Chapter 4: The Forbidden Bond

ARIA'S POV

Aria ran.

Her feet tore through roots and dirt, lungs burning, every breath shallow and ragged. But no matter how far she fled, the bond clung to her-- an invisible chain coiled around her ribs, pulling, tugging, dragging her back towards him.

The fever only worsened. Her skin seared where the mark had taken root, a jagged sigil stretched across her wrist and creeping up her arm and shoulder. Every throb sent lightening through her veins, hot and unbearable. She pressed her palm against it, but the heat only pulsed harder, as though it mocked her attempts to silence it.

"Run all you like," Kael's voice whispered, low and rough, curling through her head like smoke.

She stumbled, clutching a tree trunk, heart hammering. His voice wasn't real--couldn't be--but it threaded through her thoughts, coiling around her fear with wicked intimacy.

"You'll tire before I do. You'll break before I bend. The bond won't let you rest, little flame."

Her knees gave out, and she collapsed onto the moss, clutching her arms around herself. She wanted to scream, wanted to rip the mark from her flesh, but every second the fever spread, it twisted into something else. Heat. Need.

Her eyelids grew heavy despite her panic.

Exhaustion dragged her under.

And Kael followed her into her dreams.

---

The forest melted away, and she stood in darkness, breathless. Shadows pressed close, heavy and alive, but instead of suffocating her, they stroked her skin like velvet. She shivered.

"Do you feel me?" His voice came from everywhere , echoing in her chest, sliding down her spine.

She spun, searching, but the shadows thickened, parting just enough to reveal him. Kael stepped out of the void, eyes burning molten, lips curved in smile too sharp to be kind.

"You can't outrun what's inside you," he said, closing the distance with slow deliberate strides.

Her body betrayed her again. Her legs refused to move, her breath caught in her throat. And when his hand rose--fingers brushing the edge of the glowing mark on her wrist--she moaned softly, shame mixed with raw, uncontrollable need.

The mark blazed under his touch.

"See?" he murmured. " You burn for me as I burn for you."

She shook her head, but it was weak, unconvincing. The shadows swirled around them, wrapping her like chains, like hands. Her fear tangled with desire, a dizzying storm that left her trembling.

"You want to fight me," Kael said, leaning close, lips a breath away from hers. "But the bond doesn't care for your lies."

Her throat went dry. "This isn't real."

He smiled, wicked and hungry. "It feels real enough."

When his mouth crashed against hers, the dream dissolved into fire. His kiss wasn't gentle--it devoured, it demanded, it claimed. Her body arched against him, desperate for relief from the fever that had been eating her alive since the bond formed. Every brush of his lips sent sparks racing down her veins, lighting her nerves ablaze.

The dream blurred--his hands gripping her hips, dragging her against him, shadws tangling around her wrist like restraints, her voice breaking into breathless cries that echoed in the void. Fear and desire melted together until she couldn't tell them apart.

When he pulled back,his mouth grazed her ear.

"Mine. Always."

--

Aria jolted awake, gasping. Sweat slicked her thigh and back, her chest heaving, her body still trembling from phantom touches. Her dream clung to her like smoke, too vivid to dismiss, too raw to forget.

Then she saw it.

The sigil burned brighter now, crawling up her arm in intricate lines, glowing like molten sliver. Her skin pulsed with every heartbeat, the heat unbearable.

"No," she cried, clutching her arm.

But the bond didn't care for her pleas. It was spreading, claiming, sealing.

And Kael's voice lingered in her mind, velvet and cruel, as though he'd branded it there forever.

Mine. Always.

Aria stared at the glowing mark, horror and hunger warring in her chest, and realized the truth she had feared since the moment their eyes met--

She wasn't escaping him.

Not in this life. Not in any.