Page 28 of Lustling

Cassiel’s voice cuts through the silence behind me. “It’s starting.”

I don’t turn. I press a hand flat to her abdomen, right below the navel. That heat isn’t just rising. It’s pulling something toward it. Feeding. Her power pulses like a heartbeat beneath my palm. And fuck me—I like the way it feels.

She’s already feeding.

I drag my thumb over her skin, watching it glow faintly beneath the surface, like embers under ash. When I finally lookback over my shoulder, Cassiel is watching me. His expression is unreadable, but I see the shift in his eyes.

He knows I feel it too.

She’s going to wake soon.

And when she does?

There’s no going back.

THIRTEEN

Darkness wraps around me, thick and endless, like I’ve been swallowed whole. I’m not falling so much as sinking—drawn down into something deep and ancient. There’s no ground beneath me, no edges, only the slow, crushing weight of invisible water pressing in from every direction. My limbs twitch but don’t obey. It’s like being trapped in my own body, forced to watch from behind my eyes as something else moves me.

A flicker interrupts the void. Firelight. Two figures stand beside the flames as though they’ve been waiting for me. A man and a woman. They seem both familiar and impossible. The woman’s hair spills in molten waves of copper over her shoulders, catching the fire like strands of living metal. The man’s is raven-black, falling loose around a face carved in shadow. Their violet eyes burn into me, twin brands against the dark.

I open my mouth, my voice thin. “Who?—”

The woman lifts a hand and the sound dies in my throat. “There’s not much time. You’re changing.”

The moment she speaks, something inside me tightens. A low, molten coil unspooling in my gut. It moves like a predatorwaking, like hunger wearing a heartbeat. Heat spreads under my skin, invasive, too strong to contain.

The man steps closer. Urgency flickers across his face. “Don’t give in to the hunger. Not yet. He’s watching. He’s waiting. If you surrender now, it will help him find you.”

The hunger burns anyway. It crawls up my throat, hot and metallic. I taste it on the back of my tongue, feel it pulsing in my veins. Not sweet. Not seductive. Starving.

“Who are you?” The whisper cracks out of me. “Why do I feel like I’ve seen you before?”

The woman cups my cheek. Her hand is warm, and with that warmth comes a rush of memory that isn’t a memory—just an ache. “We hid you for a reason,” she says softly. “Resist the hunger. Don’t let it control you.”

But it’s already inside me. A low, wet snarl rattles up from my chest. I don’t even know if the sound is mine.

The man’s eyes narrow. “You don’t understand what you are… what he wants from you.”

Then his gaze flicks over my shoulder. His body goes rigid. The air sharpens, turns electric. Something stands behind me. I don’t have to turn to know who it is.

Him.

The golden-eyed man from my dreams.

I feel him before I see him. His power slides over my skin like oil—clinging, smothering. My stomach knots. My voice splinters. “Who is he?”

But when I look back, the two figures are gone.

And now I’m alone with him.

He steps from the shadows as if he’s made of them, carved from darkness and sin. His lips curl into a slow, knowing smirk. “There you are.” His voice is velvet dragged across a blade—low, seductive, final.

He moves closer. “I’m coming for you.” Another step. “You will be mine.”

Something cold slithers behind my ribs. Then agony. A searing, blinding pain rips through my chest. I scream?—

And wake up.