The room was sealed. Soundproofed. Hidden with a cloaking rune only Rael could activate.
Elias stood shirtless in the center, still flushed from their earlier moment, chest rising and falling as he tried to center himself. The magic beneath his skin pulsed — erratic, electric — like a second heartbeat.
Rael circled him slowly, eyes scanning his body, not with lust this time, but calculation.
"You're adapting quicker than I thought," Rael said, finally stopping in front of him. "But that's not necessarily a good thing."
Elias raised an eyebrow. "Define 'not good.'"
"You might overload. Burn out. Collapse your soul into a magic sinkhole."
Elias blinked. "That's... vivid."
Rael stepped closer, his hand resting lightly on Elias's bare chest. The contact soothed something wild under the surface.
"Primordial demon magic is chaotic. Unfiltered. It's raw creation and destruction all at once. Our union gave you a fragment of it — not enough to make you one of us, but enough to change your core."
Elias swallowed hard. "So I'm… what, a half-demon now?"
"No," Rael said firmly. "You're still human. But your magic? It's evolving. Your natural affinity is trying to stabilize something ancient. That's why you're in pain. Why you're glowing in class. Why you nearly burned a hole through the floor."
Elias exhaled. "Okay. So how do I stop glowing before Professor Vorne sets me on fire with her eyes?"
Rael smirked, and in a rare flicker of softness, brushed his fingers through Elias's hair.
"You don't stop it. You master it. I'll teach you how to control it — how to bend it to your will, not the other way around."
Elias nodded. Then smirked. "Does this training involve more sex?"
Rael gave him a slow, wicked grin. "It might."
Elias sighed dramatically. "Well. I guess I'll endure."
Rael laughed — a deep, rich sound Elias never got tired of. But then the air shifted again. That hum of danger, of something unspoken.
Rael's expression darkened slightly.
"Elias... you need to know. There are others who will sense this power in you soon. Demons. Hunters. Some might want to claim you. Others will want you dead."
"So what else is new?" Elias muttered.
Rael stepped closer, voice low and lethal.
"This isn't a game anymore. You're a marked soul now. And I'll kill anyone who touches what's mine."
And when he kissed Elias again — slow, possessive, burning with something fierce — Elias felt the truth in every word.