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October 24 - October 30, 2025
“Well then, I guess that’s a problem because I don’t care about you. Not when the cost of it took everything from me.” Her lips pursed into a thin line. “You’re not worth it.”
“Don’t project onto me. I know you, even if you hate it. You care about me. I know what I felt then, and I know what you felt. It was real. It’s the only thing I can still feel from you, and I will stop at nothing to have you back with me. I won’t let you suffer alone. You know I won’t. I’m too damned stubborn.”
“Is that how I looked? How long did you stare at me?”
“Look at that. Gods do know how to bow.” “If you wanted me on my knees, Dianna, all you had to do was ask. You know that.”
“Whatever you want.” Her smile was all fangs and cold brutality. “Whatever I want?” “Always.”
“Great. I despise that word. I wish to be so much more than friends.”
“How many times do I have to set you on fire, drop a building on you, or stab you before you leave me alone?” “After what you just did?” He didn’t even look phased as he shrugged a single shoulder. “At this point, I’m starting to think the violence is foreplay for you.”
“We both know that’s not what I like.” “It’s not?” He stepped closer, encompassing me in his warmth and scent. “Come home and teach me what you do like.”
“You can keep pretending that what we have done and been through meant nothing to you, but I know the truth. You have affected me on some deep level, Dianna, and I know you feel it too. I know it,”
“The flames on your hands tell me differently. There is passion between us.”
“Do not try to simplify my feelings. Ever.”
“That wasn’t the only thing we did, and you know it.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t trivialize it.”
“Do you really think you mean that little to me?”
He knew he could have me, and I would gladly allow it.
“You don’t think I know what this is? You let Kaden get into that beautiful head far too easily. Let his words twist what we both know is untrue. I would never hurt you or abandon you, Dianna. What happened to everything we said? What happened to your burdens becoming mine? I know you are in more pain than anyone should have to bear. Let me help shoulder some of this weight for you.”
I had super strength, but I wasn’t strong when it came to him and my feelings. Not by a long shot.
Flames rushed through the hall, and large chunks of metal flew toward us, all of it headed for him. I tackled him, pushing him to the ship's floor. He hit the ground with a thud, and I cried out in pain as the metal shrapnel raked across my back. His eyes lit, triumphant silver meeting mine. I realized what I’d just done and how it proved everything I’d said was a fucking lie.
but she was mine, and she held a part of me no one had touched before. My heart ached far more than the soreness now ebbing from my body.
She’d said it reminded her of how I never listen to her, but she was wrong. I listened to everything, every word, every breath. I listened.
“The next, I couldn’t stand the thought of being away from her.”
I cared for him more than I wanted to admit.
I felt him the day I met him, and my awareness of him grew with every moment we spent together. Even when I avoided him, trying to keep my distance, I still felt him.
“You are seriously defending it?” “She is not an it.”
My life is sacrifice after sacrifice for you, for all of you,
“And you know what the funniest part of this is? It’s that it took someone who our texts label as our enemy to bring me back. That’s what she did. She brought me back, and it wasn’t in the way you think or some crass joke Cameron cannot wait to make.”
“I didn’t have to tell Dianna anything at first. She saw me, all of me. Just as I have seen her, she is strong and selfless. I’ve seen her run headfirst into danger for those she cares for without a single thought for herself. She’s funny and smart and beautiful, so beautiful. She’s a fighter, a warrior stronger than any I’ve ever trained. Above all, she is a woman who had no choice in the life thrust upon her. Dianna survived against all odds for Gabby, and Kaden ripped her away. Dianna is not a monster. She never was. She loves, cares, and feels, and right now, all she feels is grief, pain,
...more
If she is a monster to you, then so am I.”
“If you think Lady Imogen’s return will make Samkiel give up on you, you are sadly mistaken. He summoned Oblivion for you.”
“The things that man can do with his hands. I can only imagine the rest. Which, you know, I have.”
Samkiel deserved so much more than me. I couldn’t take the life he was destined to live. A curse, that’s what I’d been to Gabby. I wouldn’t force that on him.
“You do realize that falling in love with Samkiel did not kill your sister?”
She wishes for the pain she feels, and he eases it. Samkiel makes her feel something more. He makes her want things she doesn’t feel she deserves. Therefore, she lashes out more violently. She considers the pain she feels as punishment for what occurred. The more time Samkiel is with her, the more of her mortality slips through,
When she is around Samkiel, he makes her see, feel, and care.
Gabriella was her heart, Samkiel is her soul,
“She fell in love with you as you did her. That is the problem for so many.”
“I have neither the time nor patience for riddles and games. Not now and never about her. Where is she?”
“Dianna.” Why did her name always feel like a benediction when it fell from my lips?
“You also forgot about Dianna’s jealousy. She lit the forest of your island on fire because of a mere kiss. She would be beyond rage, thinking I had a betrothed and had lied to her. Imogen wouldn’t have made it past the front door.”
We swore that no matter what happened, we would try to bring her back because if Samkiel loved her, she was also ours. He had finally chosen for himself. He hadn't been coerced or chosen out of duty. We would be damned if we lost him like so many gods before.
“If she is still my girl.”
“You will have to be more specific, akrai, on what exactly I ruined. Your mood?” I taunted her. “Your panties, perhaps?”
I saw the shock in her eyes at hearing me call her my heart in Eorian.
“If you’re going to insult me, akrai, you have to do better than that.
“Is this us flirting? You yell and toss me through a few stories when you don’t get your way, or perhaps you’ll drop another building on me.”
“I don’t know, Dianna.” I smirked. “It definitely makes me hard.”
“Always with the tone of surprise. There is no place in this world or the next that you can hide from me, akrai.”
“You’re pathetic.” “Am I? Curse me if you want. Throw your hateful words. Whatever you need, I can take it.”
We can do this dance until this world burns and the next takes its place, but I will still choose you.”
I had reached her.
