Chapter 68 #3
Looking at the abandoned wing on the ground, my heart burned with a rage that spread through every molecule of my body.
This time, my hands moved on their own, pulling an arrow and nocking it to the bow.
I stared into Kiara’s eyes, at the tear streaming down her face, her scream still echoing in my mind.
My Kiara, my family, the one who spent every night patrolling the glass wall of the bedroom, searching for dangers that didn’t exist.
“Don’t fight. Run!”
The chimera’s tears fell into the snow, begging me to run. But I loved her. I loved Kiara as if she were part of me, and in that moment, I decided I wouldn’t let them take anything more from me.
“NO!” I shouted, drawing the bowstring. “I’m done running.”
Somehow, the words triggered something in my body, and the power stirred like a living thing, thrumming like a violent song in my veins, as if it had been trapped too long and needed to break free.
Kiara stared in horror at the carnical forcing her other wing open. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, terrified of what was coming.
In that moment, a murderous calm washed over me—nothing like what I’d felt earlier during Adrian’s fight.
This was like the emotions I’d witnessed while fighting in the archangels’ bodies in my dreams. Somehow I knew that all those rivers of dreams I’d had with them flowed to exactly this moment.
Every teaching converged here. I breathed the way Angel did when shooting, the way Oriel did when killing with his spear.
Not just a breath—it was a command to burn power.
I knew I wasn’t a warrior, but some dormant instinct had awakened, and it yearned for war.
Another scream from Kiara shook the forest. The terrible sound pierced my mind, coursing through every cell of my body, causing a dormant part of my gift to open its eyes and spread like a scalding inferno across my skin.
“Let her go,” I ordered, stepping forward as the power corrupted me.
I drew the string with the arrow in position.
My entire arm burned from within, my veins incandescent.
I noticed the arrowhead glowing—not gold or silver, but red, like blood on fire.
I pulled the string, watching it tighten to its limit.
But the power wanted more. There was no reason in it, no limits.
“Enough!” Zion ordered from the other side. He must have felt it. My entire body radiated the force of that gift. “KYLLER, STOP!”
I couldn’t control it. I couldn’t stop, and I didn’t want to, because Kiara was mine and I would tear every star from the sky to save her.
The beast paid me no heed and opened its mouth to bite Kiara. So I fired.
The air around the bow expanded violently, leaving thin, glittering sparks of red light in its wake. The thunderclap of released power shook the air, and the force of the shot threw me backward. I steadied myself to keep from falling.
I watched the arrow’s path as it spun on its axis, sparking as if made of living flame.
Time seemed to stop—or perhaps it was just my mortal perception of what I had done.
When the arrow met the beast’s skull, ready to bite Kiara, the night exploded in red.
The energy consumed everything around it, forming a small bubble of power that expanded, destroying everything in its path.
It was energy—destructive and hungry—neither hot nor cold.
Just pure energy to be molded as I wished.
And in that moment, I transformed it into death.
The impact of the released power struck my chest, throwing me backward. Dirt flew, trees shook, and I fell into the snow, rolling away, dazed by the force of the collision.
I got up, coughing, wiping the snow and dirt from my eyes.
“KIARA?” I shouted in terror.
She was close, and I had no idea what damage the explosion had caused.
The air was thick with dirt and the residue of power, preventing me from seeing clearly.
I heard a hoarse grunt, and where Kiara should have been, there was an irregular mound of snow and earth moving on the ground.
Around her remained only the ashes of the three carnicais.
I wondered what insanity I had committed, but there was no time to think—there was still another beast. I staggered to my feet and searched for it.
When I managed to orient myself, I found the carnical running toward the mound of snow and earth that was Kiara.
I didn’t think twice. Already moving, I secured the bow on my back and pulled the daggers from my pocket.
I tried to channel the power into the blades, but the elemental reservoir was already at its limit—almost no energy left.
Because I didn’t know how to use it, I must have nearly exhausted it in a single blow.
But there was still a little. I felt it clinging to my bones.
Kiara tried to move, pushing away the earth and snow, but blood was gushing out.
She needed to stop or she’d bleed out from exhaustion.
When the carnical was just meters away from her, I threw my dagger with everything I had, watching its path until it found the beast’s eye.
The creature lost focus for a few moments.
When it saw me running toward it, it changed course in my direction.
Great! That’s what I wanted, but now came the real problem: what would I do?
In the ten seconds I had before being intercepted, I ran as if I truly were a heroine born and raised in the cradle of war.
I felt it all in my blood, as if it vibrated from awakening, from recognizing that burning adrenaline of battle.
My self-control shattered. My heart pounded wildly again, and insanity dominated every neuron in my brain.
I let the echo of that destructive energy flow through my blood, and the sensation was intoxicating.
When the beast reached me, I raised my dagger, but this time it didn't leap—its eyes locked on my legs and, at the last second, I rolled to the side, out of reach of its teeth.
The beast turned and I scrambled up. The moment it attacked, jaws gaping to bite, I chambered my kick.
It lunged for my leg and my foot connected with its throat, sending it stumbling back with a shrill yelp.
Seeing it this close gave me an idea, and in a split second, I was acting on it.
Its paw swiped at me and I timed the moment—I let it get close, and when its snout was inches from my arm, I drove a blade into its other eye.
The dagger sank deep, destroying the eyeball, and black blood spurted onto my face.
But against all expectation, the beast didn't retreat.
When I tried to run, it lashed out with its claws on pure instinct.
It was blind and wounded, but it could still smell me.
I hadn't anticipated the attack, and the mistake nearly cost me my life.