“No, you don’t…” His words were distant, as if spoken from a distance while she clung to the precipice of unconsciousness. Her body thudded to the floor, and she forced air into her lungswith relief. With leaden limbs, she fought to scramble away from her father. She knew what happened next.
Desperation clawed her chest as her vision cleared. Gray rasped, grimacing at the rawness in her throat. The frigid floor seeped into her marrow as she crawled at a snail’s pace, the bruising in her knees an echo of its earlier pain.
A sinister laugh emanated from the king as his fingers curled around her ankle and yanked her toward him.
An involuntary scream erupted from Gray’s chest as she thrashed in his grasp. “No!”
Suddenly, as if summoned, the same force from the playground bombarded her, once again robbing her of oxygen. A combination of electricity and air surged through her body. Like on the playground earlier that day, it immobilized her and threatened to consume her entirely.
The unknown force was palpable. Static created a force field surrounding her while gusts of wind swirled violently like a tornado. All her fear dissipated—vacuumed by the power protecting her.
The princess’s ice-blonde hair morphed into her unglamoured marbled tresses. They whipped around her as she remained planted to the floor. No fear. She embodied raw power. No longer was she in control of her thoughts, actions, or body. Her latent magic had had enough. Even through the magic-suppressing bracelet she was forced to wear, her power broke past her glamour. It became an entity of its own, regardless of the princess’s premature age. It held all control now.
At Forest’s triumphant laugh, Gray’s magic redirected its attention while it continued to compound in strength to protect its charge. The magic was too much for Gray’s body to handle, but she felt unstoppable, impenetrable, and detached.
The power’s strength suffocated the princess. Her organs were frying from the electricity that increased in voltage, but she didn’t care. All she saw was a threat, and it needed to be eliminated.
At last, the magic snapped within her like a taut rubber band, expelling from her chest and causing the room to be hurled into chaos. It didn’t affect the princess, however, as she remained planted in place.
The magic battered Forest, launching him into the white cinderblock wall. Debris crumbled down around his slumped form. Gales of wind battered the interrogation room, ripping the screws from the table in the floor and hurling it across the space. Chairs caught up in the maelstrom flew against the walls, shattering.
After several minutes, Gray collapsed on the floor as the magic fled her system. She lay sprawled, quaking from housing an inordinate amount of power for such a small body to contain.
Blackness devoured her vision, and she succumbed to exhaustion as her magic died down. She didn’t know what had happened and wasn’t about to figure it out, but she knew she’d surely live to regret it when she awakened.
Chapter 1
Chrome
Behind the concert venue, I pummeled my fist into the Elemental’s ribs—my favorite body part to target. The snapping of my enemies’ bones satisfied the restless beast that paced within me.
A loud crack spliced through the littered alley, followed by a grunt of pain as my opponent’s gilded skin caught the light of the overhead streetlamps. Sun had set in the city, meaning the vagrants crawled out from their holes, regardless of how cold it was this time of year.
Fighting was my freedom. My form of reprieve from the shit back home. Missions were the one time when I could fall into a flowing state of violence and release.
The man nursed his ribs, stumbling back several steps as he regained his footing. “You need to listen…” he begged, hunched over. A cloud from his breath bloomed from between his lips thanks to the frigid mid-February temperatures.
“No, I don’t…” I stalked closer to him, a Kinetic dagger in my grip. “Just because your kind’s blood runs through my veinsmeans nothing,” I said lowly, even though I knew no Kinetics could overhear me. I kicked him in the gut, knocking him on his back as he cried out.
Somehow, Elementals knew about my secret hybrid lineage. Nobody was supposed to know except a very select few. However, it didn’t stop the Elementals from blabbing their mouths every time they came face-to-face with me. The best solution was to ensure their permanent silence. Thankfully, it seemed I was the only Kinetic they spoke about it to for whatever reason.
“It appears that it’s acceptable for Elemental men to abandon their children. Especially those who aren’t pure-blooded.” Not that it was a common occurrence because, as far as I knew, only two existed in the world.
The man kicked at my knee, but I side-stepped and whirled, slicing my dagger across his torso. It was shallow, but the black crystal embedded within the blade would be enough to kill.
With a cry of pain and rounded eyes, he shook his head. “No, please… Your father didn’t abandon you…”
I chuckled, too dark of a sound to have come from a sixteen-year-old boy. I allowed the cold air to seep beneath my skin and bones, freezing any shred of empathy I held in my heart. “Ah, so now you claim to know who my father is?” I closed in on him, a line of blood now staining his navy shirt.
I never met my father. But apparently, my mother had a forbidden little tryst with an Elemental in her younger years. When she fell pregnant with me, the man disappeared. Ashamed and disgusted to raise what would be a half-breed, he left me to grow up in hell instead. Fuck him. “Well, you can tell Daddy that I’ll find him one day. And when I do, I’ll make him realize his mistake.”
The man pleaded with me, not even trying to fight me anymore as his body began to quake, either from the cold or the poison, or both, I wasn’t sure. “You must listen…”
“I don’t have a do a damn thing you tell me,” I snarled. “Your kind didn’t want a half-breed, so you left me to be raised by psychopaths. So, you can all fucking burn.”
I plunged my Kinetic dagger deep into the golden-skinned Elemental’s chest. The glowing blue sigils buried beneath his flesh, and black blood seeped around the wound, soaking through his navy tee. His eyes widened, and his mouth hung agape as he staggered backward, clutching the dagger’s hilt, before his feet finally gave way beneath him.
Dropping to his knees, he shook his head, moving his mouth soundlessly as if he had something else to say.
