The pact made of flesh and flame

The sky above the ruined temple was still bruised violet from the night's chaos. Magic still crackled in the cracked stones, and the air smelled of scorched sigils and something darker. Wants or desires maybe.

They hadn't spoken in hours. Not after what happened.

Not after the moaning, clawing, spell-breaking collision that left them all trembling in the aftermath.

Kael sat at the base of a broken column, shirt slung over one shoulder, licking blood from his thumb like a lazy god. He watched Lian across the fire, silent, calculating.

"You fight like you want to forget who you are," Kael murmured, lowly and teasingly.

Lian didn't look at him. "You kiss like you don't care who remembers."

Kael grinned.

Sylis lay curled beside Aure, tangled in their mist-blue hair, idly drawing sigils on their bare shoulder with fingers that had once burned entire cities. "So," Sylis said, voice like silk soaked in sin, "what do we call whatever this is?"

Aure exhaled slowly, lips brushing Sylis's temple. "Dangerous bonds."

"Good." Sylis smirked.

The fire flared.

Then came the offer.

"We're being hunted," Aure whispered. "And something ancient is moving beneath the Veil. It wants us divided."

Kael tilted his head. "You're suggesting a bond?"

"A pact," Lian said. "Between the four of us. One that can't be broken without fire, blood… or sex."

Sylis raised a brow. "You had me at sex."

Kael stood, eyes glowing with wicked heat. "Then we seal it the old way."

The ancient way.

The flesh-bound rite.

They formed a circle, four sigil-burned bodies shimmering in moonlight. No robes. No armor. Just skin and trust and tension so thick it was begging to snap.

Each one would touch the next. Kiss the next. Claim the next.

Lian kissed Kael slow, deep, fierce. Their power crackled.

Kael kissed Sylis teeth and tongue, dragging a growl from his throat.

Sylis kissed Aure delicate, reverent, but with a hand wrapped tight in their hair.

Aure kissed Lian soft at first, then hungry, then desperate.

And in the center, their marks lit up.

The ground pulsed.

The Veil shook.

Somewhere, a god screamed.

And when they collapsed again, this time it wasn't lust or chance.

It was a vow.

"We're bound now," Aure whispered.

"To each other," Sylis added.

"To war," Lian said, steady.

Kael smiled, slow and sharp. "And to pleasure."