Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

T he dragons left. I could feel them go. There were like two large, golden stars drifting further and further away, despite that all-consuming darkness around me,

Power flowed through my veins, humming maniacally and barely under control. It was a struggle to keep it contained these past few days. I'd healed since the ritual. But now that the dragons were gone, it was time. Instinctively, I knew I'd have to wait until they left.

With a screech, I pushed the sickly, white magick out through my veins, forcing it into the dead and dying around me—his people! My salvation!

Groans and shrieks and moans warped into a dissonant chorus that was so loud and thunderous that it thrummed in my chest and my throat.

Rise my brothers and sisters! Rise!

But the sisters did not rise … only the brothers.

I frowned at this unexpected development. Had I done the ritual wrong? Had it had something to do with the sacrifice I'd used?

Shava wouldn't want her friends to end up like this.

The thought was strange and foreign, and didn't make sense. I shook it away. It didn't matter in the end. I didn't know a Shava. Not anymore. Power and magick ripped through my veins like an uncontrollable fire. Wherever I ended up taking my people, we would simply take the women we needed. I would continue to experiment and tinker, making myself and my people stronger until we were rulers of the world! Those who shunned and discarded us would feel the cold bite or iron shackles around their necks and wrists!

We'd hunt down the queen. The dragons had taken her, but we'd find them.

And she would be my brightest, most powerful ritual yet.

I would do it to end her reign, and seek justice for all of the Nobles wronged by her. I would seek justice for the king, and for the girls in the kitchen, and every girl reaped.

Everyone would be sorry for forgetting about us. Everyone would be sorry for letting us rot underneath the dark and dirt. They would see the might of magick and the demons would rise—across the desert, over the mountains, and WE WOULD HAVE VENGEANCE.

It was the only thing that mattered. It was my only purpose. Nothing else was left.

Summoning my people, I gave a yell and gathered my magick. I pushed.

It was good the dragons were gone. They wouldn't see us rise with white glowing runes embedded in our skin, ready to inflict the same suffering that the world had first put on us.

Death. Death! DEATH!