Page 24 of House Ignis

Only a dull, distant hum, as if a thick wall had been dropped between us. Cold panic crept up my spine, chilling the fire in my blood.

"Get the fuck off me," I snarled, jerking violently against his grip.

His smile vanished, replaced by a cold, hard look that made my breath hitch.

The mask was off, and the monster was staring back. His fingers tightened around my wrist, the pressure grinding bone on bone.

"You Pyresons think you own this continent," he hissed, his face inches from mine.

"But you'll learn, Ava. You're making enemies. And I'm not one to mess with."

I tensed, every nerve in my body screaming for release—when the very air in the courtyard seemed to split open.

Shadows erupted like a localized storm.

Tendrils of ink-black darkness lashed forward with the speed of a whip, coiling violently around Zorian's throat.

They yanked him backward, a move so sudden it nearly took him off his feet, the shadows writhing like living serpents with a hunger all their own.

His eyes bulged, the ocean-blue turning bloodshot in a heartbeat.

He clawed frantically at his neck, his boots scuffing the stone as the shadows tightened with a sickening, silent pressure.

His grip on me broke instantly. He stumbled, crashing to his knees and choking on the sentient dark that refused to let him draw a single breath.

"Ava!"

Ember's scream ripped through the quiet of the courtyard.

My head snapped toward the sound as she sprinted toward me, Luna at her heels. The lynx's fur was blazing molten-bright, sparks scattering across the cobblestones like miniature stars.

Maddy was close behind, Skye's white wings beating the air in sharp, frantic bursts beside her.

Ryven charged in from the opposite side, his jaw set in a lethal line. Above us, Solstice wheeled in a tight circle, his cry splitting the night with furious, echoing caws.

"What the fuck!" Ryven barked, stepping in front of me so fast he was little more than a blur.

His hand flexed, muscles coiling as if he were about to launch himself at Zorian's throat—then he stopped dead.

The shadows around Zorian's neck snapped and hissed, a sound like a thousand vipers. A clear, lethal warning: Stay back.

Then, as quickly as they had arrived, they vanished.

The darkness peeled away in an instant, dissolving into the edges of the courtyard as if the night itself had simply reclaimed its own.

Zorian crumpled to the cobblestones, hacking and heaving, his fingers still clawing at the angry purple bruises already blooming around his windpipe.

I couldn't move. I couldn't even speak. My breath tore in and out of me like I'd been the one strangled.

"Ava, are you okay?" Ryven demanded, stepping closer, a solid wall between me and Zorian's crumpled form.

I nodded. Or maybe I didn't.

The world narrowed to a single point.

Because the shadows weren't finished.

They didn't just vanish; they slid along my calves as they withdrew—slow, deliberate, and chillingly intimate.