Page 14 of Marked By His Hunger
“Good?”
“If it ever leaves you,” she said softly, “you will have lost the edge that makes you formidable.”
Silence settled between us.
Below the tower windows, bells tolled once—deep and resonant.
The start of the new term.
Students were arriving.
Witches and Seers from Earth.
Rune heirs from Reykjavik.
Blood-born Monsters from realms that did not exist on any human map.
The portal would be active tonight.
New arrivals would cross the threshold.
And something—something faint and electric—stirred along the edges of my senses.
A scent.
Soft.
Alive.
Impossible.
My throat tightened.
The hunger did not roar.
It sharpened.
Focused.
Professor Kenna watched me carefully.
“Something troubles you?”
“No,” I said, rising slowly.
But my pulse had changed.
Somewhere on campus—someone had just stepped through the portal.
And for the first time in a century, the hunger did not feel like punishment.
It felt like recognition.
Chapter 1-Draugr
Every time I signed the covenant with the Institute, it dragged me back to the beginning.
Not to memory alone—but to truth.
