Page 306 of Scarlet Wars
And that was my mistake.
Because I didn’t see the second one coming. The one headed forme.
Emma hit me out of nowhere.
She slammed into me hard enough to knock me off my feet, the impact driving the air from my lungs right as the haze tore through the space where I’d been standing. It struck the wall behind us… And everything exploded.
Stone shattered outward in a violent spray. The ground shook beneath us as the shockwave ripped through the ruins, dust and debris everywhere. We crashed hard, her body colliding with mine, the force rattling through bone and muscle.
For a second, there was nothing but ringing.
Then instinct kicked back in. Before my mind could catch up, I rolled us both, dragging her beneath me, shielding her now, my body covering hers.
“Stay down!” I barked.
Of course she didn’t listen.
Sheneverfucking listened.
Instead, she shoved me off her like I weighed nothing, then rolled to her feet in one fluid, dangerous motion, as if fear for her own life didn’t apply to her anymore.
Her hands were already glowing, that unmistakable red haze sparking to life, hotter and brighter than I’d ever seen it.
And her eyes…
Her eyes had gone dead-flat. Not blank. Not panicked. Precise.
Like she'd stopped being a person and became a weapon instead.
“Aiming for Caden Colt was your last mistake.” She said it soft and sure, like it wasn’t a threat, but a fact.
Before I could understand what those words did to me, one of the Chiefs rushed to her from the left—faster than I could get in between—but she didn’t even flinch.
Her hand snapped toward him, while the scarlet translation launched from her fingers like a whip, and sliced through the air with a screeching hiss.
It hit him dead center in the chest.
He didn’t fall. Heerupted.
His skin blistered open mid-scream, angry welts rising before rupturing like overripe fruit. Flesh boiled from the inside out, sloughing off in wet, red sheets as steam hissed from his throat. His scream gurgled, then choked off entirely as his tongue blackened and split.
His eyes bulged grotesquely—blood vessels spiderwebbing, irises vanishing beneath the swelling—before they burst with a sickening pop, jets of crimson fluid streaking down his cheeks. His skull cracked audibly, the pressure inside his body building until it could no longer hold.
Then he was gone.
No body, only shredded muscle and viscera splattered across the stone walls.
The sole sound that followed was the wet slap of the remains of his torso hitting the ground.
I blinked.
My own haze coiled tight inside me, as if it didn’t want to get too close to whatever the hellthatjust was.
The rest of the Chiefs faltered—only for a second—but it was enough.
Emma didn’t wait. She turned, graceful in the way all predators are, and swept her arm through the air. Her haze followed: not a beam, not a thread. A wall. A tidal wave of burning magic that crashed across the room like it was hungry.
The next two Chiefs didn’t stand a chance.
