Kai paused for a moment, and his body tensed up.

In his mind, he wanted to believe that he must’ve heard it wrong, but with Matilda so close to him, there was no chance that his ears betrayed him. No chance for him to hear her words wrong. But still, he wanted to believe that they were wrong.

Hesitantly, he turned to look at Matilda, expecting her eyes to be elsewhere.

But they weren’t.

Her unblinking dark golden eyes were fixated on him—almost like a statement that she really did mean what she said. That his ears worked perfectly. And as if to make it even clearer, she parted her lips again, "I want you to sleep on the bed."

"Matilda..." Kai stuttered, at a loss for words. "I don’t think that’s a good idea."

"Why?"

"I’m a guy, and you’re a girl. And not to mention, there’s Bree... Layra... You know the deal."

"I’m still corrupted, and it’s really cold because of the rain. What if I got sick tomorrow?"

"Just use your mana to warm up—or I could use mine if you can’t. I can also get you another blanket."

"Kai—you promised my father to take care of me tonight, didn’t you? I’m asking you to come up here," Matilda said demandingly, and Kai saw passion in her eyes. It made her eyes burn brighter than normal. "Can you not forget about everything for tonight?"

Kai looked forward into the wall.

He was undecided, but his sister’s voice rang inside his mind.

Not the wise words that she sometimes gave him, but it was her laughter.

If Bella was here and knew that he froze up when the girl was already reaching her entire arm for him, then she would most likely laugh at him and call him a loser-virgin. Even though she was one herself, she said it was different.

Kai scratched the back of his head and stood up.

He pulled the woolen blanket from the foot of the pallet—and lowered himself onto the bed beside Matilda. His pride had taken enough damage lately; Bree had seen to that. So he let his thoughts go quiet and simply let the current carry him.

And then there was Matilda’s face—stripped of its usual command, bare in a way he had never seen before. It made her offer nearly impossible to refuse. Just an hour ago, she wouldn’t even admit something was troubling her.

Right now was the first moment she said what she wanted out loud to him.

It was proof that she was trying.

Kai would be damned if he didn’t reciprocate the same effort.

So, he lay down, back straight as a blade at first, and unfurled the blanket over them both like a flag of surrender. The space between them was a chasm measured in inches. He could feel the boundary like a line drawn on cold sheets.

And for a long moment, neither of them crossed it.

Matilda simply turned away, facing the wall, and curled her body.

Outside, the downpour had turned vicious; a storm that hammered against the window with silver tears. The room drank in the chill, dropping in temperature—and it only made the heat of her body beside him more acute.

A quiet beacon in the dark.

It’s going to be okay. I can get past this night without a problem. This is going to be easy.

Kai repeated the mantra to calm himself down as he stared at the ceiling.

But the mantra shattered when Matilda’s fingers found his wrist.

It almost made him recoil. Almost.

Her grip was gentle but certain; the same way the wind howled during a storm. She guided his arm across the divide, the invisible line between them, settling it over the drop of her waist, and she shifted backward until the full length of her spine pressed against his chest.

Kai became the bigger spoon without quite knowing how it had happened.

Even when he slept with Bella, he was never in this position.

And then the smell of her hair seeped into his nose; it was musky but quite pleasant.

It lowered his guard as his hand relaxed, resting right below her ribs.

Kai closed his eyes and tried to will himself toward sleep, but it was useless. Other than the situation being incredibly unsupportive, he also had already used—the Deep Slumber. It can only be used one time each night, and he already used that chance.

Every sense of his body had sharpened to a painful clarity.

Hard for him to ignore his senses in this situation.

Matilda wore no perfume; unlike Bree’s floral sweetness, her scent was something earthier, a clean musk, sun-dried linen, and the faint salt left by exertion. It bypassed every rational wall in his mind and curled the area of his brain that governed intoxication, longing, and surrender.

He breathed her in and felt drunk.

Perhaps he wasn’t wounded right now or anything, so he could feel everything more.

But everything about her is making him go crazy.

His arm, without his permission, tightened around her waist. Matilda didn’t react. At least, she doesn’t seem to be. Kai became acutely aware of the body beneath his palm. She was not soft in the way of idle comforts.

Every contour was firm with the discipline of years.

Muscles shaped by relentless drills; the subtle ridges of a warrior’s frame wrapped in smooth skin. Her waist dipped, and her hips flared with a curve that was somehow both a weapon and a refuge.

