I let it feed the anger and hatred I feel for Tharuzel and everything he’s done to me, the people I love, and the people of Emberwood.
All the manipulation.
All the damage caused.
Something inside mebreaks.
The forest snaps back into focus, and the shadows don’t haunt me anymore. Iamthe shadows. Iamthe darkness.
And Tharuzel better watch out for me.
The terror of seeing Asher taken to the ground ignites a white-hot, all-consuming fury in me. It burns with more intensity and with more conviction than anything that’s come before.
I am fire and I burn through Tharuzel's hold like flame to paper. Magic floods my veins, wild and untamed.
I scream, throwing everything I have at the wolf.
Spirit fire erupts from my hands—blue flames roaring through the air. It hits the beast square in the ribs, and itshrieks, stumbling back.
The flames don't stop. I’m a fucking flamethrower.
I catch the beast with a swath of flame, and it doesn’t have a hope in hell of escaping. I burn that demon wolf.
The beast that has haunted me.
The beast that thought to take me from my home.
The beast that dared to hurt the brightest light that has ever shone in my life.
The flames torch my living nightmare in an incredible bonfire, devouring shadow, the stench of char and burnt hair making me gag.
The wolf dissolves.
It’s a puddle of black ooze seeping into the packed earth, and I’m standing there, barefoot and shaking.
Asher is on the ground at my feet.
The damage is…
My eyes are seeing, but I don’t understand. The heap of torn flesh hemorrhaging from everywhere all at once can’t be my Asher.
Thismust be the real nightmare.
I drop to my knees beside him, trembling hands hovering over the gashes torn through his chest.
The side of his neck is ripped open…
Three of his fingers have been chewed off…
His face is so badly shredded, I don’t even know if he has a face under all that blood.
"No, no, no?—"
A vile gurgling sound wheezes out the side of his neck, and I don’t know whether to press my hands against the hole or if that’s how he’s breathing.
The world spins and I fight not to pass out. "Don't talk. Just hold on."
Blood soaks my hands, hot and slick.
