CHAPTER 23

AUREN TURLEY

I jerk awake at the sound of footsteps in the corridor, and I go instantly alert. Shooting a quick glance over, I see it's daytime. I slept hard after shoving that rot into my ear and destroying one of those tunneling worms. The effort it took was staggering.

My teeth grind together as a fresh wave of anger etches in. But this anger energizes me. Fuels me. My head might be aching, but I'm furious enough that I can shove that away and ignore it. They've meddled with my mind, taken my memories, and locked me in this dungeon.

Anger is just the tip of the iceberg for the emotions I feel.

I push out of the bed and get to my feet, my expression hardening as I stand against the wall. I hear a guard speaking to someone, and then a key is shoved into the lock. My muscles tense in preparation as the cell door swings open, and Una walks in.

The guard slams the door shut behind her, and she glances at the bed. All I see is her chessboard brown hair set off against her scalp until she swings around. Blue-striped eyes lock onto me, and her thin lips turn down into a frown.

Probably because for once, she's not finding me lying on the pallet bed, drenched in sweat and confusion, weakened and hollowed out. Instead, I'm standing with my hands fisted at my sides and my spine so stiff it feels like I could snap at any moment.

The door clicks shut behind her, and my wrath locks into place.

" You ."

She pauses, her gaze running over me with assessment.

"Your magic is stealing my memories." My tone is rigid with rage, fingers itching to reach forward and claw out her eyes. "These things in my head, they're from you ."

"I don't know what you're talking about," she replies, and it's the wrong thing to say.

I brace my stance. "Take them out," I demand.

Una's eyes narrow, the stripes in them thinning. "You're confused," she says with a patronizing tone. "Sit down on the bed so I can work on healing you."

I tip my head back and laugh coldly. "You're the one who's confused if you think I actually believe you're healing me." My gaze bears down on her. "Take. Them. Out."

I'm not going to tell her again.

She should stumble back from the harshness of my words, but instead, she digs in her heels. A tense moment passes, both of us staying completely still. Like animals sizing each other up, determining who will attack first.

She stupidly decides she's going to be the one to do it.

My vision flashes with the reddened haze of rage.

I don't care that I'm still spent after using the rot. I don't care that the ankle cuff is weighing down my magic. I don't even care that parts of my mind feel like they've been scooped out with a spoon.

All I care about is making her pay for what she's done to me. For trying to strip me down and hollow me out. For digging up every memory and leaving me a barren void of holes to lose myself in.

Because she failed.

Even if I know nothing else, I know who I am.

My name is Auren Turley, and I am stronger than her .

Instead of flinching back, I pounce, my strength overpowering her own. I shove her hard against the door, making her head smack against the stone.

She tries to scream, but I slap my hand against her lips and knee her in the gut at the same time. Air punches out of her mouth against my slick palm, but she doesn't try to push me away.

Instead, she reaches up and clamps her hands over my ears. Pinches her fingers in, like she's ready to shove in more of those gluttonous grubs to feast on my mind.

How dare she.

She doesn't have a chance to fill me with her magic. My fury reaches a fever pitch. We lock eyes, and within those blue bars, I break free.

That rot that I managed to utilize, the source that grows from the hatched seed in my chest, instead of rushing up to rot her , it does something else.

It reaches out and rouses a gleaming beast curled in my center.

Animalistic malice rises as the creature cracks open its eye, awakening with a roar that rattles my ribs.

I stagger back from the force of it, and Una rips free from my hold as blinding light suddenly surges through the room.

Through me .

I don't have time for confusion or panic. Don't have time to wonder what's happening.

My back arcs with sudden pain, like a blade dragging down and splitting skin. Then my shirt tears open, that light breaking through behind me into dozens of rays that stream like ribboned sunlight.

Una's eyes go fearfully wide, and I look over my shoulder, following her gaze. Long, satiny strands drenched in liquid gold with veins of black move around me, their lengths twisting and lifting.

I can feel them.

Stemmed from my spine and tugging at my skin in a comforting familiarity that makes tears spring to my eyes as they move. There's a moment where I pause and wonder what they are, but then one word pours from the ledge of my tongue at the cusp of a memory.

Ribbons.

They're my ribbons.

My elation is even brighter than the glow that surrounds them. I look down at the gold that drips from their lengths onto the floor. Like the flexing of fingers and extending of arms, I'm able to control the drenched strands at my back with ease, and I sigh in relief at the feel of it. At the heady strength that emanates from every strand.

In her shock, Una stands frozen, back plastered against the wall, shaking all over. "What are you?" she asks.

My gaze stabs into her. "Really fucking pissed."

She parts her lips to cry out, but my ribbons are faster. They come around and snatch her up, tying around her like a puppet sewed to strings. Each one wraps around her limbs and winds around her neck before gagging her gaping mouth.

