Page 178 of Fires of the Forsaken
“I—what?” My palm stung. I had to shake my hand a few times to get the tingly feeling out of my fingers.
“Again!” Foam bubbled over her lips. “You have my Essence.” She leaned back, arms stretched wide, gesturing to the Unicorn-Poop room. “Destroy it.”
“You are making absolutely no sense…gah!”
With a banshee scream, Seruf grabbed my ankles, her nails cutting deep into my calves.
“Are you fucking crazy?” I roared, stumbling back.
“Would you like to know about the children?” Her eyes rolled. Her teeth bared. She looked like a rabid animal. “You didn’t like seeing them, did you?”
Ice slid into my belly.
“Didn’t like their screams?” Seruf sank her teeth into my shin, cackling when I yelped. “Well, Ido,”she hissed. “There’s nothing more erotic than a child’s—”
Rage blinded me. I saw big, crimson blobs as I snatched Seruf’s hair, ripped her head back, and smashed her nose. Not once. Not twice.Three times.
She laughed. And laughed.And laughed!Even as blood spumed from her broken nose, seeped from her eyes and dribbled out the corners of her mouth. “Well done,” she rasped. “It’s only a pity I won’t get to see what this does to you.”
A thunderous explosion rocked the room. With acrrraccck,the windows shattered, sending a cloud of splintered glass toward me.
“Holy shit!” I ducked, raising an arm to protect my face.
But the glass never hit me.
Instead, I stood on wobbly knees, staring at the smoldering remains of Niall’s city. I didn’t think I’d ever actually moved. Not physically, at least.
I glanced at the smoke-covered sky and ruined houses. Garvin’s corpse still lay a few feet away. Abby Normal still hunched over Gabriel’s rigid body, watching me speculatively, her ears pricked.
Cheriour was still behind me. Still breathing, albeit shallowly.
Panting like a winded elephant, I turned my gaze to Seruf. My hands were still inside her chest.
She stared blankly back at me, a white film covering her eyes.
“W-w-what was—what the frick?!” I squealed.
Seruf’s skin shriveled. Her bones crumbled. She turned to dust, disintegrating right before my eyes.
I stared at my outstretched palms as black powder (her ashes) swirled over my skin, some bits getting stuck in the hairs on the back of my hands.
What in ever lovingfuckhad just happened?
I didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud. Not until an unfamiliar voice behind me answered.
“You destroyed her Essence.”
48
Vaporia
Iwas dreaming.
I stood in a smoldering city. Billowing clouds of smoke hung over the houses. The wind caressed my cheek, bringing with it the smell of ash and incinerated flesh. The scent of death.
These streets were unfamiliar, as was the majestic white castle that stood gallantly in the distance. Yet theyseemedfamiliar, as though I’d visited this place before. Perhaps in another dream.
A woman stood before me, her golden hair cascading over her shoulder. I never glimpsed her face, as she kept her back toward me, but I approached her gleefully. As though she were an old friend, one I was intimatelyaquainted—acquainted with.
