My other bonds tug faintly—Maylo, Alexi, Gabriel—a distant chorus I can’t reach, frayed by whatever magic yanked me here. But Maddox’s absence is a hollow so brutal I almost fold.
It feels like someone carved out a piece of my ribs and left the edges raw.
Maylo knew something. He had to. The smile he wore. The timing. The way he—
A pulse of heat rolls through my spine, derailing every thought.
My sinpower.
It lives under my skin like a second heartbeat—hot, restless, hungry. Untamed, untested, rising with each breath I take. Magic I didn’t earn through a vial or a ritual or someone else’s invention. Mine. A truth roaring awake in my bones.
The air around me trembles.
Footsteps have my attention snapping out the bars.
A lock unseals with a heavy clunk. Metal slides. The outer door groans open, and the echo slithers through the cell like a warning.
Councilor Blaise steps inside.
He carries his smugness like armor, hands clasped behind his back, chin lifted just enough to make me want to break it. His eyes drag over the cell—over me—like he’s inspecting merchandise.
“Well,” he says, tone dripping with satisfaction, “I’m surprised you’re awake already.”
His gaze flicks to Atticus’s unconscious body with clinical disinterest.
“I instructed the transporter to hit you with enough power to knock you out for hours. Looks like it did the job on Willshire’s boy.”
He tuts, pretending sympathy he doesn’t feel.
Then his smile twists.
“To think,” he continues, stepping closer, “that I’ve captured not only the most powerful individual our nation has seen in centuries…” His eyes glitter. “…but Councilor Willshire’s prized heir as well.”
My pulse goes icy.
He savors the moment, drawing it out like a fine wine.
“I truly don’t believe this could have gone better.”
Something in me cracks.
Not my fear. Not my hope.
My restraint.
The power in my veins surges upward—hot, wild, gathering like a storm ready to claw its way free.
Blaise’s smile falters.
***
Maddox
The world doesn’t explode when they take her.
It breaks.
Quietly. Cleanly. Like a bone snapped under skin.
