Nellie’s POV
The ground shook.
For a moment, I thought the cavern would collapse over us, but it wasn’t the stone that cracked—it was something deeper, something pulsing beneath the rock, like a heart buried for too long.
Serena—or what was left of her—was still standing. Her body dripped blood, ours and hers, yet she moved with the monstrous calm of something immortal. Each breath was a dark vapor, every step a threat.
Beside me, Caleb panted, his fur soaked in blood, his eyes sunken with a weariness that seemed more of the soul than the body. I saw him sway and still stand before the beast. I didn’t know how we were still on our feet.
The taste of iron filled my mouth. My wounds no longer closed. The regeneration that made us invincible had grown sluggish, as if the creature’s magic
