LOGINTHEODOSAA concentrated ball of fire shot from his hand straight into Xahen’s grip on the rifle.Xahen’s hold faltered under the sudden heat. Binny immediately followed with a thin, scorching line of fire that forced the rifle to fly from Xahen’s hand and skitter hard across the deck.I flinched at the heat and the metallic clatter. My body tilted to the floor, giving me a perfect view of the man above me, watching his jaw clench tightly.I pulled myself upright as Binny lunged toward the fallen weapon. Xahen gripped the helm with one hand and hoisted himself over my body in a single powerful motion, using a band of shadow to yank the rifle back toward himself.Binny’s fire responded instantly, wrapping the extended shadow-hand in a winding, burning vine.The shadows flickered and then dissipated under the assault.Binny reached the rifle first, snatched it up, aimed, and fired.The shot hit Xahen cleanly in the shoulder.I flinched hard at the sound and the impact. Binny growled lik
THEODOSA.My chest heaved with the effort of trying to stay calm.I looked around me, eyes scanning the shoreline of Lucenia for any sign of movement.White sand stretched along the edge of the water, and beyond it the trees and thick bushes stood completely still.Not a single branch rustled. Not a leaf shifted. The entire line of green looked frozen, as if the island itself was holding its breath. I couldn’t understand how Binny had managed to release that first lance of fire. The distance was significant. The angle had been perfect.And yet right now, the trees remained motionless, offering no hint of where he might be hiding.I turned my gaze back to Xahen.The rifle was so close to my temple that the cold metal nearly kissed my skin. His amber eyes stayed fixed on the shoreline with absolute certainty, the kind of calm that said he already knew Binny would step out eventually.Everything about his posture and expression made it clear he was simply waiting for the inevitable.I s
THEODOSA.Tension filled the small space between us like something I could have reached out and touched.Xahen backed away from me slowly, as he mumbled, “Get dressed.” His jaw was clenched so tight the muscle along it kept jumping, and one of his hands curled into a fist that he clenched and released in rapid, restless cycles.He seemed so tense.We’d done this before... but something about just now felt... different.Part of me felt certain he had something to say. Something that sat right behind his teeth and wanted out. He chose otherwise. He said nothing else at all and simply kept putting distance between us.What we had just done was strange to say the absolute least. And that was only the absolute least of it.My body still hummed with the aftermath in ways I could not ignore. The deep ache between my legs. The faint bruises already forming on the soft flesh of my hips where his hands had held me too hard. The wetness of both of us still slick on my inner thighs every time I s
THEODOSA.The kiss turned bad almost immediately.Not bad in the way that meant it should stop. Bad in the way that meant neither of us was going to stop even though every smart part of me knew we should. His mouth opened under mine and the sound that left him was low and angry, like he hated that he was answering it at all. One of his hands stayed fisted in my hair. The other slammed flat against the wall beside my head hard enough that I felt the vibration travel through the wood and into my spine. He kissed me like he was trying to punish me for starting it. Teeth and heat and the taste of salt still clinging to both of us from the wind.Binny’s life was in danger.The thought cut through the haze for half a second and then got buried under the sheer force of Xahen’s body pressing fully against mine. The hard line of his cock dug into my stomach through the fabric. I could feel how thick he was even with the layers between us, and the knowledge of it made something reckless and stup
THEODOSA.The ship was smaller than I expected.Xahen boarded first with a sealed wooden box under one arm. No guards followed. No councilors. No one else at all. The deck crew that had helped load supplies stepped back onto the dock the second he gave them a single look, and the ropes were cast off without another word spoken. Within minutes the shoreline of Obsidian was shrinking behind us and the open water stretched in every direction.He pointed to a low bench along the starboard side.“Sit. Do not speak.”I sat.The wood was hard under my thighs. The wind pulled at my hair and the salt spray occasionally reached my face. Xahen set the box down near the mast and leaned against the railing with his arms crossed, staring out at the horizon like I was not even there. The mate bond sat between us, restless and loud because there was nowhere else for it to go. We were alone on open water with nothing but the creak of the hull and the sound of waves against the sides.I lasted maybe tw
THEODOSA.I felt weird and exposed and completely naked in a way that went past the fact that I actually was.The cord at my wrists kept me stretched out. My legs were open because he had put them that way. The air in the room sat cool against every soft place he had already looked at. I tried to find some ground under myself by talking back.“Tell me about Luna.”Xahen’s hand paused on the vibrator still resting against my inner thigh. He looked at me like I had asked him the weather in a place that no longer existed.“I’m not in the mood to discuss your past transgressions.”The words landed flat. I swallowed and kept going anyway because the silence was worse.“She wasn’t—” I cut myself off. My throat felt tight. “From what I know, your mates ran after they betrayed you. In case you can’t see, I don’t even have the stamina for that.”His gaze dropped.It moved down my body in one slow pass and stopped for a full second on the scar that ran from my navel to my hip. The place his wol
THEODOSA.Ten years.I drew back from the bars, the weight of those two words crushing down on me like a boulder.Ten years locked in this cell? Ten possible years waiting for a king who believed I was his twice-over betrayer. Ten years hoping he'd shift back into a man who wanted me dead anyway?W
THEODOSA. I refused to flinch. He wanted me to cower. To stammer and blush and prove that I wasn’t serious about this. That I was just some desperate girl who’d crumble the moment he pushed back. I wasn’t going to give him that. “I want my brother released,” I said, keeping my voice steady. “Se
THEODOSA.Obsidian in the daytime was a different beast entirely.The streets that had felt like a death trap my first night here were now just streets. Busy ones filled with people who looked like they had places to be and things to do. Stall vendors shouted over each other trying to attract custo
XAHEN.“Search the western wing again. Every closet, every crawl space. If a mouse moves, I want to know about it.”My voice seemed to bite into the walls of the throne room. The guard didn't even look up. He simply bowed, his shoulders hunched in fear, and scrambled away. I watched his retreating







