Page 57 of Darkness and Deceit
He struggles beneath me, flames licking up his wrists. My snake tightens. I force every scrap of shadow energy I have into my hands and squeeze. Skin splits. Blood spurts. His breath rattles.
Still not enough.
I twist his neck.
Snap.
Silence.
His eyes go glassy. His body stills.
And then there’s… nothing.
His lips hang open in a final breath he didn’t get to finish.
And I slump back on my knees, breath ragged, my hands still shaking. The world contracts—too tight, too quiet. My chestheaves like it’s trying to outrun itself. I think I’m screaming again, but the sound is lost, swallowed by the smoke and blood and silence pressing in from all sides.
I should feel something.
Relief. Triumph.
Justice.
But there’s nothing.
Just a silence that screams.
I wait.
For vengeance to settle like dust.
For the tremor in my hands to fade.
For the weight in my chest to lift.
I wait for peace.
But it doesn’t come.
What comes instead is a crack. Not of bone or magic. But of something deeper—something beneath my skin. A yank in the bond between me and Lilith.
It hits me like a blade to the ribs.
And then she’s there.
Not her voice. Not her face.
Buther.
The tether between us pulls taut like a live wire jerking through my spine.
Her fear barrels into me like a breath I can’t take.
Her panic chokes the air from my lungs.
Her heartbeat stutters through mine, out of rhythm and all wrong.
She knows.
