Let me out or die.
“Never!”
Let me out, or everyone you love will die.
I choked out a sob and set my monster free.
The relief was as instantaneous as the feeling of watching myself from behind my eyes. A passenger in the brutality that was to come. With a strength not my own, I,no—Zaelos, threw the man I’d killed off of me. I don’t know what the Mage saw when he looked at me, but in his eyes, I saw newfound terror.
He lifted his hand to jolt me with lightning once more, but I blocked it with the flick of my wrist. Easy. With another fluidmotion, I sent forth a hand of shadow to grip him by the neck. He didn’t manage to cry out before it crushed his windpipe and slammed him into the deck, mouth frozen in a soundless scream.
I turned my head to check on my companions. Alandris was locked in battle with Tieran, Lorian was facing off against a swordsman, Makatza had a Mage dead at her feet, and another before her, and Jyuri had just ended his third and was now staring straight at me, rare panic in his eyes.
The swordsman in front of Lorian was dead next. A whirl of shadow to the chest. Then, the Mage. A shadowed hand that flung her deep into the depths of the ocean. I turned for Tieran next, only to find he’d been bested, a squirming bundle of singed flesh sullying the deck. Pathetic.
It was then Alandris’s eyes met mine, and at first, there was relief. Relief… and then a knowing fear.
“Let her go,” Jyuri demanded, approaching slowly.
I laughed, a wide smile tearing my face in two. “No.”
Alandris pushed past Jyuri, reaching for my hand. “Nairu. Nairu, come back to us.”
“Oh, that’s cute.” I shook his hand off, shoving him back. “Our dear girl is taking a little nap, so why don’t you tell me where exactly you’re taking us?”
The only answer was silence.
“Or I can kill you all.”
Stop. Let me back!
Alandris and Jyuri exchanged a look.
“Do not play games with me!” I snarled. “Do you not value your lives? Fine. Hers then.” I gripped my neck, the claws that had grown sharper digging bloody points into my skin.
Between one blink and the next, Jyuri vanished from my sight. And before I could make good on my promise to kill them, I felt hands on my shoulders and the pull of magic drowning me under a rolling tide.
Let me go.
LET ME GO.
When I opened my eyes next, I was in a room buzzing with ancient magic. I looked down at my hands, my fingernails, crusted with blood and grime, had returned to their normal length. I was me.
“I’m sorry,” Jyuri said suddenly.
His apology startled me more than anything. Jyuri didn’t apologize for anything. “What do you mean?”
“We planned this. In case.”
I didn’t understand until I saw the pool of liquid silver in the center of the room. “I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
“I know.”
“I wasn’t supposed to have to do this alone.”
“I know.” A quip. Some sort of ruthless remark. Anything would’ve been better than the odd hint of empathy in Jyuri’s voice.
“Can’t you go get them?”
