The hunger that had been tearing Black Fang apart since he stepped through the door surged past anything she had left to hold it with.
Her vision whited out, her muscles pulled toward him against the chains, and the discipline that had kept [Eternal Hunger] caged for days cracked down the center.
The pull went so deep she could not tell where the spell ended and she began.
Quinlan stood in the center of the cell and looked at her.
She was alive and she was in a worse state than he'd ever seen this sometimes larger-than-life, unfairly overpowered woman.
Chained to a wall, she'd cracked from the inside with veins blackened beneath skin the dungeon had spent days draining, and [Eternal Hunger] pulsed through every serpent tattoo on her body in waves that reached for him with a pull he could feel in his own chest.
Guilt and relief hit him in the same breath.
"Sorry I'm late." His voice came out quieter than he wanted it to. "Got held up."
