The howl that had shattered the windows of the Obsidian Hotel faded, but the silence that followed was worse. It was the silence of a tomb.
The terrace, moments ago a place of sacred beauty, was a ruin. The moon-blooms were scorched, their petals turned to black ash. The standing stones were cracked down the middle, unable to contain the explosive force of Ethan’s grief. Shards of glass from the penthouse doors littered the floor like diamonds, crunching under the boots of the medics rushing forward.
Ethan was on his knees in the center of the devastation, cradling Emily’s limp body.
He wasn't fully human anymore. His shirt had shredded across his back as his muscles expanded, his skin rippling with the violent, restrained urge to shift. His eyes were voids of abyssal black, leaking sha
