Not like before.
This was worse.
This was the sound of a soul being ripped in half.
The world blurred?—
No.
The worldsnapped. Narrowed to a pinpoint ofred and rage and anguish. My own voice might have broken free. I didn’t know. I didn’t care.
Because I wasmoving. There was no thought. No reason. No survival. There was onlyXyliria. Only the need toend her.
I lunged.
I didn’t care about the guards. Didn’t care about the pain, the chains, the inevitable consequences. Didn’t care aboutanythingexcept sinking my fingers into her throat and tearing itout.
But I never made it.
Strong armscaught me. Held me back.
I fought. Snarled. Thrashed like awild thing, but the grip was ironclad. A murmur in my ear, but I didn’t care.
Because Brynelle was dead.
And Xyliria was stillbreathing.
Something tore in my chest. A sound. A rib. I couldn’t tell.
A male’s voice was in my ear, low and urgent. “Don’t. She’ll kill you all.”
Shaelith was alreadygone. She broke free, her chains nothing but forgotten weight, her entire body a single,unyieldingforce of vengeance. A feralsnarltore from her throat as she lunged, nothing left in her but rage and grief, her wild charge fuelled by agony too great to contain.
For a moment, it seemed she mightreachher target?—
Xyliria barely blinked.
Her magic lashed out, crimson clouds whipping through the air, slamming into Shaelith’s body with brutal,sickening force.
The sound of impact was a dull, horriblecrack.
Shaelith hit the ground, her body crumpling.
“How disappointing.” Xyliriasighed, as if this had all been some tedious game, as if Brynelle’s lifeblood wasn’tslick on her hands. She wiped her blade against her gown.
“Now,”she said, almost lazy. “Shall we try this again?”
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Brynelle’s body, from thepoolof blood spreading beneath her, dark and glistening, staining the once-pristine marble floor.
The scent of copper filled my lungs, thick and metallic,wrong. It mixed with the acrid, suffocating stench of fear, of sweat, of despair.
The room was so vast, so cavernous, but it wastoo small. The walls caved in, suffocating, the high ceilings trapping the sound, forcing us to heareverything.
Shaelith’s broken sobs echoed off the cold stone, not a sound but awound, alivein the air, seeping into the floors, the walls—into us.
“Choose,”Xyliria commanded. “Or I’ll choose for you.”
A shuddering breath left me.
