Bitten affection

Previously

…The parchment rustled as she carefully folded it, tucking it into the deepest pocket of her coat. The library, with its silent shelves and whispering shadows, felt like a cradle of secrets, and she, its newest, most desperate disciple. She had found a path, a dangerous, uncertain path, but it was her path. And she would walk it, even if it led her into the very heart of the darkness. The question was no longer if she would face Lucian, but how, and what she would become in the process. The answer, she suspected, lay not in escaping him, but in becoming someone he could no longer control. The risky path beckoned, and Jillian, with a deep, steadying breath, prepared to take the first step.