Chapter Five
The car slowed.
Kaos leaned forward as they turned into the alley, his eyes narrowing. The moment the tires stopped, he sent his power out—scouring a mile in every direction, slicing through walls, rooftops, signals, and intent.
Petty criminality was all he found. Low-grade surveillance. Two weapons carried without discipline. Nothing that posed a real threat.
As he exited the vehicle, his gaze flicked left, then right, power folding back behind it. He looked at Jaxi and gave a short nod.
She slid out with a quiet, “Thank you,” already looking up at the building.
Inside, the host gave a polished nod and gestured toward a private elevator.
Kaos let Jaxi step forward first, then reached out—his hand landing at the base of her spine. A claim disguised as guidance. A point of contact to track her every move. She didn’t flinch. Didn’t question it.
His power swept again—narrowed this time. Targeted. He found warm bodies three floors up. Surface-level curiosity. Two distinct hunger patterns. Male. One seated. One mobile.
He stepped into the elevator beside her, hand still at her back until the doors closed.
“Fancy pants, indeed,” she murmured, adjusting her bag on her shoulder, eyes flicking to the mirrored walls.
He had no answer as the elevator ascended.
He discreetly removed his hand from her lower back only to return it the second the door opened.
He guided her out, scanning the table placements, wall structure, staff positions.
Lanterns cast low light across the rooftop, the air filled with the smell of expensive wine, cooked meat, and something sweet—her hair, he realized, rising above it all.
Kaos directed her to the table with the best view of the elevator and stairwell. His etiquette data informed him to pull her chair before she could reach for it.
As she sat, his gaze landed on the far table, finding the lone male already watching her.
Kaos took his seat opposite her, adjusting the angle to intercept both access points and cut off one of the men already watching her.
Jaxi’s gaze swept the rooftop. Her smile bloomed big till her tiny nose wrinkled. “This feels like the last ten minutes of a rom-com,” she whispered, her voice giddy. “Just before somebody makes a really big confession.”
Kaos processed the term—romantic comedy. Patterned emotional spectacle. Scripted vulnerability.
“You don’t think so?” she asked.
“I’ve never seen one.”
Her grin widened. “Of course you haven’t.”
The server arrived and placed menus before them along with water.
Jaxi ran her fingers along the edge of her napkin. “It’s weirdly nice. Being somewhere like this.”
“Romantic?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t think you were listening.”
“I was.” So much more than you can fathom.
That softened something in her, but only for a second. “Why is that strange to you?” she asked. “You don’t think love can bloom somewhere like this?”
Kaos kept his eyes on her. “The only love I’ve seen was forged in fire. And sacrifice.”
She tilted her head, amused. “Sounds like you dated a landmine.”
He realized this was her way of asking for details. Cute crumbs of hunger, dropped right at his feet. He kept his eyes on her. “She was the Queen I was assigned to protect.”
The air froze between them as her smile faded with the pull of her eyebrows. “Wait… she was an actual queen?”
Kaos scanned the rooftop, his sigh discreet. “Not by title. Not the kind you’d recognize.” Why did he keep bringing the Queen into their conversation?
Because she’s all you know and have.
“Then what kind?”
“She carried something sacred. Power that couldn’t stay hidden. Power that threatened others.”
“And you… protected her.”
He lowered his gaze to the table, ready to just tell her everything and get it out of their way. “I still do.”
“But you’re not with her.” Her hand curled around her glass. The change was subtle—shoulders tighter, posture more exact. Her tone softened, but it was calculation.
“The bond we shared made her visible to our enemies,” Kaos said. “Severing the bond kept her safe.”
Her lips parted slightly as she inspected her water. “Yes. That bond . What was it like, exactly? How does a man like you bond with a queen? ”
Kaos studied her, his powers pushing against the barricade he’d put up while he human’d his way with her. She was still dropping crumbs, but they were no longer cute and little, they were chunks of need so potent that she forgot to hide it.
Honesty is critical with her.
“It was constant,” he said quietly. “Her presence never left me. I never had to reach for it. It was always there.”
Her expression shifted—curiosity touched with something deeper.
“And you… felt what she felt?”
“Yes.”
“Was it hard to let go?”
He locked his gaze on hers. “Very. But it was always about what she needed.”
