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Chapter Nine

Unwelcome Bond

Lyra

“What have you done?” I whispered. Helion looked down at his hand where a matching tattoo etched into his skin. His mouth parted, eyes snapping to mine—something raw flickering there before it vanished.

I knew in that very moment he had not planned this. I could feel it inside of me.

A warmth unfurled beneath my ribs, subtle and unwelcome, brushing against places that did not belong to him.

It felt like dying sunlight bleeding into places that had only ever known shadows.

A wounded roar split through my mind followed by emotions that were not my own tearing through the shadowy bond. Utter, absolute anguish took my breath away.

Rythos.

My knees threatened to collapse beneath me as I realised he had felt whatever had just happened between Helion and I.

“You may take your first dance as husband and wife.” Cerilla’s voice cut through my haze. Applause tickled through the room, soft and steady like rain against stones.

“Did you hear that?” I whispered to Helion. “I heard Rythos.”

Helion linked our hands, shushing me and drawing me against him before I could pull away.

“The final act,” he murmured, breath ghosting over my ear as he wrapped an arm around my waist. “Try not to step on my toes.”

Heat flushed beneath my skin as he guided me through the steps, the dance unfolding around us in smooth, practiced turns.

I let it carry me, the music softening the edges of the chaos clawing through me.

Helion’s mouth was tilted in his usual careless smirk, but I could feel him.

A flicker beneath my skin—and I realised that it was nothing but a mask.

“Why are you…” I paused, studying him closely.

I pushed against the pool of sunlight in my chest, slipping deeper into the space where his emotions bled into mine.

His fingers tightened on my waist as our steps faltered, breath catching between us at the obvious violation. “Scared?” I finished.

Something in him snapped shut, like iron bars slamming into place—cutting me off completely.

“Get out of my head,” he whispered on a shaky breath. “We are being watched.”

As if he had brought my attention to it, I felt a weighted gaze on me.

We danced surrounded by a sea of masked onlookers, their faces hidden, their attention suffocating.

Though, it wasn’t them that made my pulse falter.

Astaroth stood just beyond the crowd, swaying to the music like a man watching a performance he had already decided the ending of.

His gaze bored into mine and a cold shiver passed through me.

Helion spun me away, and without the weight of Astaroth’s stare, it was as though I could breathe again.

“Keep your eyes on me,” he muttered as the strings picked up speed.