He was magnificent. And terrifying. His eyes were burning red, his fur bristling with shadow. He wasn't fighting like a man; he was fighting like a natural disaster.
To his left, the floor was alive. Massive, gnarled roots had erupted from the marble, thrashing like tentacles. Kai was standing in the center of the storm, his hands pressed to the ground, his face a mask of golden fury.
And Lucien...
Lucien was everywhere. He was a blur of darkness, moving between shadows so fast the eye couldn't track him. He was dismantling the Enforcers with surgical precision.
They were fighting for me. They were tearing the world apart to find me.
The bond snapped back into place with a deafeningCRACK.
It didn't hum. It roared. The sudden influx of their emotions—Rhett’s panic, Kai’s desperation, Lucien’s terror—hit me like a tidal wave.
I staggered, gasping.
"I'm here!" I screamed, though I doubted they could hear me over the chaos. "I'm here!"
Across the room, standing near the ruins of the stage, was Dean Marrow.
He looked... wrong. His suit was torn. His face was pale. And he was clutching his chest, staring at me with eyes that were wide with shock.
He hadn't expected me to come back.
He had eaten something that didn't agree with him.
"You," he wheezed.
I stepped out of the crater. My feet didn't touch the ground. I was hovering, buoyed by the sheer output of magic radiating from my skin.
"You forgot one thing, Dean," I said. My voice sounded strange—amplified, distorted by power.
The Triad froze. Rhett stopped mid-lunge. Kai looked up. Lucien solidified out of the shadows.
They saw me.
The relief that crashed through the bond was so intense it almost brought me to my knees. But I held on. I had one more thing to do.
"What?" Marrow hissed, backing away.
I raised my hand. I felt the Triad’s magic rushing toward me, answering the call of the Anchor. Rhett’s fire. Kai’s earth. Lucien’s shadow.
It pooled in my palm, a swirling vortex of tri-colored light.
"Hunger works both ways," I told him.
I released it.
It wasn't a spell. It was a backlash. It was every ounce of fear and pain he had caused us, returned with interest.
The blast hit him square in the chest.
Marrow didn't scream. He just... flew. The impact launched him backward with the force of a cannonball. He smashed through the stage backdrop, through the brick wall behind it, and vanished into the snowy night.
Silence.
Sudden, ringing silence.
The magic faded. Gravity remembered me.
