Page 69 of A Crown of Madness

The growing cloud that is Violence’s smoky form rises up high before crashing down with a whistle-like shriek. The swirling shadow billows around the room, making it unbearable to see and breathe, or feel anything else but the raw power that’s shaking through her. The walls reverberate unsteadily.

The power trembles through the room until it bursts with an impact that shoves me down. It presses against everything, making it impossible to even breathe. My back hits the warm floor just as the walls tear open from the inside out. Papers and pens and glass clatter around the room. The chaos only grows with each passing second.

This is how it all ends?

That single sentence circles my mind over and over again. Until the dust begins to settle. The shadows recede. I can breathe again.

The walls are split down the middle. Three of them open to the rooms beyond here, while one of them opens wide into a world of gray and ash. Strangling heat rolls in from the gash in the far wall. My demon form shudders.

“That’s the underworld isn’t it?” Cameron gasps from where she’s curled up on the floor.

The darkness swirls around the room, whirling casually before drifting across Violence’s body like a blanket. Seconds pass before it’s absorbed right into her. I look up then, and the first thing I notice is the beautiful whisky color of her eyes. They catch the light with a wide look of fulfillment. For a second, all I can think about is how normal she looks.

A shadow casts itself over me, huffing with deep ragged breaths. Fear grapples with my sense as I roll to look up into Basilus’s rage. My weapon is in his hand, poised for my heart. If I breathe too deeply, I’ll spear myself on its end.

Before he can lunge, a blur of brown and braids crashes into him. Jeriko and Basilus go down. I don’t waste any time, ripping my sword from his hand while he kicks Jeriko away and stands. He stumbles on the papers littering the floor. His shaking hands grab fistfuls of the handwritten pages. My brows crease as I watch him take a look back at the destruction of the room, at the place his father had stood, and where Merrick is still frozen—before slipping through the hole in the wall.

Right out into the terrible ashen world.

I stand slowly. Long hair hangs in my eyes, but I keep my focus entirely on her. Cameron pulls the needle from her arm, the needle that calmed the storm.

My fingers lace with hers the moment I reach her, and that pretty gaze peers up at me.

“He’s gone.” A smile tugs at her lips. “He’s gone.” The haunting tone of her voice is filled with pure joy.

She’s the happiest I’ve ever seen her, actually.

And all it took was her father’s death.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Merrick

I wish I could say we won, but this doesn’t feel like winning. With one death, the burdens ofthecrown are passed on to me, along with a wicked, gnawing energy. It courses just under my skin. It claws its way through me until white-hot claws sink into my brain, and my eyes roll to the back of my head.

We are not finished...my father’s voice coos inside my mind.

I finally got what I always wanted. My father’s madness has come to an end.

Mine is only just beginning.

The End.