My body clenched around him, my climax ripping through me like wildfire, stealing the breath from my lungs.Amir followed, his body stiffening before he let out a deep, throaty groan—a sound of pure, unbridled satisfaction—as he buried himself inside me, spilling his pleasure into me like he never wanted to let me go.
For a long moment, neither of us moved.We were wrecked.Breathless.Bound by something neither of us could name.
And then I felt it—the filth beneath me, the decay of the dungeon around us, the stench of death clinging to the air.How had we found love in a place so tainted by despair?
But love we had found.Dark.Twisted.Unstoppable.
“Elizabeth,” he growled, his voice still rough with lingering desire, still edged with that untamed, animalistic hunger.It reverberated through the stone chamber, through me.
“Together, we will conquer the world, and you and I will be free.”
I met his gaze, my lips curling into something sinful, something knowing.“I can’t wait,” I murmured.
The scent of blood clung to the air, thick and suffocating, mingling with the damp rot of the dungeon.The dead bodies strewn across the stone floor were a silent testament to our fight—a macabre declaration that we had stepped beyond the point of hesitation.
There was no turning back.
Mathias, Lord Winston, and my father were likely toasting their victories in some candlelit tavern, oblivious to the storm brewing beneath their feet.They had no idea what was coming.
Amir and I rose in unison, the eerie stillness settling like a final benediction.
“Well?”I asked, casting my gaze over the carnage as I straightened my skirts, my fingers still slick with the night’s work.
Amir merely shrugged.“Warriors do as they must.”
With effortless strength, he reached down and seized the arm of a lifeless man, dragging him toward the dungeon’s darkest recesses.His movements were practiced.This was not the first time Amir had hidden bodies in the shadows, and it would not be the last.
I stepped over the corpse of the woman who had been with Lord Winston, a flicker of something jagged twisting in my chest.Pity?Regret?No.Those emotions were as dead as the bodies at our feet.
Side by side, Amir and I worked in silence, concealing the evidence, stuffing them beneath the rotting husks of the countless Timebornes who had been tortured here before them.The weight of our victory pressed down on me, suffocating, exhilarating.
I had no idea if our plan would succeed.
I had never done anything like this before.
But I would not falter.I would not fail.
Not Amir.Not my mother’s dying breath.
Not the promise I made to scorch my father’s wicked society to the ground.
I had already stepped into the abyss.
Now, I would set it on fire.
ChapterTwenty
AMIR
The cold stone of the dungeon walls was nothing compared to the heat that surged within me.It was the night of the masquerade—the night everything would change.As I paced like a caged beast in the dimly lit cell, I could feel the power thrumming through my veins—a gift from Elizabeth—her alchemy, her sacrifice.
She had given me what I needed—the bodies, the strength, the will to rise again.
I halted mid-stride, every sense going taut as Elizabeth’s silhouette appeared in the archway.The flickering light from the corridor beyond framed her, casting a golden glow over her pale skin and wheat-blond hair.In the dimness, her blue eyes gleamed—not with hesitation but with shared understanding.
I crossed the space between us in an instant.
My hands found her face, firm and grounding.Our eyes locked briefly before our lips met in a kiss with urgency and unspoken promises.It was not a kiss of hesitation or doubt—a seal upon the night ahead, a confirmation of the storm we would unleash.
