She came as usual quiet, steady, following my shadow through the shield.
But something on her face was different tonight.
I said,
"You know about the thread thing. You'll get weak, and my power will flow from me to protect you. I'll lose strength."
I tried to mock her, but she didn't react.
"Are you even listening?"
"Yes, senior," she said flatly.
That word hit me harder than it should've. Senior....!!
Formal. Distant.
I grabbed her wrist and pressed her back against the tree.
She flinched.
"Ouch! What's your problem?"
"What's wrong with you?" I snapped.
"Why are you acting different today?"
She looked right into my eyes.
"You already know. This is how it should be--senior, junior. Nothing else."
I clenched my jaw.
"We both agreed our mutual feelings were because of the thread, didn't we?"
She said coldly,
"Then why didn't you mention the thread in front of Walter? It would've been easier. They'd have looked into it, found a way to cut it fast… and you could go back to Erina."
"Erina?" I almost laughed. "You think I care about her? Walter would've killed you before he even researched anything, and he wouldn't care if I died too."
Her tone sharpened. "You also wanted the same, didn't you? To kill me. So why care now?"
I had no words. Because she was right.
I was a liar.
A coward.
Afraid to admit that things weren't the same anymore....afraid because, for the first time, I didn't want her gone.
"Why are you afraid, Kael?" she asked, voice breaking.
I froze...
She laughed weakly, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"I'm literally fucked up. I can't take it anymore. I feel you, and I feel something else from you too. I can't pretend like you do, Kael…"
Her voice cracked, and I just stood there, shocked.
"I know I'm a burden to you,"
she whispered.
"Trust me, I never wanted this. I never wanted to be a weakling..! never wanted to be this pathetic...! begging for life every damn day..., lying to myself about what I feel..."
Her breathing hitched.
"And you...Kael...you confuse me...!.Your words and what I feel from you don't match. Am I wrong? Am I delusional?"
Her tears shimmered in the faint glow of our thread.
"I can't understand anything anymore, Kael… I'm fucking falling for you, and I can't hide it."
Something inside me cracked wide open.
My chest burned; every word hit like fire under my skin.
I couldn't stop myself.
I leaned in and kissed her..gently at first, tasting her tears.
Her breath caught, trembling between us.
"Tell me, Kael," she whispered against my lips. "Please. I beg you… tell me the truth."
I met her eyes.
"It's not because of the thread anymore."
Then I kissed her again..hard, desperate, like everything I'd been holding back finally came out...
The bond ignited between us, a bright red pulse that shimmered across our hands.
She clung to me, and I held her, lifting her effortlessly as her legs wrapped around my waist.
Every emotion...anger, guilt, desire..merged until it was impossible to tell where hers ended and mine began.
Her lips trailed against my throat, breath warm, unsteady.
The air around us shimmered, gold bleeding into the black of my shadow.
Her hands slipped up my chest, tracing the edges of scars I never let anyone touch.
She blinked, her throat tight.
"I saw you,"
she said, voice breaking.
"You and Erina...together... I saw everything."
I froze.
"Everything?" My voice came out low, dangerous.
She nodded once, her eyes trembling but fierce.
"Her illusion… it showed you touching her, kissing her, whispering things...like you meant it."
I exhaled through my teeth, slow.
"Fuck...!!"
Then I laughed .. short, humorless. "That pink witch's gotten creative."
Stepping closer, I tilted my head, half a smirk on my lips.
"So, she showed you her fantasy and you thought it was my reality?"
Serie didn't answer, just looked away, shame and anger twisting her face.
My mouth found her neck, trailing slowly along her pulse--soft, deliberate, claiming.
Her fingers tightened on my sleeve and then..
My hands claimed the soft, yielding weight of her breasts, crushing the lace of the bra that was the last pathetic barrier.
She arched into the pressure, a low, guttural moan vibrating deep in her chest.
"You saw smoke, darling," I murmured against her ear, the words a low, vibrating growl. "And you mistook it for fire. Let me show you what real fire feels like."
I ripped the bra free, sending it sailing into the shadows, then followed the curve of her waist down to the denim that still clung to her hips.
"Help me," I commanded, the word thick with need.
She was already fumbling with the button, her eyes dark, wide pools reflecting the urgency.
The denim dropped to her ankles, kicking free the mundane world.
She stood before me in nothing but the shadow-play of the dark place, breathtaking in her raw vulnerability and escalating desire.
My own remaining clothes falling on ground
"I only want you.."
I ground out, lifting her effortlessly. Her legs automatically wrapped around my waist, tightening that exquisite, familiar vise.
I found her entrance, slick and hot, ready for the violence of our reunion. I didn't wait, didn't tease...
the illusion of Erina, the phantom of doubt, had to be burned out completely, replaced by undeniable, searing reality.
