Chapter 23
23
I pounced on Heng and dug my claws into his shoulders. He hit the dirt with a scream.
Guards yelled. Spectators fled. It was pandemonium, but I didn’t care about any of that.
I bit into Heng’s neck, sinking my teeth in. My mind rushed with euphoria when I tasted his blood, drinking it, sucking the life out of him. He scrambled to push me off, but he was too weak. In seconds, his hands dropped limply to the dirt.
I lifted my face off his neck, tipping my head back, savoring the taste of his blood. It filled the pit inside me. But the pit wasn’t getting any smaller. In fact, it was growing. I needed more. I wanted more.
With my claws still in Heng’s shoulders, I pumped my wings and took to the sky, carrying Heng with me. It was so freeing to fly. I soared through the air, my golden dress trailing behind me like a tail.
I was hideous. I was horrible. I was free.
Guards rushed into the arena as spectators ran for their lives. I could smell their fear. I wanted to taste it.
The guards who had once sworn to protect me were moving below, swarming like ants, shouting orders, and readying their magic. I wouldn’t let them stop me.
A nearby guard took aim at me with fire cupped in his hands, and I dropped Heng to the ground just before I pounced. The guard threw the fire at me, but I passed right through it like smoke and tore into his arms with my claws. He screamed, and I licked the blood off my fingers.
There were so many people here, so many beating hearts, it would be foolish to linger on only one.
A woman screamed when I landed on her back and scratched her skin open with my claws, and then I jumped on another man who tried to run away. Their blood was delicious, and I wanted more. With each drop, my vision turned even redder, like my eyes were coated in it.
I took to the sky again, stretching my wings and throwing my arms out to soak up the life that was pulsing around me, when something hot and sharp pierced through my side. Blood spilled over my claws.
An arrow. I’d been shot.
Qian, flanked by guards, had a bow in his hand, his face tight with rage. He took aim at me again with a new silver-tipped arrow.
I opened my mouth wide, baring my teeth, claws out, and soared toward him.
Before my claws could touch him, Qian fell out of my grasp.
Lucas. He’d tackled Qian just before he let the arrow loose. It missed me by a hair, whizzing into the sky, and I reached out for Qian, but my claws scratched at nothing as Qian and Lucas fell to the ground.
Enraged, I flung my wings out to circle back, but something heavy and cold lashed around my neck. An iron chain. It yanked hard against my throat, snapping my head back, and pulled me down.
I let out a scream, high and guttural, struggling against the chain, but I was weak against it. I hit the dirt, crawling on my hands to get away, but the guards had captured me. I beat my wings, but someone moved in and threw themself on top of me, grinding my wings into the ground.
I gnashed my fangs, searching for flesh to bite, but more and more guards piled on top of me.
Qian shoved Lucas off him and scrambled to his feet. He grabbed his bow again and took aim at me. I hated him. I wanted to kill him. I screamed at him, but Lucas appeared again and stepped in front of me.
“Don’t!” Lucas cried. “You’re only making it worse!”
Nix walked in, holding my legs in her arms. “Don’t hurt her!” she screamed, pale-faced and terrified.
I hated everyone. I hated myself. I wanted to end everything. I wanted to burn everything down. I wanted to incinerate myself. I wanted to tear everything up. I wanted to claw my face off.
Nix laid my legs on the ground, then shoved a guard off me and kneeled by my head. I tried to scratch at her with my claws, but she slammed her hand down on my forehead, and my body seized up. I couldn’t move. She had paralyzed me. Her magic enveloped me, and the rhythmic pulse of rage inside me faded.
My claws shrank; so did my teeth. My torso attached to my lower half. My strength left me, and all that was left was a hollowness in my chest and, of course, the pain.
Everyone close by watched as I turned back into myself, covered in dirt and blood.
A sob escaped me. I could barely breathe. I was ashamed and afraid.
All the carnage around me. I heard screams of horror and confusion and saw people stumbling around, gripping bloody body parts, and running away. Terrified.
This was all my fault.
Of all the eyes on me, the ones that hurt the most were Lucas’s.
He stared, shocked, and all the color had gone from his face when he saw what I had become. “MJ?” he gasped in disbelief.
I was a monster, and yet he had protected me.
Nix’s paralyzing spell had its hold on me, and everything faded into darkness.
The last thought I had was that I hoped I would die.