RichardBy the time the pyre had cooled and Darius’s name was already being recast in rumor, I stood at the center of the great hall, flanked by council members who looked too tense to be soothed by ceremony. Cameras framed the back of the chamber, their lenses gleaming under the chandeliers like ey
An inch. That was all that separated my teeth from his pulse.“Do it,” he whispered. “Be what they made you.”I didn’t move.“You want to. I can smell it on you.”I pulled back. Let go. Forced my hands off him and stepped away. My legs trembled from holding it in.He sat up slowly, panting. He was s
Amelia“I’m fine,” I said for the third time that morning.Richard didn’t look up from the file in his hand. “You’re fidgeting so hard the whole table’s vibrating.”I stilled my leg. “It’s just nerves. This is the first time I’ve been face-to-face with Darius since the attack.”He finally glanced at
I found Amelia already in bed, curled onto her side facing the wall. I undressed quietly and joined her.She didn’t move. But she wasn’t asleep. I could feel it in the way she held her breath. I turned away and closed my eyes.AmeliaHe hadn’t brought it up again. The healer.I’d waited all day for
RichardWe’d been tracking him for three days. Every surveillance drone we could spare, every movement observed. Amelia had marked a weak point in the warehouse quadrant, where the patrols rotated just wide enough to allow passage. Darius had always been careful. Slippery. But that was the first tim
And then I leaned down, slow. Deliberate.My tongue ran the full length of the cut.He flinched hard. One hand slammed against the wall behind him. My eyes fluttered closed, and a low hum clawed up from my chest like a craving I didn’t know how to fight anymore.He flinched like I’d punched him. One