All mine.
Chapter 18-Amrin
I missed Sten.
The realization followed me through every shadowed corridor of the Asgarheim Runevald Institute like a second heartbeat.
He’d only been gone since late the previous night—since he’d taken me apart slowly and reverently in his bed beneath the storm-lit skies of Asgarheim—but already the absence of him sat inside my chest like an ache.
Like hunger.
Like something unfinished.
I could still feel him everywhere.
His hands.
His mouth.
The deep rumbling growl in his chest every time he touched me like I was something precious instead of temporary.
Gods.
Just thinking about it made heat creep across my skin all over again.
The Runevald halls blurred around me as I walked toward the graduate dormitories after my final lecture of the day, my satchel hanging forgotten from one shoulder while my heart pounded hard enough to make breathing difficult.
Students flooded the corridors around me in preparation for the Spring Equinox Festival.
Witches in jewel-toned gowns hurried past laughing softly.
Monsters from realms I still could not properly identify lingered in archways beneath floating lanterns and enchanted vines.
The entire Institute thrummed with energy tonight.
Magic saturated the air.
The ley lines crossing through Asgarheim seemed brighter somehow, auroras streaking silver-green beyond the towering gothic windows while celestial bells rang softly throughout the castle announcing the beginning of Equinox rites.
Everything felt alive.
Awake.
Waiting.
And somewhere within all of it—my Sten.
My stomach tightened at the thought.
No.
Not my Sten.
The dangerous possessive instinct rose immediately anyway.
Because after last night, after his hands and mouth and the way he’d looked at me like I was a miracle instead of a disappointment, something inside me no longer knew how to think of him as separate from me.
I missed him.
