(Emma)
I squeezed Darius's hand tighter, trying to focus on the conversation happening around me. Everyone was talking about the ritual, the magic, the risks, and everything else that could go wrong. But none of it really mattered. What mattered was fixing what had happened to my mark.
The mark that connected me to Darius. The mark that meant I belonged to him, and he belonged to me.
I could feel it—the space between us growing. There were times when I felt a strange emptiness, like a part of me was slowly slipping away, and it terrified me. I wasn’t sure what was happening, but I knew one thing: I couldn’t lose Darius. I couldn’t let this fade away.
Darius said we didn’t have time to waste, and he was right. But even as we moved forward with plans for the ritual, something gnawed at
