Chapter Fourteen: The Heart of the Beast
The night air was frigid, cutting through Evelyn like a blade, but the chill that gripped her had nothing to do with the temperature. It was the weight of Darius's words, still echoing in her mind, that made her feel as though she were suffocating. She stood at the edge of the small clearing, her breath visible in the cold air as she tried to calm her racing heart.
Alaric had retreated to speak with the elders of the enclave, leaving her alone to process everything that had happened. And as much as she wanted to block it all out, she couldn't. Darius's presence lingered, the dark energy he radiated still palpable in the air, and the thought of what he had said—about fate, about her bloodline, about power—gnawed at her insides.
Her eyes drifted to the moon, now a sliver in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the landscape. The future, Darius had said. It's already been written in the stars.
