By the seventh night, she stopped pretending. The forest withered. Animals went silent. The gods she used to pray to whispered nothing back. Her garden refused to grow. Her shadow stretched longer than it should. Kael became bolder. Hungrier.

“You know why I’m here,” he said one night, dragging his thumb across her lip. “You made a promise. And I’ve come to collect.”

She shook her head. “I buried you.”

“You buried a man,” he said. “But I’m something more now. And so are you.”

She didn’t understand then.

But she would. When the village sent men to question her—about the dead animals, the dying woods, the wrongness in the air—Kael watched from the treetops.

Later that night, she found their bodies hanging from the boughs like forgotten fruit.

She didn’t scream. She just sank to her knees, mud swallowing her.

“I didn’t ask for this,” she whispered.

“But you wished for it,” he said behind her. “And wishes are messy things.”


He pulled her up. Held her like he used to—tight, possessive, reverent. And in that moment, something inside her cracked open.

She let him kiss her. And followed him back to the place she buried him. The altar stone gleamed with old blood. Kael lit candles that burned blue. The air tasted like rust and roses. He turned to her, eyes smoldering. “Last chance, Lyra.” “For what?”“To be mine. Forever.”She stepped onto the altar.

No prayers.

No lies.

Just yes.

He rips off her dress, His arms caging her to the alter, his mouth burned trails across her skin, leaving marks that glowed with ruin. He moves his mouth down her boder locking on to her sweet spot, moans escaping her mouth. He inserts a finger pushing in and out and twisting, he felt her start to clamp up. Then removed his fingers but kept his mouth on her bitting at her clint. He kept going until she cumed. With her breathing heavy he licked up her juices and brought his mouth to hers making her taste herself. He position himself at her entrance slamming into her not allowing her screams to escape. She arched into him, nails raking down his back as he filled her, again and again, as if trying to devour her. There was no softness in it. Only need. His mouth no longer on hers as he wants her cries to echoed through the dead forest, mixing with the shrieks of unseen things.

His voice broke as he growled her name, finishing with a shudder that made the altar pulse.

And when he was done, the runes beneath them caught fire.

The forest bowed. The earth sang.

She opened her eyes.

And saw herself—marked, claimed, crowned in ash.

They stood at the edge of the village together.

Lyra wore a gown stitched from the veil of night. Kael beside her, skin carved with power, eyes endless.

The villagers screamed when they saw them.

Lyra only smiled.

“You should’ve burned me too,” she said.

Then she raised her hand—and the sky bled fire.

“You said you'd love me forever,” he murmured. “So I came back.”