Page 132 of Children of Fallen Gods

At first, I moved quickly. It was easy to push back shocked, terrified guards who had no idea what they were looking at.

But by the time I made it to the second floor, Aviness’s soldiers were prepared for me. Our clashes were vicious and messy. Normally, I fought with deliberate precision. But here, in this unfamiliar body, with the world smearing around me and chaotic magic burning in me, I fought in deadly thrashes, relying not on grace but on sheer power. I didn’t have the precision I needed to pull off my usual, careful approach.

This? This was bloody.

Soon, the halls were filled with the scent of burning flesh. I had been struck multiple times, deep gouges running down my sides. To compensate, I fed more and more of my magic, flames burning brighter, hotter, less controlled.

A numb buzz began to ache behind my eyes, a strange resistance building in my magic. I had never occupied this form for so long before. I didn’t know my limits, not yet.

But limits, right now, were irrelevant. I had no time to waste. Tisaanah had no time to waste.

I surged through another wave of soldiers. In the beginning, I had avoided dealing killing blows. But as my magic grew tired and my movements slower, the transitions between man and magic rougher, I no longer had such luxuries. I couldn’t control my own strengths. I left a trail of bodies in my wake. The kind of sight that I’d never wanted to see again.

At the end of a particularly grisly fight, my muscles aching and magic roaring out of control, turned to see another soldier rushing towards me even as his companions ran. I braced myself for another fight, only for him to freeze.

And then, he fell — his flesh dissolving into familiar decay. And behind him stood Tisaanah, clutching a sword.

I let out a ragged breath. I let my second eyelids slide closed, throwing me back into a numb world that seemed so much duller and quieter than the one I’d occupied seconds ago. Tisaanah rushed forward and pulled me into a crushing embrace, one that I too willingly returned. It was only when I felt her body stiffen in my arms that I realized she was letting out a wordless gasp of pain.

I pulled back, examining her.

“We have to go—” she was already starting to say.

Too late. I saw the bruises that covered the left side of her face, that circled her throat. And when my gaze fell to her arms — Ascended fucking above, herarmswere— were—

“Who did that?”

Tisaanah shook her head “We don’t have time—"

“I canmaketime to—"

“I did it,” she said, hurriedly, looking over her shoulder. “Now let’s go.”

“You?”

But before the question left my lips, a deafening crash rang out.

The floor shook beneath us. Tisaanah stumbled, clutching the doorframe, another hint that perhaps she was weaker than she wanted me to think.

I spat a curse beneath my breath.

“Wielders,” Tisaanah muttered. “I feel it.”

“And Lightning Dust.” I’d know the sound of it anywhere. And a lot of it — even from in here, I could’ve sworn I could smell it, sweet and acrid at once.

Shit.Shit.

“They sent the army. I told them not to.”

They would be wildly outnumbered. I had trained a damned good army, but it didn’t matter how good they were if they were facing three-to-one numbers.

“We need to see,” Tisaanah said, and started to move away towards the window, but I caught her shoulder.

“This way. There’s a balcony that overlooks the west.”

We rushed down the hall. I could hear shouts, footsteps, and steel, both inside of the castle and outside. We reached a glass door, which I threw open to blinding sunshine and the nauseating scent of Lightning Dust.

The scene was ripped from my worst nightmares.

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