The heat didn't stop.
It stretched on like a fever-dream with no end, curling around us in that den of stone and fur. My body had long since stopped trying to rationalize it. The rhythm of it. Him. The pull between us like gravity—bone-deep and maddening.
I didn't know how long we stayed tangled like that, breaths shallow, skin slick with sweat, my mark still glowing like it had a heartbeat of its own.
But the moment it faded—the second it dimmed down to a dull throb—I felt it.
The air in the room changed.
Zayden tensed above me. He moved fast, like his instincts beat his mind to it. One arm around my waist. The other reaching for something beneath the furs.
"Someone's here," he muttered, his voice low and hoarse. Not alarmed. Not exactly. But alert.
I tried to sit up but couldn't. I was sore in ways I couldn't begin to describe. "What do you mean someone's here?"
And then—
Light.
A sliver of it. No door opened. No footsteps approached. Just… light.
It bled in from the shadows like spilled silver, forming in the corner of the room. Not harsh. Not bright. But pure. Too pure for a place like this.
Then a shape stepped out from it.
Delicate, glowing faintly at the edges, draped in silks that didn't move with gravity. Their hair shimmered like white starlight, cascading down to their knees, and their eyes—
Their eyes were galaxies.
"You," Zayden growled, jaw tight. "This isn't your place. Go away. I'm in the middle of something"
The figure smiled faintly. Not mocking. Not cold. Just… distant. "And yet you've made it mine. With your choices."
I swallowed.
There was something wrong about looking directly at them. Like my brain couldn't quite comprehend it. Like their presence was bending the air around them.
"You—" I said, my voice breaking, shaking ."You're the one who told him about me."
The figure tilted their head. "And the one who warned him, long before that."
I felt Zayden stiffen behind me.
"You knew," I whispered, turning toward him. "You knew there was a cost to finding me."
He didn't deny it. He just playfully cleaned his ears making gestures like he couldn't hear me.
The figure stepped closer, not touching the ground. The furs and stones beneath their feet did not move.
"You've chosen him again, Ezrael," they said. "Even now, reborn, untethered… your soul remembers."
My heart skipped.
Ezrael.
Zayden's grip on me tightened. Protective. But not possessive this time. Like he was trying to hold me here. To keep me from slipping through fingers again.
"I remember nothing," I said slowly, and most importantly... who's Ezrael?"
The deity's expression softened. Their voice, when it came, was like a lullaby spoken over bones. "It means your time is starting to run out. And so is his."
I shivered.
Zayden rose then, fully bare and unbothered, stepping between us. "Enough of riddles. Tell me what you came to say."
The figure's light dimmed just slightly.
Then "He is awakening. You've triggered it."
Zayden frowned. "Who?"
The figure's glowing gaze landed on me.
"You haven't told him yet?" they asked me.
"Told me what?" Zayden snapped. "I'm as confused as you are . I don't even know who Ezrael is." I said with a smile. It seemed to put him at ease but it wasn't enough.
The figure turned back to him. "Your mate is not just your fated one. He is the other half of the Moon's curse. The part the gods couldn't erase."
Zayden's breath caught.
And me?
I suddenly wasn't cold anymore.
I was aflame.