Necessary Cruelty

PRIMUS VALERIUS'S POV

The cave walls pulsed with heat, the kind that rose from my own body. Every exhale hissed, steam clouding in the damp air.

I braced my palm against the rock, claws formed, scales shedding off my shoulders in strips and wings flapping wildly. They hit the ground with a metallic sound, sparking as if even my cast-offs held fire.

This place was mine—the only place I could breat