Chapter 117 - Let Me Burn

The fire crackled softly.

Taryn sat near it, her legs folded beneath her, the warmth pressing against one side of her body—but it didn't touch her. It couldn't.

Lucien was outside.

She could still feel him.

A dull hum at the back of her mind, a presence she couldn't shake.

Not pulling. Not demanding. Just there.

Her fingers curled against her knee, the bandages over her wrist stark against her skin. She should have felt relieved.

She didn't.

Taryn swallowed, her throat raw, her body aching in ways she refused to acknowledge. The exhaustion sat deep, heavy in her bones. Not just from the fight, not just from collapsing outside.

From all of it.

The firelight flickered, stretching long shadows against the cabin walls. Her breath came slow, measured, but she wasn't calm. She hadn't been calm in days.