I didn't scream.
I didn't move.
I couldn't.
Salien's blood was still warm on the floor, trickling into the cracks of the shattered ritual circle. The man who had stood beside us only minutes ago our strongest mage, our last hope was now a corpse. And the one responsible had been reduced to ash by a single, unspoken command from my child.
My son.
Auren was still sitting upright, his tiny chest rising and falling fast, his hands trembling at his sides. His eyes blazed gold, not blue. Not witchfire. Something else entirely. Something older.
He didn't look afraid.
He looked aware.
I stepped forward slowly. "Auren…"
He turned his head to me. "He wanted to hurt you. I didn't let him."
My heart cracked and rebuilt itself in the same breath. I dropped to my knees and reached for him, my fingers hovering near his cheek.
"Auren, you have to listen to me now. That kind of power you can't let it control you. You can't use it without understanding it."
