Page 128 of She Who Holds My Wrath

The Void explodes awake.

Threat. Threat. Threat. The words slam through my skull, drowning everything else out. Kill. Destroy. Ruin.

I’m on my feet before the thought even fully forms, the room warping as the door bangs again. I feel Daisy stir behind me, mumbling my name, confusion bleeding into her voice.

The door swings open.

Two people enter into the room. Too close. Too sudden.

My body moves without permission, crossing the space in a heartbeat. I slam them both back against the stone wall, my hands closing around their throats with lethal precision. Power crackles under my skin, The Void roaring in triumph as they thrash, shoes scraping, gasping for air.

Something like a scream echoes behind me. It barely reaches, sounding muffled and distant. Like I’m submerged beneath murky water, sinking deeper with every heartbeat. All I can hear clearly is the chant echoing in my skull.

Threat. Kill them. Destroy. Ruin. The words are not words anymore. They are instinct burned into me like a deadly command.

Hands claw at my arms. Small, delicate hands. Her hands. She’s shouting my name, begging for me. But even her voice is twisted now, warped into something thin and unreal, as if the world itself is lying to me.

I turn my head just enough to see her. My Daisy. My little flower. Her eyes are wide with terror, tears shining in them with golden hair wild around her face. The sight punches a crack through the madness. The split second of awareness is enough. A knee drives upwards, connecting hard and unforgiving and with devastating precision. Pain detonates through my body so violently, stars burst behind my eyes. A savage snarl rips from my throat as my grip falters, and I drop both bodies from my grasp.

The Void shrieks in my skull at my failure. It lashes at me, furious and ravenous. Desperate from how close it came to ending two lives. I surge forwards again on instinct, giving in to its demands. But Daisy moves faster. She throws herself between us without a single ounce of hesitation. No fear for herself, only for the two strangers my body is aching to destroy.

My flame erupts in reflex. Black fire tears from my palms in a catastrophic wave meant to consume whatever dare stand before it. It hits her. And the entire universe stops.

I feel the impact. Feel the intention behind it. I can feel The Void’s savage delight before it thinks it has won this time. It wanted her to burn. It wanted me to be the one to destroy her.

There’s no scream. No pain. No scorch. The flame curls harmlessly around her body like a living thing recognising its creator. It winds over her skin in tender spirals, kisses the line of her jaw, dances through her hair like dark silk—then dissolves into nothing.

It didn’t hurt her.

My knees give out, crashing hard against the stone floor, the impact jarring through bone, but I barely feel it. Relief hits me with such force, it feels like a tidal wave of grief, joy, and something unbearably close to happiness. My chest caves inwards as I stare at her, alive, unburned, and still reaching for me without fear.

Even when I lost control. Even when I lashed out. When I became the monster I tried so hard to avoid becoming, I still did not hurt her.

She crosses the distance in an instant, standing in front of me and pulling my head into her chest. Her heartbeat thunders against my ear. I don’t realise I’m crying until I’m already sobbing into her, my body trembling so hard I can barely breathe as the weight of it all finally crashes down. I wrap my arms around her waist and cling to her like she’s the only thing keeping me anchored to this world.

“I’m sorry,” I choke out between gasps. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Shhh,” she soothes, her hands sliding through my hair, smoothing it back from my face the way one soothes a wounded child. “I’ve got you.”

Those three words both heal me and break me.

“Maelkar’s the one that likes the kinky shit, not me,” Lucifer coughs dryly from somewhere behind us.

The moment shatters and I lift my head, blinking through tears. Lucifer is bent over, rubbing at his throat with a murderous expression. Beside him, Ezra is doing the same, face flushed and eyes wild with terror.

I stare at the sparkly ginger. “How the fuck did you get here?”

Chapter 42

DAISY

Istand frozen, staring at Ezra while Korithax slowly rises to his feet beside me. My pulse is hammering so hard I can feel it in my teeth.

“I said,” Korithax growls, voice low enough to tell me he’s still teetering on the edge of destruction. “How the fuck did you get here?” Korithax growls.

“The stupid fuck summoned me,” Lucifer mutters, still rubbing at his throat.

Every instinct in my body screams to run to Ezra. To throw myself at him, grab him and check him over, make sure he’s real and alive. But I don’t move. Because something else inside me is screaming louder. To stay back. I don’t know if it’s fear or instinct, or whatever strange new awareness has been sharpened inside me lately, but it roots my feet to the floor. Ezra feels… wrong. Not bad, not dangerous either. Just altered.