The pain was nothing like the dragon fire.
Dragon fire had been violent and sudden, like being struck by lightning. This was slower. Deliberate. Like something ancient and enormous was reaching inside his chest and rewriting him from the inside out.
Xin's back arched off the bed. Golden light poured from the mark on his forehead, from his palms, from the cuts on his arms — every wound suddenly blazing like opened veins of ore.
"Hold him down," Master Zhou snapped.
Princess Mei grabbed Xin's shoulders. He nearly threw her across the room without meaning to. A pulse of raw qi exploded outward, shattering the water basin on the table, cracking the mirror on the wall.
"Xin." Her voice cut through the roaring in his ears. "Look at me."
He could not find her face. Everything was gold and f
