Page 136 of A Dusk Of Stars

I freeze in place, my eyes rounding when I see it — the faint light coming from the hole in the top. The very next moment, I see a glowing fang slowly lifting into the air.

No no no, how could I have forgotten what would happen if I shifted? My eyes dart from left to right, my mind going straight back to reeling as soon as it hits me.

I look at Serra and see a smirk on her face.

“Thank you, Anna,” she tells me, “I knew you could do it.”

She does a movement, makes her Runes glow and lets her Air Magic get her to the pedestal. She is going to get the last piece.

My eyes dart from her to Jericho. If I choose to help Jericho, she will bring Baldur back to life. But the vines are constrictingand my mind threatening to break at the very thought of losing him.

I don’t even throw another glance at the fang again.

I clench all my muscles and I lunge, blinding fear coursing through my body. I get to Jericho and I don’t waste time inspecting him closely, partly for fear of what it will do to me. I just start using my teeth to tear into the roots holding him down. It’s hard trying to be gentle and fast at the same time, but I think I’m just about to set him free, not even paying attention to what Serra is doing, when I feel the touch of a paw on my front leg.

I freeze. I look up at him, and as soon as I do… It’s like time stands still, the first time our animals look each other in the eyes. Something snaps in me, the most intense warmth spreading throughout my entire being.

Anna,I hear his voice in my head.

Jericho.I feel my power now, and it takes almost no effort to start taking his pain from him, making his body start healing in front of my very eyes.

It’s this mumbling coming from behind me that snaps me out of it. I jump on all fours, turning around to see Serra standing in front of the pedestal with her back turned to me.

I can see her Runes glowing.

I let out a snarl, but before I can lunge at her, she turns around, the look on her face making me freeze. She’s smiling this strange smile, her eyes as clear as they were before Jericho almost killed her.

She’s already absorbed the fang.

Snarling, I kick myself off the ground, opening my maw, delirious with thirst for her blood, only to have her send me flying back with a single wave of her hand.

It makes me whimper, the pain shooting through my back when it hits the wall of the cave and making me shift back.

Slowly, she starts walking over to me, her body twitching but that strange smile only growing wider. It’s right next to Jericho that she stops though.

“He sure is a handsome one,” she says in a voice that now has an ethereal quality. “I’d say I’d hate to kill him, but…”

I watch her lift her left hand in the air.

That same mix of unbearable fear and rage floods me.

Only this time, because I know exactly who I am now and I’m finallyhere, I let it light up every atom of my boundless being.

I close my eyes, concentrating all the energy in all of the nature around me into a single point.

I open my eyes, sending it all back into her body. A beat, two.

Her body explodes, torn from limb to limb. Pieces of her land all over the cave.

I look over to Jericho, still trapped and bloody.

Please be alright.

Don’t you worry about me.

I almost breathe a sigh of relief, when I hear footsteps drawing near, the sound echoing against the walls of the cave.

I see Lorcan’s figure appear before me.