Goldfinch (The Plated Prisoner, #6)

by Raven Kennedy

My father doesn’t even have time to blink. I lunge and have him by the throat in an instant. Rot pours into his body, trapping him in rancid rage. My fury dominates every other thought as my hatred floods into him with vicious intent. I rot his hands from his wrists, making the skin wither, the muscles melt, both limbs falling off to the ground. He screams in pain and tries to grapple at my hold, but his feet can’t touch the ground, and he can no longer call up his power at the snap of his fingers. I seethe into his face with bared teeth and dark hostility. Within my shaking, wrathful hold, his skin molders and greens, peeling away in painful strips. His teeth go black. His one good eye widens in fear as black veins leach into the white. I fucking told him. He was done. He was dead. There’s so much savagery in me that his soldiers can’t do a thing. They fall as one, starting with the one who stabbed my dragon’s heart. I rot him through first, making him gasp with decomposing lungs as poisoned blood pours from his every orifice. The other soldiers try to run, but their bones fester and crumble, death taking them to the ground with choked-off screams. I squeeze my father’s throat, trying to squeeze out every fucking inch of fear and pain that he’s capable of. I want him to feel it. To suffer. To die in agony and terror. “Culling the weak,” I snarl as his tongue dries out, the blackened husk breaking off. “You spineless, heartless, evil piece of shit. May you rot for fucking ...