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“Ah, beautiful, isn’t it?” Draven’s voice rings out again as he drops from the rooftop, striding toward the guys.
Kill him, end this.
I urge them, but nobody moves, as if they hadn’t even heard him speak. Their attention is still on Lyle, whose back remains to me.
“I wasn’t sure if it would work. I’ve only ever tested it once. After all, strong alphas aren’t easy to come by. Even then, it was mostly a dud.” He shrugs as if this is nothing more than a conversation between old friends, and I want to rip his tongue out.
Ryker’s arms tighten around me, and I get the feeling he’s who Draven is referring to.
Father of the year, right there.
Draven continues forward as the guys back up, leaving Lyle behind with his back to Draven as he approaches.
What are they doing? How could they leave him?
He must feel Draven’s presence because a moment later, he turns to face him, giving me my first good look at him since he went down.
Not for the first time tonight, I curse the fact that we’re so high up and the lack of my beast; at least if I had her, the distance wouldn’t be so bad.
I squint hard, desperate to see the damage done by Draven. For the most part, he seems the same. His beast is still huge, fierce, and whole. Try as I might, I don’t see a scratch on him.
I sigh in relief, thinking whatever happened was a fluke when I see it, and my breath catches in my throat as if it’s suddenly become too thick, choking me.
That’s not possible.
Lyle looks at Draven, and instead of his once warm and vibrant Hazel eyes, he stares at him with cold white ones.
The same ones that haunt my nightmares.
No!
Ryker’s hand slaps over my mouth, and I realize I’d been screaming.
Draven looks around, clearly having heard me, and Lyle lets out a roar. It sounds so much like his usual roar, but just like the chimeras, it mixes with the sounds of other beasts who sound as if they are in great pain.
Lyle.
As if he hears his name in my thoughts, his head snaps up, his cold eyes meeting mine across the village, and I’m frozen in place, unable to so much as draw a breath as he seems to look right through me before he turns away like I’m nothing. As if he doesn’t even know me.
Something inside of me snaps. All of my fear and sadness is swallowed up as a rage unlike any I’ve ever felt before washes through me. I feel my shadows before I see them. I might not be making a lot of headway, but I practice with them daily, and I’ve grown to know them. I push to my feet, somehow overpowering Ryker, and I hear him fall back on his ass.
“Serena, calm, Darling, there’s still hope for him,” Ryker tells me, scrambling to his feet.
I want to believe him, but I can’t. I’d seen firsthand the life of a chimera, their mindlessness as they kill, burn, and destroy.
My anger continues to grow by the second, and this time, Ryker isn’t there to stop me when I scream.
I scream, and this time, they all turn and take notice.
My voice is unnatural as it echoes around the village and bounces back to me. I don’t sound like myself; I sound broken and beaten, exactly the way I feel.
Once I start, I can’t stop, even as my throat aches and my mouth is dry. I scream so loud that I can’t even hear my own thoughts above the sound, and just when I feel I might pass out from lack of oxygen, my screams are cut short, shadows pouring from my mouth and boiling over until they block out my vision entirely.
The shadows whip out like vines, feeling solid in a way they’ve never been before as they continue to take over the area around me, covering the world in a sheet of blackness.
Something inside me stirs, telling me to push harder, and I do without question or hesitation. Somewhere deep inside, I’d been ready for this. Maybe it’s muscle memory or something built on rage, but whatever it is, I know it. I lash out from high up on the cliff, pinpointing my rage at Draven. My shadows continue to grow, coming from all of me as they rush toward him, and I can feel the violence that pulses through them, through me. The need for revenge, not just for Lyle but for me, Garrett, and the whole kingdom.
My focus narrows until all I see is Draven; all I can think about is him falling into my shadows, to me, and being done with this nightmare he’s created for all of us.
