But I didn’t come here to cower. I came to end this.
So I don’t wait around for her to play games.
I make the first move.
I inhale sharply and zero in on the spot where the pressure’s thickest.
Behind the bed.
I lunge. The dagger slices the air with a quiet hiss.
The second I round the corner, the temperature drops. Hard.
My fingertips go icy, and my limbs lose their fluidity, like something’s freezing me from the inside out.
The bed frame rattles violently. Sheets whip into the air like caught in a phantom wind, and a shriek reverberates through the walls.
She appears. Her form pulls together like smoke trying to become solid, bones coalescing out of shadow. That faceless face locks onto me from the space between the bed and the wall.
“You can’t stop what I’m about to do,” she says in that awful, otherworldly voice. “I’m stronger than you.”
She starts to say more, but I don’t let her.
I slash upward, aiming to hurt her—force her to vanish, to break, tosomething.
But of course, nothing with this bitch is ever that easy.
She twists unnaturally, like a shadow turning inside out, and vanishes, reappearing behind me in a blink.
Her clawed hand swipes through the air, raking across my shoulder. I gasp and stumble forward, something vital draining from me just from a shallow scratch.
The scratch sends a cold so deep I swear it slices through bone. I stagger, choking back a scream. My vision goes fuzzy at the edges. My soul curls inward, like it’s trying to shrink away from her touch.
Whatever that kid did to patch me up after the last fight—yeah, it only fixed the outside.
Inside? I’m still broken.
I stagger, bracing myself on the dresser. My palm leaves a smear of blood on the wood. I press my free hand to my wound, breath ragged.
I need to think. I need tofeelthrough this.
I shut my eyes.
And reach inward again.
That tunnel of power running through me? It’s unstable. Wider than before, but cracked. Like her blow rattled something loose, split the seams of what’s holding me together.
I should be terrified.
But I’m not.
There’s something else now.
Not fear.
Understanding.
A jolt of clarity. Hot, sharp, and undeniable.
