Chapter 99 – The Night's Throne
The world around them had ceased to exist.
Aetheria clung to Leonhardt, her breath uneven, her skin burning where his hands touched her. The obsidian throne beneath him was a mere afterthought, a relic of the power she wielded, yet it felt like his rightful place.
And she—his queen, his goddess—was the only throne he would ever bow to.
Her lips parted, and he drank in the sound of her whispered breaths, the way her violet eyes darkened with something more than desire—possession.
"You're mine." Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling, demanding, staking her claim.
Leonhardt's lips curled into a smirk, his fiery red eyes glowing in the dim light. "I already told you that."
"Say it again," she whispered, her lips ghosting over his. "Say it until the world remembers."
Leonhardt exhaled sharply. His control was hanging by a thread, and she was unraveling him piece by piece. He had fought wars, stood against gods, but against her?
He had already surrendered.
His hands tightened on her waist, pulling her flush against him, letting her feel the heat of his power intertwining with hers.
"You're impatient," he murmured against her lips.
Aetheria's breath hitched. "And you take too long."
Leonhardt chuckled, the sound low, rich, filled with dark amusement. "Is this a battle, then?"
Aetheria's eyes gleamed with challenge. "It always was."
Her nails raked down his back, leaving faint trails of divine energy in their wake. A pulse of raw magic surged between them, power colliding with power, devotion intertwining with hunger.
Leonhardt growled.
Then, he broke.
In a single movement, he had flipped her, pressing her against the cold, black marble of the realm she had created. The Queen of the Night—pinned beneath him, beneath the one who had once ruled over gods.
Aetheria's breath came in sharp, but her smirk was still there. She had won.
Leonhardt's fingers traced the side of her face, slow, deliberate, memorizing every inch of her. His golden-red eyes bore into hers, and for a brief moment, the hunger melted into something deeper, something eternal.
"I have always been yours," he said, his voice low, reverent. "And I always will be."
Aetheria shivered beneath him—not from fear, nor from cold, but from the undeniable truth in his words.
Her Night had finally conquered her King.
And she would never let him go.