Page 20 of Red Ruin

The air shifts.

Breath and sound blast into my sanctuary.

I catch the rhythms of three beating hearts.

One I can ignore.

One I need to destroy.

And one that silences everything else.

Thum-thump.

Is that her heart? Or mine?

Thum-thump.

The scent of the Guide’s blood slices through my muzzle.

It tastes like passion fruit juice in a glass so cold that the dripping condensation leaves a wet circle behind.

Thum-thump.

“Major Azrid,” says the disembodied voice. “Iris Ashbourne is here to swear her oath.”

The sweetest Guide I’ve ever breathed steps willingly into my lair, tracking kobold blood on her sneakers.

A brunette with a ponytail, soft cheeks, and a challenge brewing in the depths of her cornflower eyes.

Her soul-silks flutter the same impossible blue.

The wisps reach out to me.

I can’t remember what that means. I know I’ve never felt this resonance before.

There’s a sense of welcome.

Of…belonging?

I feel a stirring in my soul, but it’s quickly lost.

The roar of her blood yanks the cord in my throat.

The man I was is gone.

What’s left is thirst.

Searing, clawing, drydrydrydrydry?—

Choking, I fumble off my mask.

I have to taste her raw.

One whiff of her undiluted scent and her fate is sealed.

She’s my perfect match in powerandin blood.

There won’t be a wet spot left when I’m finished with her.

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