The fire didn't burn out. It folded inward.
Around her, wolves lunged and men screamed, but none of it touched her anymore. The roar of the flames, the clash of claws, the clash of steel, it all dimmed beneath the thunder inside her ribs.
Aria clutched Kael tighter, but her arms felt weightless, her body no longer her own. Her knees buckled, crashing into the dirt, yet the fire around her rose taller, hungrier, as if she'd rooted it into the earth.
The mark had her.
Mine, it whispered again, not through thought but through her own lips, dragging the word like molten iron across her throat. The sound was low, guttural alien in a mouth that had never spoken.
Nora shouted something, her voice ragged over the chaos, but Aria couldn't hear the words. Her vision blurred, every face a smear of ash and flame. All she saw was Kael, his skin slick with sweat, his body shivering against the heat pouring from her.
