The Great Cathedral of St. Jude was a skeletal monument to a god who had long since abandoned the Blackwood. Its rib-like arches reached for the moon, and the shattered stained glass crunched like diamonds beneath Morwenna's boots.
She shouldn't have come. Her Sire's suspicion was a noose tightening around her neck, and every shadow in this ruin felt like a hidden assassin. Yet, the pull was undeniable—a magnetic, pulsing tether that led her straight to the center of the nave.
"You're early," a voice rumbled from the darkness.
Morwenna whirled, her daggers flashing in the pale moonlight. Gideon stepped out from behind a collapsed marble pillar. He looked weary, the silver-scar across his chest gleaming. The air around him shimmered with the natural heat of his kind, clashing violently with the unnatural chill she carried.
"And you're alive," Morwenna countered, her voice trembling despite her training. "My Lord knows a wolf let a shadow slip. He's looking for a throat to tear."
Gideon closed the distance between them with terrifying speed, stopping just inches from her blades. He didn't flinch. Instead, he reached out, his large, calloused hand hovering near her face. The suspense was a physical weight; one move, and they would be locked in a death dance.
"My Alpha wants your heart on a platter, Morwenna," he whispered, his amber eyes searching hers for a sign of the monster he was told to hate. "He's calling for a Purge. They're moving tonight."
Morwenna felt a cold spike of dread. "Valerius is doing the same. They're going to meet at the Silver Run. It won't be a skirmish, Gideon. It will be an ending."
For the first time in three centuries, the assassin and the warrior stood not as enemies, but as two souls caught in the gears of a meat-grinder. Gideon's fingers finally brushed her cheek—a touch of fire against ice. Morwenna gasped, the sensation sending a jolt through her dormant heart.
"Why did you stay?" she asked, her voice breaking. "You could have killed me and been a hero."
Gideon leaned down, his breath warm against her ear. "Because when I looked at you, I didn't see a leech. I saw someone as tired of the blood as I am."
The silence of the cathedral was suddenly shattered by the distant, rhythmic thud of paws and the fluttering of a thousand bats. The hunt had begun, and they were caught in the middle.