Raiden kissed me like he had nowhere else to be.
For once, neither did I.
Tomorrow didn't exist.
There was only the warmth of his hands around me and the quiet pulse of the bond stretched between us.
I could feel him.
Not thoughts.
Never thoughts.
Something deeper.
The parts of him words couldn't hide.
Longing.
Fear.
Relief.
A sadness so heavy it made my chest ache.
And underneath it all...
something warm.
Something that had been there for longer than either of us wanted to admit.
My fingers curled into the front of his coat.
I didn't want him to go.
I'd told him I understood.
I did understand.
That was the problem.
Raiden wasn't leaving because he wanted distance from me.
He wasn't running from what I'd told him beneath the mountain.
If anything...
he was running because he believed staying would put me in danger.
Because Mortimer could still take control.
Because the last time he'd lost that fight, his hand had ended up around my throat.
I knew what that memory did to him.
I felt the guilt every time it surfaced.
So I'd let him go.
Not forever.
Never forever.
Just long enough for him to find whatever strength he believed he needed.
Long enough for him to learn that Mortimer didn't own him.
Long enough to come back.
His lips moved gently against mine.
Slow.
Unhurried.
Nothing like the kiss we'd shared in the harbor.
That had been fire.
Blood.
Fear.
Two people colliding after nearly losing each other.
This was different.
This felt like goodbye.
Not an ending.
A promise.
My hand slid against his cheek.
Raiden leaned into the touch.
The bond warmed.
My heart squeezed.
Come back to me.
I didn't say it.
I didn't need to.
Some part of me believed he could feel it anyway.
His arms tightened around me.
I smiled against his mouth.
Then—
Something changed.
It was small.
So small I almost missed it.
His hand tightened at my waist.
Not enough to hurt.
Just...
different.
The kiss changed with it.
The tenderness disappeared.
Heat replaced it.
Raiden pulled me closer.
I stumbled half a step into him.
My fingers tightened against his coat.
For a moment, I thought it was the goodbye.
That perhaps the same realization had struck him.
Morning.
Distance.
The uncertainty of when we'd see one another again.
His kiss deepened with sudden intensity.
Furious.
Hungry.
Nothing like the careful way he'd been kissing me seconds earlier.
"Raiden..."
He didn't answer.
His hand pressed more firmly against my back.
I could barely breathe.
Something uneasy fluttered beneath my ribs.
Not fear.
Not yet.
Confusion.
Because Raiden had kissed me before.
I knew his anger.
His frustration.
His hunger.
I knew the difference between Raiden losing control...
and Raiden choosing to give me control.
This felt like neither.
I reached instinctively for the bond.
There.
Still there.
But—
Quiet.
My brow furrowed.
That wasn't right.
Moments ago, I'd felt everything.
His sadness.
His longing.
The unbearable warmth he'd refused to put into words.
Now...
nothing.
Not gone.
That was what frightened me.
The bond wasn't gone like it had been beneath the mountain.
It was there.
I could feel its shape.
Its presence.
Raiden.
But he felt...
far away.
As though I were standing outside a locked room knowing he was sleeping somewhere inside.
My heart skipped.
I tried to pull back.
His arm tightened.
"Raiden."
His mouth found mine again.
Harder.
The unease sharpened.
I pushed against his chest.
He finally let me break away.
I dragged in a breath.
Then another.
My forehead nearly touched his.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then—
A low growl vibrated against my lips.
I froze.
Raiden had growled before.
Usually when I annoyed him.
Occasionally when someone threatened me.
This...
was different.
Amusement lived inside it.
Dark amusement.
His breath brushed my mouth.
"Your lips really are infectious."
Every muscle in my body went still.
The voice was Raiden's.
Exactly Raiden's.
Same depth.
Same roughness.
Same voice I'd heard bark orders across battlefields and murmur little thief against my ear.
Except—
It wasn't.
The rhythm was wrong.
The words sat differently in his mouth.
Like someone had learned his voice without learning how he used it.
