The moment the contract sealed, Aiden felt it.
Not just the warmth blooming in his chest, nor the faint pulse throbbing in the back of his skull, but something deeper.
A key turning in a lock that had always been there, hidden inside him, waiting.
His cock twitched, unbidden, as if the magic itself was teasing him awake.
Selene watched him, silent, her violet eyes gleaming with that cruel patience of hers.
She always knew when silence made things worse.
Aiden stood stiffly, arms dangling awkwardly, unsure if he should mutter "thank you" or "go to hell."
She saved him the trouble.
"Sit." Her voice was a command wrapped in silk. "You'll faint again if I start explaining while you're upright."
He obeyed, mostly out of exhaustion.
The lounge chair was too soft, too warm, like sinking into the lap of a succubus.
The velvet pressed against his thighs, and he shifted, trying to ignore the heat pooling in his groin.
Selene glided to the side of the room and tapped the wall.
A pulse of magic shimmered, rippling through the air like a lover's sigh.
A circular rune spun into visibility, glowing faintly, and with a twist of her wrist, a thin silver mirror hovered into the air.
It looked like glass, but its surface rippled like liquid desire, reflecting the room's rose and amber orbs with an eerie, sensual glow.
"This," she said, her voice low, "is a Thread Mirror. It shows what your Eye sees—but reflects it outward, so others can watch."
Aiden's throat tightened. "You want me to… what? Watch porn of myself?"
"Not porn." She turned, her skirt shifting to reveal a sliver of sigil-marked thigh. "Truth."
"That's worse," he muttered, his pants suddenly feeling too tight again.
She snapped her fingers.
A spark of violet light flicked from her nail, striking between his eyes.
His Purity Eye pulsed—once, hard, like a jolt straight to his core.
The mirror shimmered.
And Aiden saw himself.
Except… not.
His reflection wasn't just him.
It was overlaid with pulsing lines of light—ghost-inked threads curving and trembling with raw energy.
Shame threads knotted darkly around his chest, tight and jagged.
A denial seal flickered around his neck, like a broken lock sparking with defiance. And around his groin—he refused to look at first, but the glow demanded it.
"Why is it glowing?!" he choked out, voice cracking as the mirror's light pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
"You've never masturbated," Selene said calmly, sipping her tea as if discussing the weather.
"Not in the last two days! That's not the same—"
"You've suppressed more sexual mana than a monk with a bondage allergy." Her lips curved into a wicked smirk.
"You're backed up with magical tension."
"That's not a thing," he protested, shifting in the chair, the fabric brushing his thighs in a way that made his situation worse.
"It is now." She stepped beside the mirror, pointing with a finger that trailed a faint rune in the air.
"Look here. See the spiral around your sternum?"
Aiden nodded reluctantly, his eyes tracing the glowing coil on his reflection's chest. It pulsed, warm and intimate, like a heartbeat he didn't want to acknowledge.
"That's where the Eye anchors," Selene continued. "At level one—Eye of Exposure—it reacts to three things. Sexual aura, trauma impressions, and desire threads. What you saw on me earlier? That was a combination of all three."
"It felt like a magical slap and a blowjob at the same time," Aiden muttered, rubbing his temple.
"You'll get used to it."
"You shouldn't say that like a teacher comforting a student during hand stuff."
Selene ignored him, her gaze unwavering. "Eventually, you'll control it. Filter what you see. But right now? It's raw. And the Eye… doesn't lie."
She stepped back, letting him face the mirror again.
"So you're saying this… this messed-up glowing horror is me?"
"No." Her voice softened, almost dangerous in its intimacy. "That's what you've been hiding."
Aiden stared.
The shame.
The repression.
The hunger.
It was all there, laid bare in blinding magical clarity. His reflection's threads pulsed, accusing, and he hated how accurate it felt.
"This is what I'm going to see on everyone?" he asked, voice low.
"If you want to solve cases, yes."
He didn't speak.
His reflection—glowing, trembling, bound—stared back, a map of his unspoken desires.
"You'll learn to handle it," Selene said quietly, her words carrying a weight that made his skin prickle. "Or it'll handle you."
The mirror shimmered once… and went dark.