Page 89 of Marked By His Hunger
“To safety?”
“To wards.”
She pushed herself upright slowly.
She was shorter than me by nearly a head.
And yet she did not shrink.
“You think I can’t protect myself?”
The question carried a thread of wounded pride.
“I think you do not yet understand what hunts in this realm.”
A pause.
“Teach me.”
The words hit harder than the Daemon’s claws.
Teach me.
No one had ever asked that of me without fear.
See, I was always the lesson.
The warning.
The thing students studied in Advanced Dark Magic Defense classes.
“You would trust me?” I asked before I could stop myself.
She held my gaze.
And gods help me—she did not look away.
“You saved me.”
That was enough for her.
It should not have been enough for me.
And yet—something in my chest shifted.
Not hunger.
Not rage.
Something older.
Raven.
The boy who once believed he could be more than a curse.
The bond pulsed again.
Stronger.
