Chapter 74: Lyre: Something Wicked This Way Comes (I)
LYRE
Life was a lot easier when I roamed free.
This strange urge I have to help Grace has pushed me to do things I haven’t done in centuries. Things I’ve almost forgotten about.
But some habits die hard—like my talent for making dramatic entrances.
The reinforced steel door crumples under my foot like it’s made of aluminum foil. Pathetic. Not even warded properly. The crash echoes through the underground chamber it guarded, and I step through the wreckage with practiced nonchalance.
"What the fuck—"
"Intruder!"
"Kill her!"
Same predictable script, different basement. I don’t bother wiping the boredom from my face as three young wolves lunge at me, all snarls and extended claws.
Amateurs.
I’ve been dealing with their kind when their great-great-grandfathers were still pissing on trees.
A flick of my wrist sends arcana pulsing through the concrete floor. The energy responds to my command instantly, gravity suddenly quintupling beneath their feet. All three slam face-first into the ground with satisfying thuds.
condensing the air around their
wide-eyed panic. Shifters always forget some of
dying fireflies. The stench here is about what I expected—a nauseating cocktail of rotting meat, puddles of blood congealing along the packed dirt floor, unwashed bodies, and the product of their existence in this place.
in particular as I stride forward. "Decent plumbing, too.
Cages. Rows of them, stacked two high along both walls. Inside each, ten to fifteen bodies crammed together—shifters ranging from infants to teenagers. Some whimper as I pass. Others stare with hollow eyes. There’s no hope when
they never learned
atrocities to curdle the blood of gods, but this particular brand of cruelty never fails to ignite that dangerous pocket of rage I keep
strong will always come out to oppress the
grasping at my sleeve. His eyes flash amber in the dim light.
today, little one," I whisper, gently untangling
a crowded room. It leads me to a heavy metal door
continues. Then again, she was never great at learning
is larger, circular, with sigils etched into the floor
a child, with wide eyes and porcelain skin. Dressed in a pristine white dress, as if she’s headed to Sunday school instead of conducting blood
"Still going for the creepy Victorian doll aesthetic, I
rage,
she’s bad at learning her
snarls, and I
"In the flesh."
shriek, she lifts her hands, and the blood pooling around her feet rises in dozens
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