I slowly lifted my eyes.
Raiden was staring at me.
My stomach dropped.
Blue-red light flickered deep within his eyes.
But it wasn't the color that frightened me.
It was the expression.
Wicked.
Amused.
Possessive.
His mouth curved into a smile I had never seen on Raiden's face.
Not his smirk.
Not the arrogant half smile he wore whenever he thought he'd outsmarted me.
This smile was older.
Colder.
He slowly ran his tongue across his lower lip.
As though tasting something.
My skin went cold.
"Raiden?"
His smile widened.
The bond.
I reached for it again.
Nothing.
No—
Not nothing.
There.
He was there.
Quiet.
Too quiet.
I pushed harder.
Raiden.
No response.
My pulse quickened.
The man in front of me tilted his head.
Watching.
Studying.
As though my confusion entertained him.
"What's wrong, little thief?"
My breath caught.
He knew the name.
Of course he knew the name.
That didn't mean anything.
He knew—
No.
My mind refused to finish the thought.
Because that would mean—
His hand lifted.
I flinched.
He noticed.
Something flashed behind his eyes.
Not anger.
Satisfaction.
His fingers moved past my cheek.
Into my hair.
He gathered white strands of my hair between his fingers.
Slowly.
Almost carefully.
The wicked amusement disappeared.
For the first time, something else entered his expression.
His eyes softened.
Not Raiden's softness.
Something sadder.
His thumb moved across the strand.
Golden light from the dying fire caught against the iridescent white.
He stared at it.
And whispered—
"It's the same..."
I stopped breathing.
The words weren't meant for me.
I knew that immediately.
They were too quiet.
Too unguarded.
A thought escaping before whoever stood in front of me remembered he wasn't alone.
His fingers trembled.
Barely.
Then his expression hardened.
The softness vanished.
His eyes met mine again.
Something cold crawled slowly down my spine.
"What's the same?"
He smiled.
No answer.
I took one step backward.
He let the strand of hair slip through his fingers.
"Who are you?"
The question left my mouth before I could stop it.
His eyebrows lifted.
"Surely you know."
Raiden's face.
Raiden's voice.
Raiden's body.
But not—
Raiden.
My power stirred instinctively.
Fire curled beneath my skin.
Water answered behind it.
Earth settled heavily beneath my feet.
I didn't attack.
I couldn't.
Because that was still Raiden standing in front of me.
His heart.
His blood.
His body.
And somewhere inside—
The bond pulsed.
Weak.
Distant.
Sleeping.
Him.
Realization began creeping through me.
Slowly.
Horribly.
Mortimer had controlled him before.
I'd seen it.
Felt it.
Raiden fighting against movements that weren't his.
His hand around my throat.
His eyes changing.
His body becoming a battlefield between two wills.
But there had always been something.
Resistance.
A flicker.
Pain.
Some visible sign that Raiden remained behind his own eyes.
This was different.
There was no fight.
No twitching hand.
No voice breaking through.
No Raiden desperately trying to reclaim himself.
The man before me looked completely comfortable inside Raiden's skin.
As though he'd simply...
stepped into it.
My heart began pounding.
"Where is he?"
The smile vanished.
"Who?"
"Don't."
My voice shook.
I hated that it shook.
His amusement returned.
"There she is."
"Where is Raiden?"
His gaze moved slowly over my face.
Then settled on my eyes.
"Resting."
My blood turned to ice.
I reached through the bond again.
Harder.
Raiden.
Nothing.
Raiden, wake up.
Still nothing.
But he was there.
I knew he was.
Somewhere beneath the silence.
Somewhere Mortimer had pushed him.
"You can't have him."
The words came quietly.
Mortimer's eyebrows rose.
Then he laughed.
Raiden's laugh.
Wrong.
So horribly wrong.
"Have him?"
Shadows began gathering around his boots.
My fire ignited.
"Give him back."
The shadows climbed his legs.
"Such certainty."
"I mean it."
"I know."
He looked almost pleased.
That frightened me more than anger would have.
