AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I used the last of my strength to throw myself forward, hands curling around the doorknobs before I could fall fully on my face,conjuring a gust of wind inside to fuel the already diminishing fire.
Through my peripheral vision, a blur of black whizzed past my eyes, and I realized it was Jace in his wolf form hurtling for Agnan in Lysandra’s fallen body.
I picked myself up again, fighting the wooziness, and pulled the air back toward me, drawing out the droplets of water I could find, but there was hardly any moisture in the wind.
“Jace!” I croaked, blinking against the smoke and ash encompassing us. I willed the water to come from the air, but there wasn’t enough to put out the flames that I’d produced, electricity prickling off the tips of my fingers.
Jace snarled and growled as Agnan shrieked. “I’ll take her! Stay back!”
Earth. I need earth.
Half-crawling, half staggering, I found my way outside, pulling toward the dirt. The chickens ran amok, screeching in terror as they moved out of my way, my steps uneven and dangerous to their frightened flight. I narrowly missed stepping on two of them before falling to my knees again, curling my fists against the dirt, and as I did, the ground beneath us trembled. A nearby tree uprooted as the house shook.
“ELIX!” Agnan shouted in a high-pitched voice. “STOP IT!”
But I wouldn’t stop what I was doing until my last breath. Agnan needed to be stopped.
I continued digging in the dirt deeper, upsetting the stability in the ground, pulsating current through the base of the building as my energy sucked into the house. I felt myself slipping away from it all.
The terrible noises from Jace’s snout grew louder, more panicked, and I increased my hold on the ground, my eyes rolling back in my head.
“ELIX! JACE, STOP HER, OR YOU KNOW WHAT I’LL DO!”
What will he do? Why hasn’t he just done it? What’s with the empty threats?
I didn’t have the bandwidth to entertain what Agnan was lording over my mate while trying to hold him back. I couldn’t let myself think of what would happen to my sister, if Lysandra was still even in there, or if she had ever really been in that body to start. There was just too much for me in my already fragile state, my body still bruised from the assaults I had taken on not once, but twice.
“JACE!”
Colors clouded my vision, a million different hues exploding in unison as I unleashed the very last of my power into the ground. I had to give Jace a fighting chance against this being, this otherworldly, power-thirsty mutant who had ruined my life before I had even drawn a breath.
He wouldn’t claim my mate, too. I would sooner die.
Something erupted within me, and then I was falling, the world around me peeling away in long, bleeding strips.
“Elix! Elix! Elix!”
My name echoed through my ears, but I couldn’t be sure if anyone was actually calling it or if it was just me reminding myself that I had to stay and fight.
Flashes of my life popped up in front of me. Me as a child, running through the palace, chasing after Saint. Me as a young girl, trying to catch Jace’s attention in the halls outside the throne room as my mother dusted the statues. Jace and I, lying in bed, entangled in a pretzel of arms and legs, whispering about nothing of any real relevance amongst ourselves.
“Jace…” But the name died on my lips as I landed from this everlasting fall through my life, the ground taking me on with a thud.
For the third time that day, blackness crept in to overtake me, but this was different than the other times. My body wasunable to fight back, and my life force was fully depleted. I had nothing left in me to stave off the inevitable darkness that took me on and dragged me into a pit so deep, this time, I was sure I wasn’t going to awaken from it.
Chapter 19
Jace
The wood flooring beneath me splintered and split. I dug my nails into the planks for leverage as the house began to crack in half, the earthquake below us shaking furniture and décor every which way.
“JACE! MAKE HER STOP!” Agnan howled again, ready to throw yet another empty threat at me, but I’d heard enough of his nonsense.
He can’t take over Elix’s body. If he could, he would have done it already.
The thought had occurred to me earlier, but in all the chaos, I hadn’t had time to entertain the notion as clearly as I did at that moment. The sheer anxiety in Agnan’s voice told me that he was out of options now.
And he can’t get into me, either!
