Theo's back arched violently off the permafrost, his mouth opening in a silent, wide-eyed scream of sheer, incomprehensible torment, his vocal cords paralyzed by the shock of cold iron and ice entering his core.
Rhys's fingers clamped firmly around the warm, pulsing muscle within.
Without a single microsecond of hesitation, Rhys twisted his wrist ninety degrees, severing the primary arterial pathways, and ripped his hand backward with a single, violent, sovereign pull.
SPLATTER!
With a sickening, wet tear of ruptured muscle and bone, Rhys tore Theo Althalos's beating heart completely free from his chest cavity.
Theo's eyes went wide.
The cold cerulean light in his irises flickered violently, turned a dull, lifeless gray, and rolled backward into his skull.
