When my hands closed around Damon Salvatore’s throat, the final payment was due. The raw, primal noise in my head drowned out the agonizing sounds of the hallway—Domenico’s grief-stricken cry, Isabella’s sharp scream, and the terrible silence that followed her collapse. Damon was pinned beneath me, the source of the rot, the monster responsible for every tragedy in my life, and my cold, pure fury focused on the sound of his last, useless struggles.

I pressed down, harder than any human ...