Page 94 of House Ignis

"No!" I snapped, my pulse jumping. "Rule three: No kissing. Even if the world is ending. And rule four: No sex. Obviously."

Asher let out a theatrical groan, clutching his heart.

"You drive a hard bargain. You've bound yourself to the most powerful male in Umbra and won't even let him sleep on the edge of the bed?"

"Floor," I pointed. "Mattress is underneath. Blankets are in the chest."

He sighed but helped me pull out the spare mattress. He stripped off his shirt, revealing the sea of shadow-ink swirling across his chest and the sharp, black sigil. I pointedly looked at the ceiling, trying to ignore the way the light played over his corded muscle.

As I climbed into bed and killed the fae lights, the room settled into a heavy, charged silence. I stared into the dark, the weight of the day finally crushing me.

"I didn't say thank you," I whispered, my voice barely a breath. "For saving me from Zorian. Twice. And for... getting me out of going home."

Silence stretched, thick and warm, until I thought he'd fallen asleep.

"Of course, Princess," his voice came from the floor, rough and low. "I wish I'd killed the fuck instead."

I let out a quiet, real laugh. "Good night."

"Good night, darling," he replied.

A cool, soft tendril of shadow drifted up from the floor, curling gently around my ankle. It wasn't a grab; it was a resting weight. A silent, dark vow. Wrapped in his shadow, the storm in my head finally quieted, and I slept.

The bond didn't just hum; it pulled, dragging me into the gray, weeping atmosphere of my own trauma. I was back at the funeral.

The rain was a cold, relentless weight. The scent of wet earth and cedarwood from Jax's coffin clutched at my throat. I stood at the edge of the open grave, my nails drawing blood from my palms as the dark wood was lowered into the dirt.

Then, the shadows beside me shifted.

Asher stood there, soaked to the bone, his black hair plastered to his forehead. He didn't look like a stranger; he looked like he belonged in the wreckage of my past.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered, my voice breaking.

"The bond," he murmured, his silver eyes fixed on the gold inlay of the casket. "I'm tethered to the storm, Ava."

I looked away, wiping rain and tears from my face, but a movement in the treeline caught my eye. Ice-blue eyes. Watching. Cold. I turned to Asher, my heart hammer-hooked in my ribs—

"Ava!"

I jolted awake with a fractured gasp. I wasn't in the rain; I was pressed against a broad, warm chest. I was straddling him, my nightgown damp with sweat, my fingers buried in his shoulders. Asher's silver eyes were wide and wild, mirroring the panic leaking through the bond.

The grief broke over me like a levee. I collapsed against him, sobbing into the crook of his neck. For those minutes, the crown didn't exist. The hierarchy was gone. There was only the girl who had lost her brother and the male who was forced to feel every jagged shard of it.

As my sobs ebbed into shuddering breaths, the physical reality of our position slammed into me. I was flushed against him, my thighs gripping his hips. The friction of my movement pulled a low, guttural hiss from between his teeth.

"Rules," he ground out, his voice wrecked and rough as gravel.

I froze, but the bond was a live wire in my blood—needy, feral, and utterly lost. I shifted again, chasing the heat, my body acting on a hunger I couldn't rationalize.

Asher's hands shot out, pinning my wrists. He sat up slowly, his eyes blazing with a lethal mixture of lust and predatory restraint.

"When I fuck you," he said, his voice a dark, velvet threat against my lips, "it will be when you want me fully. Desperately. When you're begging for the shadows to claim you."

My breath hitched. The sheer, arrogant certainty of it made my head spin.

I scrambled off him like I'd been burned, stumbling back and pressing my hands to my flaming cheeks. "Gods. What is wrong with me?"

Asher rose with the fluid grace of a cat, shadows licking at his bare skin. "Nothing," he said, a wicked, effortless smirk tugging at his mouth. "You're just bonded to someone irresistible."