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Alone.
Without seeing his son again.
Perry would grieve.
Vori couldn’t allow that.
She stripped away all emotions except one.Pure, unadulterated rage.She freed the inner beast, letting go of the leash she’d clenched stranglehold tight all these years.Rushing at Petra, she tore at the woman’s flesh, invoking her mother’s magic to blink in and out of the shadow realm.Easy enough when there were more shadows than light.She fought with all the speed and strength she’d held back for years.Goblin speed.Only she was faster.
Tearing chains from the wall, she wrapped them around the other goblin and yanked her down.The clinks of steel on steel clanged and rang with a satisfying metallic melody.Each slam of bone against concrete, every howl of pain, the sick ripping sound of muscle and cloth—they called to Vori.A symphony of wrath.She answered with her own cries of battle and destruction.
She sank her claws into Petra and shredded her face in a startling imitation of the scars that Artanya had lived with.
Petra’s shrieks screeched piercing, inhuman, but she’dcausedthis.She’d brought this rage down on them all.She deserved the death that would come.
Blood rained down the woman’s face, glimmering silver and gold.Royal.As Vori’s would be.The sight of it jolted a scrap of the civility she’d shed.She slammed Petra on the throne and bound her there in chains.
Petra was right about one thing.
Baba Yaga would have to cross realms to enforce blood vows.If she wanted her mistake dead, her beast slaughtered?The hag could do it herself.
Snatching the crown from where it sparkled in the fallen light, Vori shoved Mitch toward the door.
“We’re the same.”Petra’s voice came out on a rasp, a choking chuckle.
Vori tightened the chains, locked them down.No way did she want to risk the psycho goblin coming after them.“We’re nothing alike.”
“Don’t be so sure.We were both pushed through the glass, both condemned to live among humans, both forced to deny our goblin nature.Yet you decide to play the hero to the wrong realm.”
She slammed her fist into the goblin’s throat, to shut her up as much as knock her out.“I’m no hero.”Vori had done what she had to—had embraced the rage and her berserker nature—and she had freaking loved it.Denying it all those years to play at human?Those had been oh so hard.This wanting to rip apart the world?It felt like gourmet chocolate and smooth vodka and jet-setter luxury all rolled into one delicious, fuck-’em-all package.
She stumbled along the hallway, past the mirrors, and toward the front door.“Go.”She prodded Mitch, not allowing him time to do more than stagger to his feet, catching him when he slid on unsteady feet.Her hands had gone slick with blood, and she clutched the crown tighter in her fist.Gold flashed.Greed shot through her, devouring the last ties to humanity.The metal or royal blood?She didn’t know, didn’t care.
There was a flash of light, a beeping, a humming.She ducked, spinning to face whatever was behind her.Electricity flashed and blinked bright overhead.It flickered once, twice, and then burned steadily.Perry had done it.He’d found his redemption, restarted the power, and the human systems had gotten the massive, sprawling city back online.
A boomingthump-thump-thumpshook the house.The helicopter.
Mitch stopped inches from the front door.“What is that sound?”
“Let’s hope it’s our ride.”She pushed him out the door and onto the lawn.
Just a little farther.
The helicopter touched down on the winding street.
Almost there.
A door swung open, and Perry stepped off.She could’ve cried with relief and hope and love.He’d come back for her.
She rushed after Mitch.They were saved.She’d been saved.If she could only hang on to her last shred of civility.
A sharp sudden sting pierced the skin between her shoulder blades, and she screamed.It was as if a million jolts of Perry’s powers had hit her in the back when he was standing in front of her.
Pain blasted across her senses.Her vision went blurry and black at the edges.She clutched the blood crown, ignoring the bite of the thorns tearing into her palms, and called her shadow magic to her.Blackness descended.
