Whipping around, I find a room full of guards—warlocks, by the looks of it. A couple are holding energy spheres while the rest have instruments of some kind, all aimed at a large, humanoid gray creature in the center of them.
The creature looks like a cross between a djinn and golem, leaning more towards the golem side.
Its arms and legs are tied down and chained to the anchor built into the floor. Dark yellow oozes from its wounds. Its chest wheezes as it struggles to hold on.
It was six against one, and it had no way of fighting back. The guards were torturing it for their own amusement.
A pit of fire burns in my stomach, traveling out to each of my limbs. A veil of red glazes my eyes as I focus on the domineering guards.
“Where did you two come from?” the leader of the group asks. He glances behind us, narrowing his eyes.
“We needed some fresh air,” Malik tells them before giving me a look as if to say, “I told you so.”
He still thinks we won’t make it out of here. But something inside me has changed, and I know deep down that I am getting out of here today, one way or another.
One of the men slides up beside him, drawing my attention. “Sir, that’s the Veros demon.”
The leader of the group scoffs before narrowing his eyes on Malik. A spark of recognition lights his eyes before they widen in shock.
“Shit. Get him back to his room and call Dimetri.” He glances at me. “Find out where she came from, too.”
I guess I’m not known to all the guards up here yet.
The other guards spread out around us. One throws an energy sphere at the wall behind us, forcing us to move into the center of the room and closer to the gray creature.
Glancing down at it, I can’t tell if it’s dead or not, but it’s no longer moving. My instincts tell me it’s gone.
“How about we have some fun first?” one of the guards asks his boss with a smirk, eyeing me up and down. “They might last longer than this weakling.”
The leader narrows his eyes, sighing. “Fine, but keep the Veros demon alive.”
“Fine by me.” Throwing the sphere up in the air, he catches it like a ball before taking a step forward.
Malik moves beside me, trying to push me behind him. “I’ll distract them while you make it back to your cell. Lock yourself inside and stay quiet until they forget about this.”
A small piece of warmth fills my chest at his words. Though he still doubts that we will get out of here and thinks heading back to my cell is the safer option, he knows they will beat him and yet is still willing to be the diversion to allow me to get out away from them.
A gesture I won’t forget anytime soon.
“You don’t have to worry about them,” I tell him as something inside me settles, knowing on some deeper level that they cannot beat me. Their powers are too weak, and not one of them is an alpha or a true leader of any kind.
“What are you—”
“Try not to die too quick, will you?” The guard cuts Malik’s question off, just as everything around me starts to move in slow motion.
I watch as the other guards raise their energy spheres right at us. The smug guard thinks he has the upper hand, but from the power pulsing inside my chest, I know he doesn’t stand a chance. None of them do.
The darkness inside me boils to the surface, finding its targets. It grows, expanding outward, seeping from my skin.
An inky mass of smoke flies out of me and straight toward the guards.
“What the—”
The guard doesn’t get the chance to finish his sentence before my power lashes out like whips and wraps around every one of them. It drags them upward before coiling around their necks, slowly tightening its hold.
I watch on as if it’s someone else controlling this, but I know it’s all me. A part of myself that’s been pushed down and hidden for too long.
The guards try to release its hold from their necks, but their hands slide right through it, as if were made from smoke.
I wait until they’re about to pass out before slamming them into the walls around us. Each fall to the ground with a hard thump, knocking them out.
Malik’s eyes are wide when I turn to him.
“Ruthless… I like it.” He smiles, but it slowly drops when he sees me still staring at him. I sense his fear as he holds his hands up. “I’m not the threat here, remember?”
His fear becomes a palpable thing, something I can taste in the air around me as it grows. “I know.” He isn’t a threat to me. My power can sense that.
Malik relaxes, but frowns. “What are you, Kiarra?”
I open my mouth to answer, but I don’t have one. Who or what I am is never something I’ve really thought about. I didn’t truly learn about my ability until King started his sessions, and by then, I was only trying to survive long enough to get me and Morana free.
