Page 129 of Marked By His Hunger

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Not yet.

I was still a guest here.

Still bound by covenant.

And I was not ready to bring ruin to the Institute.

Not ready to lay death at the feet of my Unnasta.

So I held.

Barely.

Clinging to control like a fraying rope.

Better to wait.

Better to endure.

Better to deny.

My breath slowed, though my body still trembled with restraint. The hunger pressed closer, whispering, promising release if I would only surrender.

And beneath it?—

That other thing pulsed.

Steady.

Unyielding.

Untethered to the curse that ruled me.

Don’t stay away.

I froze.

The words were not sound.

Not memory.

They slid into my mind like they belonged there.

Her.

The one thing I should not touch.

The one thing I could not stop wanting.

The hollow inside me—carved by centuries of hunger and absence—tightened sharply, reshaping itself around her presence.

Not emptiness anymore.

Not entirely.

Something else.

Something that threatened to unravel everything I had fought to maintain.

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