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… We saw it …

… terrible, terrible sight …

… sprouted clean from her back …

… Fauna King to blame …

I feel my rage then, my sweet, faithful rage, begin to gather.

“I’m so sorry, cherub,” I say, my voice cracking. “For everything. He will pay.”

“Tell me, how do you like your mate now?” the Fauna King says. “She’s improved, no?”

Slowly, my hands leave Callie. My eyes travel up, to the mad, antlered king.

I stand.

“You know it’s breaking the most sacred law of hospitality to attack a king within his own castle,” Karnon taunts even as he begins to back up.

I move towards him, the darkness nipping at my heels. The long years I’ve lived with the memory of my mother, broken and lifeless, dead at the hands of another king. And me, powerless to stop it.

“I never imagined you’d go for a slave,” Karnon continues. “But weak attracts weak …”

I could not save my mother, and I could not stop this from happening to my mate—but I was always good at vengeance.

My magic is building, building …

Rip. Kill.My instincts scream at me.

“Though I did enjoy her moans …”

Rip—kill.

Karnon lets out a frustrated growl, then in a fit of impatience he flings his magic at me. His phantom claws shred through my clothes and slice into my flesh.

“No,” Callie groans weakly.

Warm blood drips from the wounds. I barely feel any of it.

Rip. Kill.

My power builds, buzzing in my veins. My mother’s lifeless face flashes before my eyes. Callie’s weak, bloody one stares at me.

My fury coils deep in the pit of my stomach. It builds beneath my skin and fills the air, turning light to dark, swarming the space with shadows.

In Karnon’s eyes I see a flash of fear, and the Fauna King stumbles backwards.

Yes, I am something even monsters fear.

They are always frightened in the end, every one of my victims. Not because I’m apathetic or because I enjoy bloodsport, but because they realize the one simple truth behind my existence—

I was made to kill.

The room darkens until there is no light, until there is nothing but the primordial void my ancestors crawled out of.

“You think I cannot see in the dark?” the Fauna King says.

I smile, and the void smiles with me.