Chapter <b>83 </b>


    The beast lunged.


    I barely got my dagger up before its weight mmed into me. My back hit the cave floor hard, the air rushing from my lungs. ws tore at my arm, its jaws snapping for my face. I shoved up with both hands, de between us, but its strength was more than I expected.


    Then pain ripped through me. A curse left my lips.


    Its fangs sank deep into my shoulder. Hot fire spread under my skin almost instantly, a sharp burn racing down my arm and across my chest. Poison. My body stiffened, vision swimming, the taste of blood sharp on my tongue.


    No. Not here. Not like this.


    I forced my ability over the wound. My ability surged, burning hotter than the venom. I felt it shift, the foul taint breaking apart under my touch. My blood cleared, the poison expelled in ck streaks that oozed from the bite. My shoulder still throbbed, but the dizziness faded.


    The beast snarled, jerking its head back to bite again. I didn’t give it the chance.


    I shoved upward with every bit of strength I had. The dagger punched into its throat, scraping bone. It screeched, thrashing, ws raking across my side. My grip slipped on the hilt, but I gritted my teeth and drove it deeper until the hilt hit flesh.


    Its hot breath sted against my face as it writhed. I twisted the de and ripped it sideways, tearing the wound wide. Blood poured over my hand, thick and ck, coating the stone under us. The beast jerked once, then finally sagged.


    But I wasn’t done.


    Adrenaline carried me. I rolled, straddling its twitching body, and yanked the de free. With both hands, I raised it high, then brought it down in a brutal arc. The steel cut through fur, skin, and bone. Once. Twice. The third strike split throughpletely.


    The head rolled across the floor, fangs ttering against stone. The body kicked weakly, then went still.


    My chest heaved as I dropped to my knees beside it, blood and spit smeared across my arm. My dagger dripped with its poison–tainted blood, the smell sharp in the back of my throat.


    I was alive. But only because my healing had kept the venom from finishing me. I nced down at my shoulder. The bite marks were already closing, threads of flesh knitting together as thick, ck blood oozed out and dripped down my arm. The sight made my stomach twist, but at least the poison was gone. I flexed my fingers, steadying the shake in my hand, then drew in a long breath.


    Cassian.


    I scrambled to my feet and sprinted to the cave entrance. The cold air hit me as I broke into the open, and my heart seized at the sight before me.


    unmoving at the foot of my bed.


    For a long, tense moment, the room fell silent as his burnished–steel eyes felt like ice against my bones, yet I could not look away.


    I had seen him before, once beside the King during a coronation, once on a blood–soaked battlefield. But this was different. This was not a man glimpsed from a distance. This was the tyrant lord standing in my room. In my silence.


    The Cassian Valemont.


    The one mothers warned their children about.


    And now he was here as if this night–this storm–belonged to him.


    Then he smiled. “You signed your name like amb. It makes me curious…” his gaze slid to yourst scream sound like a wolf’s roar or amb’s bleat?”