Page 132 of The First Scar
A sound of a whip breaking the air echoed from the lower levels. Followed instantly by a scream. High. Serrated.
Serenya.
The sound went through me like a spear. It carved out everything—but raw, primal fucking Fury.
"Hear that?" The guard's laughter drifted down the hall. "She's singing for us already."
My vision went red. I locked eyes with the guard. Seized the bars.
"I'm going to kill you now," I seethed.
The iron bars groaned under my grip; my hair lifted in the rising heat of my wrath.
"You and your little friend." My gaze shifted to the guard next to him.
I snarled viciously.
"You will sit here and rot in each other's waste because I'm going to slaughter every last motherfucker in this dungeon and there will be no one left to find you and bury you." The stone vibrated. The air thinning.
"This shit-infested dungeon is where you will rest for all of eternity."
I stretched for my Shadow. My light.
The Quell-Rune boiled white-hot against my chest, searing, punishing—stay down, stay broken, stay nothing—
Fuck you.
I gritted my teeth and screamed. Shaking my head and thrashing at the bars. I reached harder. Burning. I could smell my flesh burning.
Serenya screamed again. The sound ripped through me, and something inside answered. Something older than the rune. Older than the King's brand. Something that had been waiting in the dark, coiled and patient, for exactly this moment. Fury.
My eyes snapped open.
You do not get to have her.
The Quell-Rune burned. It wanted me weak. Wanted me broken.
I thought of Serenya screaming.
And I decided the rune could go fuck itself.
I wrapped my will around the King's leash andpulled.
Not today, you royal piece of shit.
I tore into the rune with everything I had. With pure, unholydesire and grit—the feral need to reach Serenya, to make thempay, to burn this whole fucking dungeon to the ground if that's what it took.
The Quell-Rune between my breast screamed. I screamed with it.
And then—
It burst into flames.
Flames made from my two marks uniting. They burned the rune right off of me.
Power flooded back into me like a river breaking through a dam. Light and Shadow roared to life, tangling together, wild and furious andstarving. They'd been caged too long—and now they wantedout.
Iyanked—one savage motion, muscles screaming, power surging.
