Page 203 of Wrath of the Fae

Cyrus doesn’t hesitate. He grabs Ivan’s throat.

‘In a perfect world,’ he snarls, his black smoke seeping from his fingers and snaking into Ivan’s nose, eyes, mouth and ears. ‘I would keep you alive for the rest of time so you would know the true meaning of pain.’

Blood seeps from every orifice as Ivan struggles beneath him, being torn apart from the inside out.

‘But your death will keep her safe. So I’ll take it.’

Cyrus looks up as I stand beside him.

I see fear in his silver eye.

Fear of me.

I morph, becoming that Dark Leviathan creature, and swarm my father.

Cyrus scurries back. They all do.

I peel Ivan’s flesh from his bones with my ferocious form that he can’t grab or stop. I snap his bones. I claw out his eyes. I rip his tongue from his mouth. And I relish in every second.

When I reform, I stand by his head, looking at the skinless and broken man who spasms and chokes on his insides.

‘You have no idea what power is,’ I tell him, tilting my head as I try to understand this insignificant worm. ‘And you never will. This world is mine. All the worlds. All the monsters. None so much as humanity.’ I lift my foot. ‘You are the biggest monster of them all.'

I slam my foot down on his head, crushing it like a grape.

He falls still.

Finally. Ivan Walker is dead.

I take a shaky breath.

I think… so am I.

thirty-nine

‘Raven,’Reidwhispers.‘Raven,look at me.’

The sky rumbles violently as the wall continues to fall. I stare at my father’s body, drunk with the joy of his death and knowing his last moment hurt beyond measure.

‘I should have made it last longer,’ I say, my voice tinted with a low growl. ‘It was too quick.’

‘Raven?’ Rhea tries.

I flinch, hearing her voice. Cyrus pulls her away from me and stands between us.

‘Raven,’ he tries again. ‘Look at me, my love.’

I lift my gaze, meeting his.

I see him hide the flinch. The horror at seeing no soul look back at him. When I peer past him to Rhea, he side steps, blocking my line of sight.

‘Don’t look at her. You look at me.’

I let out a slight scoff. He thinks he can control me?

No one can control me.

To prove my point, I make all my monsters cry out at once.

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