Page 98 of Bitten, Marked, Obsessed

“Channeling what?”

“I don’t know,” he snaps.

I press a palm to the dirt. The ground feels warm. Almost like it’s breathing.

“She’s shaking,” one of the younger shifters mutters. “Is she seizing?”

“No,” I whisper. “I’mseeing.”

I finally lift my face to them. My voice is hoarse, my bones feel hollow, but there’s no fear in me anymore.

“There’s something underneath us. Not just tunnels. Not just ruins. Somethingalive.I’m not sure how I know, I just—” I choke on the next words. “It knows me.”

Silence.

Then Ridge, gruff and uncertain: “You said you have no clan ties. Nothing special.”

“Ithoughtthat was true,” I say. “It’s not.”

They shift. I feel the unease ripple through them. I see it in their eyes. They don’t know what I am. Not really. And whatever I’ve become… It’s not all monster.

Callum looks at them, voice steady. “I trust her.”

Ridge exhales through his nose, reluctant as hell. “Yeah. Yeah, alright. Lead the way, glowy girl.”

Another shifter nods. “Better to follow her than die standing still.”

And just like that, we move again.

Not because I gave an order.

But because whatever’s calling from below has already made one thing clear.

It’s not done with me.

It gets worse the deeper we go.

Every few hundred feet, another sigil.

Every few sigils, another flash.

The visions start overlapping—images of a city beneath the city. Tunnels that shouldn’t exist. Voices that speak in dead languages but still make sense in my bones. I don’t tell the others. Not yet. I’m barely holding it together.

But Callum knows.

He keeps close. One step behind me, every time. Just enough to catch me if I fall.

He doesn’t ask. He doesn’t push. He justis.That’s more comfort than I expected.

We reach an old drainage tunnel covered in vines and barbed wire. The entrance is warped, like something clawed its wayoutof it instead of in.

That’s when I hear it again.

This time, out loud.

Kendall.

Everyone hears it.

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