“That won’t do much, girl,” he snarls, baring his teeth in a sadistic grin as his wounds begin to stitch together before my eyes.
He’s regenerating. My dagger might as well be a spoon.
Fucking Bloodbonds.
I claw for the dagger in my boot, but his massive hands close around my throat, cutting off my air. My vision blurs, and my arms flail, desperate to pry his fingers free.
Stars help me. I can’t die here—not like this.
His weight presses down on me like a boulder, pinning me to the floor. My fingers finally close around the dagger, and with the last of my strength, I drive it into his ribs. He barely flinches, his focus still locked on choking the life out of me.
The burning in my chest explodes into agony. Heat pulses under my skin, and before I can move, blinding light floods the corridor, searing through the cells and walls. My body curls instinctively, arms wrapping around my legs as the light devours its path.
Searing light erupts—it stills time, consumes thought, hijacks my senses.
The heat behind my ribs recedes, leaving a hollow ache in its wake. The light around us begins to fall, evaporating into the air as if it never was. I look down at my own body, light glimmering andglowing under my skin, illuminating me in a fine dusting of what looks like starlight falling around me.
The heat ebbs, the light fades, and the world around me sharpens into focus. The thug lies next to me, skin disintegrating before my eyes.
I scramble back, horror coursing through me.
“Wh— What is happening?” I stammer the words, struggling to sit up.
“Isk!” Ronyn rushes over, pulling me into his arms. “What in the fucking Starswasthat? Are you okay?” His eyes roam my body, searching for wounds, but I know he won’t find any. “You just turned that Bloodbond to fucking dust!”
His expression is unreadable—a mix of fear, surprise, and relief.
“I’m... okay,” is all I can manage.
“I have alotof fucking questions,” he says, pulling me tighter.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to say it. So I say nothing at all.
As the light clears, my gaze sweeps the room. The guards lie dead, twisted and broken, dissolving into nothing but ash before our eyes.
But my magic is bound. This shouldn’t be possible. Unless... my magic is fighting back.
Kael leans casually against the cell door, his twin swords sheathed, arms crossed, not a single strand of his perfect hair out of place. His smirk sharpens as he steps out of the shadows, his eyes cutting through the ash and dust like a blade.
He leans down just slightly, closing the gap between us.
“Hello, Lightborne,” he says, his voice low and heavy with meaning.
My stomach drops, blood draining from my face.
He knows who I am.
Fuck.
CHAPTER FOUR
The distant poundof boots on cobblestones cuts through the air—sharp, urgent, relentless. Orders are barked. Reinforcements.
They must’ve seen the light.My light.
Shit.
Kael doesn’t move. He leans against the cell like he has all the time in the world, smirk etched on his face.
