Page 126 of Stars in Aura

‘Thefokk?’ she whispered.

The air in the room shattered.

A storm of power erupted from him, an unseen force rippling outward, slamming into the walls, the floor, and the very fabric of the space around them.

Issa stumbled back as his figure morphed.

He was not just transformed; he was recast and transposed.

His skin eclipsed, the rich honey hue of his complexion bleeding into a jagged, rough-hewn silhouette formed of ancient, sun-scorched darkness.

His muscles stretched, towering higher, thickening, becoming more than just Ki’Remi.

Another form peeled from him.

Then another, a second, and impossibly, a third.

The man before her wasn’t just one man anymore.

He was many.

Issa’s breath hitched as one after another, significant, terrible figures loomed over her, shifting between states of existence, half flesh, part myth.

‘K’Shivi, the Savant Seer,’ the metamorphosis growled in a roared introduction.

He was colossal, broad, and monstrous. His chest was marked with jagged carvings of an ancient script, and his fingers crackled with lightning that pulsed through his veins like liquid fire.

His eyes were abyssal voids, staring at her like they perceived every lifetime she had ever lived.

‘Korai, the Shadow Sorcerer,’ came the impassioned roar.

Draped in midnight, the being was woven from shadows and whispers.

His power was insidious and creeping, a force that could unravel the threads of the universe if he so desired it.

‘Kirego, the Sophist Soothsayer,’ came the final ethereal snarl.

The wraith, formed of bone and smoke, dripped with silver war paint, his mouth stitched shut, but his thoughts invaded her mind.

‘You will learn. The gods are not as absolute as they claim to be. Nor as potent as they believe.’

Issa’s knees buckled.

She fell to the floor on one knee, one hand pressing into the cold steel beneath her, her heart hammering.

This wasn’t possible.Nada, no way.

She lifted her gaze to find them all gazing at her in the form of a roar, a storm, and a whisper of utter power.

Without warning, like the snap of a collapsing star, they vanished.

She blinked, her pulse racing as her lover swayed, as the wild energy in the room snapped and transformed him back into his human form.

He reached a hand toward her.

She stared at it, then at him.

‘You’re also not what you seem,’ she whispered.

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