In the moonlight, my plain black bra was revealed to the world.
Ollie looked at my breasts and grinned. “Well shit. Look like you’ve been holding out on us beautiful.”
“Lyra please. Stop!”
Panic was rising in my gut. They were showing too much of my skin.
Underneath me, the void stirred. I felt it rising to protect me.
“I’m going to leave you out here. In the cold. Naked and alone, all night. Let the bugs eat you. Let the world see how pathetic you are.”
“Maybe we’ll touch the untouchable,” Vic leered.
“I wouldn’t mind it.” Ollie smirked.
“We should break her in first. Teach her a lesson about whose really in charge here. Then let K find her and know not to fuck with us anymore.” Rod panted beside me.
“No. You won’t touch her.” I felt Lyra’s aura swell. She was invoking her power. “She’s hideous. Revolting. You want to hurt her.”
The leers vanished, replaced by looks of revulsion.
“She’s using her power on you! Can’t you feel that?” I asked, desperate.
Lyra just stepped back looking triumphant. “Hurt her for me, Ollie. Just don’t bleed her.”
The air thickened with Lyra’s power, sweet and cloying. It pressed against my skin like a toxin I couldn’t escape.
A fist hit my stomach, taking my breath. Another slapped my breast. Rough hands gripped me, twisting me. I whimpered.
The power stirred again. This time stronger. It swept up through my arms, down my shoulders to my chest. I felt its swirling inside me.
It was coming. And I wasn’t going to stop it.
Another hit. A punch to the ribs.
The power surged. But my hands were bound.
It didn’t matter.
I felt it before I saw it.
A violent, primal yank—like something inside me snapped its chain—and my power latched onto the body of the one hurting me.
Ollie.
There was no thought.
No command.
No choice.
The void took him.
It wrapped around him like an invisible fist, ripping him off his feet with a force so brutal it shook the earth. He didn’t fly backward—
he was launched,
hurled like a ragdoll by the sheer violence of what lived under my skin.
