Cara
The cavern pulsed like a living thing. Every beat of that crimson glow pushed the shadows closer, wrapped tighter around Jace until I could barely see where he ended and the darkness began. His breath came rough, ragged, his shoulders trembling under the weight of a choice that wasn’t his to make—but gods, it was trying to make it his.
The Oath Stone whispered. I couldn’t hear the words, but I felt them. Oily and cold, they slid through the air like smoke, curling toward him, coiling around his wolf and squeezing. The bond between us burned sharp with his turmoil—rage, grief, temptation—each emotion slamming into me like a blade.
“Jace,” I said, my voice shaking even as I forced steel into it. “Look at me.”
He didn’t. His eyes stayed fixed on the monolith, its runes bleeding light
