Chapter 1
The first time Aradia saw him, the candles in the ruined chapel guttered as though exhaling his name.
She had come seeking answers. Something had been stalking her dreams. Whispering in a voice made of smoke and longing. A shadow carved like a man, with eyes like embers, watching, waiting, wanting.
But she never expected him to be real.
When he emerged from the darkness from behind the altar, the air bent around him. Black horns curled behind his temples, elegant and terrible. His presence filled the chapel like a storm.
“Aradia,” he said, as though he was tasting the shape of her soul. “At last.”
Her heart stuttered. “Who… What are you?”
“A demon,” he answered simply. “ But not the kind your priest warned you about.” He stepped closer and the shadows followed like loyal dogs. “I am bound to you.”
She should have run. Any sane person would have fled from a creature born of night and sin. But something in her; something buried and ancient pulled toward him with a hunger older than fear.
“ Bound?By what?”
His lips curved but not quite a smile. “ By your bloodline. By your dreams. By the loneliness you tried so hard to hide.”
Aradia’s breath trembled. “ You’ve been watching me.”
“Longer than you know,” he murmured. “ And I have waited for you to call me.”
“ I didn’t call anyone.”
He reached out, and though his claws could have torn through her, he only touched her cheek gently, almost reverent. Heat flooded her skin.
“ You cried out for someone who would see you,” he whispered. “ Someone who would never leave that was enough.”
Her pulse thundering in her ears. She forced herself to meet his burning gaze. “ If you are bound to me, what do you want?”
His wings unfurled behind him with a low shivering rustle, vast leathery, magnificent.
“You,” he said.”
The word struck her like a spell.
Not her soul.
Not her fear.
Not her obedience.
Just her.
Aradia’s knees weakened. “Demons don’t love.”
“No,” he agreed. “But I am no ordinary demon.”
His voice deepened, rich like velvet draped over a blade.
“Love is not what is offer. Love is fragile, Mortal.”
He leaned close, his breath warm against her ear.
“What I feel for you is devotion. Eternal. Unbreakable. Dangerous.”
Her heart twisted fear, desire, fate all tangling into something intoxicating.
“Dangerous for who?’’ she whispered.
His smile was slow, wicked and heartbreakingly tender.
“For anyone who tries to take you from me.”
The candles blew out.
The darkness wrapped around them both like a vow.
And Aradia had realized the truth.
She had not summoned a demon, she had awakened one.
And he would burn the world before letting her go.
