"LET ME GO!"

There was a storm roiling the sullen sky. But it was my rage that swept a tempest of wind amongst the woodland, battering trees. Branches slapped and creaked like ship-rigging. Dead leaves and pine needles sliced through the air and raked against my skin.

Just as I'd been about to strike Corné down, Caidan had thrown me over his shoulder, stealing me from the laundry. In mere seconds we'd left the mansion, crossed the vast lawns, and plunged into the gloomy depth of the woodland.

Caidan had me pinned against the knotted trunk of an oak tree. He pitted his entire weight and strength against me. His broad hands were banded around my upper arms holding them to my side and pushing me back. I struggled against him, lost to rage so vengeful I could barely think, could barely hold back the creature. The thing inside me roared with bloodthirst—Let me go. Let Me Go! LET ME GO!

A surge of dark power vibrated within my fists and I bellowed at Caidan, "LET GO OF ME!"

"Shut it, Wychthorn!" The cords on Caidan's neck strained. His feet slipped and skidded, flicking up clods of dirt as I fought back. "Get a fucking grip, you were one breath away from revealing yourself!"

Graysen obviously had told his brother that I was other and my fists shaking with menacing might tightened at his betrayal. "I DON'T CARE!"

Corné was hurting her.

He'd never stop until he'd broken her, or killed her—

I punched out with dark power. "I'M GOING TO END HIM!"

A roiling mass of magic slammed into Caidan, knocking him backward, sending him sprawling into the undergrowth, flattening saplings and ferns and bellwort.

Caidan rolled, flipping to his feet—

I surged forward—

Caidan, faster, crashed into me and shoved me back up against the oak with a force that crushed the air from my lungs. "You kill him, you'll reveal yourself!"

I sucked in a sharp breath, and screamed, "HE'LL BE DEAD!"

"YOU CAN'T—"

I snarled, snapping my teeth at him.

Caidan jerked his face back, cursing.

And I loosened the leash on the creature—

The ground beneath our feet exploded in great shuddering quakes. Dirt and stones blew skyward. A rotten reek, as foul as my temper, filled my nose, as the decaying forest litter whipped upwards, writhing through the air.

Caidan jostled. His footing slipped against the shaking earth. His grip on my shoulders fumbled. "FUCK!"

Trees groaned and yawned, tipping over as their twisted roots were unearthed. Birds, frightened from their roosting perch, burst into flight, wings snapping as they scattered.

Swifting winds gathered around me.

I'd swift back to the mansion, hunt Corné down—End him!

Someone roared, "DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH HER!"

Something—dark and fast—charged from the dim murkiness between thick gnarled trees. And slammed into Caidan—

Sending him careering into the leafy darkness—

And I was free.

I bolted forward, the swifting winds intensifying—

Someone tackled me—

I soared sideways to land with a startled cry as I tumbled over and over, smashing through the thicket and over lichen-studded stone, caged by a hard body and arms that held me tight.

I ended up on my back with Graysen on top of me, caught between the shivering earth and his powerful body. Chest to chest, our rapid heartbeats hammered in time with each other.

His eyes were wide. The wyrmfire inked on his throat undulated as he swallowed great gulps of air. As soon as Graysen's large hands met my shoulders—

Something unwanted blew a cool soothing breath on the rage burning inside.

"NO!" I yelled, desperate to get free of him, desperate to keep hold of that fury that dampened with every passing heartbeat. "LET ME GO!"

I writhed, squirming, struggling to free myself.

Fierce black eyes met my grays. "Don't do this!"

The gray-coated swifting wind beat against my chilled skin and tore at Graysen's raven hair.

"I'm going to end him!"

He was breathing hard. His long eyelashes shadowed the fear in his eyes. "You're not thinking straight. This isn't you!"

"Let me have him!" But it came out more as a plea than a demand.

I bared my teeth and went to scratch his face—

He snapped his head aside, grabbed hold of my wrists with one hand, and pinned my arms above my head. With his other hand, his fingers weaved beneath my hair to grip the nape of my neck while his calloused thumbpad stroked the frantic pulse point in my throat. But it was his scent washing over me, cedar and something indefinable, that had every inch of my body submitting to his dominance.

"You go back there, like this, you'll show yourself as other. You'll play right into the Pelan's hands."

"But he'll be dead and Evvie will be free," I cried.

Graysen made a soft, soothing sound as he brushed his thumb gently back and forth against my throat.

That damned touch of his, so much like Evvie's soothing, calming hands, I didn't know why, how it was that he could calm me, but the hate and rage ebbed away.

