Page 35 of The Blood Rites

The air thickens as metal floods the back of my tongue.

Shadows erupt from the floor beneath Nyxen and Vaelis without warning.

Not smoke. Not darkness. Something denser.

It looks alive.

Ink-black tendrils lash around their legs and drag them violently to the ground. Nyxen curses as he hits the marble hard, hacking at the shadows with his blade, but they only tighten further, pinning him in place. Vaelis fares worse. The shadows wrench his arm brutally behind his back, forcing him flat against the floor with enough force to crack stone beneath him.

No one moves.

No one even breathes.

I cannot stop staring at Kael.

The sheer force of him is terrifying. Another crack splits through the Dome and Vaelis screams.

His wrist bends at a sickening angle, bone forced through skin as blood spatters across the floor.

The noise seems to break something inside Kael, and the black vanishes from his eyes almost instantly.

Horror replaces it.

The shadows collapse back into nothingness as though they were never there at all, and Kael crosses the distance in seconds, dropping hard beside Vaelis.

“I—fuck—”

His voice sounds different now. Shaken.

He reaches for Vaelis carefully, hands trembling as he grips the ruined wrist.

Vaelis’ injured arm spasms violently in Kael’s grip. The sight is almost worse than the break itself.

Bone shifts beneath skin with a wet, grinding pop. Vaelis gasps through clenched teeth as the arm jerks once before snapping cleanly back into place. The wound seals moments later, leaving only blood behind as evidence it ever happened at all.

Healing. Or whatever passes for healing inside this place.

The Dome remains deathly quiet.

Kael kneels motionless beside his friend for several long seconds, staring at his own shaking hands like he no longer trusts them.

Around me, people slowly begin moving again, murmurs spreading cautiously through the chamber as the Overseers drift back towards the edges of the room.

Only then do I realise how close I am standing to them. Too close.

I step backwards immediately, pulse still hammering.

I do not understand why I came over here in the first place. One moment I had been training beside Marissa and Callen. The next, my body was already crossing the Dome towards Kael like something inside me had moved without permission.

The thought unsettles me more than the violence did.

Before anyone can notice me lingering there, I turn and head for the exit.

I need distance. I need air. Most of all, I need to stop thinking about the look on Kael’s face after the shadows disappeared.

I head for my room with my thoughts still tangled around Kael and the terrifying thing that had looked out through his eyes.

The corridors beyond the Dome are quieter, though the low hum of the Overseers—or maybe it’s the Mother Shard herself—follows through the walls, constant enough to settle beneath my skin. By the time I reach my door, exhaustion presses heavily against the back of my skull.