Page 55 of Claws of Death

She’s hanging on by a loose thread, and my fingers are slippery with blood, too clumsy to spool her in.

They are trying to rip her away from me. Thosefucking bastardsare trying to takemy mate.

There’s no room for coherent thoughts as I turn into the monster I’ve resented for millennia. Talons grow from my fingertips, feathers from my arms, covering them from shoulder to wrist. My mouth and nose become the beak of a crow, and my eyes turn into pitch-black pits as the feathers take my neck, my hair, my face. The leathers are too tight, too hot, locking in the raw power of the creature breaking through the surface.

With a growl, I tear my leathers open, jacket falling off my chest, my wings springing free. I’m death and darkness. The storm in which Ayna is being tossed like a doll. I’m the anchor, and she’s the boat, and whoever is trying to sever the chain holding us together will. Fucking.Die.

The roar ripping out of me puts the gods to shame.

I won’t—I willnot—not in a thousand lifetimes let anyone take her from me.

A flash of fire enters my darkness, and I remember I should be afraid, but the orange sphere is swallowed by night like water in ink. Everything inside of me pulls and twists. Everything is pointing in one direction.

So I follow. It’s an order. A command pulling me straight through the folds of the world, and I obey. I’d obey that call anywhere.

From the edge of my consciousness, I sense words raining down on me, but they don’t cut. Not one single blade slices into my skin as I fight my way across the entrance hall. Like a current of blackest night, my power bleeds across the floor, the walls, taking everything in my path. Flames cry out in panic as I rip their heads off with my power, my talons, my sword… I no longer hold a weapon in my hands. Iamthe weapon. And I embrace every last monstrous thought as I kill my way out of the estate. The ground shudders as I half walk, half fly out the door, leaving a trail of destruction behind me.

Even in my darkest hours of the curse, I never allowed for that beast to break loose, but today, I embrace it. Today, I become one with it as I spot mymateface-down on the ground. A Flame is kneeling on her back, pinning her like a rabid animal as she thrashes under the torch they are pushing into her flesh, right where our mate mark is inked into her skin.

Blind rage hits me, taking away the last of my humanity, and I fucking lose it. Silver spears fly across the clearing, taking down everyone and everything in my path. At the back of my mind, I remember there are people I care about out there, that I might hurt them if I don’t watch out.

I can’t bring myself to hesitate as my power lashes from my talons, rays of silver wrapped in smoke and death. There is no time to wonder if my magic can tell friends from foes; I will it to do so, and where it hits, Flames fall left and right like flies, like wheat stalks cut down with a razor-sharp blade.

But Ayna is slipping away from me. With every breath, there’s a little less of her wrapped around my soul.

I cling to her for dear life. Because sheismy life.

All I hear is her whimpering. Even when there is no Flame left in this godsforsaken clearing, she’s still writhing in pain.

I don’t allow myself to land from where I’m hovering just beneath the treetops and rush to her. Not just yet. There is one more thing I need to do before I take her in my arms and kiss her with all I am, all I have.

“Erina.” My voice is a hiss, but the King of Tavras hears me anyway. Across the battlefield where he’s watching with horror as I let my power ruin all life in the clearing.

Leaves tumble to the ground where I pass, telling the story of my touch with their wilting.

“You will pay for this.”

The fear in Erina’s eyes is real, but when I send a stream of unadulterated power to eviscerate him, it doesn’t tear him apart as it rips through him.

It’s then that I realize he’s a projection. The fucker has found a way to be in two places at the same time—and his body is somewhere safe while he’s smirking at me when I realize the limits of my power.

“Nice show, Myron.” Erina smirks and tips his head as if admitting defeat in this round of what he thinks of as a game.

Then he’s gone.

And I’m left to collect the pieces of the female who’s saved me in all ways that matter. But she can’t save me from this. Not when, where her mate mark was once telling thestory of our joined fate, all that stares back at me is scorched, blackened flesh.

I beat my wings, dropping to my boots as all resolve crumbles, and my feathers melt away.

Ayna’s staggering to her feet, defying pain, defying death, even now, when she’s beaten, bleeding, barely keeping upright.

And her voice hits me like an arrow in the chest as she whispers, “I’m sorry.”

Ayna

My legs are shakingas I push into an upright position, arm and shoulder bare where the Flames tore my leathers open. How I manage, I can’t possibly tell. All I know is the moment Myron swept across the clearing like a cloud of feathers and death, my heart slowed and my breathing became deep, defying my battered, broken body. Then the Flames fell off me like bad fruit from a tree, and the darkness filling the air slid over me like ink in water, licking over the raw flesh of my shoulder as if it had a mind of its own. I don’t want to think about what once graced my skin there. It’s gone,burned out of melike Erina said. And the whole world is trembling as I refuse to acknowledge what he did to me.

Around me, the battlefield is a sight of destruction, leafless trees framing the patch of grass littered with bodies. I can’t bring myself to search for the others. All I see ishim.

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