46. Chapter 46
46
Nelle
I ran through the mansion, asking servants if they’d seen my older sister. No one had. I scoured our home, getting more anxious when I couldn’t find Evvie. On the verge of giving up, I heard her delighted laughter.
What is she doing in there?
Sending a quick message to my mother, I let her know I’d found my missing sister in the laundry.
As I approached the laundry room, there was such playfulness in Evvie’s voice that it surprised me. “Gods, you’re always such a baby. Stay still. Stop shifting around and let me finish.”
I opened the door, her name on the tip of my tongue, and there it stayed.
Evvie sat on top of a washing machine in her gown with an ostentatious tiara sparkling in her hair. Standing right in front of her was Caidan Crowther. And not only that, he was shirtless.
I stood rooted to the spot, stunned.
Caidan was the same height as Graysen, but his body was brawnier. Amongst the whirls of tattooed flames coiling across his broad chest, there didn’t seem to be as many Ukkenskrit tales as his older brother’s. The longer locks of Caidan’s undercut hairstyle had a beach-swept feel. Violet eyes, the same shade as an amethyst, were locked on my sister.
While Evvie cleaned the blood from his neck with a damp cloth, he was staring at her. Watching every movement. Every nuance playing across her exquisite features. And his eyes were unguarded. It floored me with what I saw in their depths… yearning.
As yet, neither of them had realized I lingered beside the open door.
Evvie dabbed at his throat, glancing upward. “I missed a spot. ”
Caidan blinked and the yearning vanished from his face. “You’ve been at this for ages,” he grumbled without any bite to his tone.
“It’s not my fault you bled like a stuck pig.”
I could see there was no blood left on him, but she traced a finger along his neck as if there were, murmuring, “Here, here…and here,” until she reached his ear, and then she ruthlessly flicked the tip.
He yowled, jerking away and pressing a hand to his stinging ear. “What the fuck?!”
Lunging forward, he dug his fingers into her sides, tickling her.
She twisted, howling in laughter, slapping at his hands. “Get off!”
He stopped tickling, but he braced his hands on either side of her, boxing her in.
“You’ve messed up my hair,” she glared playfully. Her tiara sat on an awkward lean and it wobbled. She went to adjust it, but he got there first, plucking it from her head.
He scowled at the diamonds crusting the silver, and the glittering emeralds the size of robin eggs. “You don’t need to wear this. Could it be any more ridiculous?”
Evvie tried to grab it from him, but he raised it high, out of reach, making a tsking sound.
“It’s a gift from the Pellans. They want me to wear it tonight.”
He held her worried gaze with an impish smile that dimpled his cheeks. I watched in horror as his fingers crushed the tiara in half. Diamonds popped free, scattering all over the floor like raindrops, the chink of emeralds following.
Evvie’s mouth fell open and her eyes bugged wide. “Oh my gods… You did not just do that?!”
“Whoops,” he grinned.
Delicate hands flew to her temples. “How the hells am I going to explain that?”
Caidan shrugged nonchalantly before tossing the broken tiara over his shoulder. It hit the tiles, skittering over the floor to strike the bottom of the dryer across the room.
Her eyes narrowed on him, and her mouth thinned into a mean line. “I’ll have to tell them you broke it.”
“Me?”
Mischief sparkled in her gaze as she arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, I’ll tell them you sat down on your big fat ass and broke it.”
He sucked in a shocked gasp, slapping a broad hand over the wyrm branded above his heart with mock offense. “My big fat ass?”
“Yeah, your big fat ass.” She jabbed him in the stomach with a finger. “It matches your big fat mouth.”
He tipped his head back and roared in laughter, his whole body shuddering while my mind was racing to catch up with what I was seeing.
My sister knows Caidan?
My fingers tightened on the door handle, and it lurched downward with a loud squeak.
Both of them startled, swinging my way.
Evvie gaped to see me standing there and I watched the surprise and shock transform into guilt and apology at being found here having fun with one of the Crowther brothers. “Nelle,” she greeted, shame pinking her cheeks.
“What’s going on?” My astonished gaze darted between them both as I stepped inside. Muggy heat warmed the large room from dryers tumbling clothing in their metal bellies.
“We’re washing his shirt,” Evvie answered, entwining her fingers together anxiously on her lap.
Caidan twisted around to lean right beside my sister. So close their shoulders touched, but neither of them shifted away. In fact…did she lean closer to him?
