Chapter 46 #2
“I was lonely even when I was surrounded by people and then I was murdered. I plummeted forty-two floors to land in this fevered medieval world. But it’s my home now.
And you will not take that from me. Because my home is Gregory.
And you forgot something.” I met his eyes.
“I’m mated to the Dragon Lord. His fire floods through my veins. ”
I reached for my thigh, fingers closing around the hilt of the blade Gregory and I forged together.
Not even holy metal can stop it.
In one swift move, I yanked it free and brought it to my neck. The edge scraped against the metal collar, cutting through the restraints with a violent snap.
My magic exploded outward, bursting through my skin in a rush of heat and power. My eyes burned as they turned emerald.
I spun away from Alaric and ran toward Mom, but his fingers snagged my arm. He jerked me back, his grip bruising.
I pivoted, touching the dragon carved into the dagger’s hilt. The draconic fire answered my call, roaring to life along the blade.
“I hope you can heal yourself,” I cursed.
I drove the dagger into his arm, and the fire devoured. It raced up his limb, consuming flesh and cloth alike. Alaric screamed, his grip releasing as he staggered back.
“You’ll regret this!” he yelled, his face contorted in agony.
“No. I won’t.”
I gripped Mom’s wrist and yanked her with me. The moment my feet hit solid ground, I jumped.
Sulfur and ash stung my eyes the instant we landed. Fire licked at scorched earth, painting the ridge in hellish orange. Bodies lay in heaps. Severed limbs. Heads. The smell of burning flesh clawed at my throat, and I gagged, bile rising.
I kept moving, shielding Mom from the flames, hauling her close against me as we staggered forward. The heat pushed in from all sides, but beneath the inferno’s roar, an unnatural silence choked the ridge, oppressive and suffocating.
My gaze swept across the battlefield, and my pulse died.
Gregory knelt on the scorched earth, held upright by the steel piercing his body.
Eight iron spears impaled him—two driven into each shoulder, one piercing each thigh, and two more gouged through his sides—all angled down into the ground, staking him in place.
His chin dropped to his collarbone, blood streaming from every wound and saturating the soil.
A scream tore from my throat. Horror surged up from my ribs and burst out in a sound I didn’t recognize as my own.
Mordaine walked toward him. Stalking. Deliberate. Predatory. An axe dangled from her grip. She heaved it high above her head, the blade snagging the glare of the fires. It paused at the apex. A terrible, suspended weight. A point of absolute finality.
Adam and William sprinted toward her from the left, battered and bleeding.
Arcs of silver lightning crackled from their hands, sputtering in violent bursts as they clashed with the soldiers blocking their path.
Swords met magic in a shower of sparks. Lyra trailed behind, her face streaked with soot and blood.
They fought to shove past, to plow through, but they wouldn’t make it in time.
Three seconds.
Less.
My mate would be dead in less than three seconds, and I had just enough time to rip the world out from under Mordaine.
“Mom, I’m sorry. Wait here.”
I released her and ran.
I clamped a hand over my chest, remembering what I was taught.
Use what’s in my heart as fuel.
The bond thrummed beneath my ribs, frayed and desperate. Gregory. My alpha. My home. I drew on it, on the terror of losing him, on the fury of watching Mordaine raise that axe. The energy built under my skin, a live wire buzzing, louder and louder until it screamed.
Create momentum.
I drove forward, boots slamming against scorched earth. My first jump launched me ten feet. The battlefield blurred. I landed hard, springing off the ground again without pause. The second jump spun me mid-air, a violent lurch that sent the world spiraling.
Root your mind.
I pictured the space directly in front of Mordaine. The exact patch of blood-soaked ground where I needed to be.
I jumped.
The world vanished in an emerald flash. My third jump slammed into the earth with the force of a meteor. For one agonizing second, all noise disappeared into a vacuum.
Then the world exploded.
A concussive wave of pure energy erupted from my feet, tearing through the ridge.
Mordaine flew backward, her body flailing through the air, and she crashed into the tree line. A tree trunk speared through her abdomen, impaling her. Soldiers and mages scattered like chaff, flung away by the shockwave.
My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the ground, my body seizing from the drain. Lyra’s healing boost was gone, burned away in the jump. Every nerve ending screamed.
But I made myself move.
I dragged myself forward, crawling through the blood-soaked dirt until I reached Gregory. Steel shafts pinned him down, embedded so deep they might as well have been part of the earth itself.
I reached for one with trembling fingers, trying to wrench it free from his arm. It didn’t budge.
A yell tore from my throat, a fractured sob. I scrambled closer, my grip shaking as I touched his face. Blood pooled beneath him, soaking into the ground. I slid my hand behind his neck, lifting the weight he could no longer bear.
He’d been stripped of everything. No armor. No clothing. Nothing but torn flesh and blood.
My lips quivered, and my lungs burned, the pain so vicious it stole my breath.
“Gregory,” I whispered in a fractured gasp. “My mate. I’m here. Please don’t go. I’m here—”
Something punched my chest.
Not pain. Not at first. Just immense pressure. Searing heat bloomed, spreading into wetness that soaked through my tunic and clung to my skin.
I lowered my chin.
Blood. But also a spear of writhing shadows, black and coiling, driven straight through my heart.
“Oh.” The word escaped softly, almost with curiosity. “Look at that.”
Spasms wracked my body as I collapsed to my side. Violent convulsions seized my muscles in tremors I couldn’t control. My hand shook as it fought to bridge the distance. Gregory’s fingers dangled limp above the blood-soaked soil. My grip closed around his and squeezed.
“After twenty-three years of fighting to keep my promise of building something meaningful from nothing.” I choked on the blood filling my mouth. “At least it meant something in the end.”