Page 55 of Heart of the Villain

Marlena stared into her mother’s petrified eyes, squeezing on the sides of her neck until she started to turn purple.

She’d warned her not to touch her again.

Marlena pushed her cloak of invisibility over them both. She took a step back and slammed her mother down on the table like a human centerpiece.

The two of them couldn’t be seen, and the wind circling the room covered enough of the noise that Jonan couldn’t pinpoint their exact location once he unpinned himself from under the overturned desk.

Marlena leaned down, close to Ryanna’s ear, and loosened her grip so her mother could draw in a single, shallow breath. Marlena kept enough distance in between them to keep her eyes locked on her mother’s. “That’s the last time you ever lay a hand on me. I’m going to make you regret all of it. Him too.”

Marlena dropped the blanket of invisibility and let her mother go before backing up a few steps. Her father spun in circles until his eyes landed on his wife. Jonan dropped to his knees when he got to her, hands clutching Ryanna’s cheeks while she heaved heavy breaths. Her neck was already bruising but would heal quickly enough with the ichor running through her veins.

Marlena only turned her back when her parents both set their stares on her, their faces mauled with a mixture of fear and fascination.

She didn’t have to make sure Ivelle was following her because she was already opening the door for Marlena. With her head held higher than ever before, Marlena stormed out of the meeting room.

A guard heard the commotion and barreled down the hall at her. “Hey!” he called out, reaching for Marlena’s arm.

No one will ever touch me without my permission again. Marlena spun around, catching him by surprise, and took him down without touching him.

He was a large man, and he didn’t fall softly. When his head banged against the floor and the crack of his skull rang down the hall, Marlena realized just who this guard was.

The guard from Dimico House. The one from nearly four years ago who’d refused to give her the respect she commanded. What an unlucky time and place to be for him…

A slow and eerie smile crept across Marlena’s lips when the guard’s vision cleared and he, too, recognized the woman standing over him.

She wasn’t the same young girl anymore.

Air wielders could always feel the air around them. When their powers came to be, it could be hard to ignore what was once weightless. The strongest could feel the air inside objects… jars, water, anything with oxygen.

The air entering and exiting the guard’s lungs was palpable to Marlena, taking up space in the room when she focused on his panicked breaths. He scooted back, trying to put space in between them—but every move he made away from her, Marlena took two steps forward.

This man couldn’t run from his past.

He could get up and flee, and Marlena would still be able to feel his lungs contracting. She grabbed for the power within, snatching on to his air with a gentle first tug, watching as the guard gasped for the breath leaving his lungs.

One long draw of her power, and Marlena drained his lungs of all oxygen. And it wasn’t even hard. She stepped over him, lost inside herself while watching this man claw at his throat like it might help.

He was at her mercy… and Marlena wasn’t letting go.

It was easy. So easy. To reach inside someone’s lungs and cut off their air supply. Marlena had always wondered how simple it would be, but she’d never expected it was as effortless as taking a breath of her own.

She had always been too scared to try.

But not anymore. I can’t be scared anymore.

Marlena was done being scared. Where had that gotten her?

The man’s face started to turn blue, and his movements were becoming more erratic by the second. She imagined him begging for his life if he could.

But he can’t because you now have his life in your hands, the voice inside said. Her voice. My voice.

“Marlena!” The scream was followed by a soft touch on her lower arm. So featherlight. So soft. So at odds with the fear distorting the usually ariose cadence.

It snapped her back into reality. Marlena let go of the air, and the guard inhaled a sharp, ragged breath, followed by gasps and coughs.

He was alive… but he had been so close to death.

Arlet stood beside her, both hands now on her arm with a bewildered look on her face. Her eyes were wide, and her chest rose rapidly with sharp, nervous breaths.