Chapter 20 An Invitation To Burn

Kara The air in the alleyway was thick with the scent of ozone and old rain, a heavy curtain that seemed to wall us off from the rest of the world. I stood my ground, my heels clicking against the damp pavement, refusing to let the sheer weight of Lucien’s presence push me back into the shadows where I’d spent so many months hiding. Every muscle in my body was coiled like a spring, a physical manifestation of the war being waged between my survival instincts and a new, more dangerous curiosity. The silence between us wasn’t empty; it was a living thing, vibrating with the unspoken history of the BlackThorn name and the wreckage Ryder had made of my life. I could feel Narah, my inner wolf, clawing at the edges of my consciousness, her senses heightened to a degree that made the world feel painfully sharp. She didn't see a predator to flee from; she saw a mirror, a dark reflection of the power we had been suppressed from using for far too long. Lucien didn't wait for me to plead my case