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“This isn’t just about keeping her safe anymore.This is about stopping something that could destroy the entire region.Maybe more.You can’t let your feelings for her—”

“I said Iknow,” I snap, then take a breath.“I’ll handle it.”

Prophet doesn’t look convinced, but he doesn’t push.Blade, however, pins me with a look that says we’ll be having a conversation about this later.

Fine.Let him lecture me about protocol and detachment and not getting emotionally involved.

It’s too late for that.

It was too late the moment I first saw Tessa two years ago, smiling at customers in her café, completely unaware that a vampire was cataloging every detail about her.Too late when I made her safety my personal mission.Too late when I started watching her house at night, sitting in trees like some lovesick fool, just to make sure she was okay.

I’m compromised.Have been for a long time.

And now that she’s in real danger, something ancient and terrible has marked her, and I’m done pretending otherwise.

Tessa emerges from her bedroom upstairs with a duffel bag, her face set in determined lines.She’s changed into jeans and a thick hoodie that hides the mark, and she’s pulled her hair back in a ponytail that makes her look younger, more vulnerable.

I want to promise her everything will be okay.Want to pull her close and let her feel how steady I can be, how strong.Want to show her that, monster or not, I’m the safest place she could be.

But I can’t.Because she’s right to be wary of me.Right to keep her distance.

I am a monster.And wanting her, wanting to keep her, claim her, make hermine, doesn’t change that.

So, I just hold the door open and follow her out into the night, where the snow is falling and something ancient is waiting.

And I promise myself that whatever comes for her will have to kill me first.

Because I may be a monster.

But I’mhermonster now.

Whether she wants me or not.

Chapter Five

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