Why I never fit in with any of the other supernaturals never topped my list of things to figure out.
But in the darkness on that metal table, something inside me awoke… Something dark; and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to being what I was before. What I am now is something I’ll have to eventually figure out, though.
“I don’t know,” I tell him, exhaustion sitting heavily on me after using my new abilities.
“Let’s get out of here before reinforcements come.” We move to the door, opening it to find it quiet outside.
My mind turns to the shadow beast, wondering where he went. As if I summoned it, he appears in front of us.
“Oh, now you come.” Malik narrows his eyes on it, still wary of the strange beast.
“Find anything?” I ask, but it tilts its head as if he hasn’t a clue what I’m asking for, which I know is a lie. It understands everything I’ve asked it to do so far.
“Show us the way out,” I command.
Immediately, it turns and heads down the hall.
“Why does it answer to you?” Malik asks as we silently follow the shadow beast.
“I think it’s somehow connected to my abilities.” Or, at least, that’s what I feel. The connection springs to life as if answering yes.
Malik sighs, shaking his head. Pausing, he glances back at the way we came. I see the sliver of doubt and fear in his eyes, but also a spark of hope.
It reminds me so much of myself when I was in King’s hotel and desperately craved my freedom, but also feared what that would mean.
But that was then. King will no longer get to control me like that again.
“Come with us.” Malik glances at me. “It’s not worth it,” I tell him.
“What isn’t?”
I glance around before looking back at him. “Staying in a cage because it’s become all you’ve known. It is still a cage. One you’ll die in.”
Malik clenches his jaw, glancing away.
I continue. “There will never be any more than this for you, if that’s what you choose. There’s a whole world out there, but you’ll never know it if you stay here.”
“What if there’s nothing left of the me I once knew?” Malik swallows hard, frowning.
“Then you become something different, something more, but something you choose. It’s something I’m also learning for myself.”
Malik hesitates before nodding to himself. “What else have I got to lose?” He turns and heads after the shadow beast.
My stiff body relaxes as I follow after him. If he had chosen to stay, I would’ve knocked him out and got the shadow beast to drag his heavy ass out of here. He reminds me too much of myself, and I’m not leaving him behind when I know it is only his fear that is stopping him from taking his freedom back.
Keeping an eye out for any more guards, we silently move along the hall, passing a handful of more rooms.
We follow it, coming to a smaller hall, one with the odd chair and decoration on the walls. It leads out into a wide, open area with two large tables to the right and a small kitchenette to the left.
This must be where the guards eat.
I look over at the shadow beast and spot him near the double glass doors on the other side of the room. He looks at me before moving through it.
I move toward him, making it halfway there, when someone shouts out behind us.
“Stop!”
I whip around, finding the blonde guard from before. The one who came into my room. His dull blue eyes still have that spark of interest as he moves closer. There’s a thick black baton in his hand and a smirk on his face as he stares right at me.
“Thought you’d make a run for it? I’m afraid that won’t be happening.”
I glance at the door behind me before looking back at the guard and raising a brow. “Looks like you don’t have a say in that”
His smirks grows. “I wouldn’t head that way if I were you.”
I narrow my eyes on him. His smug smile making me wonder why he feels confident right now, especially when we’re the ones closer to the door. “Why?”
“Behind that door is a hell of a lot more guards, and that’s without our special… guests.”
He could be lying, but the spark in his eyes tells me different.
“What guests?” I ask, but it’s Malik who answers.
“He means creatures. The experimented-on kind.”
“The kind that also only listen to us.” The guard nods his head, taking a step forward. “So, here’s how this is going to go.” He points at Malik. “You’re going to go back to your cell, and we’ll pretend this never happened.”
His eyes veer to me. “But you, you’re coming with me, and we’re going to have a little… fun.”
I roll my eyes as Malik steps in front of me. “She’s not going anywhere near you.”
I step to the side with a smile of my own. “I’ll pass.”
