The bolt caught her in the chest.
She went down.
Maelic heard himself roar. It didn’t sound like his voice.
The world around him turned to static.
Mamir falling. The barbaric silo guns used to shoot through her chest. The way her eyes went empty.
His Papeer’s scream of anguish before the second shot silenced him forever.
Blood on the floor. Blood everywhere. And Barvarti standing over them, smiling.
Not again.
NOT AGAIN.
I cannot lose her.
He didn’t remember standing. Didn’t remember crossing the distance.
The young male died with Maelic’s hands around his throat. He crushed it. Felt the cartilage give way. Didn’t stop squeezing until something snapped.
Then he turned. Moving toward Barvarti.
The slaver’s expression had finally changed. Barvarti looked uncertain.
“Wait—”
Maelic didn’t wait.
He slammed into Barvarti with the full force of his body. They went down in a tangle of limbs and fury. Barvarti was strong—stronger than Maelic.
This wasn't a fair fight.
This was something else entirely, he had lost everything again.
Maelic was beyond pain. Beyond thought. Beyond anything except the red haze of rage that had been building for all these cycles.
He was the thing Katan had found in that slaver hold. The feral, broken creature who had survived by becoming something truly monstrous.
The bonding chemical flowed in his mouth, something he may never use on his Delaney. Not now. It would act as a paralytic venom to anyone but hisLuminance.
“This is for my parents.”
His fangs found Barvarti’s throat.
“This is for my mate.”
He tore again. The chemicals seeping out into the male's blood. The taste was disgusting, but distant—nothing mattered but ending this.
Barvarti gurgled. His body went still from the venom. His black eyes finally showed something—fear, maybe, or just the animal recognition of impending death.
“You think…” Barvarti choked on his own blood. “…this changes anything?”
Maelic’s claws tightened. “You’re dying. It changes everything.”
Barvarti’s lips curled into something almost like a smile. Red blood bubbled between his rancid teeth.
