Page 85 of Shadowkissed

She rolls her eyes, but her shadows coil up my ankles again anyway. "When the static rises..." Her thumb presses hard over the fresh bite mark on my throat. "...I let you in. All the way."

"Generous." I flip us, blades of grass sticking to her sweat-slicked back. "Can’t imagine why you resisted."

Her knees bracket my hips as shadows braid through the goldenrod stalks above us, weaving a fractured twilight. "You’re an acquired taste. Like arsenic."

"And yet you keep swallowing."

Her answering growl vibrates against my lips as she kisses me—all vengeance and sacrament. The shadow canopy plunges us into false night, her runes reigniting along her ribs. Her teeth catch my lower lip, shadows slithering up my forearms like shackles.

"Prove it," she rasps against my mouth. "Anchor me. Right fucking now."

I don’t give her the satisfaction of a reply. My palm cracks against her ass cheek hard enough to leave a print. She arches with a feral laugh, shadows yanking my head back by the hair as her other hand claws down my chest—no careful grappling this time.

"Still think you can—Ah!" Her taunt morphs into a gasp when my thumb goes just below her navel. Her hips stutter. "Cheat—mmph—cheating."

"You loaded the dice."

She snaps her hips down, taking me in one ruthless glide as the shadow canopy erupts with phantom embers. Her choked moan strangles into a laugh. "Fuck. You’re still?—"

"Yours?" I buck upward, grinning at her shattered exhale. "Hate to break it to you?—"

Her claws dig crescent graves into my shoulders as shadows writhe like serpents between us. "Mineimplies I asked nicely."

Teeth sink into my collarbone, sharp and claiming, as she rolls her hips in a slow, venomous circle. I hiss - half pain, half thrill - and she laughs into my pulse point. The canopy above flickers violently, shadows spitting sparks that rain down as cold stings against sweat-slick skin.

Every thrust becomes a counterstrike. She shoves me deeper into the ground, her spine arching with every burst of pleasure.

I drag callused palms up her thighs, relish the hitch in her rhythm when my thumbs brush the fresh welt blooming across her ass. The shadows retaliate - tendrils cinching around my wrists as I drive deeper inside of her making her moan beg to wake everyone up.

42

LIORA

I’ve run from this long enough.

From the pulse of magic in my veins that doesn’t play by anyone’s rules. From the prophecy that tried to chain me to fate. From the eyes of people who expected me to fall apart—or explode.

But no more.

I stretch with the dawn curled against Dante’s chest, his heartbeat steady under my cheek, like a promise whispered straight to my bones. He doesn’t move when I slip away, leaving him in the lush grass and shadows of the lilacs. He doesn’t need to.

He knows I’m not leaving this time.

Not to hide. Not to run. Only to rise.

The courtyard behind Dante’s loft is still half-shadowed by early morning haze, dew silvering the blades of grass and clinging to the worn cobblestones like fragile lace.

But there’s nothing fragile about what’s building here.

The rebels—ourarmy now—move through the thickening air with quiet precision. Some drink black coffee, steam curling past faces that have seen too much. Others oil blades, check sigils, run their fingers along the chalk outlines on the loft’s windows and doorframes, re-etching runes like they’re inscribing prayers into stone.

They don’t look at me with fear anymore.

They glance up as I pass. They nod. Theyacknowledge.

Good.

I’m done shrinking. Done pretending I’m not somethingmore.

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