Page 31

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**Mina's POV**

There's a pounding pain at the nape of my head.

It's been hovering there all day — minor to begin with, like a dark cloud waiting patiently to engulf me.

I originally wrote it off.

Another headache. Another crack in the frail dam of exhaustion holding me together.

But as the time went on, it grew stronger — vicious, cruel — crawling down my spine like thorns, burying itself into every nerve. My limbs felt heavier, my skin too tight, as if my body were shrinking away from itself.

Now, walking with Tasha under the bleeding sunset, I feel it change into something else.

Something. wrong.

A searing pain lances my chest, jagged and cruel.

I stumble, my vision spinning, colors merging into chaos.

"Mina?"

Tasha's voice, reed-thin with terror, cuts through the fog, but she's already a thousand miles from me.

I clutch my head as the next attack approaches — harder, more ferocious — like scalding fire being injected straight into my veins.

My lungs tighten.

The air thickens like tar in my throat.

I gasp, ripping at my neck, but it's too late. My body's not listening to me anymore — it's shifting into something different.

Bones ache.

Muscles protest.

My heart thrums, racing on a rhythm that's much too savage, far too bestial to belong to a girl who used to think she was human.

And then I hear something.

A growl.

Low. Deep. Ancient.

It booms out of the inside of my own chest.

I tense up.

It's mine.

Fear clutches at my stomach. I crumple, legs folding.

Strong arms scoop me up before I hit the ground. A familiar scent overwhelms my senses — cedarwood, rain-wet earth, something raw and perpetual.

Cass.

Even through the agony, I see him.

Cassian.

My anchor. My gravity.

His arms are around me, a firm, immovable bulk against the storm that rages within me.

Not enough, though.

The fire burns brighter.

The world leans towards blackout.

Tasha's voice is frantic, her hands gripping my arm, holding me — or trying to.

"Mina, talk to me! What's happening?!"

I must answer.

I must say I'm dying.

But all I can manage is a grinding noise as my teeth lock together, my jaw creaking in risk of shattering from the pressure.

Cass curses. "Let her go."

Tasha holds tighter. "No! She needs—"

"She needs space," Cass snaps, his voice rippling with a fury I've never heard before.

Tasha glares at him, torn between loyalty and fear. "Cass, she's—"

"Back. Off," he growls, a command layered with something ancient and irrefutable.

She hesitates — just long enough.

The next wave of pain hits.

I shudder violently. My fingers dig into Cass's arms, nails raking across his skin.

He doesn't flinch.

He simply hugs me tighter, as if he's ready to let me tear him apart if it will keep me from falling.

Then—

A voice.

"Breathe, Mina."

It's not Cass.

It's not Tasha.

It's inside me.

My eyes snap open, wide with terror.

"I am here."

The voice is calm, ancient, terribly familiar — as if it has always been inside me, down deep, waiting for the right crack to seep through.

I can't tell if I'm sobbing or gasping as the visions slam into me—

A forest bathed in silver moonlight.

A pack surging through the trees, howls splitting the night.

The taste of blood and freedom on my tongue.

The earth pounding beneath paws, not feet.

They're not my memories.

But they are.

"Yes," the voice whispers. "I've been waiting for you."

My wolf.

Recognition detonates inside me like a bomb.

The pain reaches a crescendo.

My skin seethes with internal heat.

My bones crack from internal pressure.

She's burrowing her way out.

I howl — a raw, animal sound that shudders the air itself around us.

My body spasms wildly.

Cass tightens his grip, muttering something I don't catch, something that sounds almost like a prayer or a wail.

Tasha tries to reach for me again.

Cass growls, "Back away, Tasha. This isn't something you can help with.".

Another, final, brutal cramp seizes my body.

And then—

Silence.

But not peace.

No.

Something new unfolds within me, breaking through the old skin of the girl I used to be.

My senses intensify to wicked point.

I can hear it all — the pulsing heart in Tasha's chest, Cass's quiet breath, the buzz of insects in the distant grass.

I can smell feeling — fear, anxiety, hope — thick in the air like smoke.

Cass's arms stay around me, but he stiffens.

He knows.

He feels it too.

I lean back in my head to look at him.

His hazel eyes fix mine, burning with something raw, something charged.

The air between us vibrates with tension.

A tug. A string. A stake.

Cass jerks a breath. His jaw clenches so hard I can see the muscle twitch.

He struggles... but he doesn't back off.

Neither do I.

Because something essential has changed.

I am no longer the girl I used to be.

I am something different.

Something awful.

Something relentless.

And Cass...

Cass catches its fragrance.

Cass feels it.

A shiver runs down his spine — not of fear, but of knowledge.

Mine.

The word isn't spoken, but it is there between us, vibrating in the marrow of my bones.

And for the first time, the darkness that lies within me does not intimidate me.

It is like returning home.

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