Priya sat by a window, the breeze blowing by. This was the first time she had stepped outside in these two days. Brief flashes of her talks with Zarek came to mind as she sat there.
Logically, she knew that being angry wasn't fair. Over the last two days, her communication with Zarek had been a bit short and clipped, but he never lost patience with her.
Unfortunately, that made her feel like he was even more guilty on the inside, but at the same time… he had always been so lenient with her. Honestly, she couldn't remember a time he had ever gotten angry with her in the first place.
This didn't seem ridiculous. But she knew Zarek's temper well. It was very short, even with people she really hoped it wouldn't be short with, like her father.
But every time they met, it was practically like setting off some sort of fuse. They were practically like two alphas clashing for space on the mountain, and the other wouldn't give up until the other was down for the count.
The feelings were just too complicated, though, so she had tried to avoid thinking about them. Instead, she had thrown herself into her training, trying to peel out more potential from both her new Skill and her Talent, hoping that they would grow faster.
Finally, she had stepped out of that cocoon, standing here in silence as she looked out onto the city that had likely been bustling with activity in a past that now felt long ago and distant, so far away that it might as well have been another lifetime entirely.
Today was the day they should return, the day that the Godsfall Tear officially ended.
Maybe she should be patient, maybe she should be more careful, but she didn't want to be.
Zarek hadn't said it outright, and she hadn't even admitted it in her heart, but right now… she was feeling true bloodlust for the first time.
Flashes of memories she was pretty sure she hadn't lived played through her mind, and yet they felt so real nonetheless.
Memories of being taunted, of being slapped, of her man's hand being held right in front of her as though he was some sort of trophy to be shown off in front of her.
Fury bubbled up in her chest, and it felt like she would explode.
The window behind her shattered, peeling lines of Godsfall cascading around her.
However, rather than clattering to the floor in a heaping mess, the glass was actually slowly deposited down to the ground, and then gently placed into a trash bin.
The wind blew harder and stronger as she turned, entering the condo she and Zarek shared.
There was a staff on the bed, the very one that she relied on from time to time in order to make controlling large amounts of Godsfall in concentrated bursts more manageable.
Zarek had been fiddling around with it before he left, and he had ended up leaving it out for her in the end. But after some thought, she looked away from it.
She didn't need it.
Priya stepped outside to find Zade waiting there. There was a hint of surprise in her eyes.
"Zarek said you might step out today," Zade said with a smile. "We are ready."
"Ready? For what?" Priya feigned ignorance.
"Zarek said you'd say that too—"
Zade stopped, clearing his throat when he saw Priya getting more annoyed every time Zarek was mentioned. He definitely didn't want to get in the middle of a lover's spat.
"—anyway, we're ready to do battle. It'll be best if we all move out and catch them while they're disheveled and tired."
Priya took a breath and exhaled, her hair raising up and then settling down.
"All right. Let's go."
"Already prepped and ready."
Priya followed after, her steps actually quite light and her body very relaxed. She didn't truly reflect the image of a woman out for blood.
But the very real cold chill in the air said different.
Zade felt goosebumps crawling across his skin, not in a comical, stay-out-of-the-mad-woman's-way sort of way… but instead that he well and truly felt like a single wrong step could cost him his life.
Internally, he felt that maybe, just maybe… they had been a little too focused on Zarek and hadn't paid enough attention to the woman by his side.
When Priya was angry, the energy of the world seemed to respond.
**
Malik whizzed through lines of Turned like a ping pong ball, his movement sharp, abrupt, and erratic. He could accelerate to his full speed and then come to a sudden stop on a dime, moving along the ground as though it was as smooth and slippery as ice.
However, it wasn't.
He could already feel the burning beneath his shoes, and if he continued, he knew that he would end up ripping through them and doing irrevocable harm to the soles of his feet. If he couldn't even stand properly, how would he fight?
But he was close already.
"What do I do now?" Malik asked.
They had closed in on Zarek's battlefield. The man had disappeared beneath the tunnel system and could very well die at any time. But Malik knew that Qiqi wanted him to take this path despite her words of retreat.
"I don't know, you did this all on your own," Qiqi huffed.
"QIQI!" Malik shouted.
She rolled her eyes. In the past, she really wouldn't dare to speak to Malik like this, but she had been pushing his buttons more and more lately.
"I've been paying attention to the aerial treasure. He entered one of the tunnels just now."
"Didn't you say that was stupid?"
"Yes. I mean, maybe. But I think that—" Qiqi's eyes sharpened. "He just hopped out. He actually found a path to the slot machine so easily?"
Qiqi was baffled. That didn't…
Her eyes widened. "There's something else down there. She's trying to protect something else, and he knows!"