A Flame in the Shadow
For a second, the room tilts, the floor rushing up as I stagger.
The pain comes a heartbeat later. White-hot and stinging. My cheek throbs, skin burning, pulse screaming beneath it. I taste copper. I reach up to touch my lip and see blood on my fingers.
Something ancient and furious answers inside me. Black fire surges in my veins, not a thought but an instinct, shadows flooding outward, licking at the edges of the room, coiling at my feet like living things. The air bends, the fire in the hearth flares unnaturally, dark flames whispering my name. I could end this. The knowledge is absolute. It would be terrifyingly easy.
Hot Chapters