Chapter 65: Staking a Claim on His Core
Gina hesitated, then continued.
"Rei’s evolution was strictly her own. The only way a fragment of that signature would interact with you this strongly is if your core is attempting to mirror or emit along a similar pathway. The probability is extremely low. Almost zero under normal conditions. But the data is... odd."
I nodded slowly, filing the information away.
Then I stood.
The ache behind my ribs flared once and settled.
"I want to talk with Gia."
I reached for her wrist. She didn’t resist when I guided her toward the side room. Jenna’s voice cut across the space immediately.
"There’s no need to start everything again right now."
"Yes, there is," I said.
"I have to."
I closed the door behind us before anyone could object.
The sound of the latch was soft and final. On the other side of the wall, I could already imagine Jenna and Mira exchanging looks.
Inside the smaller room, Gianna stood with her arms loosely crossed, eyes fixed on the floor instead of on me. The brazen, sharp-edged version of her that usually dominated every training mat was gone.
What remained looked younger and more cornered.
"Look at me."
"I don’t want to talk."
I stepped closer and cupped her face with both hands, tilting it up until the red eyes finally met mine.
"Everything you said out there is true," I told her.
"I’m sorry if it feels like I’m forcing you to change. That was not what I wanted."
Gianna let out a short, disbelieving scoff.
"You didn’t understand shit. I’m not changing because you want me to. I’m changing myself for you. There’s a difference."
"And you don’t like this change?"
"I don’t like part of it."
"Then don’t change."
My thumbs brushed once along her cheekbones.
"My feelings won’t shift just because you decide to keep every version of yourself exactly as it was. You don’t have to break anything open for me."
She stared at me for a long moment.
The height difference put her head at the perfect level against my chest if she leaned forward, but she stayed upright, searching my face like she was still looking for the lie.
"Why isn’t my power in your body?" she asked quietly.
"Because I never used the skill on you."
"No."
Gianna’s hands rose, fingers sliding to the back of my neck. Her grip was firm.
"Use the kiss. I want to be inside you. More than Rei. More than that guy you just met. More than anyone else who tries to leave a mark. Whenever your core starts overloading again, I want my power sitting there first. So you remember who actually belongs in that space."
The request landed heavier than any order she had given on the training floor.
I studied her face. The redness in her eyes. The stubborn set of her mouth. The way her fingers had already tightened at the back of my neck like she was afraid I would refuse and step away.
"You understand what you’re asking," I said.
"I understand exactly what I’m asking."
"It won’t be the same as what happened with Rei. There’s no emergency. No critical health drop. If I do this, it’s deliberate."
"I’m not asking for an emergency."
Her voice stayed low, but it didn’t shake.
"I’m asking you to put something of me where the residue from other people keeps trying to settle. You want honesty? This is mine. I don’t like the part of myself that felt relief when I thought you might die. I hate it. So give me a different anchor. One I choose."
The monitoring patch under my collarbone gave a neutral chime, still feeding data to Mira on the other side of the door. The bracelet remained quiet, green status steady for now.
I rested my forehead against hers.
"If I do this, you don’t get to pretend afterward that it meant nothing."
Gianna’s fingers flexed once at the back of my neck.
"I already told you to stop saying that line."
"I’m serious, Gia."
"So am I."
I exhaled, long and slow, and let the redirection loop settle into the wider, lighter configuration Mira had been drilling into me.
No compression. No panic. Just a controlled opening.
Then I kissed her.
It was nothing like the desperate, life-saving transfer in the cavern and nothing like the rough, frustrated collision against the training room wall.
This one was deliberate. I kept the output measured, feeding a clean current of energy across the contact while the new Echo Partition sat quietly in the background, isolating anything that didn’t belong.
Gianna made a small sound against my mouth and pulled me closer. Her mana signature rose to meet mine, familiar from every training session, sharper than Jenna’s, denser than it had been even a few days ago.
I felt the moment her core accepted the flow instead of resisting it. The transfer wasn’t massive. It didn’t need to be. It was specific.
The Echo Partition activated at once. It sensed the new signature, compiled the existing residue, and began dragging the lingering traces of Rei, Shen, and even faint remnants of Jenna to one side, sealing them away.
Gianna’s essence stayed close to my core, clean and deliberate, anchoring itself exactly where she had demanded it belong.
[Controlled Transfer in Progress]
[Vital Kiss Activated]
[Target: Gianna Everheart]
[Output: Stable - 34%]
[Resonance Pattern: Primary Anchor Candidate]
[Echo Partition: Holding]
When I finally eased back, both of us were breathing a little faster.
Gianna’s hands remained at the back of my neck. Her eyes had gone darker, the red richer under the low light of the side room.
"You felt that," she said.
"Yes."
"Good."
She held my gaze.
"Next time your core starts pulling in every leftover signature in the area, it hits mine first. Clear?"
"Clear."
She stayed close for another second, as if testing whether the new resonance would settle or spike. It stayed steady, a quiet, deliberate presence instead of the chaotic residue Shen and Rei had left behind.
Outside the door, muffled footsteps moved across the main room. Mira’s voice murmured something technical.
Jenna answered in the low tone she used when she was already three steps ahead of the immediate problem.
Gianna finally let her hands drop, though she didn’t step away completely.
"They’re going to ask what we did in here."