“Clarissa,” the voice said with a grunt of pain. I retracted my claws, and the fog in my mind lifted. A man fell to his knees at my feet, clutching his chest.
Thorne.
Four jagged claw marks striped the front of his linen shirt, with a line of blood trailing from each. When I caught the eyes of the remaining men around us, I whined and started to take a step forward. The scent of dirt and sweat and something else emanated from them in waves. Something sharp and metallic. Biting.
Fear.
Their eyes went wide as they took me in. Shouts filled the air, some scrambling backward while others grabbed forgotten rakes and shovels from the ground, pointing the sharp ends toward me.
My heart plummeted. Memories from my childhood slammed into me, those dark days of sneers and taunts echoing in my ears. Fists against my skin, shears plunging into fur, black and blue blooming on tender flesh.
Those people from my past had feared me. Even as a child, theywere scared of my lack of control. Of the volatility of a young Shifter, of the daughter of the despised emperor Branock Aris. They made me hate my own power. They made me unable to sleep at night for fear of waking up the next morning and enduring it all over again. The shame, the pain, the mockery.
Another whine escaped me as I padded backward, tail burrowed between my back legs. One man leaped forward with his rake aimed at me, and I saw that same fear from almost two decades ago. History repeating itself.
They still hated me.
With a groan, Thorne lurched to his feet to stand in front of me. He threw out a hand at the advancing farmer and commanded him to stop. When Thorne turned to face me again, his features softened, his breaths still ragged.
He took a cautious step forward. Tension hung thick in the air, coiling in the waves of summer heat like a snake ready to strike. My ears flattened against the side of my head as my eyes flitted across all the strangers, taking in their curled lips, their pinched brows, their taut muscles. They landed once again on Thorne, and all I could see was blood and scars.
My fault.
Thorne extended a hand, and I flinched.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Clarissa,” he murmured.
I let out a quiet whine as I pawed the ground.
“Youhurther? She almost killed you!” a gruff voice called. The man with the rake pointed the end at me. “She’s a monster. Abeast. Her kind are dangerous,” he spat.
Others raised their voices in concern, their words pounding down my spine like battle drums. I shook my head, limbs quivering as I took another step back.
“Clarissa, wait—” Thorne called, but it was too late.
I turned and darted toward the hill.
24
Clarissa
Ahand gripped my blonde hair and yanked hard enough to tear strands from my scalp, making me cry out with a high-pitched bark. The teenage boy sneered at me, “What’s wrong with your face, you freak?”
I tried to rub away the tears in my eyes, only to remember that my hand had accidentally shifted into a paw at the wrist. One of my claws snagged on the tip of my snout where my fox nose met human cheeks.
“Half fox, half girl,” he said with a scoff. “Like a filthy half-breed.”
“Look what she did to me!” another girl screeched. Her eyes spat fire at me as she held her wounded arm. Four shallow claw marks marred her forearm, already welling with blood. “Mother always said the Shifters are beasts. She belongs in the woods with the rest of the animals.”
She gave a swift kick to my knee, and I went crashing to the ground. The older boy stomped on my exposed claws. I let out a yelp as I cradled the injured hand against my chest, my knees buried in the hard dirt of the forest floor.
A shadow appeared against the leaves.
“Don’t you dare touch her again,” a familiar voice said, menacing even in his youth.
I craned my neck to see my twin hovering over me, blocking out thesun like a fierce cloud. His dark hair, the opposite of mine, matched our near-black eyes as he scowled at the other two. A bundle of herbs was clutched in his hand. Only twelve years old and he still managed to look intimidating.
“What are you gonna do about it, Alchemist?” the older boy taunted. Shadows billowed at his feet and wrapped around his legs and arms, but they were weak. Light and airy, instead of the dark smoke I’d seen around the strongest Shadow Wielders in Veridia City.
