Masuk(Apollo & Adelaide)She barely had time to suck in a breath before it snapped across the curve of her ass.The impact wasn’t brutal—not the way his punishments had been. But it was sharp. A swift stripe of heat that sizzled across her skin, stinging fiercely for a heartbeat before the pain bloomed and spread, merging with the rest of the fire already licking at her.She gasped, a shocked sound, hips jerking forward.Her flame leapt in response, flaring gold under her skin. The pain lit something primal inside her—something instinctive, ancient, tied to the lineage buried in her blood. Her body recognised the ritual of it even before her mind caught up.The smoke ropes tightened, stabilising her before she could swing too wildly. The motion dragged the clamps, yanking at already-raw flesh, sending another shockwave through her chest.Her flame roared.The chamber answered—wards flickering, runes brightening, the very air around her trembling like a struck chord. Her power pulsed outwar
(Apollo & Adelaide)Apollo’s gaze flicked upward for a heartbeat. His jaw clenched. The Queen’s marks again, answering her.His hand skimmed back up her leg, this time with less patience.He drew a harsher stroke of fire along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh, stopping just short of the burning clamp nestled where she ached the deepest. The near-miss made her whole body seize with frustration—her hips jerking, her mouth falling open around a sound that wasn’t quite a plea, but close.He smiled, dark and pleased. “Almost greedy,” he mused. “Careful, Little Flame. Greed looks very good on you.”The word greedy struck something inside her—something she had buried beneath years of shrinking herself, of holding in every desire she’d been told was too much, too loud, too wrong. Hearing him praise it—praise her for wanting—felt like a wound healing in reverse: painful, tender, necessary.He rose smoothly to stand. The sheer size of him in this form made her feel even smaller, even more
(Apollo & Adelaide)Adelaide’s heart stuttered. Shame twisted under her ribs—yet her flame flared, answering the title even as her mind recoiled. She couldn't make sense of it: Little whore. His whore. The contradiction burned inside her. Part of her wanted to reject the word, but its sound awakened a hunger she couldn’t deny, fusing shame and longing until she couldn’t pull them apart. She recognised something inside her curling—small, wounded, but alive. Old bruises she’d carried for years now felt vivid with fire, made meaningful in his mouth as they never had been elsewhere. She realised that the shame didn’t diminish the desire. Strangely, it fed it. It stoked something in her, turning every ragged breath into tinder. She felt powerless to fight it.The chamber echoed with her turmoil, as if the stones drank in her fevered longing, ancient runes whispering like monks in a ruined monastery.For a moment after he spoke, only her breathing filled the room. The low, greedy hum of the
(Apollo & Adelaide)He lifted his hand. Smoke curled upward from his palm, thick and molten-dark. It slithered through the air like sentient rope, unravelling into long, shadow-silk tendrils that flickered with heat at their edges. They responded to his breath, to his heartbeat, to the hunger in him that was growing too sharp to hide.Adelaide froze. “Apollo…” she whispered.He stopped directly in front of her, the smoke swirling around his shoulders like a living mantle.“Do not run,” he murmured. “Not from this.”“I’m not—” Her voice faltered. “I just… I don’t want to be put back on the cross.”That made him pause. His gaze softened by a hair—barely a breath—but it was enough to change the heat in the room.“Your time on the cross is done,” he said quietly. “Unless…”Her brows drew together. “Unless?”His mouth curved—a dark, wicked smirk.“Unless you ever ask me nicely,” he murmured. “Then I would gladly oblige you.”Heat rolled through her so sharply she swayed, the ribbon at her
(Apollo & Adelaide)For a heartbeat, the words hung between them like a pulled thread—thin, trembling, ready to snap.Then Apollo surged forward.His mouth crashed against hers in a kiss that felt like a door being kicked open. Hot, molten, claiming—nothing gentle, nothing restrained. The sound she made was a gasp caught on a moan, and he swallowed it like he needed it to breathe.Adelaide’s hands shot up to brace against his chest. The moment her palms touched him, she melted—every thought unravelling in the scorching pull of him. Under her fingers, his chest was solid heat, muscles flexing as he dragged her closer, erasing even the ghost of distance.She felt herself surrender completely, her body yielding first, spirit reluctantly following. Confusion flickered—was she giving in, or being taken? The uncertainty deepened her surrender, sending her spiralling further.His hand cupped the back of her head, fingers threading into her hair with possessive urgency. The other slid down—ov
(Apollo)Apollo let the silence stretch, the air thickening between them until the only sounds were her breathing and the low crackle of the ever-present fire in the veins of the stone. Even the distant roar of Hell’s rivers seemed to hush, as though the realm itself were leaning closer to listen.“What did you think about, Little Flame?” he asked softly. “As you lay here and burned?”She folded her arms across her chest, cloak shifting. “Does it matter?”His gaze darkened.“Yes,” he said. “It does.”She flinched at his tone but held his eyes. “You,” she said finally. “Fine. You. Happy now?”Liar, his magic whispered. Not entirely. Her flame had two focal points, and he could feel the tug of the other like a splinter under his thumb.His jaw worked.“Me,” he said again. “And was my shadow outside the door when you thought of me?”Her eyes flicked to the door, then back. “He was where you ordered him to be.”“Answer the question,” Apollo said.She blew out a breath through her nose, fr