I raised one hand.
Flames curled between my fingers.
I couldn't attack him.
He knew that.
Of course he knew.
Mortimer looked down at the fire.
Then back at me.
"You took your time."
The words struck strangely.
Like he'd known me before.
Impossible.
My thoughts returned to his fingers around my hair.
It's the same.
The same as what?
Or—
Who?
Moonlight flashed through my memory.
My stomach twisted.
Mortimer's gaze sharpened.
For one terrifying moment, I wondered whether he could hear the thoughts moving through my head.
Then he smiled again.
"Not yet."
"What?"
The shadows climbed higher.
His waist.
His chest.
Wrapping around Raiden like living smoke.
"We have so many things to discuss."
"Then stay."
The words left me before I considered them.
Mortimer paused.
I stepped closer.
Stupid.
Dangerous.
I didn't care.
"If you have something to say, say it."
His expression almost looked approving.
"Clever."
"Afraid?"
That earned me a laugh.
"Careful, little dragon."
Not little thief.
Little dragon.
The distinction struck harder than it should have.
The shadows reached his shoulders.
I could barely see the outline of Raiden's body now.
Panic surged.
"No."
I lunged.
My hand reached for him.
Shadows curled between us.
Cold slammed into my palm.
"Raiden!"
For the first time—
Something moved through the bond.
A flicker.
Tiny.
Pain.
My heart stopped.
"Raiden!"
Mortimer's expression changed.
Just for a heartbeat.
His jaw tightened.
His fingers twitched.
Raiden.
He was there.
I reached harder.
The bond flared.
Then Mortimer slammed something down between us.
The connection dimmed.
"Enough."
His voice wasn't amused anymore.
Power rolled through the single word.
The cavern trembled.
My Earth magic answered instinctively.
Stone cracked beneath my feet.
Fire surged higher around my hand.
Mortimer stared at me through Raiden's eyes.
Then slowly—
calmly—
smiled.
"Until we see each other again..."
His gaze moved over my face one final time.
Something unreadable flickered there when he reached my hair.
Grief?
Recognition?
Impossible.
Then his eyes returned to mine.
"...little dragon."
"No!"
The shadows closed.
I threw myself forward.
My fingers caught fabric.
For half a heartbeat—
I had him.
Raiden's coat clenched in my fist.
The bond sparked.
Warmth.
Pain.
Him.
Then the fabric dissolved into darkness.
My hand closed on empty air.
The shadows collapsed.
Silence.
Raiden was gone.
I stood frozen.
My hand remained outstretched.
"No."
Nothing answered.
"Raiden?"
The name echoed through the night.
Once.
Twice.
Then disappeared.
I reached for the bond.
There.
Still there.
Weak.
Distant.
But there.
He was alive.
I pressed both hands against my chest.
"Raiden."
Nothing.
My mind raced backward.
The kiss.
His hands tightening.
The change.
The growl.
Your lips really are infectious.
My stomach rolled.
No.
No.
I touched my lips.
They still felt warm.
Raiden had kissed me.
At first.
I knew he had.
I'd felt him through the bond.
His sadness.
His longing.
His love, even if he hadn't been ready to name it.
Then—
Silence.
The moment everything changed.
The moment the bond went quiet.
The furious kiss.
The growl.
The smile.
My hand fell away from my mouth.
Horror crawled through me.
Mortimer hadn't taken control after pulling away.
He had been there before that.
While I was still holding him.
While I thought Raiden was kissing me goodbye.
Mortimer had been looking through his eyes.
Touching me with his hands.
Kissing me with his mouth.
I stumbled backward.
The world tilted.
"No..."
My voice broke.
The realization became worse.
Not because of the kiss.
Because of what it meant.
Mortimer had done something he'd never been able to do before.
There had been no struggle.
No warning through the bond.
No moment where Raiden had managed to fight his way back.
Mortimer had simply...
taken him.
Completely.
I stared at the place where the shadows had disappeared.
The truth settled over me with crushing certainty.