Page 155 of Stone Temptation

Pain seared through my skull, the other thing trying to get my attention. My stomach roiled, my gag reflex triggered by an onslaught of nausea. With a couple of deep breaths, I focused, the nausea easing off once I remembered the humans in the water.

“I don’t think so.”

I dove after the closest body, snaring him in watery tentacles too late. Already dead from the cyanide, foam oozing from his mouth.

“Bastard.”

A battle still raged in the clouds. I drew upon my power of flight, bursting from the water without wings while Asher called my name from below.

“I’m flying!” I cried. “I’m really flying!”

My energy sputtered, the nausea back with a hard slam. I retched, losing control. I tried to reclaim the power, but it slipped through my hands as fine sand.

“No!” I bit out. “Come back…” My stomach lurched, sending a sliver of sick up my throat.

“Luke! I’m coming!”

No matter how much I tried fighting the crash inside me, it hit. Hard. My energy blinked away, body going limp. I fell back to the sea, once again in fatigue’s chokehold.

Damn. Couldn’t I do anything without passing out anymore?

Asher caught me before I hit the sea, flying us back to shore.

“You were amazing,” he said without much enthusiasm.

Before I could answer, the metal in my closed left hand piqued my interest.

The ring.

“How did you get there?” I asked it.

I’d dropped it, hadn’t I?

“You what?” Asher responded, slowing down.

I caught him looking at the thing in my palm.

“Shit. Have you had it this whole time?”

Put it on.

“No,” I answered, voice an exhausted rasp. “But it seems like it loves following me.”

Put it on.

“Let’s test it.” A surge of adrenaline got the ring on my finger, cutting off Asher’s protests.

THIRTY-SEVEN

Luke

Back in the cavern with the lava lake, the burned woman waited while humming an unrecognizable tune.

Vehement hatred bubbled in my stomach, the emotion slotting into place. I knew I loathed her. I knew she had to be destroyed. The sight of her curdled every good thing inside me.

She stopped humming. “I see you survived.” Her voice suddenly turned into the worst sound in the world. “What a shame. My warriors will have to try harder.”

“Those gas mask people are your friends?”

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