BERTHOLD POV...
I swear on everything I hold dear, the very air around us seemed to shudder the moment I saw it—the crimson in his eyes flaring to life like twin, blood-soaked lanterns in the dark, glowing with such vicious, menacing brilliance that my breath caught halfway up my throat and refused to move another inch.
At first, I honestly thought my mind was playing tricks on me, that perhaps the dim light and my restless imagination had conspired to fabricate something so outrageous, so absurdly terrifying, that it simply couldn't be real. Yet, despite my desperate attempts to dismiss it as nonsense, I found myself inching closer, as though pulled by some morbid curiosity that overpowered my better judgment.
And as I stared—no, as I foolishly locked eyes with him—I felt it.
