FIA
Then he moved.
His leg swept out in a wide arc, fast enough that I barely registered it before it connected. It took both of us out from under ourselves. I went down hard on my hip, the impact shooting up my side in a sharp, jarring pain, and Morrigan hit the floor beside me with a heavy thud that rattled the loose debris around us.
By the time I forced my body to respond, he was already on his feet.
Not as steady as before, though. I saw it this time. The slight hitch when he shifted his weight, the uneven pull of his breath as his chest rose and fell. He was tiring. It wasnāt much, but it was something, and in a fight like this, something was enough to keep going.
We were wearing him down.
I pushed myself up, ignoring the way my hip protested, and charged before he could recover properly. If we gave him space, even a second, he would take it and turn it against us.
He tried to sidestep me, but Morrigan was faster.
Her hand shot out and caught his ankle, claws digging just enough to hold. It threw him off balance, his body pitching forward, and I hit him at full force before he could correct it. The impact drove him back into the wall, and the plaster shuddered under the force of it, dust shaking loose around us.
For a second, I thought I had him pinned.
Then his hand found my throat.
His grip closed tight, fingers digging in with bruising force, and everything narrowed instantly. My air was cut off and the pressure started to build. I found black spots flickering at the edges of my vision like something alive, something waiting to swallow me whole if I let it.
I didnāt let it.
I brought both fists down on his forearms as hard as I could manage, ignoring the way my muscles screamed in protest. The first rattled him. But the scecond... The second hit landed right, and his grip faltered just enough to give me an out.
I twisted away, dragging in a breath that burned all the way down, my lungs protesting the sudden rush of air.
Morrigan was there again.
She didnāt hesitate. She never did.
Her hands locked onto his shoulders, and she used his imbalance against him, throwing him toward the center of the room. He stumbled over the broken pieces scattered across the floor, his foot catching on something I didnāt see, and for a moment he almost went down again.
I didnāt give him the chance.
I came in from behind, grabbing onto what was left of his shirt and yanking hard. The fabric was already torn where Morriganās claws had ripped through it earlier, and it gave easily under my grip, splitting apart into ragged strips that came away in my hands.
I threw them aside without thinking.
And then I saw his back.
It stopped me for half a second, just long enough for the realization to settle in.
They looked like... Runes.
They covered him from shoulder to waist, etched into his skin in patterns that didnāt make sense no matter how long I looked at them. Lines twisted into shapes that refused to settle into anything familiar, overlapping and weaving in a way that made my eyes ache if I tried to follow them too closely.
But that wasnāt what mattered.
What mattered were the ones that glowed.
Bright. Hot. Red.
They pulsed against his skin like something alive, like embers buried too deep to go out. And I knew them. Not the shapes, not the meaning, but the feeling.
Those were the places I had touched.
Every time I had tried to heal him. Every time I had pushed that energy into him, hoping to reach Gabriel through whatever this was. It hadnāt just done nothing.
It had been burning through it.
The realization hit me all at once, sharp and clear.
I looked at Morrigan.
She was breathing hard, blood still running from her nose, streaking down over her mouth and chin, but her eyes were clear and tunnel focused. When she met my gaze, I didnāt need to explain.
There was an unspoken synergy and she understood exactly what I wanted .
She moved before I even shifted, circling around him, her steps deliberate despite the strain in her body.
Aldric realized it too late.
By the time he turned, Morrigan was already there. Her arms wrapped around his chest, locking his arms to his sides, her claws digging in deep enough to hold him in place. He fought immediately, his body bucking violently, muscles straining as he tried to break free, but she held on, bracing herself against him with everything she had left.
"Do it," she ground out, her voice tight with effort.
I didnāt hesitate.
I stepped in and pressed both palms flat against his back.
This time, the power came without resistance.
It surged out of me in a flood, bright and immediate, that blue light spilling over my hands and into him like it had been waiting for this. The moment it touched those glowing runes, everything changed.
Aldric screamed in both terror and agony.
It tore out of him in a way that didnāt sound human. It was raw, jagged, full of something ancient and furious, and it vibrated through him into me, into the floor, into the air itself. His body convulsed under my hands, muscles seizing as the energy pushed deeper.
Heat built beneath my palms, intense enough that I could feel it even through the light, and the runes reacted.
They flared brighter at first, like they were fighting back, like whatever magic held them in place was trying to resist. Then, slowly, they started to darken.
To burn out.
She stood in the doorway like she had always been there, like she hadnāt just appeared out of nowhere. She stayed calm and still despite the fact that the Grand Luna was chraging toward her. There was something unsettling about it, the way her expression didnāt change or react to the chaos around her.
I didnāt think about it.
There wasnāt time.
I reacted.
My fist came up and slammed into Aldricās face with everything I had left. I felt the impact travel through my knuckles, felt the give of cartilage as Gabrielās nose broke under the force. Blood spilled immediately, hot against my skin, and his grip loosened.
I didnāt stop.
I hit him again.
I couldnāt feel sorry about it. There was no time for guilt about using Gabrielās face as a punching bag when Morrigan was closing in on that girl with murder in her eyes.
"Morrigan, no!"
She didnāt hear me. Or she didnāt care.
The girl didnāt even move. She just raised one hand, almost lazy in the gesture.
And I felt the charge in the air, even from where I was.
Morrigan flew backward.
Like an invisible hand had grabbed her and thrown her with enough force to send her crashing through the window behind her. Glass shattered. The sound of it breaking was almost delicate compared to the heavy thud of Morriganās body hitting something outside.
"No!!!!"
The scream tore from my throat, raw and desperate.
I started toward the window, but the girlās voice stopped me.
"Sheāll be fine."
I turned to look at her. Really look at her.
She was young. Younger than me, maybe. Her features were delicate, almost fragile, but there was nothing fragile about the way she held herself. She stood in the wreckage of the room like she owned it.
"I did not intend to harm her," she said. Her voice was soft. Conversational. Like we were discussing the weather instead of the fact that sheād just thrown a woman through a window. "Iām just here for you... To take you."
"Over my dead body."
I charged.
Every muscle in my legs screamed as I pushed off the floor, closing the distance between us in three long strides.

Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: To ruin an Omega