[VOLUME 12: THE ORIGIN][ERA: THE PRIMEVAL AGE][LOCATION: ELARA'S APOTHECARY]
The plump red apples thumped softly against the wooden floorboards, rolling into the corners of the apothecary.
For a fraction of a second, the air in the room vanished. The pressure dropped so violently that the glass vials on Elara's shelves rattled against their wooden racks.
Li moved faster than mortal eyes could track. One moment he was at the doorway; the next, a blur of silver-grey silk swept across the counter. He didn't touch the black scale with his bare skin. Using the thick leather of Elara's own satchel flap, he struck the glowing object, knocking it off the wood and straight into an empty, cast-iron mortar bowl on the far table.
Simultaneously, Aldren was there.
His massive hands, calloused and burning with an unnatural, terrified heat, seized Elara's wrists. He didn't look at the scale. His wild, amber eyes—flecked dangerously with a barely concealed crimson—were locked entirely on Elara.
