Alina woke slowly, the soft morning light spilling across the room in pale gold ribbons. Her body felt simultaneously spent and alive, every nerve tingling with residual heat and awareness. Threads of her mark pulsed beneath her skin, coiling and uncoiling in patterns she didn’t fully understand, yet somehow recognized as power—power she had never felt so acutely before. Last night’s tension, the closeness of Riven and Kael, the magnetic pull of desire and command… it had changed something.
She let herself breathe deeply, lingering in the afterglow, savoring the way her body still felt like it belonged to both of them. Not in a fragmented way, but as though the two forces—the playful, teasing fire of Riven and the dark, commanding shadow of Kael—had woven themselves into her, leaving trac
