The roar from beneath the broken ground did not sound like an animal.
It sounded older.
Deeper.
Like something buried long before any of us were born had finally heard my name and answered it.
The entire room shook violently. Cracks widened across the floor, racing in jagged lines around our feet. Dust poured from the ceiling in thick clouds, and the walls groaned like they were trying to hold together out of fear alone.
My hand was still on his chest.
His hand was still on my waist.
Neither of us moved for one dangerous second.
Then instinct returned.
He grabbed me hard and pulled me back just as the ground split where we had been standing. A massive section dropped into darkness, stone breaking away in chunks that never seemed to hit bottom.
"We move now," he said.
"You always ruin the timing," I shot back, breathless.
His mouth almost curved.
"Stay alive and complain later."
He pulled me through the collapsing chamber, one hand gripping mine so tightly it felt less like guidance and more like refusal. Refusal to lose me. Refusal to let me vanish into the dark opening beneath us.
That thought should have scared me.
Instead, it warmed me in all the wrong places.
Another violent tremor slammed through the floor. I lost balance and crashed straight into him. His arm caught me around the waist automatically, dragging me flush against his body before either of us could think.
My breath stalled.
He looked down at me.
Too close.
Too steady.
Too dangerous.
"You keep falling for me," he said.
"In your dreams."
"In those too."
I should have rolled my eyes.
I should have shoved him away.
Instead, I noticed the blood at the corner of his mouth.
And something in me sharpened.
"You're hurt."
"I've been worse."
"That wasn't an answer."
"It was enough."
No, it wasn't.
I lifted my hand before thinking and touched the blood with my thumb. His body went still so suddenly I felt it under my fingertips. Not frozen from pain.
From me.
The room shook again, but for one reckless second all I noticed was the heat of his skin and the way his eyes darkened.
"You touch me like that again," he said quietly, "and I forget the room is collapsing."
My pulse jumped.
"Maybe I want that."
His grip on my waist tightened.
"Careful."
The warning came rough.
Real.
And it thrilled me more than it should have.
A scream echoed from the far side of the chamber. We turned sharply. One of the men thrown earlier was dragging himself upright, but something black and jagged had wrapped around his legs from the crack in the ground.
He begged.
It pulled.
Hard.
He disappeared screaming into the darkness.
I stared.
"What was that?"
His expression changed instantly, all heat gone, replaced by pure focus.
"Bad news."
"That is not enough detail."
"It's feeding."
My stomach dropped. "On people?"
"On weakness."
"That sounds worse."
"It is."
Another hand shot from the crack.
Not human.
Too long.
Too many joints.
It clawed onto the floor and dragged itself upward.
Then another.
Then three more.
The things climbing out were shaped like bodies that had forgotten how bodies were meant to move. Twisted limbs, hollow faces, eyes glowing from deep inside their skulls like coals buried in ash.
I stepped back automatically.
The power inside me surged forward automatically.
Interesting.
Fear and strength were becoming twins.
"They know you," he said.
"What does that mean?"
"It means don't let them touch you."
"Again with the terrible details."
The first creature lunged.
I thrust my hand out and the force blasted it backward into the wall so hard its spine folded wrong. It dropped twitching.
The second came faster.
He intercepted it midair, catching its throat and slamming it into the floor with enough violence to crack stone.
We looked at each other.
Then at the room filling with monsters.
Then back at each other.
"This feels personal," I said.
"It is."
"How?"
"You woke them."
I blinked. "Excuse me?"
"No time."
"I hate when you say that."
"I know."
Three charged at once.
I moved before thought. Power ripped out of me in a wide burst, flinging two into the ceiling. The third got through. It hit me hard enough to send me stumbling back.
Before it could strike again, he was there.
Always there.
His hand wrapped around the creature's skull and twisted until something snapped wetly. He tossed the body aside and turned to me immediately.
"Are you hurt?"
"You ask that after snapping heads?"
"Yes."
"I'm fine."
"Liar."
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?"
"Because you bleed dramatic truth."
I stared at him.
"That made no sense."
"It made enough."
Then he kissed me.
Not soft.
Not slow.
Not polite.
One brutal second of mouth on mine, heat and anger and relief crashing together so hard I forgot my own name. It felt less like affection and more like a warning delivered directly into my body.
He pulled back first.
My knees nearly gave out.
The room was still full of monsters.
My lips still burned.
"What was that for?" I demanded.
"You were talking too much."
"You are impossible."
"You're welcome."
Another creature shrieked and launched at us.
I laughed this time.
Actually laughed.
Then I lifted my hand and tore it out of the air with force before it reached us.
The look he gave me after that was almost proud.
That did something dangerous to my insides.
We fought side by side after that.
No space between movements.
No hesitation.
He struck like war given flesh. Brutal, efficient, beautiful in a terrifying way. Every time one got near me, he was already there. Every time one got near him, my power hit first.
We were becoming a pattern.
A lethal one.
When the last creature fell, silence rushed in so suddenly it felt unreal.
Dust drifted slowly through the ruined chamber.
Our breathing was loud.
He stepped toward me.
I stepped toward him.
No jokes now.
No distractions.
"You kissed me during an attack," I said.
"Yes."
"That was stupid."
"Yes."
"Do it again."
That made his jaw tighten.
He reached for my waist slowly this time, giving me every chance to stop him.
I didn't.
His mouth met mine again, harder than before, longer this time, hunger edged with restraint that looked painful on him. My hands found his shoulders. His hand slid up my back, holding me like I was both temptation and disaster.
The power inside me flared hot, wrapping around us in waves that made the broken room tremble.
He broke the kiss with visible effort.
"If you keep doing that," he said against my mouth, "I stop being honorable."
"I never asked for honorable."
His eyes darkened dangerously.
"You don't know what you're asking for."
"Then show me."
He almost gave in.
I saw it.
Felt it.
Then the floor beneath us exploded upward.
We were thrown apart as a massive shape tore free from the darkness below, towering over us, crowned in bone and shadow, its eyes fixed on me with ancient recognition.
And when it spoke, the voice came from everywhere at once.
"Daughter."