The Demon's Half

Chapter 41

I wasn't the same. And the monster, the Mudspawn, knew. It opened its hand and I fell to the ground. My body convulsed as something ancient uncoiled inside me. The oxygen felt cleaner, sweeter.
As if it was making me stronger.
The Mudspwan took a step back.

I lay there, soaked in blood and sweat, the mud clinging to my skin refusing to fall.
My father's shirt hung in shredded ruins around me, stained crimson, sliced by thorns. The soil beneath my palms pulsed. Then it moved for me.
The roots moved like fingers. I could feel every leaf. Every stone. Every inch of the world around me—and it felt me back. Because we were one.
The monster reared back.
Its glowing eyes widened, flickering in panic.
It knew.

My blood-slick fingers twitched. And the earth obeyed. Cracks tore through the ground. Roots exploding upward, covering the monster's legs, its arms, its twisting mass of mud and vine.
The Mudspawn screeched.
I rose. Shaking. My leg screamed with every heartbeat, but the power screamed louder.
My hand lifted and the vines shot up like spears, slamming into its chest, slicing through its torso, coiling tighter.
It struggled.
The mud tried to reform but I stopped it, pressing my palms together. Concentrating on disintegrating it. Because I owned this now.
I owned the earth now.
Thick, black sludge spilled from its wounds. It let out a distorted, choking wail, thrashing wildly. My fist clenched and the vines pulled, separating the monster in half.
It was over.
The Mudspawn collapsed into nothing but sludge and shredded roots, its body dissolving into the dirt like it had never been real.

I stood there.
Breathing like I'd been drowning for years. The power flowed inside me, waiting for a command. I wasn't done. The thorned vines holding everyone tightened, sensing fear, sinking deeper into torn skin. My palms faced the sky. And the cages shattered. Jade, Logan, and Elliot dropped to the ground in a tangle of blood and gasps.

"Shit," Logan rasped, staggering to his knees. "Morgan—"

Couldn't hear the rest.
They all talked at once.
"What the fuck?"
"I saw you die!"
"What the hell are you?"
Something else I didn't catch—
Because the maze shivered.

Not the kind of shake you feel in an earthquake.
This was the ripple that runs down a spine just before something terrible happens. My heartbeat roared in my ears as I faced the towering walls of the labyrinth. The trees rustled. The bushes listened. And I could hear them. Not with my ears but with my whole being.
They spoke in roots and memory.
Whispers from centuries buried beneath stone.
They told me stories. Offered me strength. I let them in.
The labyrinth exploded into splinters as I screamed toward the sky, tearing through walls like paper. And I didn't stop until there was nothing left.

At my left: Bo. Oddy. Solange.
Slumped on the ground, just like Jade, Logan, and Elliot. Their bodies streaked with blood, thorn cuts showing on their skin. But they barely reacted. Maybe they didn't care. Maybe they knew the thorns weren't enough to kill them, that their wounds were nothing but an inconvenience.
But still some foolish mortal part of me was glad they were alive. I hated that.

Clap. Clap.
Clap.
I turned.

Ornella stood at the edge of the wreckage, not a speck of dirt on her, like the destruction had politely stepped around her. Her jaw clenched so tight I could see the veins popping on her neck.
She wasn't smiling. That meant she was furious.
Which was strange. Considering she still wanted my "powers" to manifest. But it wasn't her who stole my breath.
It was Ozias Dravenkov.

He stood beside her, shadow-still. He wasn't looking at me. His eyes were locked on his brother. The lazy, wicked smirk he always wore—gone. And Oddy, bloodied, still on one knee, met that stare with the exact same defiance. They weren't speaking. But something passed between them.