KAI POV
The room smelled of copper and ozone.
Blood on the floor, smoke in the air, static crawling under my skin like a second heartbeat. My fingers wouldn’t stay still — electricity crackled between them in hungry sparks, impatient, begging to be unleashed again. Pumping more and more in my veins.
And more were coming.
The guards didn’t stop. They poured from the three openings of the hall like roaches flushed from a nest — rifles up, blades out, silver gleaming in the half-light. Behind them, the shadows twisted unnaturally, the stink of rot and grave-dirt announcing the warlocks before I even saw their pale, violet-lit faces.
“I’ll handle the warlocks” Harper shouted, green hues already glowing around her hands. Her aura almost doubled and I could almost smell the roots that were
