Page 87 of Witch Unbound
“His DNA will come in handy, and so will yours.” He grabbed my head in a chokehold, ready to snap my neck.
But my gaze flew back to Wren, to his tiny, scorched, unmoving form, and the hot coal in my chest exploded, flooding me with fiery heat. Agony ripped through my limbs, mercury in my veins. My vision blurred with tears, throat locked around a scream as my body twisted, cracking and snapping. An inferno raced over my skin and sliced into my bones, shattering them. I hit the ground on all fours, staring at the massive taloned paws that stood where my hands should be, and a calm settled over my mind, a conviction icy and complete. This was me. All of me.
“What the fuck?”
I turned toward Scar Face, and the world around him turned gray while his form blazed red.
Hot.
Alive.
Not for long.
I bunched my haunches and leapt. He was nothing against my mammoth form. His body a plaything. A fragile insignificance. His scream was a panacea to my hungry soul, and as my lethal jaws closed around his head, teeth sinking into flesh and crunching through bone, a peace settled inside my chest.
Yes…This was right.
With a powerful flex of my maw, I pulled off his head. Blood, potent and energizing, flowed into my mouth.
More.
I slipped away and the beast took over. The tear of flesh and the heady tang of blood was a melody to my soul.
“Cora? Fucking hell.”
That voice…
“Cora, please.”
I slipped back into the driver’s seat, head whipping up, gaze zeroing in on a figure with its hands up. Red swirled across the figure, obscuring its face, but its scent was familiar. Its scent belonged to me.
Rune.
“Cora, babe. Come back to me.”
Come back? But this…This was home. This was freedom. This was justice.
I was Cora. I was a witch, a tulpa. I was… I looked down at my paws. I was a beast… There was no fear. Just acceptance.
This was me.
All of me.
But the threat was gone. It was time to return.
“Cora?”
“I know.” The words spilled from my misshaped jaw in a rumbling tone that was gravel and glass.
Rune balked. “Fuck.”
Yeah, fuck. I was a monster, and I could speak in my monster form. I was still me.
Powerful and in control.
Time to shift back. The thought sent a ripple over my body. A cool sensation spread through me and the world expanded as I shrank. I stared at my bloody hands. Then at Scar Face’s head lying several feet from his body.
Wren.
