"Begin? Begin?! What do you mean by that?!"
Kael didn't answer.
He walked toward her, slowly. Each step echoed with the weight of a thousand silent screams. His face was unreadable, not because it was calm, but because it held nothing human anymore.
Nerissa tried to crawl backward, her limbs trembling, slipping in the blood around her. But Kael reached down and seized her by the hair.
He yanked.
Her shriek pierced the silence, echoing off the cold stone walls. She flailed, trying to escape, but Kael dragged her without mercy, out of the throne she had made from blood and bone.
Then, with a sharp, brutal twist, he hurled her.
The impact thundered. She skidded across the floor, crashing into a jagged edge of stone.
A sickening sound followed.
Her body spasmed.
Blood rushed from her shoulder. A limb lay behind her, severed cleanly.
Kael advanced, unblinking.
