Chapter 32
At first, I thought it was blood.
A slow warmth trickled down my thigh, staining the ruined stone beneath me. My wombfire had burned so hot under Kael’s touch, I swore my body was splitting apart. But when my fingers brushed the liquid, it shimmered black-red, pulsing faintly.
Alive.
The mark on my belly throbbed in answer.
Not the huntress’s. Not Kael’s bond. Something older.
Kael crouched beside me, wolf bristling, golden light spilling from his skin like firelight through cracks.
“Ardyn… that isn’t your blood.”
I swallowed, throat raw.
“No. It’s hers. The First.”
Her voice returned. Stronger. Inside bone, marrow, blood.
“Bone remembers. Blood answers. Flesh opens the gate.”
The chamber bled red light from every crack, veins of wombfire stretching outward like root
