Scarlett’s POV

It happens too fast.

One breath, the stones are humming beneath my feet, the blood moon pressing low and heavy over the clearing. The next—

Steel screams.

The sound is sharp and wrong, cutting through the charged air like a wound opening.

Killian draws his sword.

For a heartbeat, my mind refuses to understand what I’m seeing. My eyes follow the flash of metal as if it belongs to a dream, as if it isn’t real, as if the man holding it isn’t the same Alpha who held ...