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Sebastián

I knelt in the wreckage of Rising Dough, blood dripping from my forearm onto shattered tiles.

Glass crunched beneath my knees. The stench of decay still clung to my nostrils—rotting flesh animated by dark magic.

Deadwalkers . Four of them. The last one’s head lay three feet from its body, mouth frozen in a rictus grin.

Flynn was gone.

Taken. Taken from me.

Mine. They’d taken what was mine.

The gash in my arm refused to heal at its usual pace, carved by no ordinary blade. My skull throbbed where they’d smashed it against the floor. Black spots danced at the edges of my vision. Hunger gnawed at my gut, a savage beast demanding to be fed.

None of it mattered.

Flynn’s scent still lingered in the air— him, blended with fear and pain. The echo of his scream as they dragged him away tore through my chest like barbed wire.

I hadn’t been strong enough. Fast enough. The deadwalkers had delayed me, keeping me occupied by having to slaughter them while their companions spirited Flynn away through the darkness they’d conjured.

Five hundred years of existence, and I’d never felt rage like this. It burned through my veins like holy fire, consuming everything but the need to hunt. To destroy. To reclaim.

Whoever did this would soon feel the full wrath of my fury. And it wouldn’t be pretty .

I pushed myself to my feet, ignoring the way the world tilted. Blood and pain were temporary inconveniences. Nothing would stop me from getting Flynn back.

Even if it killed me.