CHAPTER ONE
Verena
MY TONGUE DRAGGED ACROSS THE BLOOD TRICKLING from my lips, copper and heat rolling over the split.
The Roux Forest held its breath with me beneath the thin curve of the moon as I crouched low in the brush. Damp soil pressed beneath my fingertips, steadying the pulse that wanted to tear free of my ribs as hooves struck the realm somewhere in the distance.
I shifted, the sleek black suit cutting too tight across my skin, a second layer I could never peel away, reminding me of what I was beneath it all.
Not a girl, or a savior. But a secret. Aweapon.
A coaxing whisper curled beneath my skin, forming into a thought that wasn’t mine, settling just beneath my heartbeat.
Let me see.
I exhaled slowly, trying to quiet it.
At first, it felt like an echo, as if my thoughts were simply louder than they should have been.
Then those thoughts became suggestions. More intrusive.
I shifted my stance again, angling left without thinking. The realization hit a beat later.
I hadn’t chosen that.
I flexed my fingers, grounding myself in the soil again as it pulsed with strains of power. Though, thinner than it had ever been.
Frayed.
Callum always said the forest steadied me. Gemma said the darkness made it worse.
I think both were right.
My pulse balanced as the whisper faded. Not gone, never gone, but resting. For now.
Just breathe,I reminded myself.Just —
Hunt.
The sensation slid through me, unwanted, and I swallowed hard.
Breathe.
I straightened, brushing twigs from my knees. Gods, my muscles burned. I needed to start doing more leg work in training.
Callum had likely already made note of it; my thoughts had been brimming with nothing but complaints for the last half hour, and I was certain he was already keeping score.
The onyx walls of my mind slammed shut, shields we’d practiced snapping into place. Just in time— A familiar pressure tapped at them, gently knocking at the edges.
Callum.
The thing inside me stirred, hissing and coiling tighter, silencing the pressure before it could breach.
Now was certainly not the time for one of his lectures.
I closed my eyes, focusing on the world around the stillness—the way it kept moving, unaware, or uncaring that Selvarra’s prophecy lived and breathed beneath my skin.
The stream gurgled distant behind me, leaves rustled in the hush of the wind. Small sounds, all so fragile and alive, but not the ones I waited for.
