Wildfire

Eighty Eight (18+)

Rayne

...

I...

I don't think I ever thought myself capable of violence...

Everyone around me outside of my family always assumed the worst of me due to being lowborn... So my family made sure to try and keep my head held high by keeping me beyond reproach...

Behave.

Be gentle.

Be kind.

Do not show your anger...

Or better yet... Do not get angry in the first place.

Do not complain.

Keep your hair silken and undyed.

Stay quiet.

Be mindful of my manners.

Respect my elders and make sure that my bow to them is lower than everyone else's so that none are offended.

I am always told to watch out for those around me and my entire life has been lived with the fear that each and every single one of my mistakes could be the reason that my family started to listen to all of the gossip... That they would want to leave for this very same palace and realize that the people surrounding them were right and that I was not worth their time, and not worthy of the Cloud name... That they would see sense and abandon me.

And I am so... So tired...

Of living as though I am going to be abandoned...

Tired of living my life having to watch my every move so that no one ever had any reason to ever think even less of me than they already did.

And I know that in this moment I am going against everything I had been taught and told myself... I know that a mild-mannered runt might turn and tuck their talons away while they run from the monster in front of them...

But I am so tired. Of being tired.

And this palace is a home that no one shall ever take away from me.

It's the home of my husband and a home worth protecting.

And knowing that is what leeches energy into my exhausted sleep deprived limbs as I claw and howl, Xiang's shoulder caught in the fist of my beast as I watch through my beast's eyes, my talons digging into his flesh with the greatest of satisfaction as the hate he introduced to my heart drives me to dig them deeper and the sad excuse for a man breaks and finally screams at me while he thrashes trying to get me to let go... But no matter how hard he struggles he shall not be released... He shall not break free so that he might aim his hellfire at me or anyone else ever again.

In his human form, Xiang is not a match for me, and the beauty in that fact is that if he were to try and shift to get away from the sting of the set of talons slashing away at his eyes so that he might avoid being blinded by the runt he stole sight and so much more from he shall end up trapped in the very chamber he fortified to protect himself and his awful poisonous heart or whatever it is in his chest that gives him some sense of purpose and the drive to keep tormenting us the way he does.

I shall take this man's eyes even if I cannot manage to take his life.

Either way, he is not walking out of this room a whole man. He shall be broken down into pieces to pay us all back for the damage he's done.

For the pain that he's caused.

I want to hear him scream the same way I was screaming.

I want to hear him beg for help.

I want him to know that he will never ever be the same again because at the moment I am determined to steal more than just his eyes I want to taint his soul so that every time he hears my name if he escapes from this room with breath in his chest he trembles and reaches up to touch his face so that he might feel the scars I am carving into his cheeks with my claws just as I have been doing the last fourteen days from his selfish and cruel actions. I want him to drain of all color and appear whiter than my hair every time he hears news of me.

I want Xiang to feel every ounce of the poison he pumped into my being and know that he could have avoided all of this by simply being a decent man, if not a decent King. If he had not mocked me and tormented me... I want him to know the he has forced my hand.

I want him to know, as my longest claw finally catches the right angle to catch one of his eyes, that the way I am digging into his flesh is just as intentional as the way he had asked the Hirai's to harm me... Just as intentional as him slipping that poison into the tonic that was meant to help me rest... Just as intentional as him leaving my name off of every single invitation to this damned blackened palace that I never imagined feeling so very protective over.

...

Emrys

...

I never imagined there might be a day where I might think of the beautiful shard of starlight that has captured my heart...

Is terrifying.

But most beautifully.

I had rushed over here to help him... To give him the assistance I thought he needed... But somehow he managed to pin Xiang all on his own... Proud King Xiang slammed and pinned against the wall by the very same runt that he has been so hell-bent on taking the life of... The love of my life still in shifted form and full of a lust for the darkness that I never thought I would see the shine in his eyes... The calmness in which he collects himself for a moment while Xiang's pitiful sobs fill the air before the screaming starts...

This King...

This poor pathetic excuse of a shifter who thought himself a King.

He doesn't know the meaning of the word...

But by the time my Moon Beam is done... He shall know the meaning of Queen at the very least.