Page 199 of Wicked Bonds

She shivered, picturing his stoic features, the lack of emotion in his eyes as he’d angled that flaming metal at her.

But she’dcaughtthe magic.

Just opened her palm, absorbed it, and threw it back.

A completely instinctual response.

That had set the warrior Seraphim on fire, disintegrating him in an instant.

Skye had walked out of the tree line a moment later, nodding. “It’s done,” she’d said. “The bonds in your mind are fractured. Your power can finally breathe again, his control obsolete.”

Then she’d fallen to the sand on a gasp, losing consciousness half a beat later.

Ezekiel had run to her, scooping her frail form up into his arms. “You have the touch of death,” he’d told her before disappearing with Skye.

Eliza had blinked at where he’d just stood, then at the ash in the sand, and back at where Ezekiel had vanished with Skye. “What the fuck?” she’d breathed.

And she’d been repeating it ever since.

She’d killed a Seraphim, something that wasn’t supposed to be possible.

But that dark-haired bastard certainly hadn’t come back. And she’d overheard the others saying one of the Seraphim had escaped.

Not escaped, no. Dead. As in, I killed him.

She needed to tell Luc, had tried, but he’d more or less told her to fuck off.

Which, fine, she’d needed a few more minutes to gather her wits anyway. Or hours. Maybe days.

She ran her fingers through her hair, terrified and awed by what she’d done.

The power had felt invigorating, emboldening her very soul and allowing her to feelalive.

Does that mean I’m evil?she wondered, shivering.To crave death must make me bad, right?

She wasn’t even sure how she’d done it. That sphere had hummed over her skin, the fiery energy calling to some hidden part of her as she’d infused some of herself into the enchantment before throwing it back.

The Seraphim’s eyes had widened in shock.

And then he’d… dissolved into ash.

Maybe he would come back from it; maybe he wouldn’t. But she suspected it was the latter. Something about it had felt final.

That finality was what had given her the sensation of life, as though she’d absorbed him into her somehow.

Just the notion of it gave her hives.

Because she didnotwant a Seraphim soul inside her.

I really need to talk to Luc.

She just didn’t know how to approach him. Their relationship was pretty much nonexistent. He just yelled at her all the time or told her sternly what to do.

She rebelled.

Eliza had lived a life of compliance before and refused to do it again.

Something Luc failed to understand.