VANESSA'S POV
Power was no longer just inside me; it was me. The beam of moonlight from the fissure above was a physical tether, a river of liquid silver energy pouring into my core and overflowing. The air in the chamber crackled with it, tasting of ozone and cold, clean night. My skin glowed, and when I breathed, tiny motes of light shimmered in the air around me.
The stunned silence of the cult lasted only a moment. Chaos erupted.
Some fell to their knees, their fervent chants turning to prayers of terror and supplication. Others, the true fanatics, scrambled for weapons, their eyes wide with a mixture of fear and furious zeal. Their leader was the first to recover, pushing himself up from where my shockwave had thrown him. His awe had curdled into rage.
"Seize her!" he roared, his
