Chapter 43
Chapter forty-three
Kellan
For all my newfound strength, it does nothing against the force surrounding Charles and Raegan.
Jackson struggles against that pressure as if he might somehow break through, and I do the same on the other side.
No amount of slamming into it had any effect, so if we can find a way to meet its pressure with our own. .. maybe make it collapse...
Red lightning streaks across my vision, and I stop breathing.
“Raegan!” I roar, relief making me weightless when I see her eyes open. When I see her fight. It re-energizes my aching muscles from colliding with this barrier and the floor over and over again.
Her lightning strikes Charles in powerful, blinding blows. I can hardly see them through it.
I’m fucking coming, beautiful.
I ram into the barrier and get instantly repelled. It uses the same force we throw at it to send back at us. When I return, I lean into it, slashing my claws through it and meeting firm resistance.
Power explodes from Raegan and Charles without warning, slamming me into a wall. It crumbles beneath me, wood snapping and drywall collapsing like a wet paper towel.
My ears ring from the impact, and I shake my head to get it to knock off as I get my bearings. I’m in the next room.
Hope swells in my chest, almost making me giddy.
She’s doing it. This was her gift. Her power.
I’d know it anywhere.
That blast was her attacking him with everything. Even if it doesn’t breach his scales, it had to have broken that barrier between us and them.
I shove upright and race to the hole I made between the two rooms. My claws slash at the hanging drywall, clearing a larger space for me to fit through.
Cursing at the damn wiring in my way, I rip it all down and push through, then freeze.
No...
Where did it all go? Her gift... it’s... gone.
Charles is still smiling. The muscles in his forearm are taut as he squeezes her throat.
And Raegan...
There’s no sign of her gift.
No lightning.
Not even a reddish glow.
She reaches a hand toward his chest, but there’s no strength to it, like a last-ditch effort to reach for something, before her hand drops.
“No!” I lunge forward. I’m only three steps in when a flash of crimson catches my attention, rooting me to my spot.
Charles’s eyes widen. Red cracks spread from his chest, breaking through his skin.
.. his scales. It spreads up his neck, down his arms, and onto his torso. Blood tears streak down his face.
He drops her.
She lands on a cushion of air, then flies to Jackson.
I almost run to her. But I have to make sure this bastard is dead. I stalk to his body where he’s collapsed on the ground. Raegan’s gift is still making a mess of him, wreaking havoc inside too quickly for him to regenerate. But he still could.
Aiden appears beside me and thrusts his blade through one of the red cracks in his neck, pinning him to the floor. “Take his head,” he demands.
I don’t hesitate.
I use that crack in his armor to split his head from his body in a clean swipe.
And I don’t stop there. Every crack is a weak point I can rip through.
Tear to pieces. Shred him until he’s unrecognizable as once being human.
At some point, the scales are completely gone, and he’s nothing more than a pound of flesh and shredded organs.
I’m gasping for air when I’m finally done, my chest heaving as I stand there, covered in his blood and still not feeling satisfied.
“She’s lost too much blood!” Dane cries out, and my heart tanks.
No.
We won.
“Keep feeding her air!” Aiden snaps at Jackson, his hands linked over top of one another as he does compressions.
Dane grabs her hand, holding it to his chest and rubbing his other hand up and down her arm. “Wake up. Please, Rae,” he chokes out. “You won. You beat him. So breathe. Come back.”
I fall to my knees next to him. She’s lying on the floor, eyes closed, as Jackson guides air into her lungs and Aiden jerks with every thrust of his hands.
The stomach wound is nasty, but it isn’t leaking blood.
Jack must be blocking it, but how much had she already lost?
Her throat is mottled in nasty shades of black and purple that have me seeing red. But there’s no one left to attack.
Gently gripping her leg, I bow my head over her. “Don’t give up, beautiful. Fight. Don’t let go. We’re all here waiting for you. So please. Open your eyes.”
“Come on, come on!” Dane pleads in a cracked voice.
Jackson’s face is ashen as he presses his forehead to hers. He keeps his hand hovering over her mouth, pushing air into her lungs to make sure her body still has the oxygen it needs to survive.
“Go find Reid,” Aiden commands. “Get Cassandra. Now!”
Yes.
Reid should be on this island somewhere still.
Dane and I storm the door. All the furniture is ash, while black soot streaks the door. I kick it down, and Dane runs through it to the hallway on the left.
Alice and Sam stand behind me. “We’ll look for him too!” she declares. They go left as well, and I take the hallway straight ahead.
“Reid!” I bellow. “Reid!”
Goddamn it. He could be anywhere on this island.
Don’t die. Whatever you do, don’t. Die.
I clench my jaw to restrain the panic that has my heart thrashing in my chest. That makes it difficult to breathe. To think clearly.
Please don’t die, beautiful. Hold on.
I keep running. I keep searching for Reid, shouting his name until my voice grows hoarse. Until every muscle in my body quivers from exhaustion.
But I don’t stop.
I’ll never stop.
I’ll never let go.