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September 22 - September 26, 2025
“There are soulmates,” Razik said. “A bond between kindred souls that is completely platonic. They are people who understand each other on a deeper level, but there is no romantic attraction. The intimacy is deeper than friendship. Soul deep. Scarlett has such a thing with her Guardian and another in our world, and I have one with her brother.”
They weren’t running out of time. They were already working on borrowed time, and Fate would come collecting soon.
told you how I felt. Told you I believe you are my twin flame. Told you I am carrying your child. You said you were happy. You agreed. And then you fucking left,” she cried, her hands slamming into his chest and shoving.
“For the first time ever, you made me feel like I was beneath you,” she went on, and that fire in her eyes banked as tears filled them, spilling over. “You walked away as if I was something you could simply discard when I was no longer useful to you.”
That’s why I left, Katya. Because I would rather live a life without you, knowing you are healthy and whole, than live a life where I endanger you just by existing.”
“Love to me is defined as safety, and I know loving someone as protecting them. It’s fucked up, and I know it’s not how the whole love thing is supposed to work, but that’s how I’ve known love. And this thing between us? I don’t understand it either, but I know that I love you. I was loving you when I sent you with Tristyn, and I was loving you when I left you here. I know I need to learn to love you differently. Normally maybe? Whatever it is, I’ll do it. If you’re telling me that loving you means we’re together no matter what, then that’s what I’ll do. Tell me how to love you, kitten,
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“I do not wish for a normal love,” she said. “And I choose you too. I choose us, even if our days are spent without light.”
“You and me.” Her hand went to her stomach. “You and us.”
Where Theon was intense and anxious, Luka was a solid presence. Calm and stoic, but intense and commanding all the same.
But all this meant that Xan was Sargon’s son, making Luka the grandchild of a god.
You are the combination of four powerful bloodlines. Two of those lines were never meant to cross. It makes sense that crossing those powers would alter others.”
“Arius and Serafina had two children together: Saylah and Temural. But Saylah and Temural’s gifts are simply extensions of Arius and Serafina’s,” Razik said. “Saylah is the goddess of night and shadows, which are extensions of Arius’s gifts of death, darkness, and endings and Serafina’s gifts of dreams.”
“The visions of your Zinta bloodline merged with the dreams of the Serafina bloodline.”
“Because one of Serafina’s gifts is being able to walk among dreams,” Razik said. “But because the powers were altered in Tessa’s case, she is pulling others in to walk her dreams. Or in this case, her visions.”
Because while they were her villains, she was theirs.
“And if I asked you to crawl across the floor and beg sweetly from your knees?”
Then on your knees, clever tempest, Theon answered. But Tessa? Yes? And her voice was breathy even down the bond. Only him. If anyone else touches what is mine, death will be a mercy.
“Have you done this for Theon?” She shook her head. “He wishes.” Luka’s chuckle was dark. “I bet he does, temptress.” His thumb brushed over her lip again. “I want that bratty mouth of yours around my cock, baby girl.”
“Gods, you can be such a good girl when you’re not being a brat,” he rasped out on ragged breaths, thrusting into her mouth again and again.
What does she look like? came Theon’s strained voice down the bond. Like a fucking goddess, Luka answered. Her mouth was made for this.
He kissed her again. “I’m not supposed to want you like this,” he murmured. “But I don’t think I care anymore.”
“Theon,” Eviana repeated. “Valter tried to mold him into a replica of himself, but Theon always resisted. I found it pointless, but he persisted.”
She looked bored, which was a dangerous thing for her. It was when she got into trouble.
“We’re meant to destroy each other,” she whispered, the words pained and agonized. “Then destroy me, little storm.”
Kissing Luka was willingly giving him a piece of her. Kissing Theon was willingly letting him possess her, and that was exactly what he did.
This was absolutely going to leave a mark. He knew it. She knew it. And a thrill went through her at the idea of openly defying every fucking thing Devram stood for. At saying fuck you to all their traditions. At shoving their power plays and politics up their asses.
