Page 203 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

Listening out for anything, I hear nothing but the silence that stretches out around me. Not even Malik is making a sound. Or maybe he isn’t there. Either way, the whole place is dead.

So how do I get myself out of here?

I pull at the wires again, but they barely move. I’m strapped in tight; the metal grip around my waist is solid with no give.

Frustration builds, but I know I can do this. I just need to think… There must be something.

A light flickers above me, fluttering a couple of times before going out.

The darkness.

It came when I thought I had nothing left, but my own fears drove it away. Fears that have been gaining too much power from me.

It was time to feed another kind of emotion, one far more powerful and useful.

Rage.

Leaving my fears behind, I focus on my pain, frustration, anger, and everything I’ve endured. It fuels the growing storm inside me.

I focus on every slap, punch, and whip I’ve taken. Every cut, bruise, and broken bone, I’ve had to heal.

I focus on the pain that nearly took my mates from me and the dread and fear that came with it. I focus on the life that I should have always had, and the person that I once was… and I channel it all back into the energy building inside me.

I take back my power and let it build inside me. It grows and spreads, gaining more strength with each memory, with each part of me that starts to believe in each word I manifest to life.

The energy in the room reaches a peak. Goosebumps crawl across my arms as the temperature starts to drop.

Darkness seeps into the room like a dark fog, knocking out every light one by one. The silence in the darkness becomes deafening, stretching out around me.

I hold my breath and wait as it draws closer. A sliver of cold brushes up against my senses.

I smile as the dark answers me once more.

* * *

“Kiiiaarrraaa,”the voice from before calls out, its deep tone an echo around me.

“Freeee.” Again, it asks me to free it, but how? Even with the power thrumming through my veins, I don’t know how. “Releasee…”

“Release what?” I ask it.

“Reaalleasseee.”

Yes, because dragging out the word makes me understand it better.

Mentally shaking my head at myself, I close my eyes and focus on the power thrumming through my veins. I reach down inside me and drag up the storm, which is waiting to be unleashed.

I call it to me, to my aid, and I pull. The slow building energy spirals, spreading throughout my body.

I gather it up, letting it build and build until it becomes almost painful. Just when I can’t take it anymore, I let it go.

Energy, much stronger than the last time, bursts out, sending a rippling wave around me.

The metal bed beneath me rocks, and the light above me flickers on and off.

I don’t notice anything else, but the energy thrumming through me. I feel strong, invincible, like nothing can touch me.

A spark of a connection flickers in my mind, not like my guys, but a strange connection of likeness, of kin.

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