Nerian looks at me with an amused purse of his lips as he kneels next to my best friend, his knee pressing into Second’s throat, and he wheezes beneath the king.
“I’m going to make you watch while I kill all of your people, Veya,” he says, smiling. “Starting with this one.” Nerian’s knee presses in harder, and Second’s gurgles stop, his face going pale. “And then I’m going to invade your kingdom and ravage it until there’snothingleft!” the king screams, spittle flying as he poises the tip of the stake above Second’s heart.
No!
Rage takes over, dipping into my soul and scraping something loose, something feral and foreign, brutal andunforgiving. A predator claws to the surface, and my body jerks against a blast so intense my eyes slam shut.
Like a river of gold rushing through my veins, my insides are alight with pure energy. I feel more alive than when I was human, and power wraps around my flesh and consumes an old emptiness. My body hones, muscles throbbing and skin tensing, just the way Kade always described his Hunter magic. Something gods-sent embraces my spine, and my boot finds purchase on the stone as I begin to rise.
I feel like I could fight fordays.
My eyes fly open.
Nerian’s devilish grin wilts watching my body warp.
I snap across the room so fast I surprise myself and the king, speed untraceable.
A Hunter’s speed.
I plunge Kade’s cream-hilted dagger into Nerian’s chest, and his shocked eyes pierce mine.
I sneer at the king as gold simmers in my veins with power so pure and poignant, my confidence blooms.
“Who the fuck are you?” Nerian demands, rage written in his eyes.
I laugh at him. “You birthed a ruthless warrior from the life you destroyed. The pain you were so eager to throw upon me two hundred years ago became the fire that forged my kingdom and takes yours from you now.”
“That doesn’t answer my question,Veya,” he sneers. “I’ve destroyed many lives over the years.”
My Hunter and vampiric strength restrains Nerian, an ancient male bowing to my magic. Uncertainty flashes over him as he realizes his decreased odds, blood spilling down his front. His hand darts upward, knocking my blade free, and he lunges for me, but I snap across the room, drawing him away from Second.
Nerian tosses a blade pulled from his belt across the room, and it sinks into my thigh before I can move again. I push through my agony, Hunter magic spinning and healing, threads of gold wrapping around me with the strength of the gods.
My words snarl out of me. “I will turn Goreon into everything you hate. I willdestroywhat you have built and ensure peace and prosperity foreveryone. And death to those who don’t deserve either. Just like you took everything Ieverwanted from me. You stole the love of my life, my future children, my brother, my father, myentireworld.” I hurl a stake at Nerian, and it pierces his shoulder. I then grip my daggers, ready to end this.
Nerian rips the wood from his flesh, panting through his effort.
With a curling smile, I give the king exactly what he wants: “I am Grace Hull, daughter of a Master, wife of a Captain, and Heir of the Hunters.”
The Hunter no one saw coming.
Nerian’s eyes blaze with recognition, and I use everything I have left to snap as quickly as I can and force Nerian against the wall.
With all that I am, I stab Kade’s blade into his throat and mine into his chest, holding the king in place with my husband’s favorite move while I sneer into his wide eyes. “This is forKade. For all those we have lost.”
“Abomination,” he spits through a blood-soaked cough, struggling beneath me.
I grin at Nerian. “No, my king. Anewbreed.”
His red eyes bulge as I twist Kade’s blade in his throat, and the words that have lived in my hopeful dreams scream out of me through my tears: “Forever may they rest, and forever may we reign!” I rip our blades from him and slice our twin daggers through his cold flesh, taking the head off the king.
It hits the ground, Nerian’s eyes wide and staring.
Centuries of planning, centuries of hoping—it’s done. It’sfinallydone.
The destroyed part of me who would never live again became something else, a starving beast for revenge, desperate to heal what is so fucking broken within me. Grace hardened to the warrior I have to be, and I am both now. I am good for those who deserve it and evil to those who don’t.
I am the balance embodied.
