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I glared at the man who took what little innocence I had left as a child, wielding sick and twisted abuse in order to accomplish one goal: to break me. And it worked. It was a monster they wanted, and it was a monster they got.

“You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d believe you’ve missed me and our littlebondingmoments,” he said with a sadistic grin. I knew this tactic intimately and wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of a reaction. He stalked toward me slowly, like he believed he was a predator playing with his prey. A predator he might’ve been, but he bred a more dangerous one in me. “Where, oh where, have you run off to hide like theweaklittle bitch you are?”

I lowered my head to hang between my shoulders. A dark chuckle bubbled up from my chest. This motherfucker…The sound resounded off thewalls and promised violence of the best kind. Vengeance. “Your arrogance proves how godsdamn stupid you truly are,” I said.

In a blur, I latched onto my stepfather by the throat, jerking him off the floor. My Elemental sword glowed orange and remained in my free hand at my side.

Dangling in my grasp, Grim kicked his feet to no avail, attempting to touch the floor as he clawed and clutched at my hand.

I studied the pathetic waste of oxygen that was trapped at my mercy. Cocking my head to one side, my lip curled up at the edges in disgust. Then, slowly, I angled my head to the other side. In the movement, my repulsion morphed into a mocking grin by the time it reached the other shoulder, as if I’d slipped into another personality. This smile felt evil and twisted to its core.

Chosen by affliction, this man’s voice had been torturing me for years, begging me to give in to the temptation of becoming Endarkened.

Barely tethered rage that had been twisted for so long finally had one of my abusers in its grasp. My fury was an entity all of its own at this point, and I was more than happy to be its vessel. The only other thing that could make the tether snap was if someone touched Gray.

Grim’s dark and beady eyes bulged from the pressure of my grip on his throat. Fear permeated the air around me, and I consumed it. I bit my bottom lip, truly loving seeing this piece of shit helpless and at my mercy.

“What’s the matter, Grim? I thought you were more capable than this.” I pushed out my lips in mock sympathy, but my dark satisfaction couldn’t be obscured from my eyes. “Or are you only capable of controlling children?”

Grim went limp in my grasp, seeming to surrender to his fate. “You should be proud,sir,” I said, my tone mocking. I clenched my jaw, my voice hardening. “I turned out to be the weapon you sodesperatelywanted.”

“Think of Peri,” Grim rasped out, wheezing. “I’m her father. She wouldn’t want you to…kill me,” he pleaded, using one of my only weaknesses to once again try to control me. “She’d never…forgive you.”

I didn’tgive a fuck.

Peri feared Grim. She wasn’t blind to his shit. She knew how to placate him and play the sweet and naïve role for her father just as I always insisted. Her death was on his hands, our mother’s, and the king’s. I was just the weapon that misfired while they played with it.

Movement in my peripheral brought me back to the present. Gray inched toward Cotton, who remained nearby with Scarlett in his arms. I needed to figure out how to get them out. I could level the fucking building, but those three needed to get out first.

I squeezed Grim’s throat tighter, causing more choking sounds to gurgle from him. My lip curled back. “Don’t.Ever.Speak her name to me again.”

I lifted my sword, ready to run the blade through Grim and end him once and for all. “I wish I could stay longer to savor the slow death you deserve, but we have places to be.”

I shifted the hilt in my palm to drive it through his diaphragm. Grim flailed in my hold, and in the midst, a small blade was jammed in the space between my ribs. Just like old times. It was enough for me to loosen my hold on him.

Grim plummeted to the floor with a grunt.

Gritting my teeth, I groaned from the pain, but anger quickly swallowed it and transformed into a growl in the same breath. I hunched over, clutching the wound that was poisoned with black crystal from his Kinetic weapon.

From the floor, Grim gasped for a breath, a blue blade jutting from his fist.

I risked a quick glance at Gray. A fire burned wildly in her eyes as she bared her teeth. She paced back and forth like a caged animal, squeezing her knife. She looked anxious to jump in and finish Grim off herself, but she was giving me this. Just as I wanted Forest to be her kill, she wanted to give me the same with Grim.

Grim scrambled to his feet, adjusting the knife in his hand and shifting into an offensive stance, no longer running his mouth. Fear engulfed his eyes. He knew he just fucked up because I still lived.

I forced myself to inhale a deep breath and release it slowly, blocking out the searing pain in my side and trying to tame my heart rate. It wasn’t my first Kinetic blade wound, and it wouldn’t be my last. I had several minutes before it got unbearable, so I needed to be quick.

Straightening my shoulders again, I dropped my bloody hand that protected my stab wound. “You think a simple stab wound will slow me down? Remember how you used to cut and stab me with your blades when you’d rape me because I cried? And then said, if I didn’t find a way to heal, I’d prove how weak I was and didn’t deserve to live?” I laughed, devoid of anything decent left inside me. “Yeah, you trained me well.” I lunged and spun in a pirouette.

The action was so quick that Grim wasn’t able to process what was happening until it was too late. At the last second, his beady eyes widened in horror just before my blade sliced through the bone and tissue in his neck. It was the most satisfying sound.

Grim’s head slid from his neck and dropped to the floor with a thud, his face forever frozen in fear. His body crumpled seconds later to join it.

My shoulders sagged in relief, and my breathing was labored as I stared down at Grim’s severed body, then spat on his bleeding corpse at my feet. I had only one regret. “Well, that was too fast,” I said, instilling the sight into my memory so I could savor it for years to come.

An odd sense of lightness filled my chest. Even seeing the bloody spurt from his neck, it felt surreal that he was truly gone. I wondered how long it would take for that to sink in.

With Grim’s death came the return of our magic. I sighed as my currents raced up my arms, the taste of metal flooded my senses while grounding me, and my gilded skin gleamed once again.