The decision stretched between my fangs like a muscle on the verge of tearing.
Lilith—naked, wounded, trembling—watched me with a face streaked in dust, sweat, and dried blood. Her tangled hair fell over her shoulders, half-covering a body hardened by the life she'd led. She didn’t try to cover herself. She didn’t shrink away. She just looked at me—
and that… that’s what unsettled me.
Skadi was still growling inside me, a contained storm, ready to rip out her throat.
Don’t do it. Don’t listen.
It’s a trap!
But my body didn’t move.
Not yet.
I stared at her.
I saw the fear crouched behind her gaze—
but something else, too.
Not guilt—at least not the kind I’d been hunting for—
but a kind of silent, urgent warning.
Like a beacon lit just before a shipwreck.
Lilith swallowed.
And
