SOREN
When her lips touched mine,
I stopped.
Not metaphorically. Not in the casual human sense of freezing. I mean my entire existence malfunctioned. My lungs forgot their function. My pulse abandoned its rhythm. My magic misfired. My mind lurched sideways like it had been struck with divine force.
Everything, every single part of me, halted.
Because Eris Igniva was kissing me.
Not accidentally. Not under duress. Not in delirium or madness or weakened judgment.
With intention. With choice. With a certainty that shattered every rule I had clung to since the day I first met her.
I couldn't comprehend it.
My blood turned to ice, real ice, the kind born of divine instinct, the kind that responded to emotion I had never allowed myself to name, let alone feel.
Time bent. Warped. Paused.
And then,
