Page 175 of Claimed In Darkness

I can feel the slow fracturing of my soul.

It’s like sand slipping through my fingers, like a fire burning itself to embers.

I have minutes. Maybe seconds. Naira knows it.

Her hands are too tight on my face, her breath too uneven, her eyes wild with panic.

"There has to be a way,"she whispers.

There isn’t. We both know that.

But she isn’t letting me go.

"We have to do the ritual. I want to be your mate,” she softly declares. “Please.”

Her words slam into me like a physical force, like a blade cutting through the moment.

I blink at her.

"Naira—"

"The Dark Elf mating ritual."Her voice shakes, but her hands do not."It binds souls. It strengthens them."

I see where she’s going.

I see what she wants.

And it terrifies me.

"You don’t know what it will do. I’m not sure if this will even help with ours."

"And I don’t care, all I want is to be with you forever. Let’s take this chance.”

Her grip tightens.

"If it ties us together, if it anchors you to me, if it stops you from fading—then we do it."

"Even if it destroys you?"

"Even if it saves you."

Her wordsclutches at my heart.

I can fight fate even gods but I cannot fight her.

Not when she’s looking at me like that.

So I give in.

And we do it.

She kneels before me.

A human. A thief. A woman who was never supposed to belong to a Dark Elf lord.

And I kneel before her.

A monster. A broken thing. A man who was never belonged to anyone.

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