Kael looked like the end of the world manifested as a being.
Sera stood frozen beside the bed of the tiny stone room, her pulse hammering so hard it hurt. As much as she tries to deny it, her body was trembling with fear, and if her knees shook much more, she was going to collapse on the bed.
He'd been reduced to a dark molten human-like cloud; his eyes glowed molten amber in the darkness. His skin had turned pale, almost ash-gray, beneath the shifting shadows wrapping around him like living smoke.
His horns were longer now, jagged and spiked, and the massive wings behind him had changed too. The edges ended in claw-like hooks, sharp enough to rip through flesh.
But it was the shadows that terrified her most.
They---
Moved!
Not because of magic – although it was magic!
But it felt---
Alive!
Lashing out with intent...
Dark tendrils slithered around his body in thick streams of black smoke, pulsing like a living thing starving for destruction.
