"Step back."
The warning had barely left the air when Zara suddenly snapped awake in the arms of the guards holding her down.
One moment she looked like a beaten woman who had finally lost consciousness, and the next moment her entire body jerked so hard that even the beastmen restraining her almost lost their grip.
Her eyes flew open, and for one terrible heartbeat they turned completely black. Not dark brown. Not shadowed. Black. Like something rotten and bottomless had opened inside her skull and was staring out through her face.
Then the mark beneath her wrist split open.
It did not bleed normally. It cracked like old dry bark being forced apart, and a thick dark light spilled out from inside it. It looked wrong. It looked alive. It looked like something that had been waiting for the perfect moment to crawl free.
Isabella felt it before she understood it.