“You and these fucking dresses will be my destruction,” he murmured.
“You are my source of everything I hate about this realm, but you are also my source of the things I crave. You are the source of what broke me, but you are also the source of what saved me. You are the source of my fury, but you are also the source of every dark desire. You are the source of what I have become, but you are also a source of complete acceptance of who that person is. You are the source of my own self-discovery, and how twisted is that, Theon?”
“It’s more than a bond,” she interrupted, her frustration climbing as she said those words, knowing they would damn her. Her next words were a whisper. “It’s always been more than a bond.”
Because she had become his villain, and he still kept coming back for her. Again and again and again. Just like he’d promised.
“You promised to tell me who my mother is at the end of this. Where is she?” Tessa asked, lifting her chin. “I did,” he agreed. “Akira is in my home world where she belongs.”
“You say you don’t know where you belong anymore, but there’s a freedom in that, Axel,”
“Someday you will see what I see, Axel,” she said. “You will see that you are more than a spare heir, more than a bloodline, more than what your father has led you to believe. Someday you will see yourself as I see you.”
“Your tears are red,” Kat whispered. “And yours are heartbreaking,” he replied, pressing a kiss to her temple before he pulled her back into his chest.
But then everything in her froze with shock as the female removed her mask, and the emerald green eyes of Cressida stared back at her.
“You are aiding the Achaz Lord,” Tessa said in utter shock. “But you are married to the Arius Lord.”
“Tessalyn!” Auryon snapped. “You are wild and fury, light and dark. Once lost, you were found. The only one who hasn’t realized that is you.”
And Auryon smiled up at her. “It is in your blood. The life you seek. What you desperately want. Many have sacrificed to give you a choice, Tessalyn. The costs have been great because of love for you. You only need to accept that you are worthy of such a thing, then take what is yours to claim.”
“My place is in Arius Kingdom with Theon and Axel,” he went on, not letting her turn away at the words. “But it isn’t home unless you are there with us.”
Godsdammit, Tessa. It was always you. For both of us, and he may be a brother to me, but I hated that he was the one who would get to have you. For the years leading up to the Selection Ceremony, I forced myself to be indifferent, but I couldn’t help trying to convince him to Select someone else. I constantly told him you weren’t the one for this. Not because I had any inkling you weren’t Fae or were the grandchild of the most powerful gods, but because dragons are jealous creatures, temptress. If I couldn’t have you, I didn’t want anyone else to have you either.”
“But you’re too loyal,” she said in quiet acceptance. “And he is your family.” “He is my family,” he agreed. “But you? You are my light.”
“Gods, I love it when you’re vicious,”
Naked in his nest of blankets and pillows. Completely at his mercy and squirming under his gaze. “What are you doing?” she asked, an uncertainty in her tone he didn’t like. “Looking,” he answered immediately. “Looking at a goddess. So let me look.”
“You like the sound of that, don’t you, temptress?” he crooned, sliding his palms up the inside of her thighs. She gasped as he climbed higher. “Both of us on our knees before you, giving you pleasure. Serving you. Letting you take whatever you want.”
“I was just thinking that if you’ve always been mine, maybe some part of me has always been yours in a way too. We just never understood it because we’re all so…broken.”
“Explain it to me, Tessa. Explain to me how you’ve spoken to my godsdamn father and didn’t say a fucking word to me. Where is he?”
She didn’t struggle in the slightest when his large hand wrapped around her throat. She wished he would squeeze. She wished he would summon his flames and burn her. It would hurt less than watching him learn all of this.
“For weeks I have been in the same place as my father. Who I have thought was dead for nearly twenty-five years,” he yelled, his breath hot on her face. “For twenty-five years, I have thought I was alone. The last of my kind. I have been trying to— You said nothing. Fucking nothing!”
She shook her head, the tears streaming now. “None of you know how to love.” “Or maybe you just don’t know how to let yourself be loved.”
“After all, control can be an illusion as much as it can be fleeting.”
