But her teeth were lengthening.
The shift had already started, fangs pushing down with the scent of fire in the air. Her body reacted to threat, to fear, and to the danger radiating from someone she hadn’t realized she’d trusted.
I don’t want to kill you.
Her teeth clamped shut. She swallowed it down. Fought it.
Mira’s hands were still burning. Her eyes, brighter than flame.
“What could you possibly say,” she asked, voice low and trembling, “that would justify or explain this?”
“I… I…”
Aimee cut herself off. Her voice steadied, but not by much. She prayed to the Pattern that she’d read Mira right. That she could trust her.
“I’m not entirely human.”
“What?” Mira froze mid-step, expression caught somewhere between disbelief and rising dread. Her foot hovered dangerously close to the dark patch staining the ground.
“No!” Aimee lunged forward, shoulder low, and barreled into her.
The force sent Mira stumbling back, her boots scraping against stone, so Aimee stood between her and the spilled blood, lungs heaving, heart pounding against her ribs.
“Don’t touch it.” The words hissed through her lips.
Mira's eyes flicked to the smear behind her, then back, confusion warping her features.
Aimee’s knuckles dug into her thighs as she bent slightly, grounding herself, forcing the panic back down. She didn’t know exactly how it worked, or how the blood infected. Only that if it got into someone, it took root fast.
Flames burst from the woman’s palms as she braced her arms to push off the ground, rising back to her feet in a blast of heat.
“How did you move that fast?” Her voice was clipped. “I sensed no Mana.”
Aimee exhaled past her aching ribs.
“I told you.” She gave a half-laugh, then grimaced. “Not entirely human.”
A beat.
Trust her.A small voice whispered in Aimee’s mind.
“And not entirely from here,” she added.
Mira didn’t respond. She stared, the fire in her palms casting her face in flickers of gold.
“I know you’re not of the Hearth,” she said finally.
“That’s not what I mean.” She looked straight up.
Silence again. Mira’s lips pressed into a thin line.
“You meant it,” she said slowly, “when you said you’d never heard of Mana.” Her flames flared higher. “But what are you, then?”
Before Aimee could answer, a flicker of movement caught her eye.
Something red and viscous glided across the stone, inching toward Mira’s foot.
Shit.