Jaxi looked at the skyline now. Her posture eased but not fully. She picked up her glass with careful fingers and took a slow sip while he tracked the small changes—breath slowing, gaze focused on anything but him.
His powers again begged in his pores, needing to measure her temperature and pulse, learn what she folded down inside herself. But he resisted. Silently beckoning her to show herself to him.
“I’ve been kissed,” she said, eyes still fixed on the skyline. “Just never under fireworks.” The words came plain, without decoration. Without armor.
Kaos tracked the weight behind them. Her voice was steady, but something in the delivery pulled his attention tighter. She lifted her glass again, slower this time.
“That’s how I always pictured it,” she said quietly. “When it mattered.” She stayed focused on the rim of the glass. Her tone dimmed near the end as she adjusted the water in her hands again, once, then twice. But it solved nothing.
The image formed in Kaos’s mind—her standing under skyfire, waiting for someone to offer a moment she’d never claim for herself. To be seen. Chosen. Measured. And somewhere in her silence, she had already determined she wouldn’t be.
His focus sharpened as something unstable pulsed beneath his skin. “That kind of moment,” he said, voice low, “isn’t given.”
Jaxi looked up, eyes locking on his.
“It’s taken,” he said. “By someone who sees it and decides it belongs to them.”
She held still. Her pulse ticked faster beneath the skin on her neck.
Kaos leaned in slightly, his voice quieter. “You’re still waiting for it to be offered.”
The server appeared beside their table. “Do you know what you’d like to order?”
Jaxi jumped, hand jerking just enough to rattle her glass.
“Oh! Wow—yes, sorry! Didn’t even see you sneak up.
Stealth mode. Love it.” She laughed once—loud, breathy—then buried her face in the menu.
“Okay, um… let’s do the goat cheese flatbread, for sure.
And the—ooh, the arugula salad with figs.
Yes. That. Love figs. And arugula’s spicy, right? That’s fun.”
The server nodded once. “Would you like to add a protein to the salad?”
“Sure. Chicken. Grilled. No, wait—salmon. Unless chicken’s easier. Or, like… standard? Whatever’s normal.”
“Grilled chicken it is.”
“And wine,” she added, waving at the empty space in front of her. “Whatever red you think pairs well with mild goat cheese and awkward tension.”
The server nodded and turned to Kaos.
“Ribeye,” he said. “Medium rare. Roasted vegetables. One glass of dry red.”
The server gathered the menus and left.
Jaxi adjusted her napkin with too much focus, folding it like precision could erase the last thirty seconds.
Kaos remained still. Her recovery wasn’t complete—just redirected.
The chatter, the movements, the shifts in tone all carried data.
He continued to collect, watching her hands, the pace of her breath.
The tension still held in her posture. Pressure had opened her.
The clarity that followed gave him a sharper view.
He liked her this way. Exposed. Focus scattered, movements drawn from instinct, not design. Without his power, this state gave him what he needed—unfiltered access and answers.
He tracked this break to its source—the Queen. The bond. That word had shifted something in her, changed her voice, her movement, her everything. The fracture carried the shape of loss—like something had been ripped from her hands before she knew she was reaching for it.
He froze when the word came to him. Jealousy.
Possession. A reaction when something valued drew attention from another source.
He’d felt it once—with the Queen. But it hadn't come in pieces.
It had entered like fire. Sacred. Consuming.
Sharing her had warped everything inside him.
Rage fused with worship. There was no separation.
But… this felt different. Jaxi hadn’t claimed anything. Her reaction rose from absence, not protection. No territory marked. No claim disrupted. Just the shock of craving something that suddenly became unreachable.
If jealousy could exist without the kind of possession he’d had, then it lacked structure. It moved without pattern. That made it unpredictable. Able to change.
Kaos shifted his weight, one hand curling around his glass of water. He needed to open her up again. To be sure. “You pictured the fireworks. What else did you picture?”
Jaxi blinked, seeming caught by the softness in the question.
She looked at him briefly, then dropped her gaze.
“I don’t know. It was just… a moment. One of those things you make up when you're young. Standing under all that color. Someone pulling you in close. Everything goes quiet. Like something important finally sees you.” She gave a soft laugh. “Sounds silly now.”
“It doesn’t,” Kaos said.
Her fingers adjusted her napkin again, as if that could undo the words.