The sheets burned with the scent of them damp, sticky, tangled in the weight of what had just happened. Kael's chest heaved, his pulse stuttered, his skin betrayed him with heat he couldn't shake. He clutched the fabric around his waist as though hiding would erase it, erase her.
Selira didn't move far. She leaned back against the headboard, blouse loose, strap fallen, the curve of her breast half-exposed. Her hair draped over one shoulder, wild and unashamed. And her lips swollen from kissing, still wet from the way she had devoured him curled into that damned smirk.
Not kindness. Not innocence. No apology. Just that slow, dangerous pull at the corner of her mouth that mocked his trembling.
Kael's hand clenched the sheet tighter. His eyes darted to his wrist. faint, but still there, the echo of the sirgil light that had burst free before snapping him into that blinding white void. For a moment he wondered if it had all been in his head. A hallucination. A trick of exhaustion. But Selira had seen it. He knew she had.
Her gaze pinned him now. Not the look of a girl who had just given herself recklessly, but the stare of someone dissecting him, peeling back skin and bone with nothing more than her eyes.
The silence dragged. His breath was loud in it, uneven, pathetic.
Then Selira laughed. Low, husky, curling from her throat like smoke. The sound made Kael flinch.
"It's different this time," she said.
His breath hitched. The smirk widened when she saw it.
She slid forward, blouse falling further, thigh revealed as she shifted her weight. Her eyes dragged across him deliberately, lingering too long, before meeting his again. "The way you touched me. The way I felt it. That wasn't just you, Kael. Something else was inside you."
Inside me? His chest twisted violently.
Selira tilted her head, hair veiling half her face. "Do you remember when I told you I felt something tighter, different, the aura and blessings—whenever you held me?"
Kael swallowed hard, his throat bone-dry. He nodded.
Her smirk sharpened. "That wasn't your touch. That was a soul staring through me. A glare that pressed me down. I bowed to it, Kael. Do you understand? I wasn't just giving myself to you. I was commanded."
The words rattled through him like chains snapping shut.
Selira leaned closer, her hair brushing his arm, her voice dropping to a husk against his ear. "My body didn't burn because of you alone. It burned because your mana surged, your blessing twisted, and your lust—" her lips almost brushed him, " wasn't yours anymore. It devoured me."
He turned his face away, shame crawling over his skin. His chest heaved. His wrist throbbed faintly, mocking him.
Selira leaned back again, smirk never fading. "That's why I said you own me. Because I felt it. That presence inside you. And when it opened its eyes, Kael… I belonged."
Kael's breath snapped sharp in his throat. His voice was gone. He couldn't argue. Couldn't speak.
She laughed again, soft but cutting. "Look at you. Still trembling. What's wrong? Was this your first time?" She dragged her gaze over his body, deliberate and cruel. "You act like a virgin who stumbled into hell."
Her words scalded him. Heat rushed to his face. His fists clenched tighter in the sheets.
She leaned forward, smirk deepening. "Adorable," she whispered.
Kael's stomach twisted. He wanted to fight back, to deny everything, but his chest only thudded harder, heavier, betraying him again.
Her eyes flicked to his wrist, she had seen it glow. She knew.
And for a fleeting second, her smirk faltered into something sharper. Her gaze turned heavy, not teasing but certain. "You don't understand yet. You're too busy drowning in denial. But when you're ready… you'll come to me. Because this power inside you it's real. And it's growing."
Her smirk returned, slower, heavier, dripping heat. "And when it consumes you, Kael…" she tilted her head, eyes locked on his, "I'll be waiting."
The room pressed down on him. The air burned. The sheets clung to his skin. His wrist pulsed once, crimson flicker under his veins.
Selira watched. Smirking. Always smirking.
Kael's eyes widened, breath ragged, heart pounding so loud it drowned his thoughts.
He was trapped between terror and thrill.
And Selira knew it.
He sat frozen, naked beneath the weight of sheets that no longer felt like protection but chains binding him to the moment. His chest refused to calm; every breath was a betrayal, loud and trembling.
Selira didn't relent. She stayed where she was, perched on the bed like a predator who had already eaten but still wanted to watch her prey squirm. Her blouse hung loose, collar parted, strap dangling over her arm, and her smirk deepened every time Kael's eyes flicked away.
She leaned forward, resting her chin against her knuckles, gaze unwavering. "You're still in denial," she said softly, smirk tugging with each word. "It's written all over your trembling body."
Kael's jaw tightened. He wanted to argue, to spit words back, but his throat was dry, scraped raw by the truth clawing at him. He could still feel her skin on his, her wetness, the burning pulse of lust that hadn't been entirely his.
Selira tilted her head. "What's wrong, Kael? Afraid of what you did to me? Or afraid of what you became when you touched me?"
Her words cut deeper than her teeth had.
Kael's hand twitched at the sheet. He finally rasped, voice hoarse, "I… don't understand…"
Her smirk twitched into something crueler. "You don't have to. Not yet." She slid forward on the bed, her thigh brushing against his. He jolted, his face snapping toward hers in horror. She enjoyed it—his panic fed her. "But you will," she breathed, her lips dangerously close.
Kael's wrist burned. Just faintly. Just enough to make him glance down at that cursed sirgíl mark, glowing and dying in waves under his skin. He snapped his arm back against his side, hiding it from view.
But Selira had already seen.
Her smirk widened, slow and deliberate. "Still pretending?" she whispered. "You think I don't notice? That light wasn't just some accident, Kael. That mark wants to wake."
He flinched, chest pounding.
Selira leaned back, eyes narrowing but her tone playful, mocking. "It was beautiful, you know. That crimson glare. It almost frightened me " she paused, smirk curling darker, "—almost."
The air thickened, pressing Kael further into suffocating heat. His breath came faster, panic stirring against the raw ember of desire that refused to die in his stomach.
Selira watched every flicker of his expression, every tremble of his fingers, like she was peeling layers off his soul. Then she laughed again, low and slow, shaking her head.
"You really don't know, do you?" she murmured.
Kael glanced at her, confusion sharp in his eyes.
Her smirked wider. "That power inside you… it isn't just yours. It doesn't belong to you alone. And the moment you stop fighting it, Kael…" She leaned close again, her breath against his ear, her voice a whisper drenched in heat, "you'll understand what it means to own me."
Kael's pulse snapped violently. His face burned, his fists clenched harder.
She leaned back, watching him tremble, smirk still painted across her lips. "Until then," she added, eyes narrowing with dark amusement, "you can keep pretending you're just a boy who kissed the wrong girl. Keep running from it. It'll catch you anyway."
The silence between them thickened, heavy, charged. Kael stared at the floor, his heart rattling like a cage too small for its beast.
And Selira still smirking, still unafraid, just leaned against the headboard, gaze locked on him as if she could already see the moment he'd break.