"Did you really think you could control me?" Ryder’s voice was calm, but the air around him crackled with barely contained fury. The chains, which had once kept him bound, now lay in pieces around him like broken promises. His eyes, those dark pools of fire, never left Sienna.
Sienna stood frozen, the weight of his gaze making her heart race. She had known this moment would come , had known that Ryder would not remain caged forever. But the sight of him now, standing free in the center of the council hall, was something else entirely. He was no longer the man she had once known. The monster in him had awoken, and she could feel it, thick and powerful, pushing against the fragile walls of the room.
"I didn’t try to control you," she said, her voice low and steady, though her insides were
