I staggered back a step, my boots scraping harshly against the obsidian floor. I let out a sharp, breathless sound that was halfway between a scoff and a laugh.

"Primordial," I repeated, tasting the word on my tongue. It felt ridiculous. "That is a myth. A children's bedtime story designed to scar

The magical projection of Seraphina’s sneering face dissolved into a wisp of foul-smelling gray smoke, leaving the shadow realm in suffocating silence.

I stared at the empty space where my father’s tortured image had just been, my chest heaving as if the air had been sucked from the room. My nails

Darius shrieked, a high-pitched, entirely un-lordly sound that echoed off the vaulted glass ceilings. He stumbled backward, clutching his right hand against his chest. The smell of searing flesh and melted metal filled the ballroom.

Where the binding rune had touched my bare arm, not a single mark