He steps closer, crowding my space like it's his to take. His voice is a low snarl. “Don't ever tell me not to save you again.”
I force a scoff, even as my throat tightens around the words. “It worked.”
His jaw tightens, muscles twitching. “That’s not the fucking point.”
“That's the point, Malrik,” I snapped. “I have my power. Ronan and Kieran are fine. It worked out. So don’t—don’t make it into a damn thing.”
My chest is pressed against his hard abdomen. There’s no room to back away. His shadow swallows me whole, and his heat seeps under my skin.
“You almost died.”
I blink at him, seeing the sadness on his face, something I have never seen.
“I heard it,” His voice fractures. “I heard your fucking bones break. Heard you scream like the realm was tearing itself apart. And I couldn’t do a thing about it.”
His hand grips my jaw. Not enough to hurt, just enough to hold me still. To make sure I’m listening. Looking. Seeing him.
“You don’t get to do that again,” he rasps, voice shredded at the edges. “You don’t get to throw yourself into the fire and expect me to do fuck all. I won’t survive losing you.”
I search his face—those sharp, unforgiving angles, the blood-red eyes that burn like they were forged in war. The madness isstill there, coiled in the corners where his smile usually lives—but there’s no smile now.
“I don’t give a shit if you hate me for it,” he growls. “I’ll chain you to me if that’s what it takes. You come first. Always. You hear me?”
A beat of silence stretches between us.
“No one else fucking matters to me.”
My gaze drops for a second, catching the flash of silver where his daggers cross his chest. His fingers stay firm beneath my chin, anchoring me there like he thinks I’ll disappear if he lets go. He doesn’t realise I’m already rooted—by him, by this.
The only sound between us is the waterfall, crashing over stone.
“I’ll always choose you, and them.”
“And I choose you,” he yells. “Everyone else can burn before I let something happen to you.”
My pulse thunders—behind my eyes, behind my ribs. I pull back from his grip, never breaking his stare. The air shifts with me, the wind turning sharp, tugging at my hair like it senses the storm building under my skin. Overhead, the sky begins to darken.
“I will die before I let anything happen to you all,” I say, my voice rising with the wind. “So don’t test me.”
His jaw tics. My magic hums.
He looks at me, silent and still, like he’s seeing something in me that mirrors the worst part of himself.
And maybe that’s exactly what this is.
Two monsters who would burn everything to ash if it meant keeping each other alive.
The cold air bites at my skin. I inhale slowly, trying to steady the magic inside me as it begs to be let loose.
His gaze drags over me. Not with desire this time, but rage. Controlled by a thread so thin it's already fraying.
“You’re so fucking stubborn, Ravena,” he growls harshly—and my heart stutters. He never says my name.
“You’re not invincible. So, stop trying to save everyone.”
My hands tremble at my sides, fingertips tingling, sparks crackling just beneath the skin. The magic is pressing up through me, wild and aching, like it wants to split me open from the inside out.
The wind screams through the trees, rippling leaves from their branches and sending them spinning like shrapnel. Even the vines are moving now, slithering up from the forest floor, restless and alive.
