One of the creatures lowered its head and charged as Ellery and I rose. My first thought was to shove her out of the way, but my instincts took over before I could act.
My hand found Ellery’s as the electricity in the earth rose to encompass us. It crackled while power swelled between us.
I always felt more alive when drawing on the lightning and harnessing something that could blow others apart. It was mine to control, to unleash, to use as it filled me with its energy and mingled with my blood to course through my veins.
Monsters surrounded us, but I felt invincible standing beside her as our power became something I’d never experienced. Our abilities united to strengthen us in a way I’d never dreamed possible.
When my lightning combined with Ellery’s, it became a living, breathing thing set to destroy everything in its way. It wasrightineveryway.
Our power erupted in a burst of blinding white light unlike anything I’d ever unleashed. It ripped through some creatures and hit one of the trees behind it to blow it apart.
Their screams intensified as bark and leaves exploded into the air. What remained of the tree creaked as it fell to the ground. The thud of its impact echoed over the land as the ground quaked, and the tree bounced up before falling again.
CHAPTERFORTY-NINE
Ellery
Despite the largeamount of power we’d released, the electricity swelling between us continued to encompass me. I could taste the tang of lightning on my tongue as it crackled around me.
It rose and fell in my body in a way I’d never experienced before while it continued to seek out Ryker. He drew more lightning out of me. It waseverywhereand ours for the taking.
I did the same for him; I could sense it through our connection as lightning flashed across the sky but didn’t hit the earth again. Our hearts fell into a rhythm together; I felt it with every pulse of mine and the answering rhythm in his fingers.
I’d never experienced anything like this before, and I would never experience it with anyone else. This wasn’t because he was also a lightning bearer; it was because he was a piece of me.
No matter what had passed between us, I still loved him. I always would, and I could never deny our physical connection.
I felt him in my cells, the blood pumping through my veins, and the essence of my soul. He vibrated there, a subtle presence forever reminding me that he belonged there… and always would.
When the light faded, none of the strange creatures remained; some of the trees had been devastated, and debris littered the ground. Smoke streamed from the remains of the monsters, the tops of the trees, and some of the trunks. It choked the air and burned my eyes as it drifted around us, but the trees had shaken the fires on them out, and the flames had already consumed the debris on the ground, leaving nothing more for them to devour.
Most of the trees remained standing, their boughs no longer entwined, but they didn’t attack again, and nothing crawled from the earth. I shuddered as I recalled the way they’d come at me and the way those stringy roots had caressed my flesh.
What would have happened if they succeeded in dragging me into the earth?I couldn’t think about it.
I’d been against damaging these trees, yet the second they turned on us, I helped devastate them. They’d been beautiful and strong, and now they were as broken as me.
Ryker and I had done all this in a matter of seconds. With the threat destroyed, my breath came faster as I became increasingly aware of the strength of Ryker’s hand in mine.
I’d almost forgotten how right and perfect his fingers felt when they entwined with mine. Despite immortals healing fast, callouses marred his palms from the centuries of fighting and training he’d endured to become a general, the Scourge of the Ghouls, and, soon, a thief.
His solid presence caused the hair on my arms to stand up as our power remained restrained but linked in that strange way. Everything in me yearned to connect with him further, to touch him, and to know him like I did before.
I knew every inch of his body as if it were my own. I’d traced the hundreds of scars marking his flesh; I’d kissed them to ease the emotional anguish that lingered from all he’d endured at the hands of his father, in battles, and while being tortured by the ophidians.
I’d savored the saltiness of his skin and knew the amazing strength of his arms around me. It was easy to recall the sensation of his hands gliding down my back to cup my ass while he moved within me, the sounds he emitted, and the pulse of his cock as he came.
Caught up in the memories, my skin prickled with awareness for more than the lightning flowing between us. I should remove my hand from his, walk away, and distance myself until I could regain control, but I couldn’t move.
As badly as I needed space, I neededhimmore.
Overhead, tree branches creaked as the remaining ones reached for each other again. Their movements caused a jolt of adrenaline to skyrocket my heart.
The limbs twisted around each other as they formed another canopy. This one wasn’t as thick, as lightning had torn holes through it.
We had to get out of here and away from these things before we ended up a tasty treat beneath the earth. Ryker must have thought the same things, as he waved his hand to open a portal before us.
He pulled me forward as he stalked into it and emerged in a different section of the woods. I expected him to release my hand, but he didn’t, and I wasn’t ready to let go of him either.
