*Rhys*
I stood there, rooted to the spot as chaos unfurled before my eyes. The woman in the center of the tempest, who looked like Saoirse, moved with her grace, but it wasn't her. The air crackled with a sinister energy that I felt in the marrow of my bones.
"Shyla?" I whispered the name like a curse, watching her command the elements around her. She had taken over Saoirse's form.
My fists clenched at my sides, powerless as Shyla summoned whirlwinds and called down lightning. Trees splintered, and earth churned. Amid the wild dance of destruction, an odd pattern emerged.
My men, who had been readying for conflict, were somehow spared the brunt of her wrath. Like a deliberate brush of an artist avoiding certain spots on a canvas, her havoc wove around them, leaving them untouched.
"St