“Why?” I addressed this to Caidan. Why would he need his dress shirt washed and why the hells was Evvie doing it herself and not handing the job over to one of our servants to do? “Wouldn’t there be a shirt you could borrow? Perhaps from our father?”
Then, maybe because Evvie was a little tipsy—not that I’d seen her drinking—or maybe simply because she couldn’t help herself, she perked up and smiled with mischief. “Nelle.” She gestured to Caidan as if it were obvious. “I doubt he could fit his ego-inflated head into one of our father’s shirts.”
“Oh, for the ever-living hells,” he grumbled, “I have an ego-inflated head now? And it’s a shirt. I don’t need to poke my head through a neckline.”
“But you need to do up the collar around your big chunky neck.”
“Gods,” he hissed at her, before turning to me to say, “It’s my lucky shirt.”
“Oh, your lucky shirt, is it?” Evvie snort-laughed. “You were wearing it when you got punched in the face. What kind of lucky shirt is that?”
Caidan got punched? The surprise of it rattled through my mind. He was a Crowther. No one dared lay a finger on a Crowther. No one even would get close enough to even try either. I frowned. “Who punched you?”
“Graysen. Broke his nose.” Evvie gave Caidan a sidelong glance filled with curiosity and cheekiness. “He probably deserved it. ”
“What the?” He rounded on her with an appalled look and pointed at his nose. “He broke my nose. It hurt.”
“Aw, poor baby, I bet it did. Did you cry big fat tears of pain?”
“Aw, fuck. You are so mean.”
“Do you want me to kiss it better?”
Delight lit up his features. “Well, I wouldn’t say no to that,” he purred with a wink.
She rolled her eyes at him.
“I did not wholly deserve it,” he said, crossing his arms over his barrel chest and jutting his bottom lip out a fraction.
“Sure, Caidan,” she drawled, as if she didn’t believe him. “Besides being a gossip, you’re a stirrer.”
“Why?” I asked, interrupting their banter. Why would Graysen punch his brother? It didn’t surprise me, but I was curious.
Caidan’s attention swung to me, but he merely stared back silently, and I couldn’t read anything in his gaze. He’d effectively shut me out, just as well as his older brother could.
Evvie answered after realizing he was going to remain silent on the subject. “He won’t tell me why. Which is incredibly unusual—”
His eyebrows rose sharply as he cut in with a sideways glance. “Unusual?”
“You sing like a canary for me. All. The. Time.”
Black waves of hair ruffled as he shook his head, but he was huffing a laugh at the same time. “I do not.”
“You’re the biggest gossip. Worse than the Estlore girls.”
His eyes widened as he straightened his spine. “Oh, you crossed the line there. The Estlore girls? Those gossip-mongers?”
“Maybe that’s what I should call you from now on,” she taunted him. “Caidy Estlore.”
For a moment, something painful swept across Caidan’s features at the name, before a sunny expression returned to his handsome face. “Caidy? Caidy Estlore?” he choked.
My gaze flitted between them.
How the hells does Evvie know Caidan?
I mean, we all knew one another, but this was different. There was such familiarity between them—this clearly wasn’t a new friendship.
A different hurt flooded through my chest. My sister had hidden her friendship with Caidan from me all this time, and it stung to discover she’d kept a secret. “ He’s a Crowther.” It slipped out, quietly, breathlessly, unintended. But damned if I was going to let my sister be sucked in by one of those brothers.
“Observant,” Caidan grinned at me, his cheeks dimpling. But his grin faltered at my blistering cold glare. His throat bobbed and he rubbed the back of his neck with discomfort. Evvie’s gaze met mine and she shifted with unease. She knew how I felt about being tied to Graysen—
Well…not everything.
Caidan’s gaze became more shrewd as he leaned against the washing machine, readjusting his brawny arms over his chest. “How’s the weekend been with my brother? He hasn’t said much about it.”
I blinked.
What the hells did you say?
That’s what I was about to ask. Because why wouldn’t Graysen be telling his close-knit brothers everything? Including who won that godsdamned bet. And the winner was right in front of me, toying with my sister. Bitterness slashed through my veins and pinched my mouth into a thin line.
Evvie answered for me. “Much the same. Those two at each other’s throats.”
He hummed thoughtfully, a hand rising to his chin, fingers brushing back and forth as he studied me intently.
