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Then comes the pain, pain more vast and acute than anything I’ve ever felt. My siren rises in response.

I open my mouth, my eyes rolling back, and I scream and scream as agony unlike anything I’ve ever felt rips through me. My body feels like it’s unmaking itself, my bones breaking, my muscles ripping, my skin flaying itself.

It’s unending and unfathomable, the force of it pinning me to the ground. I’m helpless beneath Karnon’s grip on my back, a grip that I can’t possibly shake at this point.

The Fauna King laughs himself hoarse as a sound like thunder rumbles in the distance. “My beautiful bird sings best when she hurts.”

He presses down hard against my skin. “Siren,” he shouts, “come forth!”

Another wave of power slams into me.

My screams hit a new decibel, the sound harmonizing with itself.

My spine and ribs feel like they’re cracking, shattering. I’m no longer made of muscle and bone. It’s all been pulverized under Karnon’s magic.

“Yes!” the madman cries. “More!”

My body seems to buckle as another wave of energy floods through me. My skin is burning, burning. And my back!

My back is on fire!It must be; that’s where the worst of the pain is.

Karnon releases me, but the agonizing power he’s shoving into me doesn’t ebb. If anything, it’s getting worse. Because it’s changing course; rather than burrowing into me, it’s now trying to force itselfout.

I hunch over, breathing heavy, my hair plastered to my face.

“More!” Karnon shouts.

I’m tearing apart from the inside out. My skin no longer fits my body. It’s much too small. I heave over and over, barely able to endure the pain I’m in.

“More!”

My screams become increasingly more agonized as his power batters against the inside of my flesh.

“MORE!”

All at once my screams cut off and the magic erupts.

My skin splits down either side of my spine, and I hear the sound of wet popping and snapping.

And then … I feel it. Two sticky, wet protrusions push out from my ripped flesh, unfolding down my back.

Then finally, finally, the magic abates.

I collapse in on myself, shivering, shaking.

Blood, everywhere.

“Yes! My beautiful bird, you are set free!” Karnon says gleefully.

I can’t move. No energy left. As I lay there, I catch sight of my hands. Where once were nails, now I have sharp, black claws. And my forearms … delicate, semi-transparent scales cover them, glittering gold where blood splatter doesn’t cover them.

I can barely make sense of the sight.

But then I glimpse something over my shoulder. Something dark, something bloody … And there’s a weird weight against my back …

The siren within me is whispering, the worlds curling themselves around me,

I am powerful.