My Dream Lover Is Real, the Underworld God

"Lost for words, little star?"

His lips brushed my earlobe, his breath scorching hot.

The scene snapped back to my bed. My usual dream.

His rough, large hand gripped my chin, tilting my head back. I still couldn't see his face.

He crashed his lips onto mine. His tongue swept into my mouth, wild and greedy, stealing all my air.

"Say yes," he mumbled against my lips, his hard hips grinding aggressively against mine. "Come to the Eternal City. I'll make you my mate... my only bride... I'll claim you for real."

Pleasure shot down my spine like lightning, making me shake.

Gasping, I threw reason out the window. Just like the last ninety nights, I kissed him back, wrapping my legs tight around his waist.

When it was over, my eyes snapped open. I was soaked. It felt terrifyingly real.

But I couldn't care about that right now. That pomegranate crest kept flashing in my mind.

The Night House. Rulers of the Eternal City. Descendants of the ancient Underworld God.

Cold-blooded. Masters of life and death. Untouchable.

And I was just a lowly new court astrologer serving them.

Any of them could gouge my eyes out just for looking at them wrong.

Yet, for three months, I'd been having astral sex with one of their high lords!

"Only bride"?

Bullshit. The Night House only married pureblood nobles. Never a nobody astrologer.

I was just a pathetic toy. If they found out, I wouldn't live to see the sunrise.

Next morning. The Great Council Chamber.

I hugged my star scrolls, standing at the very end of the long table. My legs shook under my robes.

"The stars show... the Shadow Storms in the west have passed." I kept my head down, rushing the words.

The most powerful men in the Eternal City sat around this table.

One of them might be the beast trying to claim me in the waking world.

Knowing that gravelly voice was hiding in this very room made me dizzy. A shameful heat flared low in my belly.

"Report concluded. Dismissed," an authoritative voice echoed.

Sweet relief. I clutched my scrolls, desperate to flee this suffocating room.

"You seem on edge today, Lyra."

A smooth, magnetic voice stopped me in the hallway.

I froze. Lord Valerius.

The Lord's chief advisor, head of the court scholars, and my direct boss.

Thirties. Handsome, tall, and perfectly elegant.

"My Lord." I kept my eyes glued to the floor.

He took a step closer. His massive frame blocked the light.

"Didn't sleep well?" He tilted his head, his dark eyes locking onto my face. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Or... were you too exhausted from last night?"

My breath hitched.

Was he testing me?

"I was just up late charting the stars..." My fingertips went numb from panic.

"Is that so?" He chuckled.

He suddenly raised a hand. I flinched, instinctively pulling back.

But he merely reached past me to grab a slipping parchment from my arms.

As he moved, his sleeve slid back. The sunlight caught his wrist perfectly.

A custom mithril cufflink blinded me.

Carved into it was a totem of two binary stars, entangled and devouring each other.

A sharp ringing filled my ears.

Only one person in the world had seen that symbol.

Last week, in that wild dream. I was naked, limp in that man's arms, my fingers slick with his hot sweat. I had traced that secret star path over his heart with my index finger.

"It's an anomaly star pairing I charted. Never published," I had whispered against his chest, teasing him. "Now, it's your personal mark."

And now, this completely secret mark—one that didn't exist in reality—was perfectly engraved on Valerius's cufflink.

The man who made me scream in my dreams, the one who swore to make me his "only bride," was Valerius!

As the chief advisor and top scholar, he absolutely had the power to use dark mind-magic to invade my sleep.

I shook all over, nausea rising in my throat.

How could it be him? Why him!

Everyone at court knew Lord Valerius had a high-born fiancée! He was marrying a noble lady next month.

Yet he used magic to invade my mind, using me as his private sex toy?

Sweet-talking his fiancée while doing filthy things to me in my sleep?!