That’s when I realized the state of his nose was practically pristine. There was no swelling or bruises. Nothing at all to indicate that he’d been punched.
“Your nose…it’s healed,” I breathed, surprised.
He shrugged, glancing downward as he lowered his hand to curl around the edge of the washing machine. “My mother’s bloodline—”
“Unnatural healing,” Evvie finished for him. She leaned over and pinched his nose, trying to wiggle it.
He jerked his head back and snapped his hand up to bat hers away. “Get off,” but he was grinning widely.
My gaze fixed on Caidan.
Tabitha Crowther. No one talked about the Crowthers’ mother. Years ago, I’d asked once why Varen’s wife looked so much like him. Lise laughed, and because my mother looked so pale and clearly couldn’t speak, it was my older sister who told me that Valarie was Varen’s twin sister. My mother whispered to me that Tabitha Crowther had died.
Squinting, I could make out a thickening of skin at the bridge of his nose as if it had indeed been broken. I pointed to it. “But that bump—”
“We keep the scars we’re given,” he replied gruffly, scowling and glancing away .
I wasn’t sure what that meant.
Evvie must have read the confusion on my face because she elaborated. “Normally, their wounds don’t leave behind a scar. But the Crowthers have this stupid tradition of keeping the scars they give each other.”
“Gods, woman,” he whipped back and growled. “It’s not stupid.”
My thoughts started spinning—
Keep the scars they give each other—
It was there, right there, like tattered moth wings fluttering inside a paper lantern, the answer to Graysen’s scarred back beating against my mind.
Before I could grasp the puzzle pieces and lock them into place, Evvie interrupted, asking brightly, “What are you doing here?”
I answered automatically, without considering how it would be received. “Momma’s looking for you. The Houses are arriving and she wants you there to greet them.”
And I felt like an asshole as the brightness in Evvie’s eyes dimmed as she remembered who she was, and what was happening tonight, right outside those doors. “Yes, of course,” she answered in a thin, reedy voice.
She went to jump down from the washing machine, but Caidan swung around, his hands gently wrapping about her hips. He carefully picked her up and placed her on the ground. Her slender fingers gripped his forearms to steady herself as she wobbled a little in her red-soled heels. Neither of them let go of the other.
Caidan brushed his thumbs back and forth on her waist while Evvie smiled up at him, and her whole face lit right up. I’d never seen that radiant smile on her before. Not with Corné, not with any boy that had drawn her eye over the years.
Both of them were caught up in their moment and didn’t even notice or care that I was still in the room. I noticed Evvie’s fingers softly spreading across his biceps, how her chest rose and fell with a quickened breath, and that she bit down on her bottom lip shyly.
I felt like a voyeur. I shouldn’t be here, watching this. This was an intimate moment and I felt awful for intruding.
“Your lucky shirt’s probably dry by now,” she whispered to him. I think she meant to make a joke of it, but if she did, she failed awfully. It sounded like a fervent appeal.
Caidan lowered his head and parted his mouth—
I didn’t know if he was going to tell her something or kiss her, but I needed to get the hells out of there. I was turning to slink out when one of her arm sleeves slipped .
My breath left me in a whoosh. “Evvie?”
She jerked my way, and her wondrous smile faded as she saw my horrified expression.
“What did he do to you?” I breathed out, barely a whisper. I was at her side in five purposeful strides.
Caidan’s gaze followed my hands as I yanked up Evvie’s sleeve, then the other.
Bruises—fingerprints—a purplish hue, banded around her arm like a bracelet. And to my horror, there were more bruises on her other arm—older, more yellow and mottled green petals, amongst fresh ones.
Caidan’s nostrils flared, and anger creased his forehead as he glared fiercely.
Evvie’s face paled as her panicked gaze bounced between us both. She tried to free herself from Caidan, but he held on tight.
“Who did this?” he demanded roughly.
Her mouth parted to reply, but nothing came out.
Caidan and I shared a look of rage. Both of us knew exactly who had done this to her.
“Corné,” I muttered when my sister remained silent.
I twirled my wrist to release a long loop of my adamere bracelet, and I clenched it with a fist. I’m going to fucking end him!
In a panic, Evvie shoved free of Caidan, who reached for her again. Her shrill voice cried out, “No, let me go!”
Stumbling back, she half-turned away, and in her profile, a rush of wild emotion crossed her features. But the loudest, the one that stayed, was shame. A heartbeat later, it disappeared.
