POV: Clara

The hours bled together after he left.

I didn’t sleep. I couldn’t.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him—Daniel—half man, half beast, fading into the mist with his promise clinging to the air like smoke. By blood and bone, by ash and vow. The words had echoed through me until dawn, and when they finally faded, the silence that replaced them felt worse.

The apartment was still. Too still. The hum of the refrigerator, the whisper of the ...