Page 390 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

Dark lines of ash trail up my arms as my body expands. It draws the attention of others.

“You shouldn’t be able to shift in here. How...” Ivor stumbles back as my hounds come out to play.

I catch the guy’s savage smirks as they span out around the barrier, ready and waiting for me to destroy it.

I wasn’t losing my family or mateeveragain.

The time for waiting was over.

CHAPTER 22

KIARRA

Iclose my eyes and focus on the core and its power. It brushes up against my senses, gliding over my skin before seeping into every cell in my body.

I step into it, letting it consume me.

Soon it’s everywhere. I taste it on my tongue and smell it in the air around me.

I pull the energy to me, and a connection forms. It flows effortlessly, the power feeling endless.

Within minutes I’m full. Too full. The power filling up every nerve and cell in my body.

But I don’t stop.

More… The thought is all it takes before the energy swells up and expands. I gasp as it surges into me, the core flooding me with more power than I can handle.

But I keep pulling it until it’s brimming inside me and overflowing out around me. It builds and builds until it consumes me, slowly burning throughout my body.

I grit my teeth as it quickly turns painful. A sharp slash that expands to every nerve.

My legs start to shake, and I know it won’t be long before I hit the ground. Instead, my body turns as stiff as a board as a sudden tug starts dragging the power from me.

Panting through the pain, I slowly turn my head and watch as King stands there, his mouth unnaturally wide, his eyes completely white as he feeds from me.

But instead of feeling some relief, the pain intensifies, shooting through my head and body in agonizing waves.

I try to pull back, to stop for a moment, but it’s relentless as it rushes through me to him. I try again, if only to break the connection for a moment, but nothing happens.

Seconds pass as I stand there, no longer focusing on anything but the pain. It grips me like a vice, holding me as its captive.

It’s then that I realize I’m not the one in control.

King is.

A loud rumble echoes around the room. My eyes widen on the core, as small fractures appear, splintering up through it.

The small cracks split open and rupture as the core becomes unstable.

A blaze of heat sears through my skull just as lava spills from the core onto the ground. Flames igniting everything they touch before they expand.

The endless power continues to flow through me and into King while the destruction spreads to the rest of the room.

I’m helpless to do anything but stand here and watch as the devastating damage mirrors the agony inside my body.

The core shakes and groans as it loses more and more power. While the pain intensifies, my chest grows tight as flames engulf the walls. I start to panic when I realize there may be no coming back from this.

Before I can think of a way out, the core gives one last rush of power, surging through me to King and forcing me to my knees.

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