A Violet Fire (Vampires in Avignon #1) - Kelsey Quick Page 0,113

do? What could I do, if I saw him now? Even though Zein had committed so many crimes against me, could I even trust myself to exact my own revenge? Would I sit there and beg for him to prove the truth false? Would I happily allow him to shield my eyes from the pain of reality, simply because living every day bitter and lonely for the last ten years had been excruciating enough?

My face drops as enlightenment sheds upon me like the rising sun on this cold winter morning. I’ve changed. When did I become so weak and dependent as to shun the facts of life for the sake of my feelings? My eyes burn holes into the wristlets that grant me such stunning weapons. Steadfast, I make my choice.

Vampires are evil. They deceive. They feed on the weak. They take advantage of the dying. They live to starve their prey of any purpose, and they manipulate, and they lie.

Even Zein.

Especially Zein.

The ultra-violet wrist protrusions become several times brighter, showcasing sparks of electric pulses as their girths extend to compensate for the sheer power. I watch the vampires advance forward to take on Castrel and Thelor. I watch as they all cower at the increasing threats that sit idle, though ready, upon my wrists. I have power over the vampires. All of them.

Something clicks, and my body moves.

I run and I swing and I yell and I cry. My weapons connect like sizzling firecrackers and I kill. My wrists flick back and forth in rhythm and I avenge. Castrel and Thelor shout at me, but their words jumble together. I’m on fire with anger. In these few moments of dominion over my oppressors, I avenge every human face and ill fate that I can picture. Savvy, Katarii, Glera, Emi, Anaya, even Amaorin’s girls, even the units that didn’t make it past distribution. In my mind, I avenge the plights of all humanity; of all the souls that had to suffer from the destruction of these monsters. All of them, except for that of my family and my lost town of Avignon. Their plight will carry on through mine until I have taken the life of the one who betrayed me, the one who killed them.

My body lurches to a halt when I see him.

A complete and total stillness covers the plane of Cain’s majestic emblem. Silence befalls my whole world even as the armor of the few remaining soldiers clank to the ground, their owners performing a strained bow. Thelor and Castrel are shouting at me, urging me into the chariot that arrived behind us, even going so far as to lift me and rush me to the edge. The twisted knots in my stomach throbs while my eyes blur in and out, fixating on the center of my existence; the center of a lost world.

Lord Anton Zein.

chapter 22

When I see his eyes widen from a split second of surprise, my fight returns.

“No!” I scream and push myself away from Thelor and Castrel with strange ease, falling to my feet and running toward Zein with a rush of vengeance.

“Stop, Wavorly! You can’t defeat him!” Castrel says, but I refuse to listen. I focus on how Zein stares at me. I’m in such a rage that I barely notice his advisors behind him: Gemini and Narref. I can take them all. I can kill them all.

I yell at Zein, unbridled, with as much force as my lungs can handle, “How dare you! You deceitful and conniving, soulless—”

The weapons on my hands extend even further, stretching a full three feet and gaining. Air and space fly by me faster than before, my senses heightened to a level incomprehensible. I wallow in the fear that plasters over all of their faces. All except Zein’s, which has started to rest to uneasy concern.

I’ll change that.

“You liar!” I scream as I whirl both of my hands around my body to come down on his neck. But he dodges. Easily. As if he had teleported from one spot to another, hands fastened behind his back. He watches me, worry skirting his seemingly unfazed expression. So, even his eyes lie.

I growl without restraint and try again and again, missing every time. Narref steps forward and Zein raises his hand.

“I will handle it,” calmly, Zein says to him.

He will handle it?

“No…,” I whisper, “No. You will not.”

His mouth twitches and his features soften. “Wavorly, stop this.”

I stand up straight and face him dead on, his regal nature