HARPER POV
The moment I saw him, fury ignited in my chest like wildfire.
That was not a dark warlock.
That thing was not human.
He wore the mask convincingly enough — pale skin stretched taut, black veins crawling under the surface, cloak dripping shadows that hissed when they touched the ground. He looked like one of their kind, like something I might have faced before. But the mask was a lie, and my bones knew it. My blood knew it. Every instinct in me screamed what my mind already understood.
This was no man.
This was something fouler. Older. Hungrier.
And I could not let anyone else face him.
If anyone was going to burn, it would be me.
The last time I’d let him slip through my fingers, he had vanished into darkness before I could finish what I’d started. The memory of that fa
