Page 166 of The World Undone

We’re with you, Declan’s voice echoed in my head, soft and sure and so filled with love that my body ached with it. Until the end.

Darius’s stare found mine, and I saw my own pain mirrored in him, mirrored in them all. Their bodies were nothing against this power. The ritual would destroy them all.

Didn’t they see that this was hopeless? Wasteful?

No getting rid of us, Little Protector. We’ll follow you in this life and in the next.

Their decision, their confirmation rippled through them all.

Never much cared for the singular chosen-one-martyr trope, Eli’s voice still held humor alongside the pain.

Community, right? Wade echoed. We’re in this together.

They huddled closer, until their warmth pressed against me from all sides, cocooning me as the waves of power shot through us all. Our breaths became one, then slowed to a halt.

I fought desperately to pull the magic through me, to protect them from the worst of it, but they fought me in turn, greedily pulling it through the bonds the moment I had hold of it.

And then, as the connection between us pulled tight and fractured, began to wither from the duress, the strangest thing happened.

It somehow grew stronger, angrier—fortified.

I blinked, my heart beating a new rhythm, a warm, familiar presence growing stronger in my bones.

“Ro?” His name was a rasp on my lips as he grabbed my shoulder.

His expression was rigid, his eyes fierce as I felt his own strength infuse mine.

And then another wave of power, strengthening us again.

“Izzy.”

Her gray eyes locked on mine, determined and hard as she pushed her strength into me.

Her friendship raked against my skin, burrowing deep—her love, as solid and intentional as my team’s and my brother’s.

“We’re not leaving you,” Ro said, his jaw rigid as he fought to get the words out, the force pressing down on me, on us, crushing. “You are a part of us all, Max.”

Emotion clutched at my throat, thick and hot, as my vision blurred.

Then, the small trickle of strength that they lent grew into a flood.

When I turned, my neck craning back beyond the clutch of my team, I saw Charlie alongside Ralph, her face set in determination.

Next to them, Mer, Haley, and Jace. Then Claude, Nash, and Nika. And beyond them, Arnell, Sharla—the entire community housed at The Lodge. There had to be over a hundred of them.

Ropes of power tethered me to them, their strength reinforcing my own as they lent me as much as they could.

No.

Fear lashed through me.

What were they doing? What were they thinking?

I’d be the death of them all.

“NO.” I pushed the word out, fought with every fiber of my being to free myself from their clutches. Their compassion would kill them all. “No.”

This wasn’t how this was supposed to happen, this wasn’t what was planned. No more death. Just mine. It was supposed to end with me.

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