Remi felt the weight of her uncle's words being hurled directly at her. He was willing to kill her in order to gain . . . what? A higher position in society?

"The other lords and dukes would never respect you, never mind obey you," Remi snarled. "They're just as monstrous in heart as you."

This man had killed her family, and she hadn't even seen it coming.

Remi had known for a long time that Uncle Fahrem was a psychopath with no moral compass, but so was everyone else these days.

There was no morality in Merricrest, or anywhere else for that matter, but most people and creatures would still consider killing your children taboo.

In Remi's mind, it was a devastating, terrible thing. What kind of messed up mind could be so incapable of love that they could remorselessly kill their own family?

Little Kareem had an entire lifetime ahead of him, and so did Faye and Caede. This just wasn't fair. Nor was it right.

Remi had to figure out a way to get between her uncle and the bodies of her sister and cousin, and then somehow get to Kareem—wherever his tiny body was laying right now.

She couldn't let him consume them with his dark energy. They'd be gone forever if that happened, and the thought of that was unbearable.

"They will obey me, if they know what's good for them," he stated plainly, never once allowing her words to anger him. "You see, my niece, I've been planning this takeover for nearly fifty years. Putting pieces into place, moving pieces around the board, taking others away. Making everything perfect so that it would be ready for my rule."

"It will fail," Remi whispered, hatred filling her voice, dripping from her word like thick, golden honey.

He sauntered over to her slowly, his hands wrapped behind his back. He stepped over Caede's leg and Faye's sliced-up arm without a second thought. He truly didn't have any remorse.

That thought terrified Remi.

She'd been hoping to try and show the people of Merricrest a better way, but if society was anything like her uncle, she didn't stand a chance.

"Do you know how many years I've been alive, Remi dear?" he asked her, stroking one of the small horns coming out of his head thoughtfully.

Remi stayed silent. She didn't know. A long time, she assumed. Perhaps three hundred years?

"Five hundred years," her uncle announced, his voice loud and powerful. "Five hundred years to discover what it means to be a Designer, and how my abilities can benefit me. You're just starting to figure out projection? I discovered it four hundred and ninety years ago, and have had that long to perfect it, and to make my abilities into something monstrous. There is no one who can stop me."

Five hundred years? None of the lords or dukes had been alive for that long. No one Remi knew had been alive that long.

What had life been like that long ago? Was it just as depraved and vile as it was today?

Suddenly, Remi's arms felt limp at her sides. They swayed with the breeze, nearly weightless.

Weak.

Who was she against her monster of an uncle? Her newfound ability to project her light energy might be powerful, but her uncle was on an entirely different level. Not only did he have the superior ability of dark energy, which could disintegrate anything with just a touch, but he'd also had the impossibly long lifespan that allowed him to have mastered and perfected his skill in using his energy.

She was a speck of dirt, and he was a mountain.

Remi's shoulders sagged, and the burning fire inside of her seemed to leave with every exhale, until she could do no more than avert her gaze.

And that was all it took for her uncle to, in a mere two or three seconds, send dark spirals of his energy sailing behind him, consuming Faye and Caede in an instant.

Their bodies faded from existence, and only small piles of dust remained in their absence.

Remi's head snapped up, and her eyes widened until they hurt. Her throat became dry, and she stumbled backwards in shock, crumbling to her knees.

Caede and Faye were gone. There was no chance of bringing them back to life.

And her own uncle was the cause of it.

Something twisted and distorted began boiling in Remi's chest. It scorched her insides, racing through her veins until they pumped molten lava, leaving her heart a swollen red, and destroying her. Lacing her bones in a fire that could never be put out, and burned hot enough to snuff out and dominate every other emotion she was feeling, until only one was left.

Rage.

Complete, undiluted, relentless, hot rage.

A wildfire burned inside of Remi. Flames licked at the insides of her eyes, crackling and snapping. She was ready to ignite everything and everyone, and there would be no controlling it.

She was a giant, carnivorous volcano, and pressure was building within her as she thought of all the injustice.

Caede, Faye. Precious little Kareem.

All the gaunt slaves that were whipped, starved, or beat to death every day.

All those whose bodies had been left to decay in the streets because they'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Every poor person who was sold to Papa Roche's Meat Palace because someone deemed their life to be worthless.

All the women who were raped, their spirits broken and eyes turned listless and dead, for the amusement or temporary pleasure of others.

All the fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and children who had been ripped away from those who cared deeply for them.

Remi's light energy burned more blue than ever—almost electric, as it raced up Remi's arms and then down her torso, covering her entire body in furious, unrestrained blue.

She could feel her hair levitating in the air and fanning out around her as if it had a will of its own, dancing like hot fire, each tendril a dangerous, coiled snake ready to attack.

The volcano that contained Remi's anger abruptly blew sky high as her fury is released without consequence.

She flicked her wrists, and her energy exploded towards her uncle in the shape of a hundred spears, the tips of each refined to a deadly, terrifying point. They ached to impale the terrible man, threw his legs, stomach, arms, shoulders, neck, mouth, eyes and head.

Remi wanted him dead, and in that moment, she didn't care about the consequences, or how guilty she might feel later on. Right now, nothing mattered, aside from exacting justice on this monster of a man, and releasing her vengeance on him for taking away her family.

Remi bared her teeth, and every ounce of rage within her soared towards her uncle.