Chapter 17 -   The Whisper of the One Who Owns Her

                                               The scream cut through the darkness like a knife.

It wasn’t long. Nor dramatic.

It was sharp.

Dry.

Instinctive.

Then, hurried steps. A slammed door. Silence.

Evangelina opened her eyes.

Her heart was pounding, as if someone was hitting it from the inside.

The ceiling was unfamiliar.

The sheets, foreign.

The scent in the air—intense, woody, masculine—wasn’t hers.

She blinked.

A dim lamp flickered from a corner.

The walls were dark, the furniture elegant, sober, expensive.

She was in a bed that wasn’t hers, wrapped in a silence far too intimate to be innocent.

She tried to sit up, but her head ached as if she had been torn from another plane.

She remembered the elevator.

The tear.

The golden eyes.

Raviel.

And suddenly she felt it.

A presence.

There, at the far end of the room.

The window was open.

The wind struck the linen curtains violently, made them fly as if they wanted to escape.

The rain came in at an angle, cold.

And there, among shadows and lightning…

him.

Raviel.

Beneath the storm.

Still.

Majestic.

Standing on the edge of the balcony like a wounded god.

His soaked wings spread behind him like a cursed crown.

His hair dripping over his forehead.

His eyes glowing in the downpour with a gold that seemed to burn.

Evangelina sat up, clutching the sheets to her chest.

And then she heard it.

“You are mine…”

He didn’t shout.

He didn’t murmur.

It was a whisper the wind carried to her ears like an ancient confession.

She stayed still.

Her soul… suspended.

Her body… confused.

Her desire… awakened.

And at that moment,

the door opened.

—Are you okay?

His voice.

Low. Steady. Deep.

Evangelina turned.

Kim.

Leaning against the doorframe, in a black shirt slightly unbuttoned, his dark gaze fixed on her as if he knew exactly what she had been seeing.

He didn’t seem surprised.

He didn’t seem angry.

He seemed… ready.

She didn’t answer.

She just looked at him.

And he took a step.

Then another.

Until the wind coming through the window touched his face too.

He looked outside.

He saw no one.

Only rain.

Only night.

But then he saw her.

The way she looked at him.

The way she trembled.

The way that tremble wasn’t fear…

but something more dangerous.

He approached.

Sat at the edge of the bed.

Didn’t touch her.

But the heat from his body was a caress in itself.

—You don’t have to say anything —he murmured—.

But if you’re here… it’s for a reason.

Evangelina lowered her gaze.

And then, between her fingers, she saw something.

A feather.

White.

Perfect.

Wet.

She said nothing.

Kim saw it too.

And smiled, barely.

A smile without joy.

A smile of someone who had waited too long for this moment.

—Whatever it is… —he said—,

I won’t let it take you.

The room became a held breath.

The rain kept pounding.

But inside… the danger no longer came from the storm.

It was there.

Between them.

In what they didn’t say.

In what they were about to do.