Flashback ( PDFDrive )

again, this time cracking bone. And instead of dissipating, the
shadows sank under her skin, shredding muscle and nerve with a
million icy tentacles.
“Let’s hope you’re ready to tell me now,” Gethen said as Sophie
dropped to her knees, gritting her teeth to silence her screams.
“Otherwise this is going to get messy.”
Tears blurred Sophie’s eyes as she used her good hand to retrieve
the Panakes blossoms tucked inside her pockets.
“That won’t help as much as you think it will,” Gethen warned as
she swallowed the pinkish, purplish, bluish petals.
“It won’t,” Umber agreed, twisting her fingers and making the
darkness slice into Sophie’s bones. “If you think that hurts, imagine
how it will feel when I tell the shadows to expand.”
“I doubt she cares,” Ruy warned.
“Oh, I’m sure she does.” Umber smiled, and Sophie closed her eyes,
bracing for pain—but nothing could prepare her for the agony that
followed.
There was a crackling pop—almost like a firework—and a stomachheaving
pressure as jagged bone punched through her skin and her
knuckle just . . . collapsed. Then another and another—though by then
Sophie had lost feeling, her senses too overloaded to process the
horror.
“Had enough?” Umber asked. “Or shall I keep going? There are
still plenty of little bones left—it’s one of my favorite things about the
hand.”
“You won’t break her that way,” Ruy insisted. “You have to threaten
her bodyguard.”