought I lost you,” he rasped, voice hoarse. “I thought I’d?—”

“You didn’t.” Her fingers curled against the back of his neck. “You pulled me back.”

He kissed her.

He didn’t know who moved first. Maybe it didn’t matter. It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t sweet. It was desperate. Teeth. Tongue. Gasped breaths tangled between their mouths.

It was a promise:I still want you.

And a plea,don’t ever fucking leave again.

Selene lay in Kael’s arms for more than a moment, heart still pounding, skin flushed from where their bond had reignited—not just in flesh, but in soul.

But even wrapped in the comfort of him revealing in being alive, being with him and what he had just done for her, the moment didn’t last. It couldn’t. Because the Veil whispered of unfinished things.

And Varyn was still alive.

She sat up slowly, her body sore but humming with magic, the reborn bond inside her pulsing like a second heart. Kael stirred behind her, brushing a hand up her spine.

“Don’t say it,” he murmured.

“I have to.”

His sigh was rough against her neck. “Let me guess. ‘We can’t stay here.’”

“No,” she said, glancing over her shoulder, “we can’t leave him alive.”

Kael’s jaw clenched.

“We take him together,” she said.

He nodded. And that was it. No speeches. No ceremony. Just two people—scarred, raw,ready.

He was in the ruins of the ritual grounds, exactly where Kael had left him.

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