Page 122 of The Girl in the Forest

Then he looked up at Brin.

Turned toward me.

And looked back toward Brin, while—from Brin’s outstretched hands—energy pulsed with a mad, whipping flame that licked across Julien’s skin before he burst into flames.

“No.” I barely breathed the word. But in my mind—in my mind, I was screaming. Igniting the way Julien was. Exploding into a flaming phoenix, sliding into a darkly vicious place where all I wanted was blood. Brin’s blood. On my hands, on the ground. Splattered until there was nothing left of her.

“Bedisa!”

Levi turned in slow motion. His mouth opened. I thought he said, “What…”

As if Grayson had roared at him through the pack bond.

“So weak,” Brin mocked when she saw Levi. Her hand flicked—the same gesture I’d used to spin energy in the dungeon.

And… silence. Cold and empty.

“He can’t hear me,” Levi snarled.

I shrieked Grayson’s name and it was like shouting into the black ocean depths.

Frantically, I searched for my missing bow, saw it crushed where the pig attacked me.

Brin smiled.

Levi drew his arm back, threw his spear toward her. But she clawed the air with her hand, her mouth twitching like the mouths of the Gemini Witches, and the spear Levi threw halted in midair… turned…

“No!” My voice echoed with despair and fury. Levi was down on the ground, blood pouring from his leg where the spear protruded.

I dropped to my knees. So close. Levi’s pooling blood was so close to the ash… what was left…

I would not throw up. I. Would. Not.

I swallowed the bile, my eyes stinging.

It’s not him, not Julien…

Ashes.

And an anger like none I’d ever known ran through my blood, thick with hatred.

“You killed Julien,” I snarled, rising to my feet. Facing Brin’s sneer.

“He was one of them.” She gods-damned laughed—actually laughed. “Nothing more than a betraying blood sucker.”

What did that make her?

“I wanted him to burn, like he—” She nodded at Levi. “He needed to bleed.”

I pressed a fist against my stomach. “Why?”

“You picked the wrong side. Amal gave you a chance but you refused to take it.”

I shook my head. I hadn’t heard her right. “Amal?”

“She warned you in the cave. You were ungrateful.” Brin’s lip curled, and she looked older than sixteen. Years older.

I’d trusted her, ignored the doubts. Let sympathy rule, wanted to avenge the pain she’d suffered.

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