His hand lunged toward me with twisted claws, and the sight snapped me the fuck out of it.
Wings burst from my back, swiftly thrusting me into the sky to fly away from him as far and as fast as I could, just like Bjørn had warned…
His grip caught my leg before I could successfully get away.
Twisted claws effortlessly tore through my leather boots, slicing my skin open with every attempt to kick him off me.
“Aaah!” I roared, sending raging fire straight to his face.
My blaze engulfed theDark One’s entire head, but he didn’t let me go.
Alarmed, I watched my flames disperse from him… unable to cause a single burn. Bjørn had told me that the Fae race was the first one that ever existed, and their powers far exceeded anyone else’s. Unfortunately for me, he’d been right.
TheDark Onesmirked again, wrenching me down from the sky and tearing my leg open. My back crashed against the sand harshly.
“The Dark One found me!”I shouted into our shadow link, immediately feeling the fear and rage from my mates inundate the connection.
“Where are you?!”Hannes roared, his voice barely human.
“I’m just behind you!”I answered, kicking my captor’s face, chest, and every other part of him I could while shooting fire hopelessly into his body over and over again.
My head turned toward my shield. Hannes was so close. I could literally see him from where I was. He’d been by my side since we got here. How could he not see what was happening?
“Hannes!”
Sinister laughter left theDark One, like my deathly blaze did nothing but fucking tickle him. He began to drag me closer.
Relief rushed through me when I saw Hannes run toward me. Dante and André arrived too, but they all stopped a few feet away.
“What are you doing?! I’m right here!”I shouted, jerking my body against the Dark One, but his venomous claws sank further into my calf every time I fought back.
Damn it.
“We can’t find you!”Dante replied, true fear gripping his voice. Their bodies turned in every direction, desperately looking for me.
“I can’t see you!”André shouted too, fully panicking.
My fight halted when I noticed a see-through force that seemed to surround theDark Oneand me. Unlike the yellow energy, this was barely visible. I’d only noticed it because the blaring sun above us made it shimmer when it caught its light.
We were in the middle of the battle, right under my mates’ noses, but the force was keeping me from them. The Dark One was not only able to become invisible himself, but he could also manipulate others’ visibility…
The realization suddenly filled me with new urgency—it was his power the Martell cult had used to make the blocking bracelets.
Clearly, it wasn’t an exact science because he wasn’t fully blocking my power, I could use the fire, but he was blocking its effect.
Fuck this shit, I wasn’t going out like this.
“He made us invisible,”I informed my mates, figuring out a new plan.“And he’s a blocker!”
“But we can still hear you through my shadow link,”Dante pointed out.
Hannes frowned.“Natasha and I had not mated when they used his power against her last time.”
“Could it?—?”
“Stop chatting and pay attention!”I growled at them, cutting off André while sending more fire to theDark One.Sure, it didn’t burn him but at least it was distracting him. I couldn’t let him drag me away from them. I had to act while they were still nearby.
“Beast, wait for my signal!”I ordered, taking a very,verydangerous risk.
