Chapter 20
I could still feel Kael’s heat on my thighs when I stepped into the Hollowbone crypt.
The air pulsed with rot and longing.
“You sure about this?” Ryven asked behind me. “Pacts with Hollowbone spirits always come with a price.”
“So does survival.”
Kael remained outside the chamber, his body still trembling from his rebirth, now scenting faintly of omega heat. I knew he could feel the way our bond had shifted, deepened, become primal.
But this was my ritual.
Not his.
I stood before the altar of cracked stone and carved skulls, still slick with old blood.
The spirits were already stirring. Whispering. Clawing at the edges of my senses.
“You carry divine blood and broken fate,” a voice hissed from the bone wall. “What do you offer in return for our power?”
“My body,” I an
