Page 18 of Too Dangerous To Die

Not like before.

Now, her gaze is steady.Too steady.As if she is searching for something she does not fully understand yet.

I watch her closely, the way her fingers curl in the damp air, feeling the shift of magic beneath her skin. The ruins around us aresilent, as if the world itself is waiting.

She has changed.

But so have I.

And I’m not sure if I should bepleasedorconcerned.

"You feel it, don’t you?" I murmur, keeping my voicelow, dark.

She lifts her gaze to mine, violet eyes now flickering withsilver light.The remnants of what I have given her. The mark of somethingforged in hunger and desperation.

"I don’t know what I feel," she admits. "But it’s… different."

Her voice is softer now, lacking the sharp edges of accusation from before. But beneath it, there is somethingdangerous.Something she isnot ready to name.

A slow smile tugs at my lips.

"Good," I say.

She shivers.

Not from cold.

Shenoticesit immediately, the way the bond hums between us,not just a tether now, but something else.Somethingalive.

For the first time, I wonder ifI should not have saved her.

Not because I regret it.

But because I do not know ifshe will regret it.

Her magic iswrong now, twisted with something old, something primal. It flickers at her fingertips when she moves, responding to her emotions in ways shedoes not yet comprehend.

I want to push her.

To see what she can do.

To see if she willbreak.

"Show me," I murmur.

She stiffens slightly. "Show you what?"

"What you are now."

Shehesitates.

She does not know what she is capable of, not yet. But Iseeit in her—the way the power coils at her spine, waiting to be released.She is afraid of it.

She should be.

ButI am not.

"You need to learn," I say, circling her slowly. My steps are measured, deliberate.Like a predator waiting for its prey to move."You will either master it or it will master you."

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