The forest was eerily quiet after the Bloodfangs’ retreat, the kind of silence that presses against your ears and makes every rustle feel like a threat. Killian sat propped against the tree, his breathing ragged, his wrists still bound with coarse rope. Lucian loomed over him, a storm of tension radiating from his frame. I stood a few steps back, my blade still in hand, my mind spinning with Killian’s words. *They want you most of all.*
“Why me?” I asked, my voice cutting through the stillness. It came out sharper than I meant, but I didn’t care. I needed answers.
Killian’s head tilted toward me, his bruised face catching the faint light filtering through the trees. “Because you’re the key,” he said, his voice rough but steady. “The Bloodfangs don’t just want revenge on Lucian. They want