The guard laughs. “I thought you might say that.” He presses a button on his watch, a buzz sounds out just before a loud thumping comes through the door behind us.
The door slides open, revealing the source of the loud noise. Instead of an army of guards, a large creature appears. One that looks like one of those messed up werewolves from a horror movie.
Its long sharp fangs curve out of its mouth to its chin. Its entire body is covered in a muddy black fur. Stepping closer, it towers over us, nearly twice the size of Malik. It moves towards us, looking pissed as hell.
The guard behind us laughs as we back away from it, moving us closer to him.
I hear another buzz just before more creatures show up. All identical to the first one. They keep coming until there are seven large, enraged creatures surrounding us.
All looking ready to kill.
“Fuck.”
I glance over at Malik to see him shaking his head and clenching his fists. “My demon is pushing forward. I don’t know if I’ll be much help once that happens.” Before I get a chance to answer Malik, the guard clicks his fingers, and just like that, the creatures move forward, ready to attack.
Great timing.
With my energy levels still slightly depleted from last time, I dig down deep inside and drag up the darkness. It’s slightly harder to pull up, but once it does, it settles over me, making me feel stronger.
Powerful.
“What the fuck is she?” I hear another voice from where the guard is, but I keep my focus on the creatures coming at me. One slashes out a sharp claw aimed toward my face, but my shadows catch it, breaking it along with the arm attached to it.
Instead of growling in pain, the beast glances down at it. It steps over it and continues forward, ignoring the dark blood that seeps onto the floor.
Just before it reaches me, the shadow beast appears, whipping forward and slicing the creature in two.
It drops to the ground like a sack of meat, falling in half.
“Kill her!” the guard demands.
The six beasts left all step forward. I try to pull up the darkness, but it’s like pulling from a dry well.
A creature reaches Malik just as his body begins to shake and shift. Within seconds, his demon is there, but instead of attacking me, he turns to the creature and lays into it.
Distracted from watching Malik, I miss one of the creatures sneak up from behind, slicing a claw down my side. The sharp burn catches my breath for a moment just before my ability kicks in.
“Did you see that?” A shocked voice floats over to me, but I ignore it, focusing on the newest creature trying to grab me.
Twisting out of its way, I move closer to Malik’s demon, turning just in time to see him land a punch to the creature’s face, knocking him down.
He whips his purple eyes up at me, accessing the threat. Instead of attacking me, he tilts his head as if to ask what I need next. But something behind me quickly grabs his attention.
Flashing forward, he intercepts another beast. The two trade punches, Malik’s demon taking a few hard hits.
Shouts come from all around as more guards arrive. We’re surrounded from all angles now with no way out. The shadow beast whips in and around the creatures, attacking any that get too close. But there’s too many, even for him and Malik to take on.
Too drained to help, I glance over at the shadow beast just as it turns to me. It gives me a look as if trying to tell me something.
“What?!” I ask.
“Let it out.” Its deep voice speaks inside my head.
“Let what out?” I step back as the guards and creatures get by Malik and move toward the shadow beast.
“Every… thing.”
As the guards and last couple of creatures inch closer, I glance over to Malik, now in his human form, as he holds his injured side. There’s a defeated look on his face as he watches the guards.
Glancing back at them, I spot one that stands out from the rest. A look of curiosity and interest lighting his eyes. The kind of look that only breeds cruelty and pain.
He saw what I could do when I healed and, just like all the rest, he will try to bend me until he sees me broken. But no more.
I will never be trapped again.
Let it out, the shadow beast whispers once more.
As if the words free the barrier I have on my mind and body, I let loose.
All the pain and anger and frustration and hurt, I let it explode out of me, no longer holding back.
It rushes out of me like a tidal wave, causing complete destruction of everything it touches and covers everything around me in its black smoke.
My body becomes a weight, one too heavy to keep up. Just as the last piece of light flitters out, my body drops to the ground, and my eyes slowly close, following the darkness around me.
