The air was thick with tension, magic rolling through the space like the distant rumble of a coming storm. I was seconds from turning away, ready to leave this cursed place behind and focus on the hunt.
Then I smelled her. It hit me like a strike of lightning.
Something rich, something wild. The scent of rain-soaked earth, of burning embers, of something I had never known but instantly recognized. It curled into my lungs, embedding itself there, poisoning me with need. My muscles locked, my breath caught. A heat unlike anything I’d ever felt coiled in my chest, sharp and possessive and dangerous. Then the thread appeared. A sliver of silver light, stretching across the courtyard, binding me to her.
Moon and stars above… She wasn’t what I expected. I wasn’t sure what I expected. But it w
