The mark burned again.
Hotter this time. Deeper. As if something inside her had shifted in its sleep — and now it was waking.
Ava stumbled away from the window, clutching her shoulder. The silver lines that shimmered beneath her skin weren't fading like before.
They were glowing.
She backed into the wall, heart hammering in her chest.
Was this what he meant when he said it would change her?
She had questions — a thousand of them. But Rhett had vanished into the woods again like a ghost with secrets tied to his spine. Always watching. Always silent. Always leaving when she needed answers most.
The cabin creaked as the wind pressed against it. Night had fallen fast. Too fast.
Something scraped across the roof.
Ava didn't move.
She waited.
Another sound — behind her this time. A low thud, like a footstep against the wooden floor. But she was alone. Wasn't she?
She turned sharply.
Nothing.
Just firelight and shadows that looked too much like teeth.
She grabbed the rusted iron poker from the fireplace. "If you're trying to scare me, it's working," she muttered.
The door swung open with a violent crack of wind.
She raised the poker instinctively—only to lower it just as fast.
It was him.
Rhett.
Drenched in rain, chest rising and falling like he'd just fought something and won.
His eyes found hers immediately, and they narrowed on the mark.
"You felt it," he said.
She didn't answer.
"You shouldn't have felt it yet," he muttered, jaw clenched.
Ava took a step forward. "What's happening to me?"
Rhett shut the door and leaned against it. He looked tired. Not physically — something deeper. Like his soul had been carrying weight for too long.
"It's too soon," he said again, voice lower. "You're not ready."
"I didn't ask for this mark," she shot back. "You gave it to me."
Rhett didn't flinch. "No. The moon did. I just stopped it from killing you."
He moved closer, and her instincts warred with themselves again — one part of her said to run, the other… begged her to stay.
She hated that part.
"I'm not some delicate flower," she said, lifting her chin. "Stop protecting me from the truth."
Rhett's gaze darkened. "You think the truth will set you free?"
He was close now. Too close.
"I think it's better than being left in the dark," she whispered.
For a moment, he said nothing. His hand twitched like he wanted to reach out and touch her, but didn't.
Then he said, almost too quietly,
"If I give you the truth, you'll hate me for it."
Ava stared at him.
His jaw tensed again. "Your body is rejecting the human part of you."
She blinked. "What?"
"You weren't marked," he said. "You were… claimed. There's a difference. And the bond is changing your blood. It's calling to the part of you that you've never met."
She swallowed hard. "You're saying I'm… not human?"
"You were," Rhett said. "Now… I don't know what you are."
The fire crackled between them.
Outside, thunder rumbled across the sky.
Ava's knees gave slightly. She sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Why me?" she asked. "Why this?"
Rhett didn't answer.
Instead, he stared at the fire like it had stolen everything he ever loved.
And then he said, so softly she almost didn't hear it—
"Because the last time the moon marked someone like you…
…I lost her."