The blade was coming down, and I didn't reach for the void.
I could feel it, heavy and pulsing in my chest like a coiled serpent, screaming at me to unleash a shockwave to vaporize the charging warrior. But to do that, the vacuum would lock onto the nearest beating hearts. It would lock onto the small, fragile heart of the little boy, Leo, who was still gasping for air on the ground, his skin a sickly, permanent shade of ash. It would lock onto his mother, Sarah, who was shielding him with her body.
I refused to be the monster that killed them to save myself.
I threw my body over Silas’s broad, exposed chest, burying my face in the curve of his neck. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for the impact.
"No!" Kael’s voice screamed from somewhere in the crowd, too far to intervene.
The he
