Blake POV
The moment I leave her room, the restraint I’m clinging to shatters.
Not breaks—shatters, splintering violently as I storm down the corridor, stone screaming beneath my boots. The fortress hums louder the farther I get from her, walls vibrating as if the mountain itself senses the predator unraveling inside me. Ancient magic pulses through the halls, reacting to the surge clawing its way up my spine.
The curse doesn’t rise.
It erupts.
Fire detonates through my veins—not the clean, controlled inferno of my true power, but something warped and savage, corrupted by bindings that were never meant to hold what I am. Heat tears through me in violent waves, my vision flashing with embers as I slam a hand into the wall, claws bursting from my fingers before I can stop them.
Stone c
