Chapter 64 #3
My heart lurched. "What's happening?" I gasped.
Wolfe's gaze locked on the window as flashes of red and white light flooded the room in a deadly glow. "Someone's here."
"Someone?"
"Someone who shouldn't be here."
He was on his feet in an instant, striding across the room. With a sharp motion, he yanked the curtains wide, his glare fixed on the chaos beyond.
"Fuck," he hissed, his body going rigid. His hand crushed against the sill, wood groaning beneath his grip as the blaze lit his face in stark fury.
I rose from the bed, my heart pounding so hard I couldn't catch my breath.
Wolfe crossed the room in two strides, his hands gripping my shoulders. "Stay here."
"But—"
"Elariya, listen to me. Stay here."
Before I could protest again, he was gone, the door slamming shut behind him.
Blessed Mother, what in the hells could be going on?
Who in the ever-loving fuck was here?
And now? Only moments away from the reset.
How long did I have left? A few minutes?
Gods, the reset was upon me, and I’d be useless, and helpless, when it struck.
Silence swallowed the room for half a breath. Then the world outside erupted in chaos.
The floor shuddered beneath my feet as something massive landed nearby. Another dragon's roar shook the air, deeper and crueler than anything I'd ever heard. The sound ripped straight through my bones.
Shouts echoed in the distance, cut off by the clash of steel, then the rumble of flame.
Fire blazed across the sky, the heat seeping through the stone walls.
Blessed Mother, I couldn't stay here. How could I stand here and do nothing while Wolfe was out there battling gods knew what?
More chaos exploded beyond the walls, sounding like the end of the world, and I knew I had to move.
I did.
I yanked the door open and hurried into the corridor.
The front door was wide open. I ran straight through it and froze at the sight before me.
Fire painted the twilight sky and tore across the courtyard. Wolfe was in the sky, wings of shadow flared wide. With his sword, he slashed the air, but… there was nothing there.
No foe I could see, only the rippling distortion of power clashing against his own.
Gods above. The force he fought was invisible, yet I felt it in my bones, a pressure crushing the air that made the world groan.
Through the fire, I could just make out Hedion and Pyrion behind Wolfe.
They bellowed their fury, flapping against the wind, but their massive forms strained against a lattice of red light that held them bound.
Sigils etched into the air shimmered and held them fast, sealing them away from their rider.
My heart stopped. Whoever had come for us hadn't only found us, they had come prepared.
Think, Elariya. Think. Do something. And fast. The seconds were ticking by.
If Wolfe could see what he was fighting, that might help.
A spell came to me, and I lifted my hands, summoning what little focus I had left.
"Blessed Mother, give us sight!” I shouted as loudly as I could. “Let the things unseen be revealed. Let no enchantment hide them from our sight."
Light flared from my hands in response, scattering into the air, then it burst across the sky, revealing phantom specters.
For a heartbeat, shapes flickered where the force pressed against Wolfe in spectral outlines wreathed in red sigils. Gods, they were clawing at him from every side.
My stomach dropped. My spell didn't seem powerful enough to completely remove the cloak that kept them hidden, and I couldn't tell who or what they were.
I chanted another spell that fizzled in the air to nothing. I repeated the first spell, but nothing happened.
Lightning cracked where Wolfe flew, splitting the air with violent energy.
For a heartbeat, the world held its breath, then reality bent and shimmered. From the fractured air, a sword wreathed in lightning materialized, driving straight through Wolfe's chest with sickening finality, the wet, terrible sound of steel punching through flesh and bone.
"Wolfe!" I screamed from somewhere deeper than my lungs, as if my very soul was being flayed.
Wolfe hung suspended in the air, the sword protruding from his chest at an obscene angle.
Dark blood seeped around the steel, staining his white shirt in expanding crimson blooms. He swayed in the air, one hand instinctively reaching toward the blade before falling uselessly to his side.
His face had gone ashen, eyes wide with shock, lips parted as if he were trying to speak but only managing shallow, rattling breaths.
"No!"
I ran toward him. I didn't think, didn't breathe, didn't care that the ground was cracking beneath me. I just ran.
But before I could reach him, light snared my limbs. Shackles, blazing and merciless, wrapped tight around my wrists and ankles. I screamed and fought, but the bindings gripped me relentlessly.
Every movement seared like fire, every pulse of magic I tried to summon fizzled uselessly against the light.
This close, I could see it wasn't just the sword holding Wolfe in place. A thick blue substance sparked around the blade and pulsed into his wound.
A blinding shimmer crackled before him, then, to my utter, absolute horror, Thayden appeared, his hand clenched around the hilt of the sword buried deep inside Wolfe's chest.
Thayden.
Thayden from the mortal realm.
Thayden, whom I was supposed to marry.
He was here.
A cruel smile painted his features with triumph as he shoved the blade deeper. Wolfe cried out, the sound ripped from his chest as lightning crackled over his body.
The sky split open behind him, fusing with the spirals of lightning crackling around the sword.
His gaze found mine through the haze of blood and light. His lips parted, trembling around the words, "I... love you, Ziy...ka."
His hand stretched toward mine, fingers straining, desperate to reach me.
Thayden released the sword, and Wolfe's form dissolved into shadow, then unraveled until all that was left was the echo of his hand reaching for me.
The sky drew him in with one breath. Then he was gone.
"Wolfe!" His name clawed out of my throat, anguish given voice.
The shackles burned hotter, searing my skin, dragging me to my knees as the sky sealed shut where he'd vanished. My sobs raked my throat raw, but still, I screamed his name, as if sheer will could bring him back to me.
And then—
The heavens shifted.
Silver light crept across the courtyard, drowning out everything else. My tear-blurred gaze lifted just in time to see it. The new moon cresting, pale and pitiless, sliding into the heavens.
Its cold glow spilled over me, and my breath faltered.
The reset had come.
Thayden turned toward me, the smile still on his face. "Hello, my love. I've come to get you."
His smile was the last thing I saw before the curse took me and my mind swept right back to Gryffyn Forest.
Father was riding toward me on his horse, fleeing for his life. The all-consuming vortex behind him opened wide and swallowed him whole.
I screamed, then the world went black.
To be continued …
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