Page 110 of Property of Scar

My gaze stays locked on these insolent assholes. “I’m going to kill you both!”

They turn at the same time, grinning mischievously.

“Can we do it after this fight?” Rhett mocks.

I glare at him as Cali flashes past me, blade driving clean through another rogue, and I hear the breath she lets out, a half laugh, half something else entirely.

I’ll deal with them later.

If they survive.

The last of the rogues presses in hard as Roxy finishes the ward, the fight tightening instead of easing, pressure building in every direction as we push through the final junction. Steel, bone, impact, everything is still moving, still loud, still violent…

And then it isn’t.

It doesn’t taper.

It cuts.

One second, a rogue is mid-swing in front of me, claws carving toward my throat, and the next it just… stops.

Not stumbles.

Not hesitates.

Stops.

Its arm hangs there in the air like something has reached in and pulled the strings tight.

Around us, the same thing happens all at once.

Bodies lock mid-motion.

Strikes freeze before they land.

Movement dies in place, like someone has taken the fight and flicked a switch to ‘off.’

For a second, no one moves.

Not them.

Not us.

“What in the hell?” Rhett starts, the words barely making it out before the next shift hits.

The rogues turn.

Not one at a time.

All of them, in fucking unison.

Heads snapping in the same direction with a precision that is too clean, too controlled, every single one of them moving on the same beat like they’ve been given a command none of us heard.

They don’t attack or reposition.

They just face forward.

And stare.