COLD STEEL, BLEEDING HEARTS
“He’s just a small character. Delete him, and the Queen will come home.”
He raised his hand. The metal stairs beneath Julian started melting, turning into black, inky puddles.
“Julian!” Maya screamed.
The floor dropped out from under him. He lunged, catching the edge of the path with his fingertips, legs swinging over empty space.
“Let him go, Maya,” the man said, halfway up now, his face perfectly calm, cold, almost inhuman. “In the new story, you don’t need a bodyguard. You’re the Queen of the Stars. You can have anything you want. You can bring your father back. You can make the world perfect.”