Page 165 of House Ignis

My back hit the cold marble wall with a sharp gasp, his grip on my thighs keeping me pinned firmly against him.

His shadows coiled around us like silken chains, holding me still while his mouth traced a slow, claiming path along my neck, my jaw, and my cheekbone. He was engraving me into his memory.

"I want all of you," he whispered against my ear, his teeth grazing the sensitive shell.

"Your light, your fury, your tears. I want to mark every fucking inch of you until there's no doubt in anyone's mind who you belong to."

His hands cradled my face now, his wet palms framing my jaw as his forehead pressed to mine.

His eyes held mine like a silent vow.

"You're mine, Ava," he growled, low and lethal. "Say it. Say you're mine."

Gods, I wanted to. I wanted to hand him every shattered piece of my soul and let him hold them. But the reality of the sun rising tomorrow crashed back into me.

"But Asher…" My voice broke, hot tears spilling even through the pounding water. "I'm betrothed. There are contracts. There are laws."

For a heartbeat, the world stopped.

The steam pressed in, heavy and suffocating. His grip didn't ease, but the shadows wrapped tighter around my waist, as if they could physically hold me together.

His jaw flexed, the muscle jumping.

His gaze sharpened with sudden resolve.

"Then marry me," he said, his voice like smoke and sin.

I froze. My breath caught in my throat, the water running in rivulets over my parted lips.

He wasn't smirking. He wasn't teasing.

He looked ready to declare war on the heavens themselves.

He leaned in, his mouth brushing mine as the steam curled around us.

“Be mine, darling,” he murmured, the nickname curling around me like a binding spell I never wanted to break. “I’ll drown the fucking world in darkness before I let him have you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

My legs burned as Ember and I tore down the training trail behind House Ignis, our breaths clouding in the chill morning air.

The Aegos Trials loomed over the Academy, but my head was a far more volatile mess.

It had been a week since Asher asked me that question.

The question.

The one that had detonated in my chest like wildfire, incinerating every plan I'd ever made for my future.

Ryven was doing better now—miraculously better.

I visited him every day, watching as the last remnants of the corruption left his system.

The antidote had worked; his veins were no longer shadow-laced, and his eyes had returned to that clear, piercing ocean blue.

He and Maddy were closer than ever, a silent, unshakable bond forged in the wreckage of his recovery.

Asher and me? We were...something else entirely.