Page 332 of Scarlet Wars
He moved faster than I expected—a brutal, ancient flick of his hand—and a bolt of invisible haze sliced through the air toward Caden.
I reacted instinctively, throwing up a shield, one not unlike the kind I’d just unraveled from Jackson. It flared between them right in time, catching the blast before it hit. Caden barely had time to flinch.
The High Chief’s eyes widened, only for a heartbeat, before his mask of arrogance settled back into place.
Petru moved beside me, taking a step forward, hand already lifting?—
“Don’t,” Caden hissed, eyes locked on the High Chief. “Let her handle it.”
Slava’s Leader raised a quick brow, then dropped his hand.
And I stepped forward.
“You know what your problem is?” I asked softly, my scarlet haze building at my fingertips.
“Enlighten me.”
“Like every old man too set in his ways to evolve, you can’t see what’s right in front of you.”
I fired the first bolt. He deflected it with ease.
Of course. The shield.
“You can’t see how your own actions have set in motion exactly what you have tried to prevent.”
Another bolt. Another effortless deflection.
“You can’t see you signed your own death warrant.”
Another strike, harder this time.
“And least of all…” My crimson energy surged, wrapping around me like a second skin. “You can’t seeme.”
Between almost killing Jackson, murdering Saoirse, and killing Stephen, the Chiefs had turned me into a monument of pain, and pain was one hell of a weapon.
I reached deep into the marrow of my bones, into the roaring furnace that had been building inside me since the first lie, the first betrayal, the firstloss.
And I translated.
Not the way they did.
It wasn’t magic.
It wasme.
My fury.
My grief.
And then I moved.
My Skindo shot out, like a whip of molten steel snapping from my hand. It cut through the haze-heavy air with a vicious, slicing shriek, aimed straight for the High Chief’s chest.
With a flick of my other wrist, my Chela manifested in my other hand, ready to suck all translation out of anyone who dared to come close.
At the same time, my good oldchoking hazeexploded outward from me in all directions.
It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t noble.
