And instinct takes over.
I raise my hand. The fire buried in my veins surges up like it’s been waiting for this moment. This time, it doesn’t resist. It flows with me. Through me.
A silvery-black light spreads across my fingers, crawling up my arms in jagged, painless veins. The tiles crack beneath my feet as I step forward.
“Well, goddamn,” I mutter. “Wouldn’t want to be you right now.”
The wraith, true to her brainless, murder-happy nature, charges.
She forgets the boy entirely and comes straight for me.
“You,” she hisses.
I don’t flinch. “Me.”
I don’t plan what happens next. The power moves before I do. It rips through me, too big to hold back.
I don’t just meet her charge.
I obliterate it.
My hand slams into her side before she fully reforms, and she screams like I just taught her what pain feels like.
“Skye!” the boy shouts from somewhere to me.
But all I hear is the rush in my ears. All I feel is this wave tearing through my body.
The hit knocks her loose from herself. She doesn’t fall, gravity means nothing to her, but her limbs scatter, break apart into smoke, and try to reassemble around me.
Only this time, I’m faster.
Her movements used to blur. I couldn’t keep up.
Now they crawl. Like she’s underwater and I’m not.
So when she tries to pull herself back together, I don’t let her.
I lift my hand again, not waiting for instinct, but choosing it. Calling the power instead of being dragged by it. It spins down my arm, darker now, heavier, like liquid fire.
Then it lashes out. A whip of light slicing through the smoke of her chest.
She screams, fractures, and slams into the wall behind her.
To my surprise, the wall cracks.
Like that blow didn’t just hit her. Like it hit reality, too.
The boy sees it. He staggers, all that light smeared across his ribs, staring like he doesn’t recognize what I’ve become.
“Skye, this is—”
I don’t hear the rest.
Because the wraith starts screaming. And this time, it’s loud enough to drown the world.
I don’t stop to think.
I stalk toward her as she tries to reform again. I’ve never felt this strong in my entire existence. Every step lands like thunder. Every breath carries fire. I’m going to make it count.
