55. Chapter Fifty-Five
Chapter Fifty-Five
Kya
I felt my heart tear apart in agony. The moment Odarum’s body hit the ground, I fell to my hands and knees.
Tears streamed down my face. I couldn’t hear anything over the deafening sound in my ears, not realizing it was me as a blood-curdling scream ripped from my throat, my heart, my soul.
I couldn’t move, I couldn’t think, I couldn’t breathe .
He had begged me to flee but I refused to leave him as he fought. It was my fault. All my fault. And his death was on me.
His last words to me had been drowned out by the sound of his pained roar. The sound was so unnatural and raw. The Glaev’s darkness spread across his chest, devouring him.
Theron landed over his body with a heartbreaking screech and a mournfulness in his eyes as he wailed for his fellow Guardian. In the blink of an eye, they were both gone. Disappeared. Away from this realm.
Ryker towered above me, putting his body between me and Daegel, the murderous bastard.
Smoldering flames and shadows erupted from my mate as he protected me.
I didn’t see when Hakoa appeared beside him, wielding water above him in a whirlwind with a power I had never seen, spikes of ice flying from it toward the dark wielder.
I didn’t fear death. I feared pain and suffering and loss. And I wouldn’t lose anyone else. No one else would die, not when I could stop it. No more death. No more darkness.
No more.
I gripped the ground beneath me through gritted teeth and searched inside me for that orb that Odarum had tried so hard to show me.
It was like air, wispy and loose. I grasped it with everything I had in me.
Burning seared through my entire being, but I refused to let go and it thrummed through my veins as I finally wielded Odarum’s gift to me.
When I opened my eyes, jade-colored torrents of light blazed in my palms—the same as what my Guardian had, what he unknowingly gave me all those months ago.
I lifted my gaze to Daegel, ignoring Rykers attempt to push me farther behind him and telling me to run as the dark wielder advanced against the magic and elements striking him.
Calling to my terbis and manipulating it like I never had before, I shook the ground beneath me, forcing it to sink and enclose around Ryker and Hakoa’s feet before dragging them away.
Ryker bellowed, clawing at the rock and dirt to get to me. I could smell the blood from his hands as he tore them against the ground. I slowly stood and took a step forward.
A malicious grin spread across my lips as I locked eyes with Daegel, lifting my bow and pulling back the arrow that was dripping with the poison of the Onyx Flower.
I wrapped the glowing jade swirls in my palms down the length of the arrow and released the bow string.
The arrow screamed through the air with the jade-green light wrapped around it.
Daegel was unbelievably fast and caught the arrow with his hand and howled, looking at his palm with shock on his face.
This power harms him.
He spun around on his heel and flung the arrow back to me. I made to dive out of the arrow’s path, aimed for my chest, but I wasn’t quick enough. I grunted as it caught me in the stomach.
With the last bits of my strength, I released as much of my new-found power outward at Daegel, striking him in the chest. He recoiled back from the force. He began chanting in a foreign language, too low for me to hear, gripping his chest where it glowed with the jade light.
I watched him as I fell, too weak to stand from the poison seeping into my veins.
I felt Ryker pulling me up to him. My vision began to turn spotty and everything seemed to spin and contort.
The sound of thunder was so loud that I heard a pop in my head before everything went silent with nothing but a constant buzz.
My head lolled back against my mate and I closed my eyes, unable to fight against the slowed pounding of my heart before everything went dark.