I jumped from my crouch on the tree branch. When I landed, I slammed my boots into the bark, squatting back down. The motion caused a shower of leaves to fall. Amid the disturbance, I unleashed my souls. They scattered the leaves across the clearing, blurring all view of the woods temporarily. When all the leaves settled, Yvette remained stunned. And Richard was gone.
“Richard, we have to get back to the manor. Now!”
Yvette whipped around, looking for her little brother.
Just like how I looked for Tovares and Vitani before Zemshaza got his hands on me.
“Rich?”
Finding this game amusing, I drew on the darkness within and let the beast I was cursed with roar again. Yvette shrieked at the top of her lungs.
“Richard, seriously, this isn’t funny. Don’t you hear that? There’s something in the woods. Wehaveto go. Stop hiding!”
I laughed. Having let the beast flow through me now, twice, it gained boldness, seeping into my blood and snaking into my mind. Before I knew it, control over my morality waned, and my lust for shed blood surged. Like a vortex, an insatiable hunger for the death of these younglings exploded in my veins. Papi always said if we ever willingly played with fire, we would be the fools for being shocked when we got burned. I tried to gain control of myself, feeling ancient evil wrestle with my Soul Bending. It was too late. This time, the beast won.
“Rich?” Yvette called again. “Richard? Where are you?”
The female didn’t know where the puny little angel had snuck off to.
But I did.
I’d watched him scream in silence before crossing the clearing, awkwardly flying through the trees, deeper into the wood. I flexed my hands, pulled on my powers, and flooded the clearing with souls. Yvette’s screeches were like music to my ears.
Endless Nanmiess slithered into the wood, hissing and gnashing their teeth at her. Their ghoulish hands tugged at her clothes and pulled at the pretty curls of her hair. She thrashed around, turning this way and that, trying to shoo away the souls. The Nanmiess became emboldened, furious at her reaction. They plunged onto the angel, tearing at her skin until she bled.
“Get away from me, hèlsborn! Don’t touch me. Getoff!”
My souls didn’t take kindly to her insults. They rushed her again, all at once, from all sides.
And as she screamed, I sang.
At the bewitchment of my voice, the souls overwhelmed the Mortent, latching onto her six wing pairs, grabbing onto her arms, dragging her to the ground. Yvette kicked and hollered, but it mattered not. Tears streamed down her face as she fought against the souls. A battle she was quickly losing.
I continued my song, closing my eyes, concentrating on the flailing angel below. With my physical eyes closed, my spirit ones opened. I found the silhouette of Yvette’s angelic spirit. Saw where the threads of her ethèr radiated, pouring out of her body. I looked at the silhouette of her spirit, latched onto it, and squeezed. Using my Soul Bending, I hummed an eerie tune of command. Of obedience. Of surrender.
She was instantly hypnotized.
Gripped by my ethèr, she became catatonic, moving when commanded by my song.
I sang to her to go back home. To forget that she was with her little brother. To believe she fell and hurt herself while in the woods all alone.
To tell her Manmi and Papi that all was well.
To tell them not to come into the woods.
Spellbound by Soul Bending, a tiny smile appeared on Yvette’s face. She rose to her feet, snapped her wings into her spine, and floated back through the trees, headed for the garden behind her family’s manor. When she was gone, I stopped humming, releasing my grip on her soul.
I smiled.
Now that Yvette was gone, Richard was left unprotected.
It was time for the actual games of vengeance to begin.
I leapt from my perch in the tree. Spread my wings. Fueled by a chasm of wrath overflowing for eight centuries, I shot through the woods and began my hunt.
Chapter 20
Tassarion
