POV: Nixie
Hunter didn’t rush me.
That was the first thing I noticed.
He stepped out from the shadows with a calmness that came from certainty. He believed the ending had already been written. His gaze stayed fixed on my face, even as the council shifted nervously behind him, their broken runes still shimmering faintly on the ground.
“You always did hate being cornered,” he said.
My chest tightened.
Not from fear.
But from memory.
“You don’t get to speak to me,” I said, my voice shaking despite the power thrumming through my veins. “Not after what you did.”
Hunter smiled faintly, as if I’d said something funny. “I did what I had to.”
The Echo pulsed beneath my skin, reacting sharply to his presence. The fractured chains around my wrists hummed, tightening again, as if res
