ere his fingers had dug in. She forced her hea
ave, but it was enough. She stared hard at his
a tail-a Merfolk tail. But it
kind. Now, it was a mass of festering wounds. Where the scales should have been, the
grated against those open, scale-less wounds. He left a smearing
tincts momentarily overridden by sheer human
ely formed in her mi
owner-surged up from the depths of her consciousness. They did
he was no longer in the damp cave. She was trapped inside the original Ja
held a crude bone knife, its edge stained with his blood. She
dripping with possessive madness. She placed a foot on
she pried one of hi
nd of pure, unadulterated despair, loud enough to make her ear
whose power crystal had been brutally gouged from his chest, leaving a gaping hole. She saw an eagle-man whose magnificent wings had been snapped and bound, his primary feathers violent
la gasping for air. Cold sweat plastered her dirt
s. The hatred, the fear, the physical revulsion-it was all
effort. She looked toward the corner where Jordi had retreated. He was a d
y. She wasn't
as gentle as she could manage, slowly extending one
-stiff. He snapped his head around, his blue eyes wide
is hand shot out, grabbing a jagged rock from the ground. He held it in front of hi
rieked. His voice cracked,
wing him she was unarmed. "Listen, I'm not going to hurt you..
wrong thi
gger. They were the exact same lie the original Jayla whi
ormed into a wild, uncontrolled rage. With a g
de. The rock whizzed past her ear, missing her skull by an inch. It sma
. A thin line of fire bloomed on her ski
that was even more paralyzing. He scuttled backward until he hit the cave wall, then he collapsed
er fingertips coming away wet and red. She took a deep b
ace of this kind of trauma, any explanation from the
oking at him. In the quiet of her mind,
we need to
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