The crater I’d caused widened as molten fissures cracked through the mountain.
Pure anarchy tore free as Marcus went to run.
It caught him in an updraft.
Held him aloft as his skin charred to a crisp, his bones shattered one by one, and his heart—that twisted, rotten heart—flew from his chest and sizzled into nothing.
The fire took all my fantasies of torturing him and made it a reality.
His dismembered corpse smashed against the ground.
Rook gagged and another wash her ice tried to stop me.
This time, I reached for her.
Iwantedher to cool me.
I’d done what I needed.
These men were dead—
I jerked as the power that’d lifted Marcus into the air lifted me. The smoke behind me erupted into thicker, larger wings, wrapping me in thermals and making me weightless.
Rook cried out as I grabbed her.
The higher we rose, the lighter my body became. My skin thinned, revealing glowing bones. Light poured through the cracks in my flesh. Flames spiralled higher, causing a hurricane of cinders.
“Lucien!” Rook clung to me. “Stop. You have to stop!”
I tried.
Fuck, I tried.
But I was no longer in control.
Below us, the world cracked open. The forest ignited in a roaring wave.
We kept rising, lifted by pure power.
The entire mountain range began to glow.
Heat rolled outward in catastrophic waves, feeding on darkness and death. In the far distance, a dormant peak cracked open with a thunderous roar.
A volcano erupted.
Fire met fire.
And I was no longer whoever I’d been.
I was...free.
The sky glowed a violent red. Clouds burned. Fire rained. Lightning bolts cracked the heavens. And birds took flight with smoking feathers.
And in the midst of such chaos...I felt what I did when I set Uncle Wen’s bonsai alight.
I felt the worldbreathing.Trees growing. Wind blowing. Every little thing and every tiny heartbeat fell into the palm of my hand.
With a single squeeze, I could slaughtereverything.
