I gasped, feeling the warmth of her body pressed against mine. My eyes widened so fast they almost popped out of their sockets.

"Elira?! What… what are we…?" My voice cracked, and I tried to push myself away, but her arm slipped around my waist and pulled me in even closer.

"Let's just stay like this for a moment longer…" Her face was flushed a soft red, but her voice did not carry even a hint of shyness. It was calm, steady, and almost too honest.

"No… how can we… this is immoral!" I tried to sound certain, but my hands betrayed me completely, resting against her waist and allowing her to hold me a little longer. Her long eyelashes brushed softly each time she blinked, catching the faint green light of the frost. Her eyes shimmered with a quiet glow that pulled me in no matter how hard I tried to look away. And her skin… her skin was smooth like carved ice, impossibly soft, flawless in a way that made my heart twist.

"Do you remember what happened moments ago?" she asked.

The question made something fuzzy crawl up the back of my mind. My breath hitched, and for a moment I could not inhale at all. Something felt wrong… or maybe too right. I could not tell anymore. My thoughts slipped through my fingers like water.

"We… I…" I swallowed, trying to piece it together. "I stopped you, and then I bit you, and then… then I do not remember anything at all…"

Elira's fingers brushed my cheek with a gentleness that made my heartbeat stumble again. It felt warm even though she radiated pure frost. She looked at me with an expression I had never seen from her, calm and strangely tender, as if she was trying to memorize my face.

"That is alright," she said quietly. "I remember enough for both of us."

My breath caught. The way she said it made my stomach twist, like I was standing too close to the edge of a cliff, unsure if I should step back or let myself fall. Her thumb traced the corner of my lips, lingering where traces of her blood still glowed faintly.

My heart slammed against my ribs, and I jolted away from her as fast as a terrified cat. My feet practically skidded across the frozen floor. My eyes were stretched wide, almost as wide as the sky outside this cursed mountain.

Something inside me screamed that I had done something I should never have done, something that made my stomach twist harder than any battle I had ever fought. And that smile on Elira's face… it made my skin crawl in the strangest way. Something felt wrong. Something smelled fishy.

"We should… get going…" I coughed, my voice shaky as I forced myself to look anywhere except her face. I needed to find Beelzebub. That little hamster was nowhere in sight. The chamber was enormous, but there was only one entrance, at least as far as I remembered. I had not paid attention after the walls shattered and revealed Elira on that throne. I must have missed something. Also…

"Elira," I said softly but firm enough to pretend I had control over myself.

"Yes?" she replied instantly, a bit too quickly, as if she had been holding her breath waiting for me to speak.

"Have you seen Beelzebub? And… I have something to ask you."

She tilted her head slightly. Her hair drifted like snow in still air.

"What is it?"

I swallowed, trying not to look flustered.

"What happened to you after we split? How did you end up here? And… what powers did you acquire?"

She froze for a moment, her expression shifting just slightly as her eyes drifted off to the side. A tiny flicker of hesitation passed across her face. She would not be hiding something from me… right?

"I… I don't remember," she said, uncertainty threading through every word. "All I remember is some blue light and then… and then I remember you…"

Her cheeks turned a deep shade of red. She looked back at me only with the corners of her eyes, shy and flustered in a way that made my chest tighten far more than it should have.

Ahhh… so cute… and hot. No! What the hell am I thinking?

"Is that all?" I turned away, pretending to look somewhere else.

She did not respond, which only made the unease inside me twist tighter. I began pacing around, pretending to inspect the cold ice walls, letting my hand slide across their surface as if I cared about the way frost clung to my fingertips. In truth, my eyes kept drifting back to her in secret, stealing quick glances I hoped she would not catch. Every time she shifted slightly or breathed a little deeper, my chest tightened for reasons I did not want to examine.

"Also, if you're worried about Beelzebub, I saw him fly off toward that side…" Elira finally spoke, pointing her finger toward a darker corner of the cave I had completely ignored.

I froze mid-step. The energy leaking from that direction felt strange, thick with something unfamiliar, something that shimmered in the air like hidden static. A part of me did not trust it. Another part trusted Beelzebub enough to know he would not fly somewhere dangerous without a reason. And if he did… well, maybe there was another tempering waiting for us... Ha… haha… ha...

A breath slipped out of me, half sigh, half reluctant acceptance, and I turned toward the darkened tunnel. My feet brushed against the ice and only then did I notice that my crystal shoes were gone. Probably melted away during the tempering. Or shattered. Or exploded. Figures...

Barefoot on cold ice again, as usual.

I rubbed my arms, pretending the cold bothered me even though it no longer could, and stepped forward, each movement pulling me deeper into the cavern's shadow as I followed the direction she pointed to. Elira stayed behind, watching me with that unreadable gaze that made my heart stumble every few seconds.

And I hated how much I liked that.

"You coming?" I asked, extending a hand to her. Elira's long eyelashes fluttered gently, almost like the wings of a butterfly catching a breeze. She nodded and slipped her fingers into mine without hesitation.

"Mhm," she hummed, looking happier than I had ever seen her. "I cannot wait to see what's on the other side of the mountain. That is… if we make it there without more problems." She let out a soft giggle that warmed the cold air around us.

I squeezed her hand lightly, unable to hide my tired exhale.

"I hope so too. I'm exhausted…"

The moment we crossed into the narrow passage, a low groan traveled through the stone beneath our feet. At first, it felt like a sigh from the cave, a settling of ancient weight. But then the ground trembled again, harder this time, rattling the frozen walls.

"Elira…" I whispered, tightening my grip around her hand.

Before she could answer, the entire corridor dimmed, the green glow fading out as if something snuffed it with cold fingers. Darkness swallowed the passage until it felt like we had stepped into night itself, a night so deep it chewed through every breath.

A violent shiver raced down my spine. "We should move," I said, pulling her gently with me.

We hurried forward, our footsteps echoing in the suffocating dark. The shaking only grew worse. Small shards of ancient frost began to fall from the ceiling, raining around us like glass splinters. Elira moved closer to me, her shoulder brushing mine.

"It feels unstable," she murmured, voice trembling lightly.

"Unstable is an understatement," I muttered, but the darkness swallowed my attempt at a joke.

A loud crack echoed behind us. The entire corridor lurched, tilting just enough to make me stumble. I pulled Elira upright, heart racing.

"Run!" I shouted, and we bolted forward as the tunnel collapsed in pieces behind us.

I could barely see the outline of the path ahead. Only Elira's hand in mine reminded me I was not running blind alone. The air thinned. Dust mixed with frost scraped my throat. The cold bit at my heels harder than before, as if trying to drag me back.

Then, through the darkness, a tiny shape appeared.

Beelzebub stood on all fours, his small body stiff, wings half-spread as if he had been ready to leap into battle. His head was turned toward the end of the passage, staring intently at something.

"Beelzebub!" I called out, breathless.

He did not move. He only twitched one ear, then pointed his tiny paw toward the end with a trembling gesture.

We skidded to a stop beside him.

A dead end.

The wall before us was solid, smooth ice with not even a crack to slip through. The shaking behind us grew worse. One more collapse and the entire corridor would crush us.

The tremors deepened, spreading through the floor like a heartbeat growing too fast.

"We're trapped."

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