With one powerful thrust, I drove home.
A moan came from her throat, immediately swallowed by my kiss.
This was not tenderness; this was a cleansing fire...
I moved with a savage rhythm, punishing the space between us, demanding every ounce of her focus, every flicker of her soul.
Her hips met mine with equal, desperate force, a counter-rhythm of pure, unadulterated pleasure.
Her nails raked my shoulders, leaving stinging trails that only fueled the intensity.
"Listen," I said, low, my shadow coiling like a cloak around us.
"Erina's good at two things,"
I continued, voice dropping into a low drawl.
"Copying what she can't have and performing for an audience."
I leaned in, close enough for her breath to catch.
"She can fake the heat. The sighs. Maybe even make you hear my voice."
My fingers slid into her hair, forcing her eyes back to mine
"But she can't fake what answers me."
The smirk faded, replaced with a quiet snarl.
"She can't make the air taste like smoke and sin when I'm near you.
Serie tried to speak, but the words died against my mouth when I kissed her hard, merciless, real...
Her hands gripped my back like she wanted to tear away every lie between us.
When we finally broke apart, both of us breathing hard, I whispered against her lips,
"Now tell me...did her little show feel like this?"
Her voice trembled. "No...!!"
A low chuckle slipped from me, cruel and quiet.
"Of course not," I murmured, my eyes locked on hers. "Because what I do to you..."
I leaned close, lips brushing her ear
"she can't even imagine creating."
The bond pulsed between us like wildfire, every heartbeat daring the world to call it fake.
Her breathing steadied, but the silence between us didn't.
I helped her fix her clothes, my hands brushing over warm skin that still trembled faintly from what just happened.
"Hold still,"
I muttered, pulling her hoodie back over her shoulders.
She exhaled shakily, lips pressed tight, eyes darting between my hands and my face like she didn't know which one to trust.
When she reached for her fallen bra strap, I caught it first, helping her slide it back into place. The air felt strange too intimate, too calm after all that fire.
"Always this gentle after being cruel?" she whispered.
I gave a low laugh. "Only when I'm trying to remember I've human side too"
She tilted her head slightly, a faint smirk ghosting her lips.
"Is your gentleness for everyone," she asked quietly, "or it's… exclusive?"
I leaned closer, just enough for her breath to brush mine.
"Exclusive," I murmured. "For my green-eyed one."
Her cheeks flushed, and for a second, the bond between us pulsed warm, alive.
Her lips curved slightly, but then froze. Her gaze dropped to my hand.
Her voice faltered.
"Kael… your finger."
I frowned and looked down.
A deep red line circled my ring finger--thin, precise, glowing faintly like molten gold under the skin.
Not a thread.
A mark.
A ring.
I turned her hand over slowly.
The same red line burned faintly around her finger...identical.
We both stared at it in stunned silence.
"What the hell…!!" I muttered. "This wasn't here before."
She swallowed. "It looks like…a ring."
"Not a ring,"
I said quietly.
"A mark. The thread's hidden now. But this…"
I lifted my hand slightly. The faint shimmer pulsed once, steady, alive.
"This is what it leaves behind when it claims its pair."
Her breath hitched. "Claims?"
"Like an imprint," I said, my tone sharper than I meant.
"A seal that tells the world...you belong..."
She stared at me, horror and confusion mixing behind her green eyes.
"You mean...like...."
"Like fate just made it official."
For a second,
she didn't move.
Then she looked down again, tracing the red mark with her thumb as if it would fade.
"It doesn't hurt," she murmured. "It just… feels warm."
"Warm," I repeated, my voice low, dark. "That's what fire feels like before it burns."
Her gaze met mine again.
"What does it mean, Kael?"
I hesitated, then said what I shouldn't have.
"It means the bond's no longer hiding. It's not asking anymore...it's decided."
She went still. The quiet between us thickened until even the whispers of Regio Obscura seemed to fade.
Finally, she whispered,
"So… what now?"
I looked at her hand again, at the thin red ring that mirrored mine.
And
I didn't have an answer.
Words felt useless,too small for what stood between us now.
She looked at me, waiting, but I only reached for her hand.
Our fingers brushed, and I held them together..her pulse trembling beneath my thumb.
The faint red mark on her ring finger shimmered in the dim light. I rubbed my thumb across it once, slow and uncertain.
Her eyes widened.
The glow deepenedgold and crimson twisting together like living flame.
The air around us rippled.
And then, from somewhere beyond the still night, a voice rose..soft, echoing, impossible to place.
"The claiming stirs the curse… and once bound, only blood can unmake it."
We both froze.
The mark pulsed again, steady as a heartbeat.
Neither of us spoke.
But deep down, we both knew
whatever this was, it had just crossed a line we could never step back from...