Jade
For an unbearably long moment, Logan just stares at me, and I can practically see him cycling through arguments, trying to find reasons to stop this.
Then his expression cracks, and he’s slamming me against the Fury Loop’s scorched stone wall, his mouth claiming mine with a desperation that makes my knees weak.
His hands are everywhere—fisting in my hair, sliding beneath my shirt, and gripping my hips like he needs me to stay rooted here with him.
Every touch ignites sparks along my nerves, silver crackling between us, illuminating the circle in jagged flares of light.
And when I grind myself against the hard ridge of him through his clothes, he growls so low it vibrates in my chest, like he wants to devour me whole.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” he murmurs against my neck. “Wanted you.”
He pulls his shirt over his head, and even though I’ve seen him shirtless during training, here in the Fury Loop, every line of muscle looks sculpted for my hands alone.
The air trembles with heat, my magic sparking beneath my skin as if it wants him as badly as I do.
But there’s a tension in his stance, a coil of restraint that makes me hesitate.
Because even now, after saying he loves me, he looks like he might vanish if I move too fast.
“Don’t.” I press my palm flat against his heart, feeling it race beneath my hand. “Don’t pull away from me now. Not after everything we just said.”
“I’m not pulling away,” he says, his hands gentle as they frame my face. “I’m giving you one last chance to—“
“To what? Change my mind? Because it’s too late for that.” I kiss him before he can answer, pouring every ounce of love and frustration into it.
He groans and goes rigid, his forehead resting against mine. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me,” he breathes, desperation sharpening every word. “What you’re asking for.”
“Then tell me. Help me understand why you look at me like I’m everything you’ve ever wanted, but everything you’re terrified of having.”
Instead of answering, he kisses me again, and this time there’s no hesitation.
There’s just need and want and surrender as our clothes hit the stone, until we’re completely bare to each other.
And while the night air should be cold against my bare skin, the Fury Loop burns hot around us, feeding on our emotions, turning desire into something almost painful in its intensity.
“Gods, look at you.” Logan’s eyes roam hungrily over me, his hands hovering above the electricity dancing across my skin, as if he’s frozen between worship and terror. “Silver and fire.”
“Does it hurt you?” I ask, suddenly worried. “My electricity?”
His laugh is low and bitter. “Everything about you hurts, Jade. And I can’t get enough of it.”
When he touches me again, the burst of fire and electricity illuminates the circle. We both gasp at the contact, and his pupils dilate, his control wavering before he locks it down again.
“I’ve memorized you.” His words come out almost pained, like he’s admitting to something he shouldn’t have done. “You have no idea how long I’ve been memorizing you, how long I’ve spent learning everything about you.”
“Logan...” I don’t know what to say to that, to the raw need in his voice mixed with what sounds like regret. “Why do you make it sound like a confession? Like something you should be ashamed of?”
His eyes close briefly, and when they open again, there’s something ancient in them, something that makes me shiver.
But he doesn’t answer my question. Instead, he lifts me easily, pressing me against the stone wall as my legs wrap around his waist. The hard length of him presses against my core, and I roll my hips, seeking more contact, more friction, more of him.
The pressure is maddening, the ache between my thighs almost unbearable.
But even now, even like this, his muscles are coiled tight with restraint. His hands on my hips are gentle, and his kisses are careful, when I want them to be consuming.
“Are you sure?” He presses his forehead to mine, and I realize he’s not really asking me. He’s asking himself. “After we do this, there’s no going back. You need to understand—” He stops, his jaw clenching, and I can practically see him swallowing whatever he was about to say.
“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” I tell him. “Unless you don’t want…”
“Want?” His laugh is sharp, almost angry. “I want you so badly I can’t breathe. I want you so much it’s been destroying me from the inside out.”
His words hit like a physical force, making my magic flare brighter. But there’s something broken in the way he says it, like he’s confessing to a crime rather than declaring his feelings.
“I love you,” I tell him, and he shudders, like my words are everything he wanted and everything he feared.
He’s still for a long moment, his eyes closed, every part of him controlled. The battle plays out in the tension of his shoulders, the way his fire flickers between colors, and the slight tremor in his hands where they grip my hips.
Then, like he’s made some impossible decision, he’s pressing hot and insistent against my entrance, teasing me, torturing me.
“Tell me if I hurt you.” There’s something desperate in his voice, like he’s terrified of his own strength. “Tell me if you need me to stop.”
“You won’t hurt me.” I trust him completely, even as my body tenses with anticipation. “I’m not made of glass, Logan. Stop treating me like I’ll break.”
Hunger flashes in his eyes. “Done,” he says, and when he pushes inside me, I gasp, my nails biting into his shoulders as he fills me to the hilt. The stretch burns in the most perfect way, and my thighs quiver, my body adjusting to this new sensation—full, claimed, and complete.
“Breathe,” he coaches me like he did in the trials, sweat beading on his forehead, his hands shaking where they grip my hips. “I’ve got you.”
I swear I can hear the Fury Loop’s magic like a heartbeat in the stone, amplifying everything we feel until it’s almost too much to bear. It’s like I was made for this moment. Like I was made for him.
His body trembles with restraint, and when I shift slightly, he makes a sound like I’m killing him. His grip on my hips tightens almost painfully, and his eyes flutter closed, his jaw clenching as he fights for control.
“Don’t hold back,” I whisper against his ear. “I want all of you. The darkness, the hunger, and everything you’re so afraid of. I want it all.”
