Page 140 of Blood So Brutal

Before I knew it, every bit of anger from everything I lost fueled my body, and I was sprinting toward the fight, dagger in hand, power thrumming under my skin.

The sky cracked above as I screamed in anger, and magic poured from my body without any sign of stopping.

Fuck them. Fuck them all for taking everything from me. Fuck them for wanting this much power, for not being happy with what they’d already ruined.

They were greedy enough to want more. The Golden City wasn’t enough.

They wanted to ruin everything.

I wasn’t sure what magic was mine and what was Wolf’s. All I knew was that I didn’t want it anymore. I didn’t want any of it.

So, I let it go.

I let my magic kill every single one of our enemies. Angel, fae, vampyre—it didn’t matter. Tears and snot and blood smeared across my skin, and I wiped my eyes with the back of my sleeve so I could see who else lived, who else raised a sword against my people.

For Wolf. I would do it all for Wolf.

I killed every single one of them before I finally slowed. I spun in place, making sure the fighting was over.

People screamed and cried, but I became more aware of the sound of my own breathing. It pissed me the fuck off, because I shouldn’t be the one still standing.

I didn’t want any of this.

It should be him.

I was seconds away from erupting in another burst of magic and anger when the boy from earlier stepped into view. His lips were moving, and I took a deep breath to quiet the blood in my ears before looking him in the eye. “What?” I asked.

“It’s over,” he said, voice high with hope. “It’s over, Huntyr. You did it.”

I looked around one more time. The words were too good to be true, too sweet. I didn’t want sweet.

I wanted more violence. More fighting. More destruction. It’s what they deserved.

But the boy was right. There were no more attacks plaguing the kingdom, no more enemies crawling through the streets.

Just bodies, lying in the streets, dead.

It was over.

It was over.

It was fuckingover.

My legs gave out before me. A whimper escaped me as I crashed to the ground and ripped open the skin on my knees.

Hands fell to my shoulders, lifted me up. I became a ghost in my own body, barely there.

“Don’t you dare lose it now,” Voiler’s voice cut through my trance. “Hold it together, Huntyr.” She knelt in front of me, pulling my face into her hands, forcing me to look at her while she surveyed my injuries.

“He’s dead.” The words felt foreign. Empty. True. Fuck, every ounce of my soul knew it was true. The bond was gone, broken entirely. Not a single part of Wolf remained.

She stilled, eyes meeting mine. “I know.”

“I can’t do this without him.”

I felt Jessiah’s presence behind me. I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t look at any of them.

It was all my fault. He was the one who saved them all. He was the one who sacrificed himself, who saved me time and time again. Why the fuck did he have to save me? There wasn’t a single piece of me worth saving, not without him.

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