My attention sharpened instantly.
Because while I already knew the answer—I had no idea if she would say it aloud.
Amrin inhaled shakily.
Then confessed she liked astronomy.
“Well, actually, professor, it turns out I don’t hate this class,” she said and laughed shyly.
The sheer vulnerable honesty in her voice made my chest ache.
Gods.
Everything about her was beautiful.
Franco beamed.
Then he casually asked if I was her date.
Date.
The word irritated me irrationally.
I was not some temporary festival escort.
I opened my mouth immediately to correct him—and froze.
Because Amrin looked directly at me then.
Her pale eyes glowing softly beneath the blue moonlight.
Emotion trembled visibly across her face while her brows furrowed slightly like she was realizing something enormous in real time.
Then softly—almost wonderingly—she said it for me.
“Actually, he’s mine,” she said.
He’s mine.
My entire world stopped.
The bond snapped violently tight beneath my ribs.
Amrin claimed me.
Publicly.
Without knowing the full truth.
Without understanding what she’d truly just done.
Mine.
The possessive instinct inside me roared with absolute triumph.
And in that moment, beneath the rising blue moon and the glowing skies of Asgarheim, I knew with terrifying certainty there was no force in existence capable of separating us.
Not now.
