Chapter 269

MEMPHIS’ POV My hands trembled again. I stared down at them in the candlelight. In my hands, I saw black veins twisting beneath my ski. My fingers curled into fists, and still they shook. My reflection in the silver basin showed the same: pale skin, lips too thin, shadows like bruises under my eyes. The forbidden magic had taken its toll. It was eating me from the inside out. The cold was spreading deeper into my chest each day. And yet… my hunger had only grown deeper. I leaned over the table, looking at the blood-stained pages of grimoires stacked high. The runes burned in my head. The magic promised me power to surpass the Alphas, power to bend devils themselves, power to make the world kneel. My body was breaking, but my will… my will was unshakable. I thought of Natalie. Once, I had wanted her beside me, not just as a vessel, but as a woman. Her warmth, her power, her fire. I felt something soft stir in me even now, a craving that made me clench my jaw. But every time she pulled a