Page 181 of Gift from the Stone

Casting a net of shadows around him, I slice through his body in at least a hundred different spots, leaving him nothing but a pile of bloody bits. Sucks for the girl who just plopped right down in the gruesome mess, but at least she’s not dead or captured.

Commanding them out to find their next sorry sap, a whistle pierces through the air, loud enough all heads turn toward the gym, and I stop my shadows’ pursuit.

Suddenly, as if that was some sort of signal, the Mastery members drop everything they’re doing, literally. E.F. members are released, students dumped on their asses. The dome fades away, leaving those who were trapped in a heaping pile, trying to pull themselves back together.

“What the fuck just happened?” Draken asks as he runs to stand beside us.

I don’t answer him.

Something isn’t right. I can feel it down to my soul.

Something’s wrong.

Mastery members begin transporting out, empty-handed. All around the training field, they just poof right out of existence.

“Something’s definitely fucking wrong.” Tillman huffs as he sprints up to us.

Glancing over at the gym, I catch sight of a man, not one of our men, stepping right through the enchantment.

No. NO.

“That’s not our enchantment. They’re in the gym,” I shout, running full fucking force.

My arms pump just as hard and fast as my heart. Darkness covers every surface of my body. There are no shadows now in the open field between me and those doors, but still my power leaks out of me, searching for its light.

My Primary.

Crashing my body against the steel doors, they do nothing but blast me back. With all my power, I slam my magic into the enchantment, commanding that motherfucker to come down. I don’t have to tell my brothers what to do. They know. They now feel it too.

It was a setup.

They’re here for her.

“She’s not letting me in. She’s fucking blocking me out,” Tillman yells.

“WILLOW,” Draken bellows at the top of his lung as panic bleeds across every one of his features.

Calling his dragon to the surface, his blue flames cover his fist as he throws all he has at the barrier. There’s no stopping him now. He’s lost the reins on the beast inside. It’s a miracle he’s not fully shifted.

Corentin glows brighter than a full moon, shoving every bit of light he has forward. He’s brighter than the day his gift emerged. There’s so much light, all I can make out is the outline of his body.

Tillman stands taller than the highest peak in Terian. When he commands his magic out, the gym doors shake violently. A small fissure sizzles across the enchantment and we all push harder.

I command every shroud of darkness within me to slip through the crack and tear it to fucking rubble.

When I get through these doors, every man in there is dead.

An explosion has the doors flying inward and we pile through the opening as one. Corentin’s light guides the way as my shadows cover us in darkness.

Through the black veil, my eyes seek out my soul. My reason for surviving. When I find her, my demons pounce.

For a millisecond, the world ceases to exist. There is nothing, no one. No light, no sound, no taste, or touch. There’s nothing but black. That’s all I see. Darkness. The void.

As clarity returns, my body and shadows are moving with no command from me.

Gripped in the hands of a fucking behemoth, my Primary has silent tears streaming down her face. Those tears…those tears are for us, not for herself. I see every emotion in those deadly silver eyes. Her demons are on the surface, reaching out to mine.

Primary.

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