Chapter 10 · First Taste of Power

"Get away from me!" Lyra screamed, scrambling backward over the rusted metal floor.

Kane didn't hear her. Not really. He was still vibrating, his vision swimming in a thick, crimson haze that tasted like copper and ozone. His fingers were curled into claws, digging into the grit of the scrap-city floor. Under his skin, something was screaming. Not a voice—a hunger. A void that didn't just want to be filled; it wanted to rip the world apart to find what it was missing.

"Kane! Look at me!"

He snapped his head toward her. The movement was too fast, more predator than human. Lyra was pressed against a jagged bulkhead, her eyes wide with a terror he’d never seen in her before. She wasn't looking at him like a partner or even a weapon. She was looking at him like a monster.

"What did you do?" she whispered, her voice shaking. "What the hell did you just do?"

Kane looked down at his hands. They were glowing—a sickly, pulsing violet light that seemed to eat the shadows around them. A few feet away lay the Imperial Hunter he’d just dismantled.