“Because if I let her past my walls, she becomes a weakness,” I snapped. The ice in my voice finally cracked to reveal the sheer, violent panic simmering underneath as I slammed the frosted crystal glass down on the sidebar so hard it nearly shattered.
Closing the distance between us, I argued, “The entity beneath the floorboards is not a mindless beast, Nate. It’s an ancient, calculating darkness that feeds entirely on vulnerability. If it senses that my judgment has been compromised by…my baser instincts, it will exploit her to break me. It will send its shadows to haunt her and its whispers to drive her mad, simply because it knows I’ll burn this entire world to ash just to spare her a single moment of pain.”
Refusing to flinch at my rising volume, Nate simply pushed his glasses up hi
