"I was too angry to see what I was doing. In my childish mind, my mother deserved to be punished not just for betraying my father, but for betraying me.
"So this was why she sent me away? Not because of my animals, but because she wanted to have her fun. She chose that man over me.
"Even when the room swarmed with animals—birds clawing at their faces and hair, rodents biting at their feet until they bled—I didn't stop. I could hear my mother's hoarse, panicked voice begging me to call them off, but I was already gone, swallowed whole by the rush of my own power.
"It's easy to give in to the thrill when you're emotional. In that moment, you feel untouchable, like a god, while everyone else is just an ant you could crush between your fingers. And at that moment, I wanted to crush them all."
Roman's gaze shifted to Violet, testing her. He was searching for the flinch, the judgment, the fear anyone else would have shown. But she met his stare head-on, unshaken.
