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DAIN

T he taste of her still lingers on my tongue.

It shouldn’t. I should have wiped it away, should have buried it beneath fury and reason. But the way she gasped against my mouth, the way she clung to me.

Damn her. Damn myself.

I stalk away from her, putting as much space between us as the ruined house allows. I fist my hands, my claws aching to rip into something, anything that isn’t her. I focus on the rage. The frustration. The suffocating heat curling in my blood like a sickness I can’t purge.

This was a mistake.

It was just hunger. Just proximity. A moment of weakness that meant nothing.

But my body betrays me.

I still feel her skin burning beneath my hands, the soft press of her mouth against mine, the sharp little gasps she mad.

I grit my teeth, shoving the thought away before it can take root.

The silence behind me is suffocating.

I glance back, expecting to see her just as shaken, expecting her to look away, flustered. But she isn’t. Her cheeks are flushed, her lips bruised from my kiss, but her eyes burn with something far more dangerous than desire.

Rage.

"You bastard," she seethes.

I turn away. “Forget it.”

"Forget it?" Her voice rises, filled with disbelief. "That’s what you’re going to say?" She stomps after me, reckless, furious, beautiful in her anger. "You kiss me like that and then just—forget it?"

I exhale sharply through my nose. "It was a mistake."

She laughs, but there’s no humor in it, just something raw and jagged. "You coward. A coward."

My jaw tightens. “I warned you, Liora.”

“Warned me about what? That you want me, but you’re too much of a coward to admit it?” She shoves at my chest, and I let her. Her hands are small but forceful, shaking with fury. "You kissed me. You wanted it just as much as I did, but now you’re running away like it was some terrible accident?”

I glare down at her, my patience fraying. "You mean nothing to me."

The words cut. I see it as her breath hitches, in the flicker of something in her eyes. But then she clenches her fists and pushes back.

"You're lying," she spits. "You think I can’t feel it? That pull? That thing between us?"

"It doesn’t exist," I snarl.

Her lips curl. "Liar."

I exhale harshly, forcing myself to turn away. "You’re a liability. A mistake. Nothing more."

She laughs again, sharp and bitter. "You keep saying that, but you keep saving me. You keep looking at me like?—"

The ground rumbles beneath us.

We both freeze. The wooden beams of the abandoned house creak under the sudden pressure, dust and debris trickling from the ceiling.

I feel it.

That same unnatural cold. That whisper of something ancient and wrong pressing against the edges of reality.

It’s here.

Liora doesn’t hesitate. She grabs my wrist, fingers curling tightly, and bolts toward the door. I don’t resist. We crash into the open night, feet pounding against the damp earth, running.

I want to fly, take her up but my wings are too battered.

The town is dead, silent, the streets filled with abandoned homes and lingering ghosts. No one lives here anymore. No one ever should.

Liora leads this time, darting through the trees, breath ragged. I stay close behind, senses flaring, tracking the unseen force that lurks just behind us.

We don’t stop running. Not even when the trees thicken, the night pressing in. Not even when my body demands I turn and fight.

Something is wrong.

This is something older. Ancient.

The forest ends.

We skid to a halt, boots scraping against stone. Before us, hidden beneath twisted vines and the decay of time, stands something ancient. A ruin. Another temple.

Liora stares up at it, wide-eyed, breathless. “What is this place?”

I swallow hard, my chest is moving too fast. The stone is wrong. I don’t know how I know it, but I do. It isn’t just old, it’s cursed, dripping with something unnatural, something familiar.

The shadows behind us stir.

I grab Liora by the wrist, hauling her toward the entrance. "Inside. Now."

She doesn’t argue.

We dive into the ruin, into the dark unknown, just as the presence descends.

This time, I know, it’s not just hunting her anymore.

It’s hunting me.