KIERAN’S POV
For the length of a heartbeat, no one moved, shock freezing us in place as Maya crumpled backward, blood blooming dark and obscene against her shoulder and collarbone.
Then the world surged back all at once, and the clearing exploded into chaos.
“Maya!” Ethan was at her side instantly, catching her before she hit the ground.
His hands came away red, slick, and steaming faintly in the cool air.
The wound was bad. Worse than bad.
Sera’s claws hadn’t just raked flesh; they’d struck high and deep, tearing across the hollow between shoulder and neck, dangerously close to the artery.
The edges of the gash glimmered, not with light exactly, but with a wrongness that made my instincts recoil.
Silver.
Maya gasped, her breath hitching as if the air itself resisted entering her lungs. Ethan swore viciously, pressing his palm over the wound, trying to stem bleeding that didn’t behave as it should.
“Help!” he barked.
