NOMI
The adrenaline didn't leave me all at once. It ebbed away in jagged, retreating waves, leaving me feeling hollowed out and dangerously exposed. The moment I sat in the heavy chair at Darius’s right hand, the weight of the last few hours crashed down on me.
My hands began to shake.
It was a fine, rhythmic tremor, the kind I usually felt after a record-shattering sprint when the oxygen hadn't quite caught up to my muscles. But this was different. I stared at my fingers, pale against the dark wood of the table, and realized I’d just held a shard of rock to the throat of a monster who could have ended me with a thought.
I hated that I’d almost missed. And I hated, even more, the sick, electric thrill that had spiked in my gut when he leaned into the blade.
The double doors at the far
