FINNIAN

Blood still stained my hands when the last warrior dropped to the ground. The battlefield was loud… but suddenly silence inside me felt louder. Something was wrong. At first, I blamed the war, the exhaustion, the death around me but no. The discomfort wasn’t from the outside.

It was from inside me.

A sharp pain thudded in my chest, like a fist squeezing my heart. Marlin stirred. Not now. But he muttered something that froze every drop of blood in my veins.

'Mate.'

My eyes ...