Mud splashed beneath her palms as she pushed up, too slow. He was already there, straddling her hips, one hand circling her throat. Her claws raked his arms, legs thrashing, but he pressed harder, not to crush, only tosecure.To make herstop.To make her listen.
Wrong move.
She went utterly still. Her eyes closed, breath slowing, steadying.
When she opened them—
Ronan realized what he’d done.
Her pupils were no longer wide with ire, but vertical slits, black as ink, stretching top to bottom. Veins slivered out from them, threading up her forehead and down her cheeks, crawling in sigils.
These weren’t the wild, broken eyes he’d seen earlier. What stared back now was at last the Viper, maybe even something that remembered hel before its fire was ever named.
Ronan only shook his head and said, quietly enough for the rain to almost swallow it, “You can be angry, but this rage, it isn’t meant for me.” Her pupils honed, her heart a furious unrhythmic beat. “Don’t waste it,” he warned. “You’ll only bleed for it later.”
She leaned forward, baring her fangs. “Iwillkill you.” Muscles loosened as she went still. “Maybe not today, or tomorrow. But this isn’t over. Watch for me.”
The fight drained from her limbs, her eyes glassing over with what looked too much like grief.
Ronan clicked his teeth. “Promises, promises,” he muttered, pushing off her and rising to his feet.
Her stare followed the chain sliding around his neck, then to his outstretched hand. For a heartbeat her expression changed, almost soft. She took it, fingers tightening around his, and the softness died.
With brutal grace she yanked him down, and before he could recover, she rolled. Ronan landed on his ass while her legs pinned him to the ground, her fangs sinking into the side of his neck.
Her lips followed, silk where the bite had torn him open, a trembling press that undid every defense he’d built. An ache flashed through him; pain tangled with a vicious heat that was far worse.
She clung to his shoulder, shaking, a sound between a growl and a moan breaking against his skin. A shudder swept over him as the pain vanished, gone as suddenly as it came, instinct snapping his arm around her waist to drag her closer.
Her gown was no armor, only a hush of fabric as her body pushed flush against his, soft where everything else about her was sharp. The ground caved beneath them, slick soil giving way as her nails tore through leather and skin alike.
She moved against him, her fangs still buried in his throat, but the hunger wasn’t for blood, it was forhim.For the pulse beneath his skin, the life threading through his veins.
He could feel her, every heartbeat, every tremor, melding with his own. The air thickened with the scent of rain and power, of corruption and wildfire.
Then everything snapped.
Her body went rigid, and the pain returned as she tore free. Blood welled, painting her lips in a ruby no storm could wash away.
Breath catching, Ronan blinked through the daze.What in the gods’ hel was that?
Only Verena remained now. Her eyes had relaxed, color bleeding back into them, the veins now missing from her skin.
But what replaced the rage was worse. Her chest hitched, and Ronan caught it then. Not fury. Not power—
Fear.
He lifted a hand, thumb tracing the rivulet of red down her cheek while phantoms of wraith curled at her wrists. “Got that out of your system?”
A fractured sound caught in her throat as she shook her head, turning to stand and run—
Ronan’s hand shot out, capturing her jaw and forcing her stare back to his. The space between them narrowed until their breaths fused, until he knew she could taste the smoke and salt clinging to his skin. Rain gathered on her lashes, trembling before it fell.
“If you ever do that again,” he said, “you’ll learn that death is kindness in my hands.” He released her, palm opening as she stumbled back, falling into the mud as it splattered up her bare thighs.
From the corner of his eye, he caught movement—Callum’s arm shooting out, stopping Elva before she could run forward, a smirk cut across his face.
His stare was focused on Verena where she still sat, shivering through her parted lips. Her fangs were gone, the blood washed clean. But her eyes, that bright blue-green that had once dared to dazzle, now snared him completely.
