“Kole, stop,” I pleaded as Clause took another step.
“Don’t worry, Ariana, we will silence him soon enough.” Clause paused, looking down before picking up the blade from the ground. It was Kole’s sword. He must have dropped it when the vines took him.
“Clause!” I called his name, but he only took another step in Kole’s direction. The space between them was closing too quickly, just two or three more paces and the Sidhe King could send the blade through him.
Panic shot through my body, taking over every fiber, shaking me from within. I struggled to move, but could not.
“This,Lysian, is just another one of the many people holding you back, Ariana, keeping you from rising to your full potential.” He took another step.His movements were so horribly casual. So effortless. So terrifying.
The dread within my chest was overwhelming.
“Wait!” I called out in a final frantic attempt to pull the attention back to me.
Clause’s head began to turn, but Kole’s words stopped him from glancing at me. “Don’t you dare look at her!” He growled. “You do not deserve to even breathe the same air as her, for your eyes to view her, to touch her. She deserves so much more than to be forced to go another day under the same roof as you.” Kole turned to me then and simply said, “I trust you.”
I could not comprehend what was happening. My mind stopped working. He trusted me to do what? Watch him die before my eyes?
My heart constricted, reverberating in my chest to the point it no longer effectively moved blood through my body. A cold numbing sensation spread through me, beginning at the soles of my feet. My muscles trembled against the hold of the vines.
“Say goodbye,” Clause said, and I was not sure if he was talking to me or Kole as he took his last step.
Ice shot through my body, panic melded with my conjuring, spreading but finding no escape.
Time slowed, yet ran out at the same time.
Thoughts turned into a blank void in my mind. I stopped breathing, my eyes widening.
Clause pulled back, moving the blade into position to strike.
My power pooled within, as if attempting to protect me from what I was about to witness. But it was not enough. I needed more.
When Clause plunged his arm forward, a tortured scream ripped out of me, burning through my throat. It shook the mist walls until they fell, disintegrating around us. The world instantly expanded, and the noise of other battles blended with the moment. But the sound was muffled against that of my heart beating against my ribs.
Power surged within, filling me, cutting my scream. Strength did not encase me, but became me. My body no longer held me, not when it belonged to the mist. The vines could not keep me, because I flowed like a river of air around them.
I vanished into the mist.
I became nothing, and yet I saw and felt everything. The way Clause’s back rippled as his arm thrust forward. Kole’s eyes widening yet still fearless as he watched the blade aiming for his abdomen quickly approaching.
It all was happening so incredibly fast, but I was faster.
In a flash, flesh covered me once more, the mist materializing into a body that tethered my soul to our world. And in my hand, a sword vibrated from the impact that rang through the air as it met with the one Clause wielded, keeping it from striking Kole.Had I picked up the blade in my movement? I had not even realized.
A look of surprise passed over the King’s features.
Placing pressure on the sword, I forced Clause back a step.The shock of what had just happened must have shaken the ground beneath him. For the first time, he appeared as though he stood on unbalanced ground. His eyes wide, in pure surprise as he took in the sight of me.
“I will not watch you take another life from me,” I vowed through clenched teeth.
A hand grabbed my shoulder, yanking me back through a shimmering distortion, taking me away from the Sidhe King.
37
ERIK
Eislyn and Kiora appeared just outside the Sidhe capital with Iver, where our forces were quickly retreating into the forest. Both females were panting, wide-eyed, and startled, as if they were not expecting to be moved. Kiora lowered her bow and arrow, twisting around and studying her new environment.
I changed my direction, running towards them while the retreating troops tried to avoid getting in my way. Our combined forces flooded through the forest, like fluid shifting around the terrain, heading towards the horses and the Bavadrin lands.
