The city outside throbbed with supernatural life—its glowing towers and rune-scarred streets a mirror to the chaos burning inside Selene's chest.
The mark on her wrist hadn't dimmed. If anything, it pulsed brighter with every breath she took near Kieran. It wasn't just a symbol. It was alive.
And it was speaking.
Not with words, but with feelings—urges she couldn't explain, whispers that weren't hers. Something ancient had awakened, and it had tethered itself to her.
"You're hearing it too, aren't you?" Kieran asked from the shadows of the room, his voice steady but edged with tension.
Selene's eyes met his. "You think it's trying to… communicate with us?"
Kieran nodded once. "Not in the way we understand. It's more instinct than language. More hunger than thought."
A chill ran down her spine. "Hunger?"
He stepped closer, barefoot across the stone floor, the tattoos on his skin now softly glowing in response to the mark on hers. "Whatever this force is, it's tied to something older than either of us. Something forgotten. It feeds on emotion. On obsession."
Selene frowned. "That word again…"
Kieran studied her. "You don't feel it? The way your thoughts circle me even when I'm not near? The way your magic responds when I speak your name?"
Her pulse jumped.
Because she had noticed. Her abilities had been sharper, wilder, since the night they'd crossed the line. Her dreams had twisted—no longer just memories, but glimpses of something older. Something watching.
"You think this bond is corrupting us?"
Kieran tilted his head. "No," he said quietly. "I think it's revealing us. The parts we hide. The parts we pretend aren't there."
Selene looked down at her hand, the mark now a faint ember. "And if we fight it?"
Kieran's voice was flat. "It fights back."
A sudden gust of wind blasted through the open balcony door, extinguishing every candle in the room. The temperature dropped, and for a split second—Selene saw something.
A veil of shadows forming in the far corner. Wisps of black mist curling like tendrils. No sound. No shape. Just a presence.
She stood, heart racing. "Kieran—"
"I see it," he growled, stepping in front of her, shielding her with his body.
The shadows pulsed once, then receded like a wave folding back into the sea.
Gone.
But not forgotten.
Selene clutched his arm. "What was that?"
He looked over his shoulder, jaw tight. "Proof."
"Of what?"
"That this isn't just between us anymore." His eyes burned, gold and furious. "Something wants to see how far we'll fall."
Selene stared into the darkness, the echo of that shadow still lingering in her bones.
She had thought this was just about forbidden love.
Now, she realized—
They were part of something much larger.
And obsession was only the beginning.
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