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Reeling from the total mindfuck of it all, I reared back and punched him in the jaw. His head rocked to the side, but he simply smiled, rubbing the spot my fist hit. “You’ll never win.” His deep laugh ignited another roaring flame in my chest.

“Watch me.”

As I went to summon my element, Forest’s hand lurched out, wrapping his cold, thick fingers around my throat. “The Tempest will be so pleased to finally meet you.” He tightened his grip, squeezing my airway and blocking off my ability to breathe.

The pressure in my head built while I beat on his forearm, trying and failing to land a blow anywhere on his body. He had me trapped any way I moved, threatening to break my neck. A smile continued to pull up the edges of his lips, his triumph gleaming brightly in his dark eyes.

As my vision began to wane, I called on my element again and summoned my Kinetic volts to my palms. The blue electricity flickered to life, struggling to gain strength, but I managed to latch onto his wrist.

Forest flinched enough to loosen his hold, giving me the chance to increase the power of the electricity circling my hands. I electrocuted him, and finally, he dropped my throat. I gasped for air and summoned my element, allowing it to soothe my lungs, bringing me comfort with it.

My dwindling magic reserves begged me to deplete him, his strong aura enticing me to take it for myself. Remembering the gray veins on Chrome’s body and everything he’d sacrificed for me, I forced the urge away despite my nihilistic mood.

Once again, I commanded air, shoving an influx of oxygen deep into his lungs. A silent gasp came from him as his hand grasped his diaphragm. I watched as his face turned red from the pressure that streamed into his lungs, inflating them like a balloon.

He wheezed, trying to pull in a breath that wouldn’t come. Forest’s eyes bulged from his head as he clawed a desperate hand at me. I took another step back, dodging his hopeless attempt.

Gritting my teeth and feeding on his suffering, I sent all that remained of my Kinetic magic at him, encapsulating his entire body in a voltage low enough that wouldn’t immediately kill him. I wanted to drag this out as long as he could physically withstand it.

I felt nothing but pure euphoria as I watched him collapse to his knees. “You’ve taken everything from me! My mother, a decent childhood, my freedom, Hazel, Slate!” Tears welled in my eyes, my throat constricting. “Chrome.” My voice broke on his name. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hear it or say it in the foreseeable future. How the fuck was I going to get through this? Again? This time would be even worse than the last.

I surged another burst of air into his lungs. Unable to fight back with his magic, Forest rolled over onto his side, hugging his chest as his mouth gaped wide. He suffocated on the amount of air I overstuffed him with as I denied him the chance to exhale. I slowly kept increasing the flow, reveling in his suffering. It would never be enough.

Whispers of Chrome’s touch taunted me in my mind. I imagined that smirk, hearing“ little savage” roll off his tongue in a way that only he could deliver. I’d finally found a semi-healthy place of peace within myself, opened up again. Began to love again. Only for it to be snatched away. “Now bow before yourfuckingqueen.”

Conjuring my element, I lifted Forest from the rubble, and positioned him on his knees before me, forcing his ruby face and convulsing body to kneel.

I sneered down at him, white hatred filling my heart like the air that filled his lungs. “Long. Live. The King.”

His eyes widened even more as I sent a final surge of air into his lungs, about to implode them from the inside out within his ribcage. An agonizing pain sliced through my chest. My heart chakra felt like it was being singed—poisoned—by a blackness that doesn’t exist in this world.

Something was happening through the bond, and the torment was blinding, bringing me to my knees with a throaty scream that tore through the wasted land.

The chord felt like it was dissolving. No, not dissolving, but morphing. The nature on the other side twisted into something evil.

Chrome.

I was losing him. Not in the flesh, but everything that made him who he was. Each second that passed changed the essence of our soul bond, turning it into something darker. Chrome was still there, alive and present. I couldn’t place his location, but his essence was black.

The transformation was excruciating. “No!” I screamed, hardly registering that it was my own voice.“Chrome!”My head swam, my vision tunneled, and I begged for reprieve. I couldn’t live like this. I didn’t want to live in a world withouthim. “Come back,” I whimpered, my wet cheek pressed into the soot.

A shadow loomed over me as I lay curled in the fetal position. The brutality tearing through my chest didn’t allow for me to move despite how hard I tried.

“Unsurprisingly, you failed again,” Forest grunted. I wished the fucker would just die, but I missed my chance.

A sharp pain pummeled my ribs from the hard kick he landed, cracking the bone and robbing my breath. “Go…fuck…yourself,” I wheezed.

“I wish I didn’t need you alive, but Celanea insists.”

Celanea? Must be the infamous Tempest.

“She’ll be along shortly to collect us. Thankfully, she was able to get all the Endarkened before Chrome wrecked my home,” he grumbled to himself.

Thankfully? Since when did he give a fuck about Endarkened?

I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut through the pain, wishing I would just black out already. For what would come next, I didn’t want to be conscious.

Sliding his forearms beneath my torso, he jostled me, making my broken ribs scream. I was depleted, unable to heal to fight him off. But I’d fucking try. I squirmed, throwing every bit of energy into a kick.