Mason did not touch her again.
That was the cruelty of it.
Instead, he began teaching her.
He showed her the Abyss from a distance—ancient battlefields frozen in time, demon lords sealed into living stone, the bones of gods who had believed themselves eternal.
"This one challenged me," Mason said, gesturing toward a colossal skeleton half-sunken into the dark sea below. "He believed obsession was weakness."
Seris swallowed. "And you killed him."
"No." Mason's lips curved faintly. "I outlived him."
The implication chilled her more than any threat.
They stood side by side, close enough that she could feel the cold radiating from him, the strange pull of the bond urging her nearer.
"Why me?" she asked finally. "Why not one of them?" She gestured vaguely at the immortal horrors surrounding them.
Mason turned fully toward her.
"Because they kneel," he said. "You do not."
His gaze dropped briefly—to her mouth. To her throat. To the rapid rise and fall of her chest.
"You resist me," he continued. "You burn against the bond instead of yielding. That makes you dangerous."
A pause.
"And irresistible."
Heat flared across her skin—anger, fear, something else she refused to name.
"You're afraid of losing control," she said.
For the first time since she had met him, Mason went completely still.
The Abyss trembled.
"I have never lost control," he said quietly.
Seris held his gaze, heart pounding. "You will."
Silence stretched between them, taut as a drawn blade.
Then Mason stepped back.
"You will learn what eternity costs," he said. "And when you understand it—truly understand it—you will stop running."
He turned away, shadows folding around him.
Because eventually," his voice echoed from everywhere, "you will realize the only thing more terrifying than belonging to me…"
The bond tightened, warm and unyielding.
"…is losing me."
Seris sank to her knees as the truth settled heavily in her chest.
The Abyss was not her prison.
Mason was.
And worse—
Part of her was already learning how to breathe inside the cage.