Page 40 of Maneater

Leya and I were being dragged by the wrists back to Falhurst. Our cloaks were tattered and torn, our skin battered and bruised, and there was no fight left in either of us. I could feel the sentries’ stares piercing into me, their fury palpable after knowing I had killed one of their own.

We marched in silence toward the city gate.

I had only made it about five hundred paces before I was shot down by the archer.

And I was certain many of the sentries were shaken by the fact that two women had caused this level of chaos.

They weren’t gentle as they separated Leya and me, chaining our shackles to their horses and pulling us along like cattle.

Walking back to the city felt like sealing my tomb.

The closer we got, the heavier the weight of my failure pressed down on me.

My thoughts spun with anger toward Leya, for her reckless decision to find me.

Frustration boiled inside. Why had I let things go this far?

If only I’d kept running, if I’d just left Falhurst last night, maybe it wouldn’t have come to this.

Regret tore at me for not taking Sigrid when I first had the chance.

I could’ve figured out a way to escape, convinced the gatekeepers to let me through.

But I’d been naive, thinking I could manage without the right documents.

Every choice felt like a mistake, one I couldn’t undo.

We finally approached the city walls, and I looked up at the gate. My feet felt like they were anchored to the earth, unwilling to take another step forward.

I couldn’t go back. I wouldn’t.

“Move it!” Sir Ulrich barked, yanking on the chain tied to my shackles.

I dug my heels in, refusing to budge.

“Your disobedience will not be tolerated,” he snarled. “I see only one fate for you, and that is the Crown taking your head! You’ve defied the law, committed murder, and shown no remorse. Justice will be served, and with it, the memory of you gone!”

Ulrich yanked the chain hard, and I stumbled forward, falling to my knees.

That didn’t stop him as he dragged me several steps.

I stayed down, my vision hazy, shifting between color and grayscale.

The pounding in my head only worsened, and I was overwhelmed by a tide of darkness.

It was then that I realized how long the dark had been simmering within me.

It hadn’t risen when the second guard struck me down, or when the first guard spat his venom at me.

It had stayed still, silent, even, as hopelessness took hold. But now, it rose with a vengeance.

“Get up!” Ulrich yelled, yanking hard on the chain fastened to my wrists. “I said, get up!”

My arms were jerked forward with such force it felt as if they might tear from their sockets. My forearms, already raw from being dragged through the dirt, screamed with pain, but I refused to give Ulrich the satisfaction of seeing it. So, I remained silent.

The darkness inside me swelled, no longer something distant, but growing, thrashing, becoming harder to contain with every passing second.

This time, the silver veil creeping over my vision wasn’t from gaiety.

It was born from pure, blinding rage. It wrestled with my mind, clawing for control.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the internal battle raged on, but I was exhausted.

And the darkness, for all its violence, promised a kind of rest.

How could I resist a moment of respite?

“Get up, you scourge!” Ulrich seethed, dismounting and towering over my crouched form. “Or I’ll have you dragged through the streets!”

The darkness swallowed me whole. Slowly, I began to rise. One leg, then the other, my torso straightening. At last, I lifted my chin until my face met his own.

My eyes bore into Ulrich’s, unblinking. Unyielding.

He stumbled back, hands lifting defensively as fear warped his features.

“Dear gods…” he gasped. “What in the name of… an abomination…” His mouth opened and closed uselessly, voice cracking. “F-For all that is virtuous and holy…”

Several other sentries rushed to his side, confused by his panic, until they caught sight of me. They too, recoiled. Faces paling, feet scrambling backward.

The mask of control I’d worn cracked, and a slow, haunting smile pulled at my lips. Their fear clung to the air heavily. They tried to look away, but my stare snared them, refusing to let go.

Thick, dark, viscous tears slipped from my eyes, carving trails down my cheeks and throat like black rivers of sorrow.

“Could it be…” one of them stammered, “is she... a d-devil made flesh?”

Another broke down, crying out, “May the gods have mercy on us all!”

