I wanted to say something to stop this before I broke. But when I opened my mouth, no sound came out. My hunger, my fear, my want tangled together until I couldn’t tell one from the other.
His pulse was loud in my ears.
The scent of him filled the room, salt and warmth and something that was just him. I reached up before I realized I was moving, fingers brushing the side of his throat. His breath hitched, but he didn’t pull away.
“I can’t,” I whispered again, though it sounded less certain this time.
“I didn’t ask you to,” Kit murmured. “I just wanted you to know you could.”
That undid me. The quiet offer. The calm in his voice. The way he looked at me like I was worth saving.
I let my hand fall, forcing distance between us.
“You have no idea what that means to me,” I said.
“Then tell me,” he said, softer now. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
I met his eyes. “That I don’t deserve it.”
He exhaled slowly, the faintest smile curving his mouth. “You keep saying that like it’s your call.”
Something in me cracked then.
I didn’t move toward him, didn’t touch him again, but the air between us changed. The hunger ebbed just a little, replaced by something gentler, heavier.
“I mean it, Kit. This, whatever this is, it’s dangerous,” I told him.
I just looked at him, memorizing the lines of his face, the flecks of gold in his eyes when the light hit them right. He lingered a moment longer, then stepped back toward the door.
“I should head back,” Kit said, his voice low but steady. “You need rest.”
I nodded, unable to speak. At the doorway, he hesitated again.
“For what it’s worth,” Kit said, “you’ve got more control than you think.”
Then he was gone, the night swallowing him whole.
I stayed where I was long after the sound of his footsteps faded. The hunger still coiled inside me, restless and alive, but underneath it was something else. Something far more dangerous.
Hope. It was ridiculous. Impossible. But it was there all the same. He’d offered his blood. His trust. Himself. I’d said no, because I had to.
Because if I ever crossed that line, there’d be no coming back. Still, the thought of his heartbeat under my lips and his warmth in my veins, haunted me long after he was gone.
13
KIT
The summons camein the middle of the afternoon.
A message from Guild headquarters.Senior Hunter Grayson requests your presence. Immediate.
That was never a good sign.
The Guild’s upper floors always smelled the same. Old stone, burned sage, and something metallic underneath, like blood that had been cleaned up but never really gone.
The walls were lined with portraits of hunters long dead, all wearing that same grim, dutiful expression that saidwe did our job even if it killed us.
I wondered if one day they’d hang my face up there too. The thought made my stomach twist.