Pressing his forehead to mine, his nose slid against mine, and his lips so close they feathered my mouth as he said, "It's us, Crowthers, that Sirro will order to end your entire House. Everyone you love will die. And we'll be the ones to do it."

"No..."

But he was right, everyone would die, including Evvie.

I let go of the swifting wind with a choked sob.

And the last of my fight seeped from me.

The earth stopped quaking. The wind died. Stones and dirt and debris fell to the forest floor in rattling thuds. And the creature inside, lulled by Graysen's touch, twined around itself, settling inside my stomach.

All I was left with was heavy trembling limbs, uneven breath, and pain. Such overwhelming pain.

He let go of my wrists, and my arms fell slack.

Pulling back, he braced a hand against the churned earth beside my head while his other hand went to his chest, fingers spread wide, kneading the spot above his heart. Silence stretched out between us as his eyes scanned my own. I didn't know what he found, emptiness and pain probably, while I stared into dark eyes smothered with worry. "What's wrong? What can I do?" he asked softly.

Everything.

Everything's wrong.

I hurt because of you.

My bottom lip quivered. "Corné hurt Evvie. He's been hurting her all this time."

His features hardened. "I know...I saw the bruises."

"He brought his mistress here...that pretty friend of the Pelans..." Grief pierced my heart with the sting of a thousand barbed thorns. "That woman you fucked last night...it's her." Graysen obviously hadn't fucked her this morning, but who was to say he hadn't last night. After mocking me with that horrid bet of his brothers, he claimed he'd take up her offer of a one-night stand.

Graysen's head jerked back as if I'd slapped him.

But he didn't dispute it, didn't deny it.

He glanced away. Thick brows drew over his eyes as he stared at some fixed point in the underwood, chewing his bottom lip thoughtfully before saying quietly, "Nelle, I—"

"Don't you dare," I rasped. My hands shoved at his shoulders, trying to push him off. I couldn't bear to hear my name leave his mouth.

Refusing to move, his gaze swung back to mine and I squeezed my eyes shut. But all I saw in my mind was him. All I felt, was him, the air swirling with his movement as both of his warm hands cupped either side of my face, brushing his thumbs back and forth along my cheekbones. I still couldn't look at him when I whispered, "I hate you."

But I was a liar.

Such a spiteful liar.

I wouldn't hurt this much if I simply hated him.

A deep sigh. "I know."

The sound of crunching leaves and twigs had my eyes flashing open and my head turning in the direction the noise came from. Caidan appeared, shaking his hair free of leaves. He glowered at Graysen. "Territorial much?"

"You had your hands on her," he snarled over his shoulder.

"I'd been trying to stop her, you fucking idiot." Caidan rubbed the back of his neck, wincing painfully. "Corné. She was about to annihilate him."

The breath was sucked from me. Corné... Evvie...

It finally sunk in what I'd been about to do. What could have happened if Caidan hadn't intervened?

I'd given into my fury, to the creature inside. A heartbeat away from revealing myself. But it would have been my family who'd have paid with their lives if I'd been discovered.

"Get off me." The words came out broken and barely a whisper.

Graysen hesitated, then rocked back on his heels. I scooted out from beneath him. Too tired to go any further, I pulled my legs to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. A hard lump formed in my throat and tears threatened. I furiously blinked them back, dropping my gaze to my feet, to those silver shoes my mother gave me, now soiled with grass stains and dirt.

What is wrong with me?

What the hells am I becoming?

A monster, a killer, a life ender?

Graysen moved to crouch in front of me, cupping his crooked fingers beneath my chin to tilt my head upward to meet his gaze. The emotion swirling in his eyes squeezed my chest tight, and my heartbeat stumbled. Worried. He looked concerned and worried for me.

Does he care for me?

But his hand that had touched the friend of the Pelans was touching me.

"Take your hand off me," I hissed. "I don't want you touching me after you've touched her."

His whole body flinched. He knew exactly who I was talking about.

He removed his hand, but he didn't shift from his crouched position in front of me. Instead, he rested an arm on his bent knee and dropped his gaze to the split and rutted earth separating us, tension entering his clenched jawline.

"Evvie?" Caidan asked, worried, coming up to stand right behind us.

I snapped my spine straight. Panic flooded my chest.

Where is she? Is she alright?

I need to find her, now!

Rising swiftly, I wobbled a little in the stupid heels my mother put me in. Graysen unfolded his tall body, rising, and reached towards me, perhaps hoping to steady my balance.

