[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 36: In Which I Develop X-Ray Vision (Sort Of)

It happened halfway through Lirien’s speech about how love makes you weak.

One moment I was sitting there, trying to maintain the appearance of calm while she systematically dismantled every aspect of my relationship with Azryth.

The next moment, the world... shifted.

Colors became more intense, sounds grew sharper, and around Lirien, I saw something I’d never seen before.

An aura.

Not like the vague sense of supernatural presence I’d developed with spirits. This was vivid, detailed, and visible layers of energy radiating from her body in colors that hurt to look at directly.

Red and gold, primarily. Succubus colors, my brain supplied from nowhere. But underneath, threaded through the red and gold like infection through healthy tissue, were other colors. Purple so dark it was almost black, silver that seemed to writhe.

And symbols, actual infernal symbols, pulsing in the deeper layers.

Binding marks. Loyalty marks. Marks that said she belonged to someone.

Not Azryth.

Someone else.

I must have made a sound, because Azryth’s hand tightened on mine under the table.

"Riven?" he asked quietly.

"I’m fine," I managed, trying to focus past the overwhelming sensory input. "Just... seeing things."

Lirien’s eyes sharpened on me. "Seeing things? How peculiar. Are you feeling alright, Riven? You look rather pale."

I forced myself to look at her normally, not at the aura still blazing around her like a supernatural neon sign.

"I’m fine," I repeated.

But I wasn’t fine. Because the more I looked, the more I saw.

The loyalty marks weren’t just present, they were active. Pulsing with energy, connected to something distant, something powerful.

Someone was watching through her, using her eyes, her ears.

This wasn’t just a dinner, it was reconnaissance.

I squeezed Azryth’s hand twice. Our signal. Extract us.

He stood immediately. "You’re relieved of your board position, effective immediately."

The rest of the confrontation passed in a blur. I was too focused on the aura, on the marks, on the realization that Lirien Shade was a spy.

And not just any spy, the symbols I was seeing, I’d seen them before, in the infernal archive. In the documents about the Covenant.

Lirien worked for the Covenant.

We made it to the car, I managed to keep my composure until the door closed and the driver started moving.

Then I turned to Azryth.

"She’s working for the Covenant," I said.

He went very still. "What?"

"Lirien. She has marks, loyalty bindings. I saw them around her, through her, connected to something else." The words tumbled out fast. "And the symbols, they match the ones from the archive, the Covenant’s signature patterns."

"You saw loyalty bindings." His voice was carefully controlled. "How?"

"I don’t know! One moment I was sitting there, the next I was seeing... everything. Her aura, the energy around her, the marks." I pressed my palms to my eyes. "It was overwhelming, too much information, colors and symbols and connections I shouldn’t be able to perceive."

"Your warden abilities are developing faster than expected." He pulled out his phone, started typing rapidly. "Aura reading is advanced, most wardens train for years before they can perceive loyalty bindings, you did it instinctively under stress."

"Great. Add it to the list of things I can do accidentally."

"This is significant, Riven. If you can read auras, you can identify threats, see through disguises, detect supernatural affiliations." He was still typing. "This changes everything."

"Everything how?"

"We can finally identify Covenant operatives, everyone they’ve planted in my organization, my board, my sphere of influence." His eyes were sharp. "With your ability, we can root them out. All of them."

The implications hit me. "You want to use me as a supernatural detector."

"I want to use your abilities to protect us both. Yes." He finished typing, set down the phone. "But first, we need to understand what you saw. Describe the marks, every detail you remember."

I closed my eyes, pulling up the memory. "Purple, almost black, silver threads. Three main symbols, one looked like interlocking circles, one was angular like lightning, one was..." I paused, trying to remember. "Curved, almost like a hook or a crescent."

"The Covenant’s primary binding triad." His voice was grim. "Used to mark operatives, ensure loyalty, and maintain communication. She’s not just affiliated, she’s fully bound to them."

"Since when?"

"Could be decades, could be centuries. Succubi live long lives and hold grudges longer." He pulled me closer. "She’s been on my board for fifteen years, which means the Covenant has had eyes on Valek Industries for at least that long."

"What were they looking for?"

"Initially? Probably just intelligence, corporate espionage, tracking my activities, my resources, my vulnerabilities." His jaw tightened. "But after our binding? They were gathering information on you, your abilities, your integration into my life. Your weaknesses."

The dinner made more sense now. "She was probing, testing us, seeing how we’d react to pressure."

"And reporting everything back to her masters." He looked at me. "You saved us from revealing more than we intended, your ability manifested at exactly the right moment."

"Or the worst moment, depending on how you look at it."

"The best moment," he corrected. "Now we know, now we can plan accordingly."

His phone buzzed. He checked it, his expression darkening.

"What?" I asked.

"Security sweep of her office just found a communication device. Infernal make, encrypted, she’s been sending detailed reports." He kept scrolling. "Including information about your training progress, your power development, your daily routines."

Ice formed in my stomach. "They know everything."

"They knew everything, past tense." He made a call, voice crisp. "Initiate Protocol Seven. All board members, senior staff, anyone with access to sensitive information, I want full background checks, surveillance sweeps, loyalty verification." He paused, listening. "I don’t care if it’s invasive, we have a confirmed Covenant operative. Assume there are more, find them."

He hung up and pulled me closer.

"We’re going into lockdown mode," he said. "No more public appearances, no more meetings with people we can’t verify, no more exposure until we’ve cleaned house."

"For how long?"

"As long as it takes." His eyes met mine. "Your ability changes everything, tomorrow we start testing its limits, learning to control it, using it to identify threats before they can act."

"You want me to scan everyone."

"I want you to help us survive. Yes." He cupped my face. "I know it’s asking a lot, using your abilities as a weapon, but the Covenant is closing in. We need every advantage."

I thought about Lirien’s aura. The marks. The knowledge that she’d been watching us, reporting on us, gathering intelligence for people who wanted me dead or enslaved.

"Okay," I said. "I’ll do it, but we need to figure out how to control this. It just... happened, I don’t know how to turn it on or off."

"We’ll figure it out together." He pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Like we figure everything out, one disaster at a time."