Page 696 of Coal Hearts

And cut—

Chapter One

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Henri

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I WASN’T IN CONTROL OF MY actions.

Barely conscious of my body, thoughts, and feelings.

I shut down.

That icy darkness that’d prowled through me when I’d stumbled through the caves returned. The pressure of it. The utter annihilation of it.

I didn’t feel human.

Which was good because what I was about to do was definitely not human.

Spinning in place, I attacked.

I aimed wild.

I slashed with the dagger.

I gasped as blood sprayed.

The heat of crimson, the taste of metal.

Victor roared and backpedalled, holding his bleeding chest. “You motherfucker!”

I smiled.

I went to leap on him—

The closest guard grabbed my throat and shoved me back.

Darkness drowned me as I repaid the favour.

The guard had strangled me; I cut his windpipe.

Blood fountained over me.

The guard gurgled and tripped, his fingers loosening around my neck. His jugular kept pumping blood as his knees buckled.

Victor scrambled farther away, hiding behind a wall of guards. “Disarm him. Immediately!”

For a moment, no one moved.

And then, everyone moved at once.

Loud shouting as I stabbed a different guard.

I only managed a glancing blow before another one crowded me. Shoving him away, I aimed my attack at the closest Master.

I only had minutes before my life was over.