This Chapter is dedicated to all who have supported this story with gifts, golden tickets, and powerstones. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. A special thank you to Isabelle_Swan for the Magic Castle! With all your motivation I shall continue to write! <3

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[Music recommendation: A. Blomqvist - Improv. Pt.1: Dance with me]

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And yet, with Aliana, things were different.

Not only had those spirits claimed that she could release them from their cursed existence, but she had also been able to push them back with a power she had only discovered last night.

The mysteries surrounding her were only deepening with each passing moment, and something within Gavriel compelled him to uncover who she truly was.

Not that he had not tried before.

He had already gone through every book and ancient text available from his world, searching for any mention of a human like her. But he had found nothing beyond what he already knew. That there were rare clairvoyant individuals with heightened spiritual abilities.

Nothing about someone who could release souls. And certainly nothing about someone... who could repel them with this kind of power she described.

​As far as he knew, the ability to release a soul was something only gods, or perhaps beings of immense power from the underworld, possessed.

So how could a mere human hold such an ability? 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Was she some kind of prophet?

But he had held her close throughout the night and had sensed nothing, even at such proximity.

Or perhaps he could blame his own condition. The influence of the full moon, which had left him struggling to maintain control and might have dulled his senses.

Still, as a being of his nature, he could always tell when someone possessed heightened spiritual power. Their souls were far more enticing... far more tempting to consume.

Yet Gavriel never sought them out.

He found far greater satisfaction in hunting the corrupted, toying with the consequences of their own sins. That, to him, was far more rewarding than preying on the pure.

And yet, here was this woman...

He sensed no malice in her. But neither did he sense any trace of heightened spiritual power.

Leaving him with one haunting question... just what... was she?

"Gavriel?" Her soft voice pulled him out of his deep thoughts.

Pulling his focus back to the present, he thought, ’Whatever it was that I failed to notice last night... I will see it now.’

With that resolve, he pushed himself off the wall without a word and moved towards the bed.

Placing one knee onto the mattress, he climbed onto it, closing the distance between them in slow movements.

Aliana’s breath hitched as he drew closer, her pulse quickening despite her efforts to stay unaffected.

"What are you doing?" she asked, unable to stop the question from slipping out.

"Don’t move." His low, magnetic voice stilled her instantly, her lips pressing together as though she had fallen under the quiet weight of his command once again.

Her eyes widened slightly as he leaned in, his presence filling her space. His hand lifted, before gently taking hold of her chin, tilting her face towards him.

Silence stretched between them.

Gavriel’s gaze remained fixed on her beguiling light grey eyes as he observed her closely, waiting.

He did not move any closer, nor did he pull her in further, giving no indication that his intent was anything beyond simply... looking.

As the seconds stretched on, Gavriel waited, watching for any sign of change in her eyes, just as he had once witnessed when he had given her a lift in his car.

But even as he continued to study her, he sensed nothing.

There was no shift in her eye colour, not even the faintest flicker to suggest that anything about her was different.

Instead, what had begun as scrutiny slowly turned into something else entirely.

Something far more dangerous, and he found himself... drawn in.

Him... a being who had never once struggled to pull away from anything or anyone, now held captive by the quiet pull of an ordinary human.

He had found nothing of what he had been looking for, and yet, he could not bring himself to look away.

If anyone were to witness this, they would have laughed at the sheer absurdity of it.

Him, of all beings, was being compelled. And the most ridiculous part of it all... she was not even trying.

What was it about her that made him act in ways he never had before?

The question lingered as his fingers tightened ever so slightly around her chin, an unconscious action that drew a soft gasp from her lips.

His gaze dropped to her lips, and for a moment, it lingered there.

Then it drifted lower, tracing the graceful curve of her neck, where he caught the subtle movement of her swallowing. That small, almost insignificant action stirred something within him.

’What is this...?’ he wondered.

’Is it desire... something I have not felt in so long?’

His stilled heart gave the faintest, unfamiliar twinge.

His blue gaze lifted back to her eyes, only to find her looking at him with a slightly hooded expression that mirrored his own intensity.

"Don’t..." he whispered.

"Don’t what?" she whispered back.

"Don’t look at me like that," he said, his thumb brushing lightly along her jaw before he pulled away, leaving behind the ghost of his touch. "It will spell your ruin, little rose."

With that quiet warning, he stepped back and rose from the bed, leaving her blinking in place.

Her dazed expression quickly shifted into a scowl as she scrambled off the bed and stood up.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

"I think I made myself clear," Gavriel replied without looking back, walking toward the living area of the suite. "You should be staying away from me, rather than doing the exact opposite."

Aliana blinked, staring at him in disbelief.

’Wait a minute... how dare he pin this on me when he was the one who leaned in first? And how dare he make it sound like I’m the one making a move on him?’

With that, it was as if a fuse had been lit within her.

She stormed after him, ready to give him a piece of her mind, when a sudden commotion outside drew both their attention towards the door.

Aliana pressed her lips together, irritation flickering across her face as she wondered who could possibly be so uncivilised as to create such a ruckus this early in the morning.

Then, she heard familiar voices.