Edwin never even had time to react. He crumpled to the ground, eyes wide and glassy, dead before he hit the stone. The scent of damp parchment and tarnished copper flooded the air, sharp and sudden, the way a wolf's scent always surges at the moment of death.
Every Sovereign Guard in the vicinity went rigid with shock. Weapons sang free of their sheaths, all pointed at me.
Rosalind stumbled back two steps, her face white. "Lynara, what kind of cursed thing are you holding?!"
She asked because Edwin had already received his Celestial Rank. The power of his Wolf Core shielded his body.
An ordinary weapon couldn't have come within a foot of him.
So in her mind, my blade had to be something unholy.
I raised the short blade, letting the light catch its edge. My voice was flat and cold. "Cursed? No wolf of the Abyss is worthy of wielding this."
"But you'll find out what it is soon enough."
I crouched beside Edwin's body and used the blade to carve out his heart.
"Since our dear First Beta had no heart to speak of, his heart's blood might as well serve a better purpose. A blood offering for my spirit wolf."
"Lynara, you vicious monster!"