The contrast made him even dizzier.

She was strength, and she was woman. And now she was here, pressed against him in the cold dark—while the storm raged outside. Kai still remembered when this same body had tried to kill him during the Blood Rite.

He remembered the sting of betrayal; the snarl of their bodies collided inside that forest.

He had carried the graze in his heart that she inflicted.

He had fought her to the very edge of death, and he also had dragged her back from the lethal knife of the assassins who wanted the blood running inside her. In all those moments, in those brutal, frantic, and desperate moments, his heart had never once hammered as it did now.

Never this hard to the point that it felt like it was about to burst from his chest.

This moment was a different kind of peril, and he was utterly unarmed.

"Kai..." Matilda purred; her voice was hoarse with smouldering passion.

She reacted late, or that’s what Kai assumed. But the truth caught up with him as he realized he somehow found himself at her throat, lips nearly brushing the vulnerable slope of her neck. His breath spilled warm against her skin.

With all the haze in his mind, it was hard to keep track of what his own body was doing.

All he knew was that in this moment, he felt really powerful.

A moan escaped Matilda’s lips when Kai’s strong arm pulled her closer, eliminating the bare inch of space between them. Her shoulder blades nestled against his chest, and her spine was now a perfect furrow for his heart to beat against.

And as their bodies were connected, Kai could feel her heart was pounding as hard as his.

It confessed everything her voice could not.

Just then, Matilda turned her body a little, revealing her heavy-lidded glowing eyes.

Kai pulled back a little and met with them with the same fire.

And then, her eyes traced down to his lips.

Reason turned to smoke. Whatever caution remained was suppressed by the heat coursing through her. Matilda gave in, unable to control herself anymore, leaning forward until her lips found his.

The moment they touched, like spark to tinder, every part of them caught fire.

Matilda was the first one to realize what she had done; logic returned to her for a second, but was suppressed again when Kai ravaged her lips mercilessly. He had never done this before, never kissed anyone, but the instinct of a man took over.

It guided him through a road that he had never walked on.

As the kiss deepened, the line of her mouth shifted, parting just a little, and the shape changed into something more vulnerable, almost fragile. Her chest rose and fell in desperate rhythm, but every time she tried to gasp for air, Kai’s relentless assault took the breath before she could catch it.

He didn’t let her breathe easily.

Instead, he kept her at the precipice of suffocation and pleasure.

Kai had never known what kind of man he would be in bed, but now he felt it. There was this greediness building inside of him that crawled up from somewhere deep. His hand naturally found Matilda’s thigh and pulled, spreading her legs as he mounted her with predatory ease.

Through it all, his mouth never left her neck.

He was rough, tracing, and claiming.

Her body was filled with strength that was bestowed upon her by Athena.

Strength that was superior to most Supernals.

Now, there was no sign of that strength—she was as willing and weak as Aphrodite in bed.

But somehow, for Kai, it felt like she was still the one overwhelming him.

Kai couldn’t control his strength or was too excited to care, but his hands naturally tore Matilda’s shirt, revealing more of her, with only her dark bra barring his eyes from seeing everything of her.

Outside, there was a dark strand of darkness that seeped from the window.

It wasn’t affected by the rain or storm.

Almost unwilling to see this scene, the dark strand shot into Kai and electrocuted him from the inside. Matilda didn’t feel it, too stimulated to care, but Kai did. His eyes turned obsidian black, and he glared at the dark strand.

Like always, the night wanted to sabotage him.

But this time, it learned that Kai was its master—not the other way around.

It dispersed into nothing, scared off by the glare.

Matilda could finally take a breath when Kai was distracted, and reason returned to her.

"Kai... I’m still corrupted by the Blue Void," she whispered, her voice soft—but edged with something like a warning. It did nothing to slow him. His lips continued their relentless path across every inch of her skin.

She tried tapping his back.

A silent signal for him to listen, but the words dissolved into a sharp gasp.

Matilda moaned when Kai pressed his bulge against her crotch.

And it was at that moment she knew it would be too late if Kai went any further.

Even though the corruption was mildly handled, it was still present in her, and it would only infect Kai, too, if this continued. But right now, she was powerless to raise her voice, much less push Kai away.

His kisses zapped her strength away.

However, it seemed Eleos, the Goddess of Mercy and Compassion, heard her call.

Kai drove himself harder against Matilda, and with a sharp sound of hardwood cracking—the bed collapsed.

Brak—!