IRYNA
Sunlight slipped through the heavy curtains like liquid gold, warm and accusing, painting stripes across my bare arms. My body felt heavy, deliciously sore in places I didn't want to examine too closely, the faint ache beneath my ribs a quiet, constant reminder that I was no longer entirely my own. I had fallen asleep. In his bed. After everything.
I shot upright, heart slamming against my sternum.
"Oh no."
Across the room Dark stood like a statue carved from midnight and moonlight, arms folded loosely over his chest, the morning sun catching fire in the crimson strands that fell across his forehead. He didn't look worried. He looked… satisfied. Patient. Like a predator who had already tasted victory and was now savoring the slow unraveling of his prey.
"Please tell me it's not morning," I whispered, voice cracking on the last word.
He tilted his head, the barest curve touching his lips. "You've been asleep for five hours."
"Fuck."
I rolled onto my side, pressing a hand to my chest as though I could physically hold the bond in place. I needed to get back—back to my tiny apartment with its mismatched mugs and half-dead plants, back to my phone that would be exploding with missed calls, back to pretending I was still just Iryna Grey, twenty-four, graphic designer, daughter, friend. Not this… tethered thing. Not his.
But even the thought of standing, of putting more than a few feet between us, sent a warning twist through my ribs—sharp, possessive, promising worse if I ignored it.
Dark's voice cut through the panic, low and unhurried. "It's almost night now."
I glanced toward the window. He was right. The sky beyond the glass was deep indigo, city lights glittering like fallen stars far below. Hours had vanished. Ciara would be frantic. My mother would have called Ciara and if Ciara didn't pick up, she would have called every emergency line by now.
"I need to go home for now. Even if it's for a few days," I said, the words scraping my throat. "They'll be worried sick. My mother… Ciara… I can't just disappear."
His gaze flicked to me—unblinking, endless blue. "Do you truly believe you can walk out of here without consequence?"
"Yes." The lie tasted bitter. The first faint tremor in my chest was already warning me otherwise. "I have a life. Obligations. My mother will worry herself into the ground. My work—"
"You will return," he said, pushing off the wall with liquid grace. "But we need to stabilize you first. Until the wedding."
'Wedding.'
He dropped the word so casually it felt like a slap. My stomach flipped—anger, dread, and something dangerously close to anticipation twisting together until I couldn't separate them.
"How do you plan to stabilize me?" I demanded, hating how my voice trembled at the edges.
He stepped closer. Close enough that the air between us thickened, charged. "You may leave this place. But the bond, it will punish distance. You must manage it carefully." His voice dropped, intimate, almost tender. "Which means you must allow me access. Either I walk beside you in a form no one else can see… or I possess someone around you."
My pulse kicked hard. "Access."
"Yes."
"You appeared out of nowhere when I collapsed at Ciara's," I said quietly. "You took me without access."
"Yes and that had consequences I would prefer not to repeat. You need to accept me, so I can move around with you. I'm a demon, little mortal."
I narrowed my eyes. "Consequences?"
He didn't answer. Just watched me with that maddening calm.
I dragged a hand through my tangled hair. "I won't let you possess anyone I love."
"Accepted." A faint, approving smile ghosted his mouth. "Then you will grow accustomed to my presence."
"People won't see you?"
"No." He leaned in fractionally, voice a velvet murmur against my ear. "Unless you wish them to."
I shook my head so fast the room spun. "Absolutely not."
"And Ciara?" My voice cracked on her name. "You said she was sleeping. You made her sleep?"
"Yes. She still sleeps," he confirmed. "Her memory has been… smoothed. She will recall only what you choose to tell her."
I stared at him. "You erased it."
"I prevented interference."
The casual way he said it sent ice sliding down my spine. My world had become a place where memories could be edited like bad drafts, where people I loved could be made to forget the worst hours of their lives. And the worst part? A small, exhausted part of me was grateful.
"Okay," I whispered. "But… can you keep some distance? Just enough that I can breathe without feeling you everywhere?"
He considered me for a long heartbeat. Then his hand lifted—slow, deliberate—and brushed the hair back from my temple. The touch was feather-light, but it sent sparks skittering across my skin.
"The bond will allow a small distance. For now."
I exhaled shakily. "And the wedding?" I could not believe this was really happening.
His fingers tightened—just slightly—on my jaw, tilting my face up so I had no choice but to meet his gaze.
"In two days."
My eyes widened. "Two days?"
"The Pure Realm has already sensed you." His voice darkened, edged with something almost protective. "Hunters. Guardians. They will come. They will see my essence woven into your blood and they will want to tear it out. Tear you out." His thumb stroked once along my lower lip—slow, deliberate. "That will be inconvenient for me. I will not allow that."
Heat and dread coiled tight in my belly. "So we… get married in two days."
"Yes."
I laughed—a short, broken sound. "You're insane."
"Perhaps." His mouth curved, wicked and tender at once. "But I am also inevitable."
"But I need time to prepare my mother. I cannot just bring you to her suddenly and tell her you're my fiancé? It wouldn't make sense. I have never mentioned any man of recent to her."
"Your human ways or rules do not apply to me, little mortal. That's your problem, fix it."
Before I could snap back, he moved—swift, silent—and his arm snaked around my waist. In one smooth, possessive motion he lifted me off the floor, cradling me high against his chest like I weighed nothing at all.
Heat flooded my cheeks. "What the—put me down! What are you doing?"
He didn't. His hold only tightened—possessive, unyielding—one hand splayed wide across my lower back, the other supporting my thighs. Every point of contact burned through my clothes. His heartbeat thudded strong and steady beneath my palms where they'd instinctively curled into his shirt.
"Holding you."
"Of course I know you're holding me," I hissed, face flaming. "Why?"
"Because I need to." His lips brushed the shell of my ear, voice dropping to a husky whisper that made my pulse stutter and my thighs clench. "And because you need me to."
I shoved at his shoulder. It was like pushing granite. "I can walk."
"You can barely breathe when I'm more than ten steps away." His mouth grazed my temple—soft, almost reverent. "Let me carry you, little mortal. You will need it to survive tonight."
The fight drained out of me in a shaky exhale. My hands—traitors—slid up to loop around his neck instead of pushing him away. His scent wrapped around me—smoke, cedar, something darker and ancient that made my head spin. His heartbeat was a dark lullaby against my chest, steady where mine raced.
"Where are we going?" I whispered into the warm hollow of his throat.
"Home," he murmured against my hair, lips brushing the strands. "Your home. For tonight."
My throat tightened. "And tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow we begin preparations." His voice turned darker, richer, laced with hunger. "Tomorrow night… we begin the rest of the rituals."
Heat pooled low in my belly. I buried my face against his shoulder so he wouldn't see the flush spreading across my skin.
He chuckled—low, wicked, intimate—the sound vibrating through me.
"Blushing already?" he teased, lips grazing my ear again. "We haven't even started."
"Shut up, you asshole," I mumbled into his neck, mortified and aching in equal measure.
He only held me tighter, carrying me toward the door like I was something precious. Something his. And for the first time since this nightmare began…
I didn't try to pull away.
I let my
self rest against him—just for a moment—and pretended the steady beat of his heart wasn't the only thing keeping mine from breaking apart.