CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN
Davien
A SCREAM TORE from her—raw, feral, unrestrained—unlike any I’d ever witnessed. Instead of broken or defeated, her cry was one of sheer power. The hairs on my body stood as a chill swept over me.
It ripped through the space, through bone and blood and stone until it felt like the very world recoiled from it.
The night sky above us darkened like an angry bruise, no one dared to speak or move. Even Valerius seemed to have been rendered temporarily speechless.
She demanded all of our attention.
Her rage continued to be the only sound filling the silence until the sharp clasp of thunder boomed above and the air changed once more.
Heavy sheets of rain began spilling from the heavens, hammering against the glass ceiling above us, relentless, furious until even that barrier began to tremble under the assault.
This was her.
All of it.
Her power, answering her grief. Her rage made manifest in the world itself.
Despite the anti-magic bracelets they’d shackled her with.
It shouldn’t have been possible.
Wouldn’t have been—for anyone else.
I saw her then.
Truly saw her.
Not the woman I’d trained, or the one that had fought me tooth and nail. Nor the one I couldn’t help but love.
She was so much more.
She was so unlike any other true born I’d ever met—unlike any vampire, actually. Logic would dictate that it was her human upbringing on this realm that caused it, but I had a feeling the reason ran deeper than that.
She was an anomaly.
A contradiction made flesh.
She was simply perfect.
Human, yet not.
Vampire, but not fully.
A light in a world of darkness.
Only time would tell of the legacy I knew she’d leave.
I only hoped I’d get a front row seat to see it.
But even now, I was certain that change was coming.
And that change was her.
The air crackled around her, like she was tearing a hole in the very fabric of this realm—because she was.
The glass ceiling shattered, exploding inward with a violent, deafening crash, raining shards down in a glittered storm as the sky opened fully above us.
Wind tore through the space, wild and unrelenting, whipping through bodies and fabric and flame alike.
Candles snuffed out.
Voices rose.
Panic soared.
But I couldn’t look away from her. I could hardly believe my own eyes. I’d only seen one other ever display this type of magic. The air thickened with it, every breath heavy with power, with something so raw and untamed that made even my own instincts recoil.
Valerius must have snapped out of his momentary lapse, and I swear I saw a flicker of fear on his features before he schooled them back to his regular disgustingly calm self as he gave the orders for her capture.
A lightning strike illuminated the square and in that moment chaos broke out. Bodies began moving toward her but I barely registered what they were doing. My focus stayed on her.
She was kneeling on the hard stone, completely soaked to the bone, her face shrouded by her long dark hair as she held her sister’s lifeless body close to her chest.
The expression on her face holding the purest of agony.
And I felt her earthshattering pain.
It broke something in me.
My heart clenched so violently it felt like it might tear itself apart as I struggled forward, only to be yanked back by brutal hands.
Fists collided with my ribs.
My jaw.
Pain flared, as they forced me down, shackles biting into my wrists as they dragged me back.
Brothers.
Men who had once stood beside me.
Now tearing me apart.
But I didn’t care.
I let them hit me.
Let them break me.
None of it mattered.
All that mattered was her.
A slow smile spread across my face, unbidden, unstoppable, even as blood filled my mouth and pain ripped through my body.
Because I had been right.
She was everything I had believed her to be.
And more.
So much more.
She was breaking free.
I recognised the magic she was using.
She let out another scream, her head tilted toward the skies above, the sound tearing from her like something primal, something ancient fuelled with nothing but pure, raw pain.
The air collapsed inward.
And a violent, blinding surge of power erupted from her, warping everything in its wake.
And then…
… she was gone.