The force holding him upright vanished and he dropped without ceremony.
She didnβt look back. She simply turned away, as if he had already stopped mattering the moment he hit the floor.
Her fingers flexed, and Kian choked. His body twisted against an invisible force. The harder he fought, the more violently he shook.
β½ ππͺπ»π βΎ
β½ ππͺπ»π βΎ
His body jerked backward. Blood thundered through βππ veins but answered to βππ.
His knees hit the floor. A horrified sound escaped him.
βWhat are you doing to me?!β
Her hand clenched, and his body seized. A scream ripped from his throat as the shadows beneath him stirred. Darkness pooled across the floor like spilled ink. Long fingers emerged first. Then hands. Dozens of themβ black and skeletal.
They erupted from the shadows and latched onto him. His wrists, ankles, shoulders, throat. Kian thrashed wildly, but the hands held firm. More crawled upward, locking him in place and pinning him upright like prey caught in a spider's web.
Slowly, impossibly, his hand began to curl inward. Not by his choice.
βWhatββ His knees buckled as Kassandra rose. Every muscle in her body screamed in protest. Something had awakened inside her. Something vast. Something hungry. Something entirely her own.
She didn't answer; she wasn't entirely sure she could. The pounding of his heartbeat drowned out every other sound. π»ππππ. π»ππππ. π»ππππ.
She could hear every pulse. Every contraction and somehow she knew exactly where it was.
Kian's fingers stretched toward the gun. Then stopped. His body jerked violently; confusion flashed across his face. His arm trembled, the tendons in his neck strained.
She stepped closer and uttered just one word. βππππ.β Her hand tightened, and the shadows snapped inward. His body went rigidβ then still.
Kass stared at him through a haze of fury. The limbs writhed around him and the blood in his veins danced to her will. A smile of satisfaction threatened to curl across her lips as fear finally pierced the heart of Kian Laswell.
