AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I don’t have time to change my mind because the girl is charging at me. Her shrilling screeches bleed in the midnight air. I brace myself, ready for the impact.
One deep breath in.
A steady exhale…
Hmph. Her body collides with mine, the tips of her nails slicing into my stomach as I wrap my arms around her. Blinding pain seizes me, causing stars to dance before me, my vision doubling as we smack into the ground. I hold her tightly, locking her arms between us even if it means keeping her claws buried inside of me. I ignore the burning that begins to spread as I constrict my hold and a fuzzy warmth shoots through my veins. My eyes threaten to roll back the moment my light plunges into her.
I hear her suck in a breath, her shrieks dying in her throat. White blindly glows around us like an explosion in the dark. I don’t dare squeeze my eyes shut. I push my power into her, letting it pulse around us in waves. I’m panting from the force of it, unsure of how much power to drive into her small body, but I don’t want to take a chance. I’ve never done this, and I refuse to let her live another day with the savage intent to kill.
The vigor in her attack falls away, her muscles loosening as I shift her to lay flat on the ground. The claws in my stomach rip free, and her eyes are wide, radiating light. She begins to tremble in my arms, but I realize it’s not her body doing it, it’s mine. My arms shake uncontrollably as my power starts to recede, coming down from the high. It snakes back into my veins, settling once again and welcoming the undisturbed dark of night.
The black tracks that webbed over her body are gone, and those once obsidian eyes are a pale green that reflects off the moonlight. She blinks a few times before a tear slips from the corner of her eye. I watch it follow the small curve of her cheek as she sits up until it drips down over her chin and disappears.
“Who are you?” she whispers hoarsely.
I almost forget she can’t see me, for my face is lost in the shadows. “Someone who only wishes to right her wrongs.”
She wipes the next wave of tears away with the back of her hand, her movement steady and calm compared to me. Her skin is filling with the color again, and the dark circles sunken beneath her eyes are brightening.
“No.” Her small voice sounds stronger. “You are my savior.”
My body stiffens, yet my heart beats wildly in my chest. My eyes still not believing what I’m seeing and that no more Corrupted have to die. I help her stand once my body lets me take back control and stop the tremor in my muscles. She brushes herself off to the best of her ability before looking at me with a twinkle in her eye.
“Do you have a name?” she asks.
I’m quiet for a moment, knowing she can feel my gaze upon her. “If I tell you, you have to promise to keep it a secret.”
Her teeth glow white with the wide smile she throws my way, along with an enthusiastic nod. “I promise.”
Cupping my hand close to my mouth, I lean down to speak near her ear. “It’s Emma.”
She repeats my name on her small lips, and then throws her arms around me in a firm hug. My muscles tense with my arms frozen above her. But then, she tightens her hold, burrowing her face into my chest and my heart thumps roughly in my rib cage. Hesitantly, I lower my arms, letting them fall around her, welcoming this feeling. To make her feel safe. To save her from the monster that took over her little body. And to know she will get to live out her life.
I make sure she gets home safely after that and watch in wonder as her parents fall to their knees and smother her with love. The sight causes me to draw in a shaky breath, but I don’t let myself dwell on the lack of love from a parent that was never gifted to me growing up. Seeing this girl have those who miss her and will cherish her fills that hole in my heart.
I slowly retreat to the rooftop, but pause to peer down at the one who makes my heart jump in my chest. I sensed Draven the moment I held that little girl in my arms, but he remained shrouded in his shadows. When I left tonight, a small part of me knew he would find me. Someway, somehow. And it makes me wonder if it’s like before, that he felt my pain from the wound she inflicted on me that alerted him.
My gaze drops, never wavering from where he stays hidden, but I know his shadows and the way they dance around him.
The heat from his eyes burns along my skin, warming me up from the inside out. But I shake it off, this need to climb him and take what my body craves. Yet, underneath all that, there is a sense of comfort and safety that his presence brings. Something I’m still trying to understand and become used to. All I know is that I very much like how he watches me, and how he doesn’t stop me.
Closing my eyes, I reach my shadows around until I sense another Corrupted nearby. I leap from the rooftop, letting the reunion of the little girl’s family slowly fade from my view. But as I latch onto my new target, it’s then I realize…I never learned her name to remember her by, and a sharp pang stabs my heart.
So, from here on out, I will keep track of every Fae I save, knowing them by name so they will never be forgotten again. And it’s with that silent promise under the stars that I vanish, disappearing into the night with the Dark Prince on my heels.
But I don’t miss the irony: where the Corrupted were once hunting me, it is I now doing the hunting.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Draven
Falling asleep has been nearly impossible, but I manage an hour or two each night, though my soul needs the comfort of Emma to truly rest. To feel the steady beat of her heart near mine. To pull her body against mine and nuzzle into her neck to breathe her in. But instead, I lay here, with my arms tossed over my head, fighting the urge to go against Emma’s wishes. To storm into her palace and bring her here no matter the consequences. Every part of me hates that she’s alone right now.
But then sharp, searing pain jolts me upright as I grab my side.
The feeling takes my breath away, but this pain is not my own… It’s Emma’s. She’s fucking hurt. The shred of control I held snaps, throwing my blankets off without bothering to get fully dressed.
My mind plummets to the vilest thoughts as I call on my wings. Limbs will start being torn from bodies if it was Aiden or his father, and I don’t care if he’s the fucking king. Because tearing limbs wouldn’t be enough. I’d then keep an iron blade pierced through their stomachs while hanging them upside down, to make them bleed slowly without ever being able to heal. Making their blood drip, drip, drip, and leaving them in agony as I watch.
