Page 311 of Scarlet Wars
His hand moved, gliding across her stomach, creeping up her ribs, fingers brushing the curve beneath her chest.
And that was it.
That was the line.
I felt it snap, clean and violent.
My chest locked tight, brittle as glass.
Then it shattered.
The restraint I’d held onto evaporated. The rules that kept me chained, the logic that kept me contained, and the fear that made me hesitate…all of it was annihilated in a single instant.
There was only rage now. Pure, blinding, all-consuming.
There was no space, no care for consequence. I didn’t give a fuck about the bubble, or what would happen to me. I didn’t care about survival, or how it would feel to burn alive.
Because watching them touch her—watching her bleed and not being able to stop it—was already worse than death.
I reached for my haze, buried deep in the marrow of my being, and wrenched it outward.
Realityscreamedas I did, and the backlash of the bubble didn’t just hit, itobliteratedme from the inside out.
Ripped through me like lightning through a live wire, like my soul had been slammed into a wall at terminal velocity. Myvision went white, pain flaring so violently I couldn’t even hear myself roar.
It was as if the universe rejected me, tore open my insides and tried to shove me back out.
My skin split open. My blood turned thick, boiling beneath the surface. But none of it mattered.
Because I was alreadymoving.
The chains snapped like they’d never been strong enough to hold me in the first place. My obsidian haze tore free in violent, feral pulses, striking without mercy. One of the Chiefs turned in time to see me coming.
I ran straight through him.
My translation shredded his chest open like it was paper. He didn’t even have time to scream, just choked on his own blood and collapsed as his body disintegrated into a heap of ash and shattered armor.
The second raised his hands, trying to shield himself from me. I sent a surge of energy into his skull and watched his eyes bleed out as he hit the wall, bones crunching like dry branches. He twitched once. Then didn’t move again.
The third tried to run. Coward.
I chased him down andripped him apartwith my fucking hands. I tore into him with every ounce of power I had left, until there was nothing but gore and smoke where his body had been.
And then…my knees hit the floor.
Hard.
I tried to stay upright, but gravity was dragging me into the earth. My lungs seized. My hands shook so violently I couldn’t even hold them still enough to brace myself.
This was the end.
Fine. Fuck it.
At least I’d taken them with me.
I collapsed onto my side, as everything blurred. I couldn’t feel my legs. Couldn’t feel my heartbeat. Couldn’t feelanythingexcept the gaping, echoing terror that Emma wasn’t going to survive this either.
The darkness had nearly swallowed me whole when I heard it.
