Page 35 of Wrath of One
She hits her targets with perfect control.
Control like I’d always hoped she’d have. Maybe she didn’t need to hide her powers. Maybe she needed to practice them without remorse.
I can’t believe this is happening.
That Harriette fucking Henn brought Prods and professors together to battle against a common enemy. My sister is leading their strikes.
We’re a team, almost.
Just the sight of it is enough to reinvigorate me in the battle. With or without my wings, I am going to fight, and I am going to give it my all. I’ll protect the academy and the ones I love.
No matter what.
Seventeen
Malek
The taste of demon blood is vile in my mouth, but I can’t stop. I rip through the tough hides of as many as I possibly can. The wolf has taken over. I’ve finally given in to the wilder, primitive side of myself.
And I’ve never felt better.
This lust for the hunt is driven completely by my burning need to protect. My mate. My pack. My home. I will give it all if it means Izara gets to live.
She didn’t trust me enough before, but I’ll give her a reason now to never doubt me ever again.
So I kill without remorse. I will protect the statues at whatever cost. Hell will not go beyond the academy. It can’t. Not with everyone fighting against our enemy with everything we have.
But hopes are fickle things, caught within the grasp of our fingertips only to slip away in the blink of an eye.
There are too many of them, and they push us back. It’s nearly impossible now to protect the statues, and I think we all realize it the moment an explosion booms across the skies of the academy. The whole earth beneath my paws trembles at the impact, and a whine catches in my throat.
The ground explodes in a geyser of earth, grass, and ash. And with it, fragmented stone pieces. The remains of statues rain down against the earth, and in front of me the cracked head of a shifter lands on a pile of broken rubble.
Looking into the shattered remains of a founding Prod feels like a premonition. Of death. Of destruction. Of the end.
The whole world around me trembles like an earthquake has erupted beneath us. Like the world is a god bellowing out its rage so we can all feel it.
I nearly trip over my paws, and a wave of energy shimmers through the air. I look up. I think we all do. Threads of electric light fragment through the sky like veins fizzing across a domed glass sphere. The threads of light freeze, and a resounding crack reverberates through the sky.
No.
Fuckingno.
The statues have been destroyed, and the protection around Academy of Six is hanging on by those single threads of light.
I circle and see that the headmistress’s statue is still intact.
We need to protect it at all costs. We failed to guard the other statues, and if this last one falls, we’re fucked.
So I turn and rip into the demon nearest to me.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Eighteen
