Page 78 of Shadow of Death

“No.Theycan’t.” She reached a hand out to me, and I knew it was over. There was nowhere to run. I couldn’t get out of here even if I wanted to, and where would I hide anyway? Where did you go to get away from gods?

She placed a hand on my shoulder, and a surge of power pulsed through my veins. The small piece of darkness that I’d kept controlled inside of me exploded, as if it had been waiting to be set free and multiply out of control.

I closed my eyes, praying Charlie would be okay without me as the potent dark magic within swirled and felt as if it were consuming me. I shook as the power felt like it was filling the air all around me, raw, untamed energy spilling out, part of me but somehow not. As if I were connected to everything around me in some intrinsic way.

For Charlie, for myself, I’d wanted to live, have a future, see him grow old. See him become an adult, and have a life of his own. Grow old myself.

The power was running through me, filling every inch of me until I imagined I’d explode with it. I could sense my wolf beside me, feel him leaning into my side, always there when I needed him.

I waited for oblivion to take me.

But it didn’t seem to be taking me anywhere. Even the darkness I’d felt exploding inside of me seemed almost…might Isay, manageable? I forced myself to open my eyes, afraid of what I’d see. Was I dead and just didn’t know it?

If this was heaven or hell, it didn’t seem much different. I was in the same place I’d been standing, and they were all staring at me. No murmurs, no whispering, just staring. The only change was to their expressions. They’d gone from angry to something closer to shocked.

Death took a step back.

The fur of my wolf grazed my hand as it began to growl in their direction.

“She’s still alive,” Death said, barely above a whisper. She’d nailed another human expression: shock.

She hadn’t meant to set her dark power free inside of me. She’d meant to kill me, and she hadn’t been able to.

“Look what you’ve done!” Charon spat. I turned, taking a step forward. The gods all jumped backward. My wolf was crouched, ready to spring forward, growling so loudly that it sounded like thunder.

“Yes. Look what you’ve done,” I said, realizing they were all afraid of me. I began to lift my arms, