Chapter 14: Marked by Flame
The mark didn’t fade.
No matter how much Emma scrubbed or how long she sat beneath the cold spray of the cabin’s shower, the ring of thorns on her wrist pulsed faintly beneath her skin—alive with a silver-blue glow just beneath the surface. Not painful. Not exactly.
But present.
When she closed her eyes, she could feel it like a second heartbeat.
She dried her hands in silence, standing in the narrow bathroom, staring at the mirror. Her reflection looked the same: skin pale, eyes wide, hair still tangled from running through the woods. But something inside her had shifted. She could feel it in the way the shadows lingered at the edges of her vision… in the way her instincts pulsed faster, darker.
Lucas was waiting when she stepped out.
He’d pulled the cur
