Page 65 of Shadowkissed

Mara hesitates, then lowers her voice. “I studied the old texts. The binding rites Seraphiel is using—they’re not complete. They’re unstable. He’s trying to substitute prophecy with possession. That’s not how it works. Itwas never meant to work that way.The only reason he hasn’t tried the union yet is because he knows it won’t hold, something is incomplete and he’s losing his mind trying to figure it out.”

Her gaze flickers. “He thinks if he binds your body, the power will follow. But you and I both know… the power isn’t his to take.”

A beat.

She adds, “And some of us… we’re tired of serving something that bleeds madness from the seams and calls it divinity.”

My chest tightens.

“You’re not the only one, are you?” I ask.

“No.” Her voice drops to barely a whisper. “The others won’t say it out loud yet. Not until they’re sure. We all thought something great would follow him, that’s why we’re here. I know what most think of him, but he was charismatic and ,ade us think that this fugureu was everything we hoped for, but now… watching what it’s doing to him and seeing him unravel lately in ways we have never witnessed… The others and myself, they’re watching. Waiting.”

I lean in, voice just as soft. “Then help me prove it.”

She doesn’t say yes. She doesn’t have to. Her silence is her answer.

And her silence is all I need to start tearing the rest of this empire apart.

It’s Mara who slips me the charm.

Just before lights-out—if there even is such a thing in this realm—she returns with my meal, and tucked into the folds of the napkin is a tiny crystal laced with runes I don’t recognize.

I give her a questioning look.

“It won’t track. I cloaked it myself,” she says quickly, voice low. “It can’t sustain a full communication channel, but it can find him. Send a burst. A ping.”

“And he’ll know it’s me?”

She hesitates. “He’ll feel it.”

My fingers tremble as I press the charm into my palm. “Thank you.”

She meets my eyes, and I see true fear reflecting back in them.

“You don’t belong to him,” she says. “But if he finds out what you’re doing, Liora...”

“I know.”

I always have.

Later, once I’m alone again, I activate the charm.

It glows—soft, golden—and pulses once.

Then again.

Each beat echoing the bond inside me that’s trying so hard to rebuild itself.

I press it to my lips and whisper just loud enough for the magic to catch:

“Find me.”

And across whatever veil still exists between us…

I swear he hears it.

I curl up on the stone floor with the charm clutched in one hand and a plan growing inside me like wildfire.

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