The music echoed off marble and steel, a haunting melody carried through the shadows of the League’s mountain stronghold. Damian stood at the edge of the grand hall, arms crossed, posture rigid. He'd been summoned here for another of the League's ceremonial evenings—a thing he usually scorned as theatrical indulgence.

Until she stepped into the firelight.

The dancer moved like smoke, fluid and untouchable. Her costume shimmered with gold thread and deep crimson, catching the flicker of the torches that lined the walls. Every gesture was deliberate, every breath a whisper of control and power. Tradition, they called it. Art, others said. But Damian... Damian felt like the air had been stolen from his lungs.

He’d never been undone by beauty before. Not like this.

She danced not for the crowd, but as if the air itself was her partner—spinning, bowing, rising again with a grace that made the blade on his belt feel crude. He was trained to endure pain, to resist fear, to suppress emotion. But this—this slow, dangerous seduction written in motion—he had no weapon for it.

Damian found himself stepping closer without realizing it, the usual calculations in his mind failing to form. Her eyes caught his only once, a glance so brief it could've been imagined, but it branded him.

This wasn't infatuation. It was awakening.

She danced like the fire—inviting yet untouchable, beautiful yet wild. He’d seen death performed with elegance before, but this... this was life. Unfolding in front of him with each flick of her wrist, each sway of her hips.

Damian’s pulse climbed. His skin prickled, hot beneath the collar of his tunic. There was something primal threading through his still-growing bones. Not bloodlust. Not battle readiness.

Desire.

Not just for her body, but the mystery coiled in her poise, the confidence she exhaled with every step. She wasn’t just performing. She was commanding.

And he, proud and undefeated in every arena he’d ever faced, found himself captivated—unarmed before the first woman who made him feel.