đŠđđĽđđđ˘đŚđ˘đŤđŞ
I watched her reaction, but it might as well have been a blank slate. If she felt anything, it was locked behind those amber eyes.
Explaining to a hybrid who had lived her whole life in the human realm how bonds workedâhow they could shape, elevate, or destroy a wolfâwas like asking a blindfolded fighter to parry a blade they didn't know existed. She had no frame of reference, no inherited instinct for what it meant, and yet⌠she was standing here, about to walk into the fire of it.
"Ascension," I said at last, letting the word linger between us. "It isn't a title. It's a threshold. And the moment you cross it, you stop being what you are now." My gaze dragged over her slowly, not out of indulgence but assessment. "It's all in your mark."
Her brow twitchedâthe first crack in the veneerâas she raised her hand to look at her wrist. "The tattoo?"
That was the part of her still tethered to the human realm, still seeing it as some kind of inscription.
