MALAKAI

Clarabel didn't move. She didn't scream, and she didn't run. She stood her ground, her shock shifting into something more focused, more grounded. She wasn't looking at me with the soft, weeping pity I expected. She looked caught off guard, as if she had just seen a side of the moon that was never supposed to be visible.

“Wh—what are you doing to yourself?” Her voice was quiet, yet it shook with a tremor she couldn't hide.

My control began to disintegrate. Her voice was like water on parched earth. My focus dropped instinctively to the curve of her neck, to the pulsing vein beneath her skin that called...