I scowled, shirking aside.

And his hand dropped away.

The layers of my skirt were gathered between my fingers and held it up as I stepped over freshly broken branches with sap oozing from their wounds and messy clumps of tussock and ferns which had torn from the earth in my wrath.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Graysen gritted out.

"To find Evvie."

"She's with Corné—"

"You left her alone with Corné?!" I gasped, rounding on him, terrified.

Caidan reached my side, agitated. "Why did she even go back to him?"

Though it was Caidan who asked, Graysen spoke to me. "She's fine. I was with her when she confronted Corné and put him in his place."

"Six feet under?" Caidan snarled.

"As much as I'd have liked to dig the burial mound for his corpse, no." Admiration burned in Graysen's gaze as he tipped his chin at me. "But she gave him some of your fire."

My brow's nudged together, not quite understanding.

"She reminded him who he was—a dog beneath her," he said.

I wanted to smile, but I didn't have anything left in me to even curl my mouth up.

"He got the message," Graysen added. "He won't be messing with your sister anymore."

A cold feeling rippled down my spine, as I considered his words. "She's not calling off the engagement?"

Graysen slowly shook his head. Silky black locks of hair slid along his forehead.

Caidan grunted, turning away, muttering a few curses.

My heart sank. Of course, she wouldn't. And perhaps now I'd made things far worse for her with Corné. Someone like him would bide his time. He'd make someone pay for what I'd done, and that person would be my older sister.

Godsdammit, why do I never think things through?!

I sighed wearily, kneading my forehead. "Go away, just leave me alone."

Graysen made no move to leave.

So I did, concentrating on my steps as I ducked under low-hanging branches and navigated unearthed roots and moss-crusted rocks.

"So, what? You're going to walk back home?"

Inside, I still radiated with too much power. I could swift back to the edge of the woodland, burn a bit of that restless energy off. But I needed to untangle all my messy thoughts, and frustration regarding my sister's choice to remain with Corné. A physical walk would give me time to piece myself back together and get myself under control.

Not bothering to reply to Graysen, I simply let my actions speak for themselves. Ignoring him, I walked on.

The trees were thickly woven together, creepers knotting about their leafy branches like intricate lace. The only way out of the copse was a slender gap, blocked by a beech tree I'd snapped in half with my fury.

I climbed up on the broken tree trunk with bark studded with lichen and moss and cringed when a gauzy layer of my skirt caught on a twig and ripped.

Graysen was still following me. I could feel him close behind, that incessant thrumming in the air, the sparking awareness caressing my skin. Sucking in a deep breath I whirled back to him with a fierce look. He stood beside the tree trunk I was balanced on and we were almost the same height.

My voice grew stronger, threaded with steel. "I'm telling you as a Wychthorn. Go. Away."

He stared back with deep fathomless eyes. "Wychthorn—"

Whatever he was going to say, I didn't want to hear. Anger ignited. Fire weaved through my veins. My voice sounded cold and foreign, even to my own ears. "Consider your pretty little toy back in her box."

With the swiftness of a heartbeat, some pained feeling ravaged his face. There and gone, and I was left wondering if I'd even seen it in the first place.

A moment later, a storm brewed in his midnight eyes.

He was on top of the fallen tree before I could even register he'd moved.

His hand snapped out to ensnare my throat just below my jawline. His fingers gripped too hard, and I winced, gasping.

"Gray!" Caidan roared.

Graysen held out his other hand, pointing a finger to his brother in warning.

Brutal fingers angled my chin up until my neck arched painfully. He slanted his head to the side, narrowing his eyes on mine. "Get your shit together, Wychthorn." His words were delivered in an icy, cruel tone. "I don't know what the hells is going on in that head of yours, but get your fucking temper under control. Having a temper tantrum like a toddler—"

"A toddler?" I rasped. That fire within me flared hotter and a cold wind stirred his hair.

His fingers tightened their hold, and his eyes thinned to slits. "There you go again. I can feel you, do you know that?" He stabbed two fingers at his chest right above his heart. "Your fury, it burns inside of me, too."

My eyes startled wide. What did that mean? But before I could ask, he growled, "You're being reckless, irresponsible...stupid. The Houses are here. All of them. The Horned Gods are on their way." He paused. "Understand?"

As much as it infuriated me, as much as it terrified me, I did...I did understand.

"You let yourself fall into rage and strike out—you'll reveal yourself. They will take you, and they will butcher every single Wychthorn that haunts the earth."

He waited for my reply.

And I gave it to him.