And then one simple word tumbled out of her lips.
“No.”
Irene slipped the ring onto her own finger.
And then the world erupted.
Bright orange light poured out of Irene, bursting from her chest, consuming her. A swirling gust of wind sent the trees swaying with a violent lurch, leaves lifting around them, a terrible storm splitting open the night sky.
Thunder rumbled. Silver streaks of lightning lit up the sky.
And then Mateo screamed. An inhuman, bellowing sound.
“WHAT…DID…YOU…DO?”
Irene smiled.
“Jealous?”
Mateo’s eyes were wild and feral. An empty husk of a man. He was pure violence.
Pure, unadulterated rage.
“You stupidbitch.”
Irene laughed and blood poured out of her eyes.
“How disappointingly unoriginal.”
And then she simply snapped her fingers and ripped Mateo apart.
His chest tore open, a dark stream of shadows bursting outof him, flowing from the open cavity with a startling force. He screamed and screamed, an animalistic cry filled with fury, with the promise of retribution. But there would be no reckoning tonight. Mateo’s face came apart. His bones splintering. His soul nothing but ash and dust.
Mateo was the True Headmaster. The Soulless One.
An ancient entity of magic and darkness and festering corruption.
And Irene had destroyed him with nothing but a snap of her fingers.
Masika shuddered and faced Irene. She wasglowing. A vibrant light was pouring out of the ring, traveling up her arms, consuming every inch of her body.
“What are you doing?!” Masika bellowed. “Take that thing off!”
Irene glanced over her shoulder. Her lips were curled into a soft smile.
“I can’t.”
Masika flinched as the two words struck her hard in the chest.
“What do you mean youcan’t?”
“The power has already been activated.” Irene’s voice was steady. Eerily calm. “If I take it off—it’ll only explode outward. It’ll consume all of Blackwood. All of purgatory. But…if I keep it on…I can give it something else to latch onto.” She paused and a brilliant bolt of lightning lit up the night sky, streaks of shimmering silver-blue light. “I can let it latch ontome.”
“You…you can’t.” Masika shook her head. “That’ll destroyyou.”
Irene smiled and a trickle of blood leaked out from her lips.
“That’s kind of the point, Masi.”
