Page 308 of Scarlet Wars
It arced upward, carving through the space above us like a rainbow drawn against the sky.
At first, I didn’t understand what I was seeing. The haze wasn’t aimed at anyone. It wasn’t a strike. It was too controlled.
That’s when Cara’s voice rang out, strangled and horrified, “No!”
My head snapped toward her, heart stuttering at the raw panic in her tone. She wasn’t looking at Emma, or at me, or even at the damage left behind.
She was staring at the man, translating in the center of the room.
The High Chief.
He was standing right beyond the debris, cloak trailing behind him, one hand still raised, the other beginning to move in a slow, circular motion, haze pouring from his palms in steady waves that spread through the room like ink bleeding across water.
I felt it before I understood it, the energy pressing against the edges of my haze, constricting it like a vice.
He wasbubblingus in.
Again.
A cage forming around us cell by cell. The moment of freedom we’d just claimed evaporated, stolen from us before we could even draw a full breath.
I turned in time to see the corridor fill again.
Eight more Chiefs.
Fresh. Rested. Unwounded. Not a mark on them.
They stepped into the room with quiet confidence, fanning out like they already knew the positions they were meant to take. The High Chief didn’t even acknowledge them until they were in place. Only then did he lower his hand and speak.
“Do not translate within Cyclos,” he said as calm as it was final. “The Collective is now bubbled in. Any use of magic will result in fatal backlash.”
Emma took a half step forward, shoulders still tense, fingers twitching as if she was ready to fight anyway.
But before she reached the asshole we’d come to kill, the High Chief lifted both hands, his expression impassive, and released a final wave of haze across the room.
It wasn’t fire.
It wasn’t pain.
It wassilence, heavy and sudden and complete.
It slammed into me like a wall, and my legs gave out beneath me. The world tilted, the sound of everything stretching into a low, humming void as something swept through my chest like a fist closing around my heart.
Someone shouted my name.
Emma.
I tried to reach her.
Tried to move.
But the floor was already rushing up to meet me.
And then the world disappeared.
SIXTY-SEVEN
CADEN
