TAVIAN’S POV
I clutch Briar tightly in my arms just before her eyelids fall. I focus on the faint pulsing of her heartbeat to remind myself that she’s still with me. I haven’t lost her.
Yet, the knowledge isn’t enough to banish my fear; instead, it haunts my mind, filling me with a fixation and desire to destroy anything and everything that might ever threaten her safety—anything that might rip her away from me.
To kill.
Thankfully, she’s already unconscious and won’t see the kind of monster I truly am, the claim I’ve taken over her as mine and mine alone.
I know this feeling can’t be love—it's something far darker, a pure and vile obsession.
When did it start, though? Could it have been when I saw her in that bar after so many years, gorgeously flawless like a flower perfectly craf
