Probably because for once, she’s not finding me lying on the pallet bed, drenched in sweat and confusion, weakened and hollowed out. Instead, I’m standing with my hands fisted at mysides and my spine so stiff it feels like I could snap at any moment.
The door clicks shut behind her, and my wrath locks into place.
“You.”
She pauses, her gaze running over me with assessment.
“Your magic is stealing my memories.” My tone is rigid with rage, fingers itching to reach forward and claw out her eyes. “These things in my head, they’re fromyou.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replies, and it’s the wrong thing to say.
I brace my stance. “Take them out,” I demand.
Una’s eyes narrow, the stripes in them thinning. “You’re confused,” she says with a patronizing tone. “Sit down on the bed so I can work on healing you.”
I tip my head back and laugh coldly. “You’re the one who’s confused if you think I actually believe you’re healing me.” My gaze bears down on her. “Take. Them. Out.”
I’m not going to tell her again.
She should stumble back from the harshness of my words, but instead, she digs in her heels. A tense moment passes, both of us staying completely still. Like animals sizing each other up, determining who will attack first.
She stupidly decides she’s going to be the one to do it.
My vision flashes with the reddened haze of rage.
I don’t care that I’m still spent after using the rot. I don’t care that the ankle cuff is weighing down my magic. I don’t even care that parts of my mind feel like they’ve been scooped out with a spoon.
All I care about is making her pay for what she’s done to me. For trying to strip me down and hollow me out. For digging up every memory and leaving me a barren void of holes to lose myself in.
Because she failed.
Even if I know nothing else, I know who I am.
My name is Auren Turley, and I am stronger thanher.
Instead of flinching back, I pounce, my strength overpowering her own. I shove her hard against the door, making her head smack against the stone.
She tries to scream, but I slap my hand against her lips and knee her in the gut at the same time. Air punches out of her mouth against my slick palm, but she doesn’t try to push me away.
Instead, she reaches up and clamps her hands over my ears. Pinches her fingers in, like she’s ready to shove in more of those gluttonous grubs to feast on my mind.
Howdareshe.
She doesn’t have a chance to fill me with her magic. My fury reaches a fever pitch. We lock eyes, and within those blue bars, I break free.
That rot that I managed to utilize, the source that grows from the hatched seed in my chest, instead of rushing up to rother, it does something else.
It reaches out and rouses a gleaming beast curled in my center.
Animalistic malice rises as the creature cracks open its eye, awakening with a roar that rattles my ribs.
I stagger back from the force of it, and Una rips free from my hold as blinding light suddenly surges through the room.
Throughme.
I don’t have time for confusion or panic. Don’t have time to wonder what’s happening.
My back arcs with sudden pain, like a blade dragging down and splitting skin. Then my shirt tears open, that light breaking through behind me into dozens of rays that stream like ribboned sunlight.
