Page 58 of Too Dangerous To Die

My wings twitch behind me. “The past didn’t just reach for you. Itownsyou. You said you wanted to fight it—then we should bemoving, finding a way to stop Medea before she rises through you completely.”

“I need tounderstandher to fight her,” she snaps. “Don’t you get it? If I walk away now, I walk away blind.”

“And if we stay, you won’t walk away at all.”

Her jaw clenches, but she says nothing.

I rake a hand through my hair, my claws dragging against my scalp. “You don’t know what they’re capable of, Nora. The Wraithborn... they don’t attack because they’re not ready. Not because they’re merciful.”

“Then we prepare,” she says, stepping closer. “You train me. You said it yourself—I’m stronger now. Let mebestrong.”

I should argue. I should grab her and fly us far from this cursed city before it buries her in memories that don’t belong to her.

But she’s staring at me like I’m the enemy.

And I’m too tired to be the enemy right now.

“Fine,” I growl. “Two more days. That’s all.”

Her eyes flash, but she nods.

Later that night, we lie in silence again—on opposite sides of the chamber, the air between us thick with everything we haven’t said.

She’s not sleeping. I know it from the way her breathing stutters, uneven. Her body curls slightly toward me in the dark, even as she tries to pretend it doesn’t.

I turn onto my back, eyes fixed on the broken ceiling above us. Stars blink through the cracks. Distant. Indifferent.

A breeze whispers through the ruin.

Then stops.

And doesn’t return.

My muscles tense.

I sit up slowly, wings unfurling in silence.

Nora rises too, her magic already shimmering around her like frost.

“You feel that?” she whispers.

I nod once.

It’s not the Wraithborn.

It’s not the Unseen.

It’s something else entirely—older, more disciplined. There’s a pulse to it. Rhythmic. Controlled.

Feminine.

I step toward the edge of the ruin, narrowing my senses.

In the distance, past the bone-dry valley, I see them.

Figures moving through the ash. Robed. Tall. Eyes glowing faintly with magic born of life and fire.

Purna.

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