My breathing sped, straining my lungs as I overworked them to accommodate my growing anger. Simon's audible pain fanned the flames of a dangerous rage in me. Manifested in my aura, it consumed the air around me as it had during my fight with Verena, only this time, the light was blinding against the sun, the heat molten.
There had not been a second crack before the men holding me hissed, snapping their hands away from the heat of my arms through the burning fabric of Simon's shirt. But too close to raise their weapons and fire, they hesitated and scrambled away from me.
I didn't bother to materialize weapons or give any soldier individual attention. My anger would not allow it. The red pillaging my vision was indiscriminate and not merciful. And when the furnace my body had become began to peel away my skin, I had no choice but to release the magic collecting in fires inside me.
