SERENA
Rage floods through me at the very sight of him.
He charges at me, his fiery hair blending in with the surrounding flames. I have no weapons on me, which means this will be a fight of fists and magic.
Fine by me.
In the split second it takes to scramble off the floor, Mal tackles me back through a wall. I groan at the impact as he lands on top of me. He’s strong and heavy, pinning my arms above my head and trapping me between his legs. Searing pain radiates through my dislocated shoulder as he reaches for the blood ore chains at his side.
“NO!” I screech, writhing against him.
I manage to wedge my knee between us and slam it into his groin. His reaction gives me all of two seconds to get out from under him and on my feet. Icy fingers wrap around my ankle, and then I’m flopping onto the ground face-first. Mal ropes my hair around his fist, wrenching me a few inches off the floor.
“You should have stayed dead,” he whispers in my ear.
Then he kicks me in the ribs so hard they crack. I roll onto my back, gasping through the sharp pain. He bends toward me as my fingers close around a splintered plank of wood. I swing with all mystrength, whacking him in the face with it. The rusted nail jutting from the scrap roots in his cheek as gravity takes him down over a busted chair.
I ignore my pain, throwing my leg over his hips to punch his face with my good hand. Once. Twice. Three times as blood sprays from his nose and mouth. Just when I think I’ve got the upper hand, he grips my wrists, yanks me forward, and headbutts me so hard I see stars.
Blackblood!Furi’s shout adds to my already pounding headache.
Mal flips me on my back and slams my head into the floorboards, making me groan. Then he does it again. Crack after sickening crack, my skull thuds against the floor until I’m nauseous.
Everything blurs.
Then Zadyn is there, gripping Mal by the throat and lifting him off the ground. Mal gives a haunting smile as his lightning shoots out to shock Zadyn. He falls back, seizing. I scramble toward him, fighting through the intense dizziness. The heavy smoke adds to the assault, making it hard to breathe, hard to stay awake, let alone put up a fight. Mal darts for me again, and I flip onto my back, landing a hard kick to his face.
His nose gives a satisfying crunch.
“I thought people could use some help telling you and Max apart,” I goad.
Blood gushes from his nostrils as he straightens. Without flinching, he pops the bone back into alignment. I shudder, throwing myself over Zadyn.
“Wake up,” I beg as he comes to. But not quick enough.
Mal grabs me around the waist and pries me off the ground. I shriek and claw like a wild beast, but his grip is unrelenting.
I can’t be powerless again. I can’t go back there. I can’t.
The panic latches on with razored teeth, but as my adrenaline pumps harder, my fingers start to prickle. My magic is there, gathering—coiling. I dig my nails into the door frame as Mal tries to get me past the threshold. The flames around us shrink and grow faint. The smoke starts to clear. And I realize I’m absorbing the fire.
The flames are bowing.
Tome.
I release the door frame to clamp down on Mal’s arm, hurling all the gathered heat into my touch.
He roars, releasing me, and as I turn, he goes up in flames.
But he’s not done with me. And I’m not done with him.
He hurls out a bolt of lightning. My hand comes up to stop it midair and redirect it toward him. He blasts through the gaping doorway and hits the ground, seized by his own power.
I wave a hand, and the flames disappear from his body. He glares up at me, his teeth chattering with the electric shocks. If he could move, I’d be a dead woman. But now he’s got a taste of his own medicine.
“This is for Kai, you piece of shit.” I dig my fingers into the fresh burns on his neck. He cries out, his eyes clenching shut.
That taste of anguish has me hungry for more. I ignore my screaming shoulder as my hands lock around his throat and squeeze, my mind recalling every time he hit Kai, burned him, branded him, every rock that was thrown, every cry, every tear, every scream?—
