Page 8 of Amethyst and Iron
I started as I saw a shimmering dark-red gem blazing bright within the transparent blue handle of the drill.
“A portion of your necromantic core,” he told me, horrifyingly.
“No!” I cried, trying to lurch forward, only to be stopped by the chains.
“And that injection that Reese delivered for me? A special concoction courtesy of my work with Chimera Circle. A nasty infection for a necromancer.” He smirked. “Think of it like a twisted version of a vampire. A partial turn, if you will.” He stowed the drill away with a flash of his magic, sending it hell knew where, then he grasped my jaw. “Funny how life works, isn’t it? If you’d known, you wouldn’t have wasted time with that night off of yours, wasted your power, hmm? Because this night was your last being you. With what I’ve done to you, you’ll never be that again.”
A shudder rolled through me that I couldn’t stop for the life of me.
“Why… why… do this?”
“Ah, my endgames are my own.” He gestured at Reese. “Even he doesn’t know. He just enjoys taking powerful do-gooders down a peg or two. He became disillusioned with this community he was a part of. All goodness and harmony. All wasted fucking power. He offered Glasswake up to me as part of my plan for you. And how well you played your part, Sylas. Your father would be so proud.”
I gritted my teeth. “Leave him… out of it.”
“How can I?” he gestured at the dead. “This is just like his handiwork, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Go… to hell.”
He chuckled nastily. “Looks like it’s you who’s going to be headed there now. I’m sure this will torture you very nicely.”
I growled low in my throat, then finally managed to call my power, expelling it through my body and breaking the chains.
Reese’s eyes widened.
But before I could react, Corvin did, thrusting his hand right through Reese’s chest, then yanking out his heart in a chilling, macabre display.
He kicked Reese’s corpse over, then spun back to me with his heart in his hand.
He licked it, then dropped it on the floor with a splat. “No witnesses. You understand.”
I made a move to attack, but his vampire speed eclipsed my reaction time, and he smashed his boot with all his strength into my face.
Blackness took me.
2
~Sylas~
Present Day
“Are you doing okay?”
I blinked at the sound of Lazriel’s whisper.
I looked to see him staring at me with concern as we sat in class.
“All good. Why?”
“You were shuddering.”
Of course I was. After slipping back into that nightmare—one too real to ever fade—I was surprised I hadn’t done worse before dragging myself back to the present.
“Just a chill, I guess.”
This was fucking worrying.
My heavy compartmentalization was slipping.
