Chapter 15 · Dangerous Lessons

"Stop fighting it, Kaelen. You're shaking," Sloane snapped, her voice cutting through the heavy silence of the lab.

She didn't wait for him to answer. She stepped into his space, her hand gripping his wrist and forcing it flat against the cold stone table. Kaelen didn't resist, but his muscles were coiled like a spring, his breathing jagged. The black veins on his neck were pulsing, a rhythmic, ink-like spread that looked less like a mark and more like a parasite eating its way toward his jaw.

"I can't... keep it down," he rasped. His voice sounded like grinding glass. "It wants out, Sloane. It wants to tear everything apart."

"Then let it want," she countered, leaning in until her chest nearly brushed his arm. She could feel the heat radiating off him—not human warmth, but a searing, unnatural fever that threatened to singe her skin. "You're a vessel, not a victim. Control the spark, or I'll be the one to extinguish it."

Kaelen turned his head, his eyes locking onto hers. The gold in his irises was bleeding into the white, swirling like a storm. "You'd kill me? After everything?"

"In a heartbeat," she lied.