Page 41 of The Midnight Death Match

“No, I’m going to break every curse I come across, save all of our loved ones, and thenyou’llbe the one apologizing.”

We stare each other down. Finally, he spins around then sits with his back to me.

I stomp back toward the enclave’s cold firelight, leaving him beneath the broken stars. The argument clings to my skin like a second layer I can’t shed.

I storm down the winding stone corridor that opens into the wide, ruined courtyard where the dragons rest under filtered moonlight. The air is cool against my flushed skin, but it does little to cool my thoughts.

Vash lifts his head first, eyes gleaming faintly green as I approach. Sapphire follows, her heavy tail curling around her body. They watch me quietly, with no judgment or questions.

“I’m fine,” I mutter, reaching to stroke Vash’s warm flank. “It was just a stupid fight.”

He rumbles, low and steady, the vibrations pulsing through my hand.

“I’m not the one being irrational. Harek acts like I’m betraying him just for listening to Lys—as if everything has to be about jealousy.”

Sapphire’s eyes half-close as I move to her, resting my palm along the thick curve of her neck. She hums softly beneath my touch.

“I’m trying to survive, that’s all. I’m trying to save everyone.” My voice trembles at the edges, anger twisting hotter beneath my ribs. The words come faster, louder. “He doesn’t understand. Nobody does. I’m carrying this curse like a noose around my neck, but he wants more trust, feeling, and risk.”

My fingers dig into Sapphire’s scales as the pressure builds in my chest.

Heat rushes through me, like a fire beneath my skin. My breath hitches, sharp, wild. The world sharpens, the wind humming louder in my ears, every scent blooming with vivid clarity.

My vision darkens at the edges as bones shift beneath my skin, pulling me forward. In the next breath, my wolf bursts free, powerful and fluid, claws striking stone as I sprint toward the broken city’s edge.

The ruins blur as fury pushes me faster, muscles stretching with every surge of rage I can’t speak aloud. I don’t think. I run.

Not to escape, but to feel. My burning anger from the argument with Harek melts away little by little as I tear through the forest, howling every so often.

After what seems like hours of racing, an inner calm emerges. But I know it’s short-lived.

I have to go back.

Chapter

Sixteen

The city seemsto watch me as I return, but then again, everything feels different when I’m in wolf form. Inanimate things have human qualities, reaching and watching. Always. I’m not sure if I can sense reality better like this or if my imagination is unleashed. Either way, it’s a wholly different experience.

My run stripped away the sharpest edges of my anger, but not the weight beneath it. At least I can think more clearly now. At the edge of camp, I shift back into my natural form then step into the darker edge of the courtyard, sneaking to the spot where we stashed extra supplies and spare clothes. While Harek and Einar are busy by the dimming fire, I quickly dress, grateful for the familiar weight of fabric after the raw vulnerability of the wolf form. My muscles ache from the shift, and my skin still hums with the leftover pulse of the wolf. But my mind feels clearer.

The ruins are still, blanketed in low fog and the faint light of a new day. Cold breath coils from my mouth as I slip between leaning pillars and charred walls, silent as shadow. The campfire ahead glows faintly as nothing more than embers now.

Harek sleeps closest to the heat, curled on his side, one arm beneath his head, his brow furrowed even in rest. The sword rests within reach, always. Einar sleeps farther back, flatter, still as stone, like he’s trained himself not to trust rest.

I pause, watching them both. Part of me wants to wake Harek—to apologize for the harshness of my words and for everything I didn’t say. But another part knows better.

The night air presses close, thick and heavy. My breath slows, but I can’t rest. Something draws me toward the city. I glance toward the broken eastern archway.

The city calls. It still has animal qualities, even now while I’m in my human form. What can that mean?

Almost on their own, my feet move. I’m heading toward Courtsview alone, and I don’t try to stop myself.

The closer I get to the city’s shattered edge, the heavier the air feels. It presses on my delicate human skin. The stone arch is split clean through, making me think of a jaw forced open too wide. Vines crawl up its sides, pulsing faintly with the same sick magic that’s infected the rest of Courtsview. But beneath it, something seemingly older than the curse hums.

I should turn back, but I don’t.

A soft scrape echoes behind me. It’s barely audible, but it’s there. Someone is behind me, and I’m not sure if it’s because of my lingering shift, but I can tell instantly who it is.

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