For a moment that felt impossibly long, time itself seemed to stop.
Caleb did not move.
He kept his teeth embedded in the soft skin of her neck, exactly as the ancient instructions had described, his senses straining to capture every possible reaction, every shift of energy that might reveal the truth hidden beneath all the confusion of the past days.
The cold water continued to fall around them in relentless streams, soaking their hair, their clothes, the tiled floor beneath their feet, yet Caleb barely felt it anymore, because all of his awareness had narrowed to the fragile body in his arms and the strange pulse of power that had erupted the moment his teeth had broken her skin.
Then suddenly—
Iva’s body went completely limp.
The change was so abrupt that for a fraction of a secon
