Chapter 37
XAVIAN
The air between us crackled with a heat that had nothing to do with the runes glowing faintly on the walls.
Her body pressed against mine, her breath mingling with my own in shallow, ragged bursts.
Morgan's eyes burned into me, fierce and unyielding, her good hand fisted in my shirt, pulling me closer even as her words cut deep, challenging everything I had held back.
Vulnerability clawed at me, raw and exposed in a way I had not allowed since the exile began, her accusations stripping away the layers I used to shield myself, leaving me bare to the truth that I had dragged her into this nightmare, that my curse had cost her more than I could repay.
And yet, in that rawness, desire surged, hot and insistent, my hand on her waist tightening, fingers digging into the fabric as if to anchor us both.
I wanted her, right there, to close the fraction of space left and claim her mouth with mine, to lose myself in the fire of her anger and the spark that had drawn me to her from the start.
Her lips hovered so close, parted and inviting, the tension coiling tighter, promising release in the midst of chaos.
But then it came, insidious and familiar, a stirring in the depths of my mind where silence had reigned for days.
At first, it was a whisper, faint like wind through distant cracks, but it grew, twisting into that old hunger, cold and ravenous, threading through my veins with a darkness that made my skin prickle.
Evil bloomed within it, not just need but something malevolent, a presence waking from its dormancy, reaching out with tendrils that clawed at my thoughts, promising violence and consumption.
Fear hit me like ice water, sharp and paralyzing, vulnerability amplifying it into terror because this was the blade’s return, the entity inside reclaiming its anchor, but now—horror and confusion crashed through me as the hunger twisted toward her in a way it never had before.
There had always been a pull, a dark undercurrent drawing me to her, but this was vicious, almost as if the entity was angry its true nature had been revealed, lashing out with an urge to harm her, to take, to feed, that horrified me to my core.
I could feel it rooting back in, the whispers gaining strength, hunger sharpening into evil that threatened to spill over, to turn my desire into something monstrous.
I wrenched away, breaking the contact with a force that left me staggering, my heart pounding not from want but from the dread of what had almost surfaced.
Without a word, I turned and stormed from the alcove, the stone walls blurring as I pushed deeper into the tunnels, needing distance before the darkness took hold again.