Dread twisted my gut as I realized where her resolve was taking her. She was the perfect Wychthorn princess, after all. “Evvie? Please, don’t do this,” I begged her.
She’d dropped her gaze to her shoes. Her arms hung limply by her side, and I watched her flex her fingers. She drew in a deep breath and straightened her spine. One hand rose to brush along the flat of her stomach as she squared her shoulders and lifted her head regally to look directly at Caidan. Nothing but a sweet, mindless face greeted him. She delivered a warm yet impersonal smile, saying, “I need to go find Momma. I hope you’ll enjoy the evening.” Stepping back, she swiveled on the ball of her foot, and walked toward the door, smoothing her arm sleeves down to cover the bruises encircling her wrists.
Caidan’s expression darkened. In a surge of motion, he lurched forward, grabbing hold of my sister’s elbow to spin her around to face him. She stumbled and her hands went to his bare chest to steady her balance. “Caidan,” she yelped in surprise.
“No, you don’t,” he growled. His fingers gripped her waist to keep her pressed against him. “You don’t get to sweep this away.”
If I hadn’t been so focused on Evvie and Caidan, I might have heard the footsteps approaching.
The door swung open and a haughty voice asked, “Evelene?”
Corné stepped into the laundry, holding a glass of wine. His eyes flared wide with shock, then narrowed to slits as he took in Evvie pressed against Caidan, and the large hands spread around her waist while hers were splayed across his bare chest. Corné’s face became more like his father’s—thin and pointy with anger. “Evelene, what the hells is going on here?”
His gaze bounced between Evvie, me, and shirtless Caidan, all of us gathered together in a tight knot. It would look inappropriate if you didn’t take in our expressions. Such rage filled mine and Caidan’s.
Caidan snarled, “Corné—”
“No, you listen to me, Crowther,” Corné interrupted, pointing a finger at him with the hand holding his wine. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on here, but get your hands off my fiancée and keep the fuck away from her. You don’t look at her. You don’t touch her. You don’t speak to her.”
Evvie flinched, paling, then stepped free from Caidan. Her terrified gaze shot from Corné to Caidan and back again. “It’s not—” my sister started to say.
“It’s not how it looks?” Corné sneered. “My fiancée all over a Crowther?”
His mouth pulled into a distasteful line and he shook his head at Evvie as if trying to grasp the idea of how low she’d sunk. “Gods, a Crowther. How common.” He squeezed his eyes shut and drew in a deep breath through his nose. When his eyes flashed open, there was something predatory gleaming in their depth. He looked like a wolf—a russet-coated wolf. I could practically see the saliva dripping from his fangs as he fixed his attention wholly on Evvie.
A small smile curved his lips, almost as if he was enjoying this. Almost as if he enjoyed finding something about Evvie he could exploit. He’d been pissed off that she’d disrespected him, but I didn’t think for a moment that finding her with Caidan made him feel betrayed and hurt.
No, this was something else… This was excitement.
My sister had given him a reason to punish her.
“Evelene, come here.”
“My sister isn’t a dog!” I bellowed .
His features twisted with anger and he glared at me with fury, as if I should dare speak to him like that.
I rounded on him. “You don’t snap your fingers or click your tongue and she comes running.”
“I’d watch how you speak to me,” he warned.
The creature inside stirred with my fury, power seeping out, raising the muggy heat in the room a few more degrees. “If your simple, narrow mind hasn’t grasped it yet,” I gritted out, “let me spell it for you. I. Don’t. Like. You.”
And still, he didn’t address me, instead turning to speak to Caidan. “Such a willful tongue. I’m surprised your brother allows it.”
I’m going to burn him to the ground!
I lunged for him—
Evvie gasped, “ Nelle, don’t! ”
Caidan grabbed hold of my waist, dragging me back. His fingers squeezed hard. Hard enough that it reminded me to keep myself in check.
I could not let Corné know what I was.
But that savage power roiling inside… I still hadn’t extinguished it by letting it loose in my quarters, and now it threatened to rip its way free.
I gripped my adamere bracelet, running the beads through my fingers— My roots are deep, my strength is stone, my breath the wind. I bow to none.
I couldn’t give in to the power lurking beneath my skin.
It would be so easy to fling it out and end him.
But I couldn’t—I couldn’t.
