Page 94 of Marked By His Hunger

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I exhaled slowly.

Storm clouds rolled overhead once more.

The sea churned below.

And for the first time in centuries—I was afraid.

Not of Bloodlust.

Not of battle.

Not of my father.

I was afraid of hope.

Because if Serena was truly mine—then the Norns had finally moved.

And fate does not give gifts freely.

It demands payment.

And when she stumbled in the hallway, I knew I was about to pay it.

Chapter 10-Serena

A scream tore out of me before I knew it was mine.

The thing coming toward me was wrong in every conceivable way.

It was shaped like a woman from the waist up, but everything below that dissolved into a grotesque, undulating slug body.

Its flesh glistened wetly in the stormlight, translucent in places, veins pulsing beneath slick skin.

Its mouth opened far too wide, ringed with lamprey-like teeth that churned and flexed as if tasting the air.

Me.

It was tasting me.

My tears.

My fear.

My humiliation.

I froze.

Not because I wanted to—because my body simply stopped responding. All the self-defense lectures from the Institute’s welcome packet meant nothing in that moment.

All I could hear was the ocean slamming against rock and the wet drag of that thing sliding toward me.

Then he came.

Not like a person running.

Not even like something human.

He dropped from the sky.

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