Page 153 of Claimed In Darkness

Like he still believes in me.

Zephiran still thinks I can come back from this.

He’s wrong.

He has to be.

If he isn’t?—

Then everything I did was for nothing.

"Still chasing me, Zephiran?"I try to laugh but it comes out broken.

He doesn’t smile.

His grip on me tightens, dragging me closer, his breath hot against my cheek.

"You were never meant to run from me."

My body betrays me and my pulse stutters, a sharp inhale too quick, too deep.

He hears it.

He feels it.

I surrden first. I move.

Fast.

Desperate.

Hungry.

My mouth finds his, not in surrender, but in defiance.

Not because I want to come back to him.

No, I don’t intend to be his again.

But because I want him to hurt the way I am hurting.

I want him to feel this fire the way I do.

If I am burning—I am dragging him into the flames with me.

His hands tighten and I let him take me. Against the wall. Against the ruins of everything we used to be.

Teeth and breath and too much fucking history.

It is the only thing that has ever made sense.

He’s making me want him again, and I detest him for it.

For making me weak when I should be strong.

For making me crave him the way I used to.

For making me feel like I never stopped.

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