AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Kismet knew she had one chance to kill Stef. Her body weakened swiftly, and she needed to end things before she reached the point of no return. She sidestepped as Stef leaped at her, but the female’s claws caught her numb upper arm and shredded the skin. Kismet dropped to her good knee with a gusty exhale, grateful for the numbness in her arm so she couldn’t feel what surely would have been a bitch of a scratch.
Using the sword to push herself upright, she slashed at Stef, who darted out of the way, snapping her jaws at Kismet’s legs. Stef jumped, twisting in the air and slamming her back legs into Kismet’s side, sending her tumbling to the ground. The sword hit the ground with a clang, just out of reach. Kismet groaned and reached for the blade, jerking her hand back just a second before Stef’s jaws snapped together.
“You can do this,” E’lahn said. “Use your strengths.”
Kismet blinked at her father. The pain in her left side had reached her foot now, and soon she wouldn’t be able to stand on it.
Strength?
Stef growled, and Kismet’s mind cleared for a moment. Her strengths were her powers over nature. With a shout of pure fury, Kismet planted her good hand on the ground and called forth the ancient plants buried underground. They responded, bursting through the ground and tangling Stef up in their vines and branches. Stef struggled, snapping her jaws at the plants that held her captive, but she was no match for the thick vines that held her immobile. Kismet picked up the sword and rose to her feet, her good wing rising high behind her back, and her skin crackling with the power she wielded.
Lifting the sword, she said, “I warned you that I’d kill you.”
Slashing the sword downward, she cut through the plants and into Stef’s body, sinking the blade all the way through and out her back. Stef whined, her jaws working as her eyes rolled back in her head. She went limp with a shuddering breath and changed back to her human form.
Kismet dropped to her knees, her left side entirely numb as the pain moved across her shoulder blade to begin its descent to her right side.
Her father joined her. “It’s my honor to finish the job.”
He grasped the sword and twisted it, ensuring that Stef was dead. Then he pulled the sword from her body and held it behind him, calling for a soldier to clean it. The male took the sword from him and stepped back. Her father lifted his hands and flames erupted from the ground, so hot and bright that Kismet had to shield her eyes. The flames turned Stef and the plants to ash swiftly. Her father lifted the ashes into the air in a cloud, and one of the trainers opened a deep cleft in the ground and her father sent the ashes down and out of sight. The trainer closed the ground back up.
“Healer!” her father shouted as he lifted her into his arms, careful to avoid her injured wing. He ran as Kismet closed her eyes against the pain.
“Ren,” she said.
“I’ll get him,afteryou’ve been to the healer,” he said.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“I’m proud of you.”
“I killed someone.”
“She had your death on her mind.”
“I know.”
A door creaked open and the military’s main healer, Broderik, said, “Set her on the bed, E’lahn.”
Her father laid her down on a soft bed on her right side. “Dad.”
“I’m going to get Ren right now.”
She opened her eyes and smiled in thanks. Her father jogged out of the room, calling for soldiers to join him in case support was needed at their home. She had no idea what Ren was going through, only that she was certain he had succeeded in safely putting down the threat from the other pack. She couldn’t bear to think that he’d been harmed, so she chose to think about how much of a badass her mate was.
“It’s broken, but I suspect you know that,” Broderik said. “Where’s the pain now?”
“My right elbow.”
He spoke to his staff in the clinic and there were hurried movements around her, but she couldn’t focus on anything but the pain. Broderik placed a wooden bowl in front of her. “This is a healing draught. It will put you to sleep and clear out the magic from your body. I’ll set your wing while you’re unconscious.”
“How long?” she asked.
“A day, give or take.”
He tipped the bowl and she drank the liquid down in several swallows. It tasted like licorice and mint. She immediately felt the pain in her right arm recede as sleep overtook her.
“Tell Ren I love him,” she said, her voice slurring at the end.