Corné took a leisurely sip of wine, his hazel eyes narrowing slyly over the lip of the crystal glass at my sister. His tongue darted out to lick the scarlet beads from his lips. He didn’t look at me, or at Caidan, but spoke to Evvie. “I wouldn’t stand for it,” he said softly. And there it was, hanging between us, an unveiled threat toward my sister.
My blood chilled, my gaze sliding to Evvie.
Evvie’s attention was solely on Corné. All the color had drained from her face. Her fingers twitched nervously at her sides and her chest rose and fell with rapid breath. I could see her mind had frozen with fear. She didn’t know what to do, how to soothe and placate Corné.
No, my sister would never say the kinds of things that spat from my tongue.
Rage, such wild rage, hissed through my blood and roared in my ears. I hadn’t realized what a chauvinistic pig the elder Pellans had raised. Such a bully. But those bruises gracing Evvie’s arms had revealed that .
I gripped my bracelet tightly, my knuckles burning hot.
What will my sister endure in this marriage to keep our family as Great House?
Behind me, Caidan’s voice dripped with venom. “Gray likes how Nelle speaks her mind. He likes her fire. As does anyone who isn’t a fucking sexist prick.”
I was too far gone to take in those words. Why Graysen would never reign in that part of me, and what it meant.
Corné snorted, rolling his eyes.
Caidan snarled. Behind me, I felt all the muscles in his body tensing, readying to strike. I threw my arm in his way, blocking him, keeping my focus on Corné. “He’s mine,” I hissed over my shoulder.
Caidan reluctantly let go of my waist. I rolled my neck from side to side while fixing my blistering gaze on Corné. Caidan stalked toward the laundry door. I thought he was leaving. Instead, he used his bulk to stand in front of the door, arms crossed and feet braced, head slightly tilted.
“Nelle,” my sister softly urged. I glanced over at her. Her ocean eyes implored silently— Don’t do this .
She knew me all too well. I’d do anything for my sister. “Not this time, Evvie. Momma is waiting for you.”
“Yes, she is, as is everyone else,” Corné ground out, as if my sister were at fault. He pivoted on his heel, his soles making a squeaky noise on the floor of the laundry. “Come along, Evelene,” he snapped, treating her exactly as I’d warned him not to—like a dog he was ordering to heel.
Evvie flinched, then jolted forward, her heels clacking on the tiles as she quickly submitted.
“You there, Lower House boy, get out of my way.”
Corné was an idiot speaking to Caidan like that. He probably had a hundred different ways he could kill Corné with only his forefinger.
Caidan shifted his weight from one foot to the other, cracking his knuckles. A dark storm raged in his eyes. “Oh, you did not fucking call me that.”
“Step aside before I have the title of Lower House ripped from your family. You’ll join the nobody ranks, exactly where you Crowthers belong.” He moved purposely forward, as if he could push past Caidan.
Caidan’s lips curled back from his teeth. But before he could unleash, I barked at Corné, “No! You stay right where you are!”
Though Corné bristled at my command, he still leveled his hate-filled eyes on Caidan.
My voice was silky with menace. “Why are you looking at him? I’m the one speaking to you. I’m the Wychthorn.”
Corné swiveled his lean body around to face me. Contempt darkened his features.
I lifted my chin and arched an imperious brow. He might dominate Evvie, but he was going to learn firsthand why the Wychthorns held the Great House.
There was nothing but the noise of the tumbling dryers as we stared in anger at one another. The muggy heat in the laundry got hotter and hotter with my rage. Sweat beaded on Corné’s pasty skin.
The creature stretched beneath my skin, slinking around my bones, chuckling darkly.
I welcomed that chuckle. I reveled in that darkness. The snarls, the hissing, the whisper— End him. End him now.
Over Corné’s shoulder, I saw Evvie slink past Caidan. She stilled at the entranceway, wrapping her fingers about the edge of the door. She attempted to silently implore with me one last time to stop what I was doing.
I gave a slight shake of my head.
I heard Caidan murmur, “Get Gray, now.” He shut the door behind her and kept guard. His nostrils flared and lips thinned.
Unease entered Corné eyes as I took a step toward him, rotating my wrist. The adamere bracelet slipped to its full length. I snapped it out, tossing its length up and down in lazy arcs, snatching the tail end to release and snap up once more.
