Page 81 of On Broken Bonds

"You're right."

I sit up slowly, wiping blood from my mouth.

Everything hurts.

"I'm sorry," I say.

Both of them look at me.

I shrug. "I thought this would work."

A small smile tugs at the corner of Nyx's mouth. "Getting punched in the face?"

"When you say it like that, it sounds stupid."

"It is stupid."

"Fair."

For a moment, the tension eases. The three of us are just standing there at the edge of a death swamp, exhausted and bruised and completely out of good ideas. Then Nyx does something completely insane.

Before either of us realizes what she's planning, she slides off Thorian's back and lands lightly on her feet. Thorian turns toward her with a frown, clearly expecting her to complain or argue.

Instead, she marches directly in front of him.

"Nyx?" I say.

She ignores me.

She ignores both of us.

For a second, she simply stands there, staring up at Thorian as though she's made some private decision.

Then she reaches out, grabs his wrist, and yanks his hand toward her.

"What are you⁠—"

The crack as his fist strikes her face echoes across the swamp.

My heart stops.

Nyx stumbles sideways from the force of it. A red mark immediately blooms across her cheek, angry against her skin.

For half a second, nobody moves. Nobody breathes. Thorian looks more shocked than I've ever seen him. The bruise darkens before my eyes. And something inside me snaps.

One moment I'm staring at the mark on her face. The next, a surge of fury rips through me so violently that it steals the air from my lungs.

Wrong. The thought isn't even coherent. It's instinct. Wrong.

A roar explodes from my lips. The sound tears out of me with enough force to shake my ribs. Pain explodes through my body. Not from Thorian's punches. From within. Bones crack. Muscles tear and reform. My clothes split apart as my body swells larger. The world becomes red.

I dimly hear Nyx gasp. I hear Thorian curse. But they're already fading beneath the rush of rage flooding my veins.

Everything hurts.

Everything burns.

Yet beneath the pain is relief. Release. The beast has finally found its way free.