But mercy was beyond reach.

Overhead, the sky began to darken.

“Something’s coming!” another sentry shouted, his voice cracking as he pointed past me. His hand shook violently. “Look… ”

The sentries scattered in a frenzy, scrambling onto their horses and fleeing toward the gates, desperate for the safety of the city’s walls. But there was no escape from what was coming.

I drew in a deep breath, my eyes fluttering closed as I drank in the power surging through me. Slowly, I lifted my arms toward the heavens. The black tears that spilled down my face were endless. A bottomless well of fury and wrath.

And then, the screaming began.

My eyes snapped open just as shadows rippled across the sky. They streaked past me in swarms, and dark figures sliced through the air, blotting out the light.

Where I stood, darkness reigned.

Above me, the shrieks of ravens blended with the terrified cries of men.

They came in clouds so thick and black that the sky itself seemed to rot.

They circled in a grim, writhing mass. Together, they appeared the living embodiment of death.

Fitting, really, for ravens did hold the reputation of being harbingers of death and messengers of sin.

But to me, they were beautiful.

There was no reason to tremble before these men anymore. Now, they were the ones cowering and weeping in fear. Amid their pleas for mercy and the unraveling of what little remained of their humanity, I felt a calm unlike anything I had ever known. A peace so pure it bordered on the divine.

My eyes drifted over the chaos, to the men being torn apart, stripped of skin and limb, and a dark joy bloomed in my chest. A fire burned within me, reveling in the ruin, feeding on the fear, sharpening my sense of self until I felt more alive than I ever had before.

And as each man fell, my strength only grew.

“Odessa…”

I turned at the sound of a gentle voice.

My eyes found a woman. Small, delicate, trembling. Fear and uncertainty painted her face, yet, my ravens had not touched her .

Expressionless, I tilted my head toward her. The onyx tears still streamed down my cheeks, soaking my cloak, pooling steadily at my feet. The more they fell, the more power roiled within me.

I took a step toward her and she recoiled instinctively. I paused, locking eyes with her once again.

“Odessa, is that you?” she said, her voice breaking.

Her words hung in the air, empty and distant. Still, there was something. A tether, a faint sense of comfort that stirred at the sight of her. She wasn’t a threat. No hostility came from her, only sadness, fear, and a thin thread of anger.

I stepped forward. She retreated, but I followed slowly until she stopped. Now we stood only a breath apart. My black, empty eyes searched her face. I saw her fear start to fade, replaced by something else, something she quickly masked.

I didn’t move, only watched her. Closely. Curiously.

She trembled beneath the weight of my stare, but didn’t turn away. Discomfort tightened her features as she stood her ground. When our eyes met, I felt nothing from the darkness. No pull, no hunger. It had passed her by, uninterested.

Its attention was elsewhere. On them. On the men.

Soon, the pull returned. It was faint at first, then turned relentless. The darkness called to me, its voice low and familiar, like a mother’s whisper. I followed without hesitation, offering myself to it once more. Then it swallowed me whole, greedily.

It moved. I followed. Nothing more.

My eyes drifted from the woman’s face as I turned to the destruction around me. The sky writhed with ravens, countless wings slicing through the air. In waves, they moved as I willed. When I told them to spare nothing, my faithful familiars obeyed.

It was then when I saw it.

A creature. Its eyes tracked me as I approached. There was no fear in them, only patience, as if it had been waiting. I offered my hand, and slowly, it kneeled.

I brushed my hands over its hide, leaving dark smudges on its fur. It didn’t move, like a shadow waiting to be claimed. I climbed up carefully, settling onto its back. Once mounted, I straightened and looked out over the wreckage. I sat like a dark anchor in a sea of ruin.

There was nothing left for me here.

I urged the creature forward, heading toward the open plains beyond. The darkness within pulled me in that direction. It longed for something, for somewhere, and I couldn’t fight the draw. It was all that mattered now.

We lunged forward, cutting through the battlefield, the ravens rising in our wake, chasing the call of the darkness ahead.