you are, on your knees for me

Ren awoke gasping.

His body was drenched in sweat, though the chamber was cool and damp. His heart pounded like a war drum, rattling his ribs.He turned his head and saw Lyra asleep beside him, one hand still clutching his wrist possessively even in dreams.

His mind swam with images — not memories, but dreams the Pearl Queen must have sent.

Her silver hair flowing over his chest as she mounted him, mouth curved in a smile too wide, eyes as endless as the deep.Lyra screaming in the distance, clawing at invisible walls of water that held her back.The sea wrapping around his neck like a lover's arms, pulling him down.

[ALERT: SUBCONSCIOUS INTRUSION DETECTED.][AURELIENNE'S INFLUENCE: 65%. CHAOS BOND ADAPTIVE RESPONSE: COUNTERED 42%.]

The system's numbers meant little against how real it had felt — the taste of salt on his tongue, the cold slide of scales along his skin.

Lyra shifted, groaning softly. Her eyes fluttered open, pupils sharp as a cat's. Instinctively, her hand tightened around his wrist.

"You were dreaming of her, weren't you?" she whispered.

He didn't lie. "Yes."

Lyra sat up abruptly, hair spilling around her like a dark veil. Her power rose in tiny pink sparks, making the sheets quiver.She looked at him with raw fear behind her anger — fear that made her next words tremble.

"She's trying to take you. To root herself in your desires. That's how the Pearl Court works — they don't conquer by sword, they drown you from inside."

Ren reached for her, but she pulled away, pacing the edge of the bed like a caged predator.

"I won't lose you," she breathed. "Not to her. Not to any of them."

Without warning, Lyra spun back, eyes wild. She straddled his thighs, pushing him back into the nest of seaweed. Her power surged in a hot wave, making tiny blossoms burst from the damp walls.

"Lyra—"

She cut him off with a brutal kiss, biting his lower lip hard enough to taste blood. Her hands roamed over his chest, nails scratching shallow lines that glowed faintly with her bloom magic.

"You're mine," she growled. "I'll brand it into your skin if I have to."

[BOND FLARE DETECTED: LYRA. POSSESSIVENESS PEAKING.][SYSTEM OPTION: ALLOW MARKING — PERMANENTLY ANCHORS PRIMARY BOND. COST: 0 CREDITS. WARNING: FUTURE TEMPTATIONS WILL BURN MORE.]

His breath caught. The system was offering to let Lyra literally mark him — to carve their bond so deep it would become a visible claim on his soul.But it also meant any time another power tried to seduce him, it would hurt. Pleasure tangled with pain. Chaos seemed to hunger for it.

"Do it," he rasped.

Lyra's eyes shone with a dangerous, desperate joy. She pressed her forehead to his, whispered something in the old tongue of her first temple — then sank her claws lightly into his chest.

Tiny vines unfurled under his skin, winding around his heart, his ribs, blooming in ghostly blue flowers that opened and closed with his breaths.

It was agony. It was ecstasy. It was hers.

When she pulled back, tears stood in her eyes, though her smile was fierce. "Now even the Pearl Queen will taste me when she tastes you."

They lay together for hours after, wrapped so tightly it was hard to tell where one body ended and the other began.

But sleep was a fragile thing. Every time Ren closed his eyes, he felt the ocean creeping in — Aurelienne's laughter echoing in the currents.

By the next day, the summons came.

A quartet of sea-maidens arrived in the early hours, bearing a long ribbon of pearlescent fabric. They wound it around Ren's wrist with ritual care, ignoring Lyra's low, warning growl.

"Her Majesty Aurelienne bids you both attend the Heart Trench at the next moonrise," one intoned. Her voice was hollow, water-filled. "Refusal invites the ocean's displeasure."

Lyra's fingers tightened around Ren's hand. "Tell your queen if she thinks she can steal my mate with pretty tides, I'll salt her entire court so nothing ever grows again."

The maidens simply inclined their heads and melted back into the watery halls.

Ren exhaled shakily once they were alone.

The ribbon on his wrist pulsed with a cool light, tightening briefly — as if to remind him it was there. A promise. Or a leash.

Lyra watched it with undisguised loathing. Then she dropped to her knees in front of him, surprising him so much he nearly stumbled back.

"Lyra—?"

Her hands rested on his thighs, head bowed. When she looked up, her eyes were damp. "I can't always protect you from these games, Zian. I'm strong — gods, I'm wrath itself when I choose to be — but the ocean is old. Older than my bloom. Older than your chaos."

He cupped her face, brushing his thumbs over her wet lashes. "And yet here you are, on your knees for me."

She gave a shaky laugh. "Not for you. For us. Because if she takes you, truly takes you, I… I don't know if I'd survive it."

His heart squeezed painfully. He leaned down, kissed her forehead. "Then trust me a little longer. Even if the ocean claims a piece of me… my soul is yours. Always."

[SYSTEM NOTICE:][PRIMARY BOND LOCKED: EVEN UNDER FUTURE CLAIMS, CORE LOYALTY REMAINS WITH LYRA.][NOTE: DOES NOT PREVENT PHYSICAL OR EMOTIONAL LINKS TO OTHERS.]

That last line twisted like a knife, but also sent a dark thrill through him. Chaos wanted complications. Wanted him tangled in loves, lusts, betrayals. It fed on the delicious mess of it all.

That night, Lyra didn't let him sleep.

She rode him hard and slow under the dome of water, her eyes locked on his. Each thrust felt like a promise, or a warning. Flowers burst under their bodies, bright as spilled blood.

At the end, she lay panting on his chest, nails dug into his shoulders. "Remember this. Remember me. When she tries to fill you with her tides… remember how I feel around you."

He kissed her salty cheek. "Always."

Far above, in her throne of living coral, the Pearl Queen reclined with her legs draped over one armrest, watching visions play across a drifting orb of water.

She saw Lyra marking him. Saw the flowers blooming under his skin. Her own breath quickened, a tiny shiver running through her scales.

"How delicious," Aurelienne whispered. "Chaos marked by bloom. Soon, I'll see what new blossoms sprout under the sea's embrace."

Her laughter rippled out, carried on the tides all the way back to Ren's chamber, where he shivered without knowing why.