And I hated that I couldn’t place it.
Thane was propped up against a tree, thick, syrupy blood dripping from his limbs and fingers—the kind that lingered, staining everything it touched.
His emerald green eyes were vacant, as if he’d been plucked straight from a nightmare.
And at his feet? A delightful mess.
Limbs, heads, and torsos scattered like a butcher’s feast gone wrong.
The smell of burnt flesh clogged the air—cloying, greasy smoke rising from what could’ve been a proper meal.
It stung my eyes, the stench curling through me until my stomach turned.
The tattered remains of black hooded robes clung to the charred body parts, sticky and wet with blood.
Something about them stirred memories I couldn’t quite place, making the puzzle before me infinitely more compelling than stalking my meal.
I’d deal with the rapist later. The bastard was already passed out, too drunk to hurt anyone else.
Yeah, so maybe I care. Barely. Shut up.
This traumatized human, who was little more than a blank slate, intrigued me.
I shifted into my Løkkda and crept closer.
He didn’t even blink when I crouched beside him to check for a pulse.
Tears streaked his blood-stained cheeks, painting soft pink lines through the red.
I waved a hand in front of his face.
Nothing.
I was almost certain he was harmless in this state, so I leaned in close and took a few quick sniffs, trying to figure out whose blood soaked his skin.
There was too much of it.
No one bled that much and lived, which meant most of it belonged to the corpses littering the forest floor.
But there was another scent.
One hiding behind the thick, sugared stench of evil blood.
It was faint.
Citrus and something ancient.
The memory clawed at the back of my mind, demanding to be remembered.
I’ve lived through eons. Watched continents shift and rebuilt civilizations from ash. I’ve smelled the blood of gods and heard things scream in languages the Earth tried to forget.
It could have been anything.
But when I inhaled again, the scent sharpened.
Grapefruit. Bright and unmistakable.
And beneath it?
