t everything inside it felt

d tightly around its edge, knuckles pale. Her breath came slow but u

ever suppose

n her mind like a heart

burn away whatever ghosts her presence had awakened. Shadows flickered along the stone

ed at his sides, not

. Car

tai

ken since the

ither

ons too big for language. Of truths neither of them had been

he dark fabric. The faint glow of runes etched into his skin-

't just

t just a

e from moonlight and

ng in front of her-

am I

arm beneath her fingertips, like it had been

, and for a moment she

did

f he didn't trust what he might say if he turned aroun

ence st

ld. No

wai

the only thi

ited w

g, Kaelen turn

shadows and gold, but the look in his

ike stone dragged across steel. "Not just hear.

breath

idn't

't a

her chest whisp

ak-before she could

ith a soun

the earth. The very air in the room shifted, thicke

began t

smoo

ge

erf

rms and chest flared to life with brilliant light. His spin

from his back in a

ped back, eyes wide, heart hammeri

enti

h a

dn't beco

the sto

thing bigger.

fo

with an iridescent sheen, like smoke under moonlight. His golden eyes remained

nst the stone floor. Ancient power bled off him in waves, b

in the way stor

in the way trut

shivered out

an who turns i

that learned h

e her, a creature born from bloodlines older tha

arved by

t moment,

no ordi

no ordi

deeper than she

didn'

ldn

the castle, the truth unraveling before her. Her body bu

he st

use she

g deeper than fe

, changed-didn't lunge. Did

ly stoo

en eyes locked onto hers like they'd found somethi

hunger in the

.. si

lln

gnit

an through the high windows-that wrapped around them like fate. Silver spil

as she took a single,

ible, a whisper carried

e... sti

ead tilted slightly-like he understood

ftly, he

n't a

n't a

ething alm

st a

parted in qu

ked down at her

y slowly-she

t charged, like steppi

len did

t ret

wai

d forward-toward the monster, the mystery, t

the air, suspended b

om weakness, but from the weight of the momen

didn'

muscles wound tight beneath fur and magic. Every line of his ma

he didn't

her c

er fingers closed the

th

ouche

jolted with the contact. His coat was warm. Silken. Coarser near

th her hand, and

mething

ing aw

y-like her touch was fire an

und, he dipped his

ed it int

her h

not quite a gasp, not quite a cry. It was

single, brea

hing s

em, the wo

in d

in c

n sti

aut-ancient, invi

med. His bre

n her chest, below

uld des

he w

made to p

was made to

-

to