“Yes, my love. We’re going into Isrun.” His voice rumbled through his chest to vibrate against my face.
“Fine,” I conceded and could practically taste the male pleasure rolling from him at my agreement. “But we’re only staying for a few hours. We have to get back to the Valley. You saw that cloud, yes?”
Rohak grunted, and I raised my head to fix him with my most serious expression.
“That was Ellowyn, I’m certain of it. She needs help, and we’re the only ones that know she’s there.”
“Torin does,” Rohak countered, and I pursed my lips.
“Yes, but he’s even farther south than we are, and who knows how long it could take him to get to the Valley?”
“Fine,” he huffed, pulling lightly from my embrace to redress. I pouted as I watched his half-hard cock and unfairly sculpted legs disappear into his pants. “But we wait until that cloud dissipates. No one, and I meanno one, would survive that concentration of Destruction Magic unless they were a god.”
I sawed my head back and forth before agreeing, moving across the room to gather my discarded clothing.
“Isrun first. Then we save the goddess.”
“Think we’ll have time for another round in between all of that?” Rohak teased as he slid his head into his black tunic.
I rolled my eyes as I dressed but knew Rohak could feel the lust that simmered just beneath the surface.
“Rohak, there willalwaysbe time for another round. After all, we have the rest of our mortal lives together.”
Chapter Seventy-Eight
Torin
The Valley was a hellscape.
A swirling vortex interlaced with sparking ashes and embers covered the entire peninsula, the smoke so black that it blocked the sun completely. Yet, remarkably, the land just outside of the Valley remained untouched, as if the ire of the dying goddess struggling to control her new powers refused to cross some invisible boundary.
I stood just on the outside of the wall of Destruction Magic, the force of it swirling my hair around my head and ruffling my loose tunic and trousers. Yet none of it touched me, no wayward strand reached out to bite into my skin, no ashes or embers released from the spinning wind to float on the breeze and singe the earth beneath my boots.
The cloud itself stretched so high that I had to crane my head all the way back, and I still couldn’t see where it ended.
It was simultaneously the most impressive and most terrifying thing I’d ever seen.
The magic itself seemed to groan and whisper, the sounds escaping that invisible barrier to wrap around me and beckon me closer.
Surprisingly, I was the only one standing and gazing at the display of magic with auspicious reverence.
I’d stopped in a few smaller towns and villages in the Borderlands to inquire about the dark cloud, but many grumbled prayers to Fate before scrambling away. An older man told me that one of their ‘bravest’ had ventured through the magical wall and was instantly turned to dust.
After that, word spread of its destructive capabilities, and the locals left well enough alone.
The real question remained if Ellowyn’s power would recognize me or if I’d disintegrate as well.
I reached out my hand, my fingertips a mere breath away from the spinning wall of magic, and paused.
What happened if her magic consumed me, too? Would there be anyone to stand against Solace and Samyr? Could I sacrifice myself—potentially sacrifice Elyria—to save her?
But there truly was no choice.
If I died, Elyria would still have Rohak and Faylinn, Talamh and the Deucenans, Lex and his quad. There would still be people to fight against Solace’s oppression. I was not the savior of this world, but I could be the savior ofherworld, and that meant more to me than anything else.
With a breath, I sank my hand into her magic, gritting my teeth as it bit at my skin and clothes. It was agony as pure, raw Destruction Magic latched onto my hand, cleaving flesh from bone. Sweat dripped from my brow, and I tasted copper as I bit my tongue, blood flooding my mouth and leaking down my chin. A scream built in my throat but died just as quickly, my mind unable to process the sheer power and pain that surrounded my flesh.
“The prince that was promised,”a voice whispered.“It is time for you to fulfill your destiny.”
