VALERIA

I started patting down my clothes—this couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t have lost it during the fight, or worse, when I recklessly chased after those vampires.

I looked around the ground in desperation, and then I saw it, a few feet away from where I stood.

The heart no longer had the shape of a ruby; it had melted into a dark pool, the same color as the lagoon—concentrated, powerful blood.

I pushed myself up with trembling legs, battered and on the brink of collapse, holding on purely