AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He collapsed on the ground in front of me. I rushed over to him, scrambling to reach him.
Think, Avery, he’s not really here.He was in the pits. But wasn’t this magic ancient? Wasn’t it powerful? What if itwashim?
Blood pooled out of his chest, his eyes, his nose, his ears. I leaned over him.
“Little wolf.” It was his voice. The same rumble I had heard in a thousand dreams, the same name he’d called me for years. “I’m sorry.”
His eyes shut. His chest stopped moving. I screamed and pulled him up into my arms.
Live, I thought.Live, damn you!
My magic was no longer behind a wall. It was a violent, demanding thing. And it demanded Cole live.
A swirl of green lights struck him like an arrow to the chest.
He didn’t flinch.
“No, no, no,” I murmured, pulling him closer. “Not again.”
“You wanted power. You have it. But power is not everything.”The voice echoed through the lava.
Power? What did it matter if it couldn’t give me this?
Tears raced down my cheeks, as fresh as they’d been the day he’dbeen stolen from me and fallen into the pits.
“Tell me, Avery. If he is lost for good, would you still want the mantle?”
Did I?
In an instant, I thought no. Because if Cole wasn’t coming back, there was nothing left for me in the world. My heart would never heal. My soul would never be complete.
But therewassomething. Buried under sorrow, fighting to come out. No, if I couldn’t save Cole, I wouldn’t give up. The images of Jett, of Sabine, and every other wolf who’d ever tormented me flashed through my head. Of Phaidros, who had orchestrated Cole’s demise through me.
Cold rage seeped into the void left by Cole’s absence.
“Yes,” I breathed. I wanted it. I wanted revenge.
“You’ve failed, Avery Ward. You are unworthy.”
Chapter V
Awave of defeatcrashed over me.
After all that, I failed?
The lava burned hotter and hotter, scalding my skin. I began to push back, desperate to escape the violent change in the lake.
I failed.
The pain felt like justice, to a dark buried part of me. I’d known I could never be worthy. I’d deluded myself into thinking I was worthy of more, more power, more responsibility, but who was I? Just the Omega from Moon-Ghost.
An abrupt change rocked through the lake.
The burning halted. It was more than the mantle’s magic. Something had changed, a third force entering the lake. Protecting me. Halting the rejection.
A vision flickered in front of me. Not like the torments it had pulled from the ether in the earlier trial, but something entirely different.
There, where I’d stood only a moment before, was a woman. She faced away from me. Her hair was the color of flames, even brighter than the lava. She wore a simple dress that looked hundreds of years out of style. At first glance, it looked like normal, braided fabric. But with my shifter eyes, I saw it was more. The dress was woven from plants themselves, vines twisting over each other, so fine andsimple that it looked like less than the marvel it was.
