Page 125 of Death of a Mortal

Two shadow tendrils whipped out from me and wrapped around the waists of Bramick and Drayce, lifting them off their feet in front of me. Through the black haze of my shadows, I recognized Aerie as a friend whom I didn’t want to hurt, but these two males had kept me shackled and lied to me.

The beastly snarl that left me was feral and deadly. I could smell their fear, just as Zareth had smelled mine. So that was just a fae sense that had nothing to do with whatever magic Zareth controlled. Interesting.

I prayed I would smell his fear one day when I cut him open with my shadows and made him hurt, made him bleed. When I finished what I had started the night I cut off his hand, just like I’d told him I would.

“Naci, control the magic. It doesn’t control you. It’s yours to command, not the other way around.”

I vaguely registered Aerie speaking, and I was pretty sure the thing in my chest laughed at that. I could feel fear rising underneath the bubbling anger. Gods, this wasn’t what I wanted to be—I wanted it to stop.

But I also wanted to kill Drayce for his betrayal, for his deceit. Everyone who’d ever shackled me, hurt me, they would all die. I’d start with Drayce the way Caedryn had started with Nella.

My chest heaved, the panic and fear over this magic giving way to rushing, addictive power. Bramick’s face was plastered with terror while Drayce’s was set and angry.

“Put Bramick down, Naci. This wasn’t his fault. It was my command to leave you cuffed. Not his. Let Aerie and Bramick leave, and you and I will figure this out.”

“Like hell we’re leaving you, Dray!” Aerie said.

“There’s nothing to figure out,Dray.” My voice was inhuman. Eerie. “I will no longer allow those that try and control me to live.” I felt a sinister smile spread across my face.

I flung Bramick away from me with the dark tendril that was holding him and didn’t even spare a glance to see if he got up. It was Drayce I was really angry at, that I really wanted to hurt.

The shadowy wisp holding him squeezed tighter, feeling his pulse quicken, while another wrapped around his throat and brought him inches from my face. I could kill this lying male in an instant if I wanted to. Just like that royal guard. It had been so easy.

I squeezed his throat with my shadows, feeling his magic and his blood pumping just below the skin.

A wave of panic coursed through the all-consuming anger. I couldn’t control this, and sure, I was mad at him, but I didn’tactuallywant to kill him, did I?

My heart raced, and my eyes widened in fear. I was out of control, and that scared me more than anything else had.

“Naci, don’t fear your power. Don’t let it frighten you. You can control it. Find the source in your heart and shut it down,” Aerie screamed from what sounded like miles away through my drunken stupor of power.

The intermingled terror and rage spiraled higher and higher as the flames surrounding me did the same, nearly consuming Drayce.

“Naci, come on! Fight it!” I think it was Bramick, but I really wasn’t sure.

Drayce’s heartbeat was slowing, his veins bulging under the grip of my magic.

My heart was beating too fast, my skin too hot, the sweat on my brow too slick. Every nerve and sense was overwhelmed, and I felt close to blacking out. But the thing in my chest kept fighting, kept circulating the anger and desire for carnage through my body and mind.

I couldn’t stop it. This thing wouldn’t stop until it exacted therevenge that my own unencumbered mind only vaguely wanted. And with every vengeful thought, the flames and shadows reached further, burned hotter, until I felt it would consume me and this whole compound entirely.

Gods, I was a danger to myself and to everyone here.

Then I heard the click of metal and felt the cold snap across my wrist before everything went black.

* * *

“Wake up, sleepyhead.”

That voice…

“Naci, you in there?”

Noxie.

My eyes flew open, and I found myself in one of the many empty beds in a long room, light pouring in from small windows on each wall.

I looked around and spotted him perched on the edge of the bed next to me.