"You must really hate this Maya girl, huh?" Orion growled, his voice laced with mockery as he rolled his eyes and turned his back on Gaia.
Each step he took toward the looming black flowers was slow, deliberate, calculated. He plucked one of the midnight blooms, letting its petals brush across his fingertips.
The damn thing bled a single drop of dark nectar, like it was alive. Like everything around Black Water Lake was watching them.
Gaia hissed softly, still kneeling on the damp, cursed soil from the force he had used against her moments ago.
Her bones ached, her pride burned, but her ambition? That never wavered.
She wiped the blood trailing down her nose and stood, not caring if she looked pathetic. She wasn’t here to beg. She was here to get s**t done.
“You think you scare me