“Care to explain why my sister has bruises all over her arms?” The words came out softly but laced with dangerous warning. Corné didn’t know me. He had barely seen me or spoken to me. I was an enigma. He had no idea at all what he faced. He’d made the mistake of thinking I was a silly child, hidden away.
Corné snorted. “I’ve been nothing but respectful.” He shifted sideways, casting a shrewd glance between Caidan and myself, still thinking his position as Evvie’s betrothed made him untouchable. “Your sister’s a delicate creature. I certainly didn’t intend to mark her. I obviously don’t know my own strength. I’d never do anything intentionally…to harm her.” His lips twitched as if he was stifling a smile, but I saw the gleam in his eyes, the smugness.
“LIAR!”
Corné flinched, a flicker of fear flashing through his gaze as he finally recognized the threat standing before him.
I took one more step toward him. “I’ve seen them, Corné. All the bruises you’ve graced her with. You’re not even married yet and this is how you’re treating her.”
Another step closer .
There was something filling the room. A scent— woodsy and spicy.
Sandalwood.
It was coming from Corné.
Where have I scented that before?
I faltered mid-stride as realization slammed into me—
That same scent of Corné’s had clung to the Pellan’s pretty friend.
Earlier today, when I’d been confronted by Carola and her friend, I’d foolishly thought when the sex-mussed brunette had given me a taunting smile while she’d glanced toward the approaching guests, that she’d been looking at Graysen. But Corné had been walking ahead of the Crowthers.
The breath left me in a whisper. My voice was just as low. “You brought your mistress with you?”
Surprise crashed through Corné. He gulped like a fish. He tried to shake his head in denial. But I’d already read the truth on his pale freckled face. “I—”
Razor-sharp fury ignited.
“HERE?!” I roared.
He dared bring his mistress here? To our house?
To flaunt her in front of my sister?
The woman he’s going to marry!
It overwhelmed me. The arrogance. The nerve. The vileness of the man.
Corné’s eyes flicked between Caidan and myself. He swallowed, and the rasping sound it made seemed as if his mouth were tinder-dry.
I exploded with rage. Not thinking. Simply reacting, slinging the adamere bracelet around my head. A whirring sound filled the air as I slung it faster and faster and faster.
Corné stepped back, jerking up his hands in self-defense. Wine spilled from the shaking glass all over the floor. “W-what are you doi—”
I used my bracelet like a whip, snapping it forward, straight for his face.
He shirked sideways. The wine glass slipped from his sweaty fingers and shattered, spilling scarlet liquid. But he was no Crowther. He didn’t possess unnatural speed. He couldn’t move like the wind. The hard adamere beads caught his cheekbone, just a graze, but enough to hurt viciously.
His hand trembled as he lay it against his reddened cheek, already swelling and blooming with a bruise.
Caidan hissed under his breath, “ Oh, fuck… ”
“What the hells are you doing?” Corné warbled, scrabbling backward as I flung the bracelet upward, sending it whipping around my head as fast as a lash .
I struck again. “You disgusting pig!”
He jerked aside.
The bracelet missed him by a millimeter, smashing into a canister of washing powder. Sweet-smelling bluish powder exploded everywhere, coating his pristine tuxedo.
Corné looked to Caidan for help. “Stop her!”
The air in the room grew hotter, swirled, and buffeted, charging with my fury.
I’m going to end him!
Caidan lunged to stop me. Perhaps because he’d realized where my descent into rage was taking me. “Don’t do this!”
His fingers stretched for my raised arm, but I was faster, darting out of the way and sliding across the tiles. I spun around, slashing the adamere bracelet out, aiming for Corné’s fragile skull, missing him by a hairbreadth. The beads clacked as they snapped back into my palm. “You fucked your mistress on the very day you’ll be announcing your betrothal to my sister?!”
I backed Corné right into a corner and I struck the wall right beside his head. The adamere beads cracked the plastered wall, sending shoots of splintering plaster upwards in vicious fissures.
His eyes had gone so wide they were mostly white, as white as his milky, sweaty skin that reeked of fear. “You’re insane…”
The creature snarled— End him! End him! End him!
“I’m not only insane, Pellan! I AM WRATH!” My adamere bracelet whipped around my head in a frenzied arc. Lethal dark power coiled about the glass-beaded length. I was going to sling it around his throat and choke the life from him!
I snapped it out—
Corné screamed—
Someone snatched hold of me—
I was thrown upside down. Gone in a blink.