Enzo was too fast.
A blur of shadow and teeth, a living void that moved betwixt spaces of reality. He ripped through the air, closing the distance between them in a heartbeat.
Mak just had a beat to turn, to brace for the impact that would rip him apart.
‘Saba?’ Kaal shouted.
She rose from the floor, disoriented.
She staggered, straightened, and the entire room shuddered.
Mak felt it before he saw it, the pulse of energy surging from her, the storm building at her core.
It pulled at the fabric of existence, bending space, warping the air. Her power erupted like a silent scream, distorting the light, twisting everything toward her.
Enzo paused mid-air, his monstrous form suspended, his limbs twitching as if the unseen had wrapped around him.
A choked, inhuman shriek tore from his throat as invisible forces sank into him, wrapping, twisting, and tearing him apart at the seams.
His body fractured. He didn’t bleed. He just ceased to exist.
One moment, he was there.
The next, he was nothing, shredded into the ether, devoured by the force Saba had willed into existence.
Shiloh gasped, her voice a strangled whisper. ‘What in Devansi hell, babe?’
Saba swayed where she stood, the last crackles of her power still rippling around her.
Her chest heaved, her eyes dilated, her hands trembling as she turned to face her sister.
‘I don’t have time to explain,’ she breathed. ‘It appears Mak awoke a latent lycan ability in me. No clue why or how it works.’
Then, as if remembering, she spun. She was kneeling beside Mak in a beat, her palms framing his face, her eyes searching, checking.
Mak gritted his teeth at the pain radiating from his shoulder.
‘It’s nothing,’ he rasped, but she was already pressing into the wound, trying to stop the bleeding.
Her power had just annihilated something beyond comprehension, yet here she was, trembling for him. Mak caught her wrist, grounding her, forcing her to meet his gaze.
‘I’m alright,’ he murmured, his voice raw.
Her lips parted, something between relief and residual horror flickering in her eyes. Behind her, Shiloh was still staring, still frozen in disbelief.
Kaal slowly lowered his weapon, his mouth a grim line. The silence stretched.
No one in this room, not even Mak, would ever look at Saba the same way again.
Pain bloomed on Mak’s upper arm, and he gasped as he cradled her to his chest. He switched to his other hand and stared down at his sleeve, covered in blood.
‘Shit.’
Saba’s eyes cleared up, and she raised a hand to his chin. ‘You’ve been shot,šarrum.’
‘I’m well aware, but of more importance, are you OK?’
She nodded, and they gazed into each other’s eyes for a moment.
