Page 121 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“What then?”

“Youbecame.”

He leans in, kisses me softly. I let myself lean into it, just for a second. I know what’s coming.

But tonight? I’m not just the key.

I’m the one who opened the damn door—and chose to stand in front of it.

48

CALLUM

Smoke curls around the ruins, thick and bitter. The sky above is cracked with ash and firelight, the last screams of battle echoing out like ghosts as I watch Kendall cradle her sister and think about what I just saw a few hours ago.

I had pushed through broken stone and dusted bone, my hands and arms bloodied—some of it mine, most of it not. And then I saw her.

Kendall.

Crouched in the middle of the wreckage, her body half-shifted and trembling. Her hair wild, tangled with blood and dirt. Her eyes, silver-bright, stay locked on the figure she’s holding in her lap.

Adora.

Still. Unmoving.

I don’t ask if she’s alive. I can see the rise and fall of her chest.

But there’s somethingelsethere, still lingering. A crackle in the air. A wrongness in the way the shadows cling to her.

I crouched beside Kendall slowly, carefully, like if I move too fast I’ll break whatever fragile thing she’s holding together.

“Kendall.”

Her eyes flicked to mine. “She’s breathing.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s free.”

“Iknow.”

The words bite. Not at me—but at herself.

It’s been about four hours since then and I can still sense it. I’m not sure what happens when she wakes up.

I watch Kendall’s thumb brush along Adora’s temple, like she’s trying to wipe away the magic still clinging there. It doesn’t move. It’s not gone.

I decide to go sit back beside her.

“She pushed it down,” Kendall whispers. “I felt her fight. Isawher come back.”

“Yeah,” I say. “But it didn’t leave.”

She doesn’t respond.

Adora shifts slightly in her arms. Just enough for her eyes to flutter.

And that’s when I feel it again.

The chill. Thepresence.

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