Page 179 of House Ignis

"You feel like sin," he groaned, his thumbs brushing my nipples, which were still sensitive and aching from before.

His shadows wrapped around my throat, not squeezing—just holding, a cool, silken reminder of exactly who owned me in this moment.

I shattered again, clinging to his sweat-slicked shoulders as if I were about to fall into the very abyss he'd created for me. But he didn't stop.

He didn't slow when I whimpered, not even when my nails raked desperate marks down his back.

"Again," he said, the word less of a request and more of a pure, dark command. His voice was rough with hunger, stripping away what little resolve I had left.

"I want you to fall apart for me until you forget the gods themselves ever existed."

And with the way my body moved against his—unspooling and lost to the shadows and the male who wielded them—I was already forgetting. The world, the journal, the throne... it all vanished.

There was nothing left in the universe except the dark, the fire, and Asher.

•••

For the next few days, Asher brutally devoured me every morning and every night.

Gods, did I revel in it.

His hunger for me was a physical thing, finding me in closets, showers, and baths.

There wasn't a single corner of the Academy we hadn't claimed as our own.

It was primal. Insatiable.

The kind of heat that left me bruised in all the best ways, my voice a permanent rasp from moaning his name.

Ember nearly choked when I told her just how feral and unhinged Asher was behind closed doors.

We were walking back from training for the Trials, sweat clinging to our clothes and my braid sticking to the back of my neck.

Luna and Aether trudged behind us, their paws heavy on the stone stairs. Ember was already muttering about a nap.

Me? I needed to look at my brother's journal.

Asher still didn't know about it, thank the gods.

Jules had provided the perfect cover for what we'd actually discovered down there, letting everyone believe the catacombs had only led us to the antidote, not Jax's dangerous secrets.

Asher had gone back to House Umbra to grab more clothes. He essentially lived here now.

His scent was everywhere, clinging to the sheets, the pillows, and the very pores of my skin.

Jules had tucked the journal under my bed before the ball; I'd noticed it the moment I returned the next night, but I'd been far too busy being claimed over and over again to touch it.

Now, I had maybe an hour before the shadows returned for me.

I pulled the journal from beneath the bed, the worn leather warm under my fingertips. From the weight of it, it felt... different. Heavier. When I opened it, I saw that Jules had worked tirelessly; the first few pages were fully translated, though dozens of others remained a cryptic mess of Veyari script.

Aether stretched out beside me, curling his sleek body against my hip. "Finally," he purred into my mind, his golden eyes half-lidded.

I smirked faintly, turning to the section marked just after the antidote notes. The next line made my pulse stutter.

Scott recovered, and I believed the infection caused by the drug could be reversed, but I haven't told Father or Uncle yet. I need more proof. I need to go beyond the borders again.

My heart slammed against my ribs. Beyond the borders. The next few pages were more mundane—entries about school and being top of his potions class.