“Take me on,” she spat. “Do it. Snap my neck, burn me alive, whatever it is you do to the unlucky souls who cross your path. Because I’m done cowering. I’m donebeing shoved from one cage to another. If you want to destroy me, then at least have the guts to do it while I’m looking you in the eye.”
The sound of her fury echoed through the violet jungle, louder than any roar of the Abyss. She stood there trembling, her fire spilling out of her in waves, every word daring me to strike.
I should have silenced her. Should have crushed that spark before it grew.
But I didn’t. Because the sight of her blazing at me like that—this fragile, furious little human—was the most intoxicating thing I’d witnessed in eons. So I stood there, taking every strike.
Her anger wasn’t careful. It wasn’t planned. It was primal, ugly,alive. And against all sense, I found myself drinking it in, fascinated by the way she glared at me like she’d burn me down if she could.
My aura pulsed, and cracks of red and black lightning tore through the gold. Not from her words—though she flung them like knives—but from the picture forming in my mind.
The Cryons.
I’d absorbed enough worlds to know their stench, their methods. The collars, the auctions, the way they parceled out lives like currency. That they dared to put their filthy hands on her didn't sit well with me.
The fury that clawed through me wasn’t for her. It was forthem.For what they’d done. The thought of retribution ignited me, sharp and savage. I wanted to hunt themthrough Nox Eternum, to string their corpses across the void until the Abyss itself recoiled.
But she didn’t know that.
She saw my aura flare, saw the lightning lash across my skin, and her body reacted before her mind could catch up. She took a step back.
It surprised me.
For the first time since she appeared, she yielded an inch—not in submission, no; this was just instinct. Pure and basic. Her fire faltered for the space of a breath, as she thought my wrath was meant for her.
It wasn’t. Gods, it wasn’t.
But I let her think it, because I didn’t have the words for the truth yet. And she was right to fear me. I could kill her with two fingers, end her without effort. She was fragile, ill-suited to war, her tongue too sharp for her own good. Yet she stood there anyway, eyes blazing. Sooner or later, she would learn what that defiance could cost.
She had the mind of a warrior, even if her body was not built like one.
Another thought seared through me: the Council. They needed to know. This discovery—her—would shatter everything we believed lost. My brothers would demand to see her, to measure her worth, to bind her fate to all of ours.
Not yet.
The very thought of Thyros circling her like a vulture, Dravok dissecting her with cold calculation, or Ozyraelweaving her into his schemes made my aura flare hot with fire.
I should have brought her straight to the Hall of Seven. Declared my duty. Fulfilled my oath. But I couldn’t. Not while her pulse beat beneath my palm, proving she was real. Not while the echo of her heartbeat tangled with mine, forging a bond older than time itself.
For the first time in forever, I thought: the war could wait. Because tonight… she was mine alone.
I shiveredand folded my arms across my chest, trying to look braver than I felt. He probably saw straight through it, but it was all I had left. I couldn’t take it anymore. My nerves were shredded, my brain overloaded, and his shifting lightshow wasn’t helping.
“Who are you?” The words snapped out before I could think better of them. “And where the hell am I?”
His black eyes narrowed, as though I’d asked something stupid, but then his voice rolled low and certain, like every syllable was carved in stone.
“I am Zapharos.” His aura was crackling faint gold. “Praetor of War. You stand within Nox Eternum,the Dark Abyss that devours worlds.”
My throat went dry. He said it so casually, like it was an address, likeWelcome to Hell, population: you.
“So it’s a black hole,” I whispered. “And I’m alive inside it.”
He didn’t correct me. Just went on, that terrible voice weaving a story I couldn’t quite hold onto. “The Mmuhr’Rhong breed here,” venom dripped from every consonant. “They claw at the veil, hungering for Auris Prime. Every battle, every death, every breath I take is to hold them back."
I tuned out; my heart was hammering too much. I was inside a freaking Black Hole. His words ofwarandfightingdid nothing to reassure me. This was a nightmare of monsters with names I couldn’t even pronounce.
Half the words he threw at me might as well have been static.Mamma Bangs? Noxertale?I couldn’t tell if it was the stupid translator chip—having this in my brain still freaked the hell out of me—or if he was just stringing together threats and curses in some alien tongue. None of it made sense, and maybe that was the point. Keep the human off balance.
