Chapter 58 The re That Burned

SERAPHINA

“The forest seems different,” I murmured, slowing my steps as my gaze lifted to the towering trees above. They were older here–twisted, dark, their thick branches tangled like ws grasping at the sky. Within half an hour, we had stepped into unfamiliar woods. The air held a different kind of dread. far more unsettling than the vampire cave we’d left behindb. /b

“The ground is too.” Ronan muttered, scuffing his boot against the earth. “It was red before. Now it’s ck,“

1 crouched, curiosity tugging at me. “What is this red stuff anyway-

I reached down to touch it, but Asher caught my hand just before my fingers met the soil.

You’re hurt!”

I blinked, then looked at the back of my hand. The bskin /bwas scraped, the surface raw where the flesh had peeled away.

“Yeah… but I’m fine,” I said with ba /bsmall shrug and a smile.

“No, you’re not. bThe /bbskin’s /bpractically burned off,” Asher’s bvoice /bturned irritated as he gently wiped the dirt from the wound. “I should’ve been more careful when we were rolling on the ground earlier.”

As he said bthat/b, I suddenly felt a chill crawl down my spine–a pair of eyes boring into the side of my face.

I turned, pulse stuttering, only to find Ronan ring at me, eyes dark with something untamed. His wolf burned just beneath the surface of bhis /bgaze, and the intensity of it made my heart falter.

What was that look?

“Did you say you rolled on the ground together?” Ronan’s voice was deceptively bcalm/b, but his expression betrayed him- tightb–/bjawed band /bunreadable.

Still focused on cleaning my wound, Asher casually repliedb, /b“bYeah/bb, /bto mask our scents from the vampires. I guess I didn’t hug Seth btightly /benough if he still got scratched like this.”

The words seemed to detonate in the air.

Ronan’s entire aura changed. Lethal. Electric. Possessive. The edges of his smile curled upward in a way that sent a shiver through me, not the good kind. The warning kind.

“Hug?” Ronan repeated, as if testing the word on bhis /btongue–and finding it foul.

b“/bbYeah/b,” Asher bsaid/b, looking up at me. “Seth, bare /byou hurt anywhere else?”

I quickly bshook /bbmy /bhead and pulled my hand from his, bforcing /ba polite smile. “Really. In bfine/b.”

But I could feel the tension thickening around us. I bcould /bfeel bRonan’s /bfury, cloaked in a smile that felt sharper than a dagger.

“Check again,” he said, bvoice /bdeceptively light. “bYou /bmight have more injuries…from when you bwere /bbeing rolled and hugged.”

His smile was bone–deep bunsettling/b, band /bfor reasons I couldn’t exin, it sent a jolt of panic through my chest. Why did he look at me like that? Like I bhad /bbetrayed him. Like I’d done bsomething /bunforgivable.

bWas /bhe seriously acting as though I’d cheated?

I blinked, bcaught /bbetween disbelief and bconfusion/b.

Asher, oblivious to the storm brewing behind him, added without thinking. “There were those bsharp /bstones along the wall when we were squeezed in. I think you hurt byour /bside-

“Asher!” Linterrupted, ba /blittle too loudly.

He blinked, startled, “What?”

I darted a nce at bRonan/b, bhis /bexpression had plunged into a depth of darkness that couldn’t be described in words, Eyes

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Chapter 58 The re That Burned

stormy. bAura /bzing. Dangerous.

“There was a spider.” 1 said quickly, forcing a smile bas /bI brushed at Asher’s shoulder. “On you, but it’s gone now.”

Without waiting for a response, I turned and marched ahead at lightning speed.

‘s go. We don’t have time to waste.”

“Let’s

I didn’t look back.

But I could feel bhim /bbehind me.

His gaze slicing down my spine. His aura was like sharpened steel.

What the hell was wrong with that man?

After some time bthe /bforest thickened around us.

+8 Pearls

The sunset light dimmed under a canopy of ancient trees, and even the wind seemed to hush. With every step we took deeper into the unknown, the air grew colder, heavier–like the earth itself was warning us to turn back.

“We should’ve found them by now,” Asher muttered beside me.

Ronan said nothing. He walked ahead of us, silent as a shadow, but every line of his body was taut–predator–tensed. His asionally twitched, his ears flicking to catch even bthe /bsmallest of sounds.

And then… we saw them.

s nose

We all fr

froze. “This bis /ba mess,” bI /bmurmured under my breath, finding myself surrounded by not one but dozens of skulls. Hung from trees with thorny bropes/b. Some cracked and hollowed. Others grinning with rotted teeth, split at the jaw as if they’d been torn in half. Not all were wolves,

A few were massive.

Too massive to be natural.

“What the hell is this ce?” I breathed, heart pounding-

No one answered.

We didn’t speak bas /bwe crept further, Ronan lifted a hand and crouched, motioning for bus /bbto /bdo the same. The undergrowth bgave /bway to a strange clearing ahead–ba /bbring /bof crude huts, made from dried bark, bones, and animal hide.

And beyond them, the stench hit us.

Blood, Sweat Rot. Something raw band /bprimal that made my wolf brecoil/b.

“bWe /bare definitely someone else’s territory,” bAsher /bcursed softly under his breath bas /bbwe /bslithered binto /bposition behind a dense wall of shrubs band /bsaw the source of it

“There bare /bwolves,” I softly stated.

“But not like us. Ronan added. We looked at each other once before blooking /baheadb. /b

They were tall, skeletal, twisted in posture–teral and wrong. Their eyes gleamed in bunnatural /bbcolors/b, some yellow, some a sickly white. Their fur was patchy, matted with old blood. They spoke in ba /bdialect I’d never heard, guttural and clipped, {most like growls strung together into anguage.

“What are they cheering for?” Asher murmured as we all curiously bnced /bto the other side.

Dozens of bthem/bb, /bsurrounding a circle of hard–packed bdirt/bb, /bwhere a brutal fight raged between two wolves. One bck/bb. /bOne gray Snails chord across the clearing bas /bthey collided, mming binto /beach other with enough force to snap bone. The bgray /b

run, but the ck one pounced.

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Chapter 58 The re That Burned

What happened next stole my breath.

+8 Pearls

The ck wolf tore into the other’s throat…and didn’t stop.

He ripped it open bwith /bbhis /bteeth and started to eat. Right there. In front of everyone. As if this was nothing unusual.

The crowd howled their approval. Some mmed fists against the ground. Othersughed. One even threw what looked like a severed an into the ringb. /b

bMy /bmouth went dry.

“They’re… eating each other,” bAsher /bwhispered, horrified.

“These aren’t rogues,” Ronan muttered lowly, “They’re something else. Something weird, a kind of us that does not know bthat /bwe also exist just like we did not bknow /bthey existed.”

“Flesh–eaters…” I bsaid/b, the word barely left my lips as my eyes widened like an owl when I saw the other side of clearing. A figure tied on a massive stake. “bFinn/bb!/b”

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