Shirley
I didn’t stop running until the trees swallowed me whole.
The sound of my breathing echoed louder than the wind, louder than the rustling leaves beneath my feet. My lungs burned, my legs trembled, but I couldn’t stop—not yet. Not when everything inside me felt like it was boiling to the surface.
What was I even running from?
Not Dante. Not really.
He hadn’t hurt me.
But that was the problem, wasn’t it?
He hadn’t hurt me… but he could. And so could Asher. And so could whatever was stirring in my blood.
That rune.
That cursed, burning thing etched into my neck.
It was humming again, and not just faintly this time. It pulsed like a second heartbeat, a separate will whispering in the back of my mind.
Choose.
Change.
Claim.
The words weren’t spoken aloud, but I could feel
