The air in the room could’ve cut glass. Breathing in felt like sucking in a mouthful of pennies—harsh and stinging. Kael’s words just sort of hovered there, heavy.
“You have to truly claim me, or the contract means nothing.”
It wasn’t a request. More like a dare, or maybe a threat. The kind that gets under your skin and rattles around with every heartbeat. The ritual diagram splayed across the table didn’t help, either. All those lines and symbols, like a headache and a panic attack had a baby.
He’d tossed the contract aside—literally, just flung it. No more hiding behind legal magic. Now it was just us and the fallout, nothing between.
I glanced at that cursed diagram—honestly, I needed a degree in arcane nonsense to even start—and then at Kael, who somehow managed to be both victim a
