~ Seraphina's POV ~
The night air clung to my skin like damp silk, saturated with the stench of blood, ash, and betrayal. Behind us, the battlefield still smoldered... a jagged ruin of flame and ruin, where bodies lay broken and screams haunted the wind. But none of it matters now. Not the dead. Not the one who was dying. Not the victory we paid for in blood.
Only this moment existed.
Only the man sagging against my side, his fevered breath against my neck, and the violent thunder of my own heart roaring in my ears.
Alaric.
His body burned like a furnace, skin hot and clammy, power crackling in wild, erratic surges that felt like holding lightning in my arms. Every time his skin brushed mine, it left a spark… not of desire, not this time… but of something deeper. A desperate tether, a
