Kai whipped his head around, shadows spilling off his shoulders with the motion. His mana sense screamed at him—yet there had been no warning, no presence before the voice.
A tall, slender woman stood there, draped in Seyren's clothes, but her bearing was all wrong. Her posture regal, predatory. Her eyes, no longer Seyren's, burned like coals.
"I've seen you," she said, voice like velvet over broken glass. "Ever since you crawled into this world. And I'm not impressed, humans. Die."
A whip of chaotic magic snapped through the air before Kai could even process her words. The blast cut shallow grooves across his chest and shredded a line across Vepice's armor.
Kai steadied himself, teeth bared. "Seyren?"
He already knew the answer.
"Yes. Queen Seyrel, at the moment," the woman purred, tilting her head as though mocking him. "Answer my question, or die."
And then she let it out. The dam broke.
