Dominic
The fire crackled in the corner of my chambers, casting flickering shadows across the stone walls. I sat at my desk, the vial of blackened blood resting in front of me. It wasn’t still. It pulsed.
Not like a liquid. Like a heart.
The sample the council's healers gave me was already changing—its color darker, its glow more violent. This wasn’t how Renwick described it. The blood was supposed to stabilize. To be dormant. To die without its host.
But it wasn’t dying.
It was evolving.
“What have I done?” I whispered, voice barely audible over the fire.
Thunder stirred inside me, his voice deep and heavy. "You let it go too far. You should’ve stopped after the first prototype."
"It was only meant to scare Xavier and others," I muttered. "Weaken him. Distract him. Not… this."
"Y