I deliberately clench around him, and he releases a strangled groan before pulling back and thrusting hard, slamming into me with a force that knocks the air from my lungs.
Pleasure sharpens with pain, and I cry out, clinging to him as he does it again, and again, and again.
My body’s molding around him until there’s no space between us, only fire and electricity and the sound of skin slapping against skin.
“Is this what you wanted?” His voice is rough, almost angry. “To make me lose control?”
“Yes,” I gasp, but I can’t say anything more, because he drives himself into me again with a particularly deep thrust that makes me see stars. My head falls back against the stone, and he immediately takes advantage, his mouth finding that sensitive spot where my neck meets my shoulder.
My mind goes blank except for him—the feel of him, the taste of him, the desperate sounds he makes against my neck as his lips trace the delicate, sensitive skin there. Every touch feels like lightning, every kiss like drowning.
But then he groans and stops, his eyes going distant, and he blinks hard, his jaw tightening like he’s desperate for control again.
“No.” My hands slide down to grip his hips, pulling him deeper, burying him in me completely.
“Fuck, Jade—” His hand slams against the wall beside my head, his body shuddering as his fire explodes outward in purple-black waves that scorch new patterns into the already damaged stone.
“That’s it.” I clench around him again, enjoying the way his face contorts with pleasure so intense it looks almost like pain. “Stop thinking. Stop controlling. Just let yourself feel.”
He makes a sound that’s barely human, and his hips stutter mid-thrust, his expression flickering between ecstasy and something that looks almost like panic.
For a heartbeat, he’s completely still—frozen—and then his rhythm returns with violent intensity, his hips driving into me with so much force that the stone wall cracks behind me.
His fire rages out of control, cycling through oranges, purples, and blues, black lining the edges the entire time.
Silver electricity sparks across my skin as pleasure builds inside me like a storm, the pressure unbearable, my magic begging to break free.
Every sensation is sharper, hotter, more.
I hear our heartbeats thundering in sync, feel his breathing against my neck, and taste the salt of sweat and magic on his skin.
The air crackles with power, making every breath feel charged, every movement spark with new sensation.
“We’re leaving marks,” I gasp when I glimpse the charred stone beneath us, silver-black scorch patterns burning into the volcanic wall.
“Let it burn,” he growls, his hips snapping forward again.
I clutch at him, my nails carving lines down his back as he drives me higher and higher, until my body is nothing but sensation.
He knows exactly where to touch and exactly when to thrust, his hands moving places before I even know I want them there.
The pressure builds low in my belly, tighter and hotter, until my body trembles with the need for release, magic and all.
He must sense how close I am, because he shifts the angle slightly, and suddenly he’s hitting a spot that makes me scream.
“It’s too much,” I say as another wave of electricity bursts from me, stronger than before. “I can’t control it—”
“Let go, Jade.” His hips slam into mine again, and there’s no restraint in it, just raw need. “I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”
Those words—that promise—push me over the edge.
Pleasure rips through me in wave after wave, my vision white as electricity explodes outward in a silver supernova that shakes the entire circle. Stone cracks, but nothing matters other than my climax tearing me apart, electricity sparking out in wild, beautiful chaos.
“Jade—” His eyes squeeze shut, his jaw clenching tight, and then he loses it, his rhythm faltering as my body pulls him over the edge with me.
Fire sears across his skin in purple and blue bursts, and when he opens his eyes again, his walls are down and I can see everything.
The love, the fear, and the certainty that he doesn’t deserve this.
That he doesn’t deserve me. And something else—a darkness that looks almost like grief.
“I love you, Logan,” I tell him, needing him to see that I’m choosing this, choosing him. “All of you.”
“And I love you more than I should.” He moves faster, sweat beading on his forehead, his eyes switching between total focus and moments when he’s lost in ecstasy. “But I don’t fucking care, because the only thing I want anymore is you.”
Then he’s spilling himself inside me, his body shuddering with the force of it. Fire erupts around us in a corona of purple-black flames, and he buries his face in my neck as we ride out the aftershocks together, trembling against me, holding me tight, like he’s afraid to let go.
He stays inside me as our breathing syncs, our heartbeats finding the same rhythm. My body feels boneless, wrung out in the best possible way. But eventually, he sets me down, and as I glance around the destroyed circle, the reality of what happened hits me.
Scorch marks are everywhere. The stone is cracked from heat and electricity. The air shimmers with residual magic. Some of the cracks are glowing with silver-orange light, veins of fire running through the stone.
It looks like a bomb went off. A very magical, very passionate bomb.
“Good luck explaining this to Kieran,” I say in an attempt to lighten the moment.
“Let me worry about Kieran,” he says as he begins helping me gather our scattered clothes. “Because I’d destroy a hundred circles for you, Jade Harrington.”
There’s an intensity to his words that makes me shiver.
“Just a hundred? That seems low for someone who just helped me create a literal magical explosion.”
“Every circle in existence,” he amends, pulling me close. “Every stone in this academy. I’ll destroy everything if it means having this—having you.”
There’s something chillingly final in the way he says it, like he’s already calculating the cost. Like loving me is hurting himself, and now that we’ve crossed this final line, he’s accepted that pain as his fate.
But I can’t bring myself to face that. Not here, not now, when everything finally feels right between us. Not when I can feel the echo of our combined magic in the air, the phantom sensation of him inside me, and taste the words I love you on my lips.
Tonight, we burned down the world together.
And no matter what happens tomorrow, that will have to be enough.