of this moment surprisingly anticlimactic. Adriel, the big bad lamia, the reason I exist, the shadow that’s been hunting me my whole life, the murderer. I run my gaze all over him and decide he doesn’t quite live up to his reputation. He’s a petty, jealous psycho who amassed too much power, and now he’s going to die. I watch him carefully, not trusting his casual demeanor. I ready my weapons and move my weight to the balls of my feet. I bend my knees slightly and then I wait.
“If you kill me, you’ll never get that collar off,” Adriel taunts. He takes a step toward me and twirls his katana like it’s an umbrella and he’s about to pull a Tom Holland and bust out some Rihanna. He’s going for cool, calm, and collected, but his movements just announced that he’s skilled with the sword, and he’s struggling to move is left hand. It looks like he’s not recovered from my attempt to cut off his arm, or maybe he just wants me to think that so I underestimate him. Looks like I’m about to find out.
“You know, it didn’t have to be this way, Vinna. We could have done great things together,” he tells me, like he’s truly sad things have come to this.
Adriel brings the blade of his katana up slowly and taps lightly against one of my swords. I recognize the move well; Talon used to do it to me in the ring. Touch his pads to mine to test my resolve or see how tightly I was wound. I wonder offhandedly if Adriel taught the move to Talon or if Talon taught Adriel. I shake off the question and hold firm, not taking Adriel’s bait.
“Nothing to say, pet?” he presses, and I watch him shift his weight ever so slightly.
I say nothing. He’ll get no monologues from me. No final declarations about how he has this coming and only has himself to blame. He knows what the fuck I’m here to do. I can see it in his eyes, and he can see in mine that I’m not going to be fucking played with. Adriel spins tornado fast, and I get both my blades up in time to absorb the brutal blow. The power that he hits with vibrates from the swords into my hands and up my arms. I clench my teeth against the jarring sensation, and a shriek of metal on metal fills my ears as we both take a swipe at each other and meet the other’s blocks.
He mistakes my silence for capitulation. He thinks I’m going to let him lead this dance to death, but I’m not that bitch. So when he skips away from me, thinking he can regroup and come at me from another angle, I charge him. I hammer the fucker with my own raw power and show him, collar or not, he doesn’t have shit on me.
“Stop!” rings out around me, but it’s not merely a word. It’s a command. One that slithers out of Adriel’s mouth and wraps around my limbs, my mind, my will, and seizes control. I freeze mid-strike, and Adriel’s smirk becomes a self-satisfied grin. “Lower your weapons, pet,” Adriel commands, and that same force flows out of his lips and cloaks itself around me, pushing my swords to the ground.
My mind screams with impotent rage, and my heart is pumping with adrenaline and trying to beat out of my chest. I know that this is wrong and that somehow he’s taken control of my body, but I have no fucking clue how he’s doing it. Is it this fucking collar? Does it make my magic painful and force me to comply? Horror spreads through me like a wild fire, and I’m suddenly certain why Adriel wears a perpetual fucking smirk. Because he always knew he could stop me with just a word.
“Look at me!” Adriel demands, and the siren song he’s somehow released in his tone forces my terrified eyes to his. The sounds of the battle around me shut off somehow, and all I can do is focus on Adriel and anything coming out of his mouth. He steps into me and runs the tip of his blade lightly against my cheek. I scream in my mind, but my lips are no longer mine, and until I’m commanded otherwise, they stay shut and I stay silent.
“That’s a good pet,” Adriel coos at me, and he presses into me to run the