I can feel it inside me now—the pulse beneath my ribs that isn’t mine. The Change is coming, and I don’t know if I’ll be human when it’s done. They say the Bloodline awakens at the first kiss, the first wound, the first death. Mine surged the moment I touched her, and now we’re both marked. The Elders want me caged. The Outcasts want me weaponized. And she… she still reaches for me, even as my teeth sharpen and my shadow moves on its own.