Page 5 of The Shard and the Serpent (Shard Daughters #1)

Seduce Chaos

Rayze

No leaders. No orders. No leash. Synlon doesn’t fall. It bares its fucking teeth. A body hits a wall. A throat opens. Every act of violence, an exhale.

My eyes track a hurried shadow. The only one that matters. There you are.

The Serpent ducks between blown-out shop fronts, his profile lit by flickering neon.

I elbow through a sea of desperation, citizens brawling for leverage.

A woman bleeds, sprawled without care beneath a stampede, a cloud of blue smoke puffing from her lips with every kick and batter of the city.

My brows pinch, eyes flying toward dead Chrome Guards. Shit. Civilians are pillaging Volt.

I yank the woman upright, but she blows smoke in my face, wrenches free, and lies back down. I shiver, the underlying electrical current of Volt in the smoke crawling over my cheeks in a stinging attack.

“Embrace the pain, sweetheart,” she croaks. A boot nails her temple and blood ruptures from the corner of her eye like a vicious tear. “Embrace it all, and you’ll hardly feel it.”

I step around her, losing Russell. “Damn it,” I mutter. I shake my head. “C’mon. Get up,” I start, turning back to—

My heart drops.

Her face is caved in.

Smoke wicks between pulp and bone, Volt lingering like a depraved ghost.

I curse low, anger drumming beneath my veins. My focus shifts from my hunt, eyes narrowing on the assholes who did her in.

Then a sharp sting cracks through my gut.

I hiss and veer to the side, clutching my stomach. I swallow hard, pain swimming behind my eyes.

Warrick .

The Bond pulses like a brand under my skin.

He’s hurt.

I grit my teeth.

Not. Now.

The Serpent races into a club ahead, and I charge forward.

The Bond may whimper for the Heir—but my vengeance? She howls. My soul stretches thin, the threads of it weaving across time and space just to graze Warrick’s.

But I sold my soul to revenge. Bitch has dibs.

Rats skitter as I crash into the club.

It’s empty. Quiet.

Darkened tables and booths. Empty cages swinging from velvet-draped rafters. A faint draft filters through shattered windows. The storm roars, but the chaos of the city fades as I zero in on him.

Russell slips through the back hall.

I follow, shoulder open a door, and gag .

The acidic stench of piss and blood hits me. Cots line the walls, crammed together in a windowless, vent-less room. Skin are strapped to the beds, naked and shivering. They stare up at the mildew-stained ceiling, eyes dull and pupils stretched wide.

My stomach rolls, their sheets crusted with feces and cum.

Another door bangs shut at my back—an alley exit—but I can’t leave them. Not like this.

I sling my bow over my shoulder and draw a dagger from my hip. I slice through leather binding wrists and ankles.

Face after face. Young. Old. Women. Men. Children.

Even once they’re free, none of them move. They’ve been stripped. Of will. Of self. Broken in. Fucked raw and lifeless, even with beating hearts.

Blinding rage flashes through me.

Sparks crackle across my knuckles.

Then bodies rise. Mottled flesh jerks upright. Some shiver. Others stagger. Feet slap against blood-stained wood, and my chest warms as Skin finally flee.

Whether they fight, fuck, kill, or lie in the street like that woman to die—tonight, it’s their choice. Tonight, that will have to be enough.

I careen through the back exit. Rain batters my face, my trench coat whipping around my legs.

The alley winds around buildings toward the outer trenches and the Underground.

The Serpent is a speck in the distance. A moving, visible target.

I draw my bow, swish my fingers along the arrows lining my coat. Then I sprint and fire, shot after shot, until The Serpent hits mud, arrows lining his legs.

He spits out a string of incoherent words, and I press my boot to his spine.

“Bad snake,” I growl.

“I’ll kill you,” Russell shouts, cheek smashed into the ground. He twitches, breaths harsh as he fumbles for his weapon. “Do you know who I am?”

I grind the heel of my boot in harder. “Oh, yes. Don’t you worry. I know exactly who you are.”

He cranes his chin over his shoulder, the Volt ringing his glare flickering in and out—his dosage fading. “ You ,” he chokes.

My pulse stutters, unease crawling through my gut. I force a vicious smile and lean into my knee, sneering down. “ Me .” I cock my head, eyes narrowing on the puddle beside us.

Slowly, a portal gapes open among its water, answering my wrath.

“Remembering, are you?” I snag the back of his neck with a scowl and shove him toward the rippling reflection of a blood-stained dungeon. “Let’s fix that.”

“Rayze Angeline,” a voice calls at my back, startling me.

I whip around, finding Aleksi barreling toward me.

“Your Heir was taken,” she bites out, orange curls a dark burgundy beneath the rain. She peers at Russell with a scowl. “Your playtime will have to wait.”

The Serpent attempts to yank away, and I grip him tighter. My gut tugs incessantly, and I curse every God. “Is this a suggestion from my sister or a command by the Ender of Voids?” I growl.

Her blue eyes darken behind her water-streaked glasses. “Neither. This order comes straight from your queen.”

My nostrils flare.

“Chaos is only malleable if you manipulate the right toy.”

“You can only call it a toy if it’s fun, Skarne.”

She scrapes her hair back. “No one’s saying you can’t have any.”

With a grunt, I tear Russell back from the portal and throw him to the ground, pinning him with my knee to his stomach. I grab his face and force it to the side, exposing his ear to my command.

“I’ll be back for you,” I promise darkly. “Until then, I want you to hide in your precious penthouse like the coward you are.”

I slip beyond Fate’s veil, threads weaving around his skull. Then I grasp the ones I want and knot them the best I can with the amount of Volt in his system. The drug zips to every place I touch, corroding my will. The knots won’t hold long, but hopefully long enough.

“Where is he?” I ask, lifting from The Serpent and watching him scramble away, sprinting toward The Dredge towering in the city’s center.

“You won’t like it,” Aleksi admits, clearing her throat.

“ Where is he ?”

She moves to the portal and taps into its power, shifting it to a new, familiar location.

My chest dips with a sharp breath. “No.”

“Afraid so.”

I run my fingers along my arrows.

“Don’t come home until the situation is contained, Sin.”