CHAPTER 5

I turned. He was standing at the entrance of the cave, swaying slightly, his skin pale from the sedative, but his eyes burning with a rage that could scorch the earth.

"Get back!" I yelled, backing closer to the void. The cave rumbled. Rocks fell from the ceiling, turning into doves before they hit the ground. The reality distortion was peaking.

"You drugged me," Silas growled, stumbling toward me. He didn't care about the falling rocks. "You tried to leave me."

"I'm saving you! We're a bomb, Silas! Look around! We're destroying everything!"

"We're destroying it because you're running!" Silas roared. He lunged, ignoring the void lapping at his boots. He grabbed my arm, yanking me away from the edge. "The Cataclysm doesn't happen because we're together. It happens because we're *apart* while standing right next to each other!"

"I'm defective!" I cried, fighting him. "I don't fit in your world! I don't fit anywhere!"

"Then we make a new world!"

He pinned me against the cave wall. The void roared behind us, rising like a tidal wave.

"I don't want a perfect mate," Silas shouted over the noise. "I don't want order! I hate the order! I want you. I want the chaos. I want the mess. I want *us*."

He didn't wait for my answer this time. He crushed his mouth to mine.

It wasn't gentle. It was desperate, angry, and terrifyingly absolute.

And then, the world stopped screaming.

The moment our lips met, the moment I stopped fighting and grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer, the energy shifted. The pain vanished.

I opened my eyes.

The black void in the cave receded, turning back into blue, salty ocean water. The rocks stopped falling. The colors settled.

A sphere of golden light surrounded us—warm, protective, and still. The storm raged outside the bubble, but inside? Inside, it was quiet.

Silas pulled back, his forehead resting against mine. He was breathless, his eyes searching my face.

"See?" he whispered, a crooked, exhausted smile touching his lips. "Equilibrium."

I laughed, a wet, shaky sound. "We're not a bomb."

"No," Silas kissed my nose. "We're the eye of the hurricane, Rox. We just had to stop fighting the wind."

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