It Wants Me

It Wants Me
Amelia

“Tell me what touched you.” His arms were iron too, holding me against him as though I’d vanish if he let go.
But his voice...his voice was the blade.
“Start talking.”

I stiffened. His tone was calm, but his aura curled sharp, restless. He had felt what happened. He had seen me collapse, felt the emotions tearing me apart, and still, part of me wanted to deny it. To bury it deeper.

“I need you to tell me,” he pressed, his thumb digging lightly at the base of my skull. “How long has this been happening? How long have you been carrying this without me?”
Tears burned. “Since I went alone to the council building.”
His expression didn’t change, but his shadows surged like a silent snarl. “What about the council building?”

I broke then. The words spilled like blood from a wound, unstoppable.

“It was the first time I went back after the ceremony,” I whispered. “I-I was only looking for answers, about the council, about the lies I felt, but…”
My voice faltered, but his grip didn’t ease. He held me tighter, grounding me.
“I found something. A stone. Black, veined, buried under scrolls like they didn’t want it seen. And when I stepped near it, I—” My chest clenched, memory flooding raw. “I felt everything. Rage. Grief. Hunger. Not mine. They crawled into me, and I couldn’t stop them. And then…”

I couldn’t say it. Couldn’t admit it aloud.

“And then?” His voice was low, dangerous.
“It spoke.” My voice cracked. “Not with sound. Inside. It called me ‘little spark.’ It said..” I swallowed hard. “It said I was its.”
Kane went still. Not breathing, not blinking. Still as stone.

“I thought....I thought maybe I was crazy,” I rushed on, the storm trembling at my edges. “Maybe it was just the curse. Every Storm Weaver goes mad eventually, lost in emotions until they burn out or turn cruel. Maybe this is me unraveling, and the voice is just in my head.”
His jaw clenched, but I kept going, panicked now. “I didn’t tell you because you shouldn’t have to be tied to someone broken. You shouldn’t be bonded to a mate who’s losing her mind. If it’s real, then I’m cursed. If it’s not, then I’m insane. Either way, you...”

“Enough.”

The word hit like a blow. His body pressed tighter around me, not crushing, just locking me still.
“Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t be tied to,” he growled.
Tears blurred my vision, guilt clawing at me. “But if I spiral, I’ll drag you into it.”

His forehead pressed to mine, breath harsh, shadows trembling under his skin. “Listen to me, Amelia. If you try to scorch the world, I’ll try to stop you. But if I can’t…” His hand tightened at the back of my neck, his mouth brushing mine. “…then I’ll burn it with you. Willingly.”
A sob tore free, raw and shaking.

“Don’t you ever think I wouldn’t choose you,” he whispered fiercely. “Even in ruin. Especially in ruin.”
His mouth crushed mine then, rough and claiming, the taste of blood and smoke thick on his lips.

He didn’t let me go. Not for a moment. His arms locked me against him, his eyes dark and endless.
“How long,” he asked again, quieter now but sharper. “How many times has it spoken to you?”

My chest hitched. “Three. Maybe four.”

“Always in the council building?”
“Yes.” My throat closed. “Always with the stone.”

His shadows stirred, restless and lethal. “And you didn’t tell me.”
“I didn’t want to be a burden,” I whispered. “I didn’t want to ruin what we had, with madness.”

His hand cupped my jaw, his stare unflinching. “You are not a burden. You are mine. And whatever this thing is, it’s not yours. I felt it. It wasn’t you.”
The relief was sharp, painful. My storm trembled with it, easing under his certainty.
But his voice hardened as he spoke the next words.

“Now you’re going to show me.”
My breath caught. “Show you—?”
“The relic,” he said, final, absolute. Shadows coiled like blades at his edges. “You’re going to take me to what’s been whispering to you.”

I was caught between terror and relief, because there was no hiding anymore.

The stone walls of our home pressed tighter around me with every step Kane took. His hand was firm at the small of my back as he guided me down the path  toward the council building. He didn’t speak. He didn’t have to. The bond thrummed with his focus...sharp, dark, unyielding. The same as his emotions.
I tried not to tremble. Tried not to imagine what would happen if I showed him the relic and it did nothing. What if he looked at me and saw madness?
My stomach turned cold.

“Where,” he said finally, voice low enough that it rumbled through the stone itself.
I swallowed. “In the council chamber. The last room, beneath the scrolls.”

His eyes flicked to me. He didn’t say anything else, just kept walking until the abandoned council doors groaned open.
The air here was heavy, still thick with the memory of the council’s deaths.

Kane stopped, then turned to me. “Stay.”

It wasn’t a request. His shadows pressed through the command, sliding cold across my skin, holding me rooted.
I didn’t argue.
He left me just inside the entryway, striding deeper into the chamber with his silent, predatory grace. My storm shifted, restless, as his presence receded. I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to breathe.
Minutes dragged. My heart pounded against my ribs.
When Kane finally returned, his face was carved from stone. His jaw locked, his gaze unreadable.

“It’s a rock,” he said.
The words hit harder than any blow. My knees almost buckled. “What?”
“I touched it. Looked at it. Nothing.” His voice was even, but he felt unsettled.
My throat closed. Tears burned, hot and sharp.
So I was losing my mind.

I had dragged him down here, bared the deepest fear I’d been carrying, and all he found was an inert piece of stone.
Shame crawled up my spine, thick and suffocating. I wanted to fold in on myself, to run back into the mountain and hide where he couldn’t see what a disaster he was bound to.
Kane stepped closer, his hand catching my chin, tilting my face up to his. “Look at me.”
I couldn’t.

“Amelia.” His voice sharpened. “That doesn’t mean I don’t believe you.”
His hand closed around mine, dragging me deeper into the chamber. Scrolls rattled faintly as we passed, dust falling like ash.
And then I saw it.

The relic sat where I had left it, black and dull as stone, veins faint beneath its surface.
I froze.
Kane’s grip didn’t loosen. He led me forward until we stood before it. The chamber pressed heavy on my lungs, but the relic....silent.
“Go on,” he said.
My mouth went dry. “It’s… it’s not...”
“Touch it.”
I shook my head. “I can’t.”
“You can. You will. I will be right here. You will be safe.”
I wanted to scream at him, to say I wasn’t strong enough, that I was already falling apart. But Kane’s command left no room for refusal.

I lifted my hand.

The moment my fingers brushed the stone, the world split open.
Emotions slammed into me like a floodgate bursting. Rage, grief, hunger, despair. Not mine.... possessive....not mine.
My storm-weaving surged, dragging them deeper, amplifying them until they screamed. My knees buckled, breath choking.

Little spark.

The voice slithered through me. My vision blurred.
Mine.

I gasped, clutching the stone shelf as sobs and laughter ripped from my throat in the same breath.
Kane’s power floods my mind, his voice tearing through the foreign darkness with ease.
His growl shook me. “Amelia.”

The bond flared, and through it he felt what I felt...the storm surging, the emotions that weren’t mine, the foreign darkness pressing into me. His own shadows lashed at it, commanding, driving it back.
My body shook, tears streaking down my face. “Do you see? Do you see?”

His chest heaved against mine, his mouth at my ear. “It’s real,” he said, voice raw, absolute. “And it wants you.”
The chamber settled, but the relic still pulsed faintly, veins glowing blue as though waiting for me to reach again.

Kane pulled me tighter into him, his voice dark as the mountain stone.

“We’re coming back. Together. And I’m going to find out what the hell this thing is.”