Una fights and screams around them, expression pleading and terrified, but we're well past that now. Caught in my tangle, she has nowhere to go. The creature inside of me roars with the demand for retribution.

My ribbons go sharp, tightening and tensing…

And then the veined strands snap her like a twig.

Una's body goes slack, and the ribbons let go, making her drop to the floor in a heap. Breathing hard, I wait for several seconds, wondering…hoping…

But none of my other memories come rushing back.

Dammit .

Part of me expected her death to kill off her magic, but it didn't. Apparently, her magic doesn't end with her. Frustration boils through me and I stare at her lifeless body with hate.

Fine.

I roll my shoulders back and flex my ribbons. I'll just have to rot the memory worms myself. I'll destroy them one by one until I rid the infestation and get back everything she tried to take away.

I can do it. I will do it. No matter how long it takes.

Glancing over my shoulder, I study the rippling, winding ribbons, and the sight of them makes my anger dissipate. The strands curl around my outstretched hands, ready to grab hold.

I can't stop the smile tipping my lips as I slide my fingers through their silky lengths and over the dribbling gold that smears down their edges. I tug at them, counting every one, reveling in the feel of them.

They're another part of me that I've gotten back on my own. First, the flashes of memories with the rot, and now this.

My truths are growing, and I repeat them now, from last to first, letting them cloister within this cell and stick to my skull.

Ribbons.

Emonie, Wick, Ludogar.

Vulmin.

Ly?ri.

Rot power.

Gold power.

A light in the dark.

My name is Auren Turley.

Now that I have these truths, these certainties, I'm famished for more. It's an aching hunger that gnaws through my gut, pushing for the need to be fed.

But what's even more insistent is my desire to get the hell out of this cell.

My eyes snap down to the shackle around my ankle—this thing that somehow dampens my magic. If I'm going to get out of here, I need this gone. And I saw what my ribbons did to Una. They're strong .

I send a group of them down to the cuff, and they slip beneath the polished gray surface. My ribbons wrap around it, again and again, going taut in four different directions. Then, they pull .

The cuff snaps open with a crack, releasing a puff of gray dust in its wake. The pieces fall to the floor, spilling out dirt, and I instantly feel its absence.

I rub at the raw spot on my skin with a sigh of relief. The burdensome weight that draped over me like a heavy, sodden blanket is now blessedly gone. Just like the itchiness that kept crawling over my skin.

Excitement and victory thrum through me, making my heart beat faster. Straightening back up, I lift my hands and then call to my magic.

It answers instantly. Easily.

Gold drifts up, puddling into my palms in such a familiar way. With a smile, I turn my hands over and let the liquid metal start to pool upon the floor. It comes out steadily, like someone's turned on the tap of a tub to fill it with a rush.

Soon, there's enough that it floods the room, and the black veins of rot run through its gleaming surface. I'm able to make it easily drag Una's body away from the door with a flick of my wrist. Then I rip off my filthy and torn shirt that's barely hanging on, and liquid gold starts to slither up my torso.

It forms in layers over my body, molding like a chest plate of golden armor that's marbled with black roots. It spreads down my arms like gauntlets next, ending in feather-tipped shapes above my wrists. I glance down at my handiwork, feeling the armor connect at my back, leaving spots for my ribbons to feed through, and I'm filled with pride.

The easy control of this magic, the way it flows out of me, it's like a dam knocked away from the river. To be so powerful is invigorating . The gold feels as familiar as the ribbons do, and because of that, I feel stronger than ever.

Because this is me .

I call more rot, making it sprout up from my fingertips, ready to see if I can rot straight through the door, but suddenly, I hear footsteps again. It must be the guard, coming to let Una back out.

Perfect .

The slosh of gold on the floor gathers in front of me, and I wait, breath paused, eyes unblinking.

The beast within me is ready to hunt for more prey.

When the cell door opens, the guard freezes. His eyes go so wide I'm surprised they don't just pop right out of his sockets and roll around on the floor.

"You lock yourself in here while I walk away, and I won't kill you," I say, giving him a chance.

He doesn't take it.

A warning call tears from his throat. His cry cuts off as my magic moves up to his lips and clogs his throat, choking off the sound. He falls into the room, hands tearing at his mouth, fingers plunging into the glutinous metal. But no matter how hard he tries, he's unable to clear his airway.

"You should've taken me up on my offer," I tell him as my ribbons grip him by the ankles and pull him out of the doorway.

I step over his soon-to-be corpse but then pause when I spot the Vulmin ring that Emonie gave me. My ribbon snatches it off the floor, and I pluck it up and shove it into my pants pocket while the guard lets out one last choke.

Then I exit the cell with my ribbons twisting at my back and my gold trailing behind me like a gleaming beast slithering along the floor.

But the true beast about to tear through this place is me .