"Behold," said the voice in the darkness. "Look at what you truly are."

The words echoed through Tessa's head, entrancing her. All she could hear through the blood rushing through her ears was that voice, and it was smooth. Silky. Coaxing her into submission, to lay her weapon down.

Her sword was long gone already. Her hands were too slick with blood that she couldn't hold onto its hilt.

"Open your eyes," the voice urged.

Slowly, Tessa did, and what she saw was carnage. Bodies littered across the stone ground, blood pooling from their wounds into rivers of scarlet and onyx. Fires burned against the walls, casting dizzying shadows against them.

The blood on her hands felt warmer. Her pulse grew stronger, like she had her hands wrapped around someone's heart.

"Did you really think you could live without destruction?" the voice taunted. "Your very existence invites chaos. You are not a girl, Tessa. You are not even a half-blood. You are a monster, and to live in ignorance of that fact is to not live at all."

Tessa stared at the bodies. Blinking through the haze of the voice, she realized there were only four. Four bodies. Four bloody, dead bodies. Had she killed them? Whose blood was on her hands?

Destruction, she thought. Chaos.

This was truth in its rawest form, a legacy she had tried to run from to no avail. This was her life, and this would be her destiny. Anything else was a fever dream.

Her muscles twitched with surges of power. Her eyes seemed to burn.

You are a monster.