Aiden felt the ember burning within him, not just burning but clawing upward like it wanted to split his chest open. It was thrilling, intoxicating—the ember so pure he received from Catherine. It hadn't been a gradual absorption, no careful feeding as he was used to. It was sudden, violent, overwhelming.
He had felt like he was going to explode from the sheer essence of ember pouring into him through nothing but a kiss. Her lips had trembled, her body arching, and right as she shuddered, right as her release carved a sound from her throat she could never have made consciously—his ember bar was instantly filled within seconds.
A flood. A river bursting through fragile walls. For a breathless moment, he thought it would drown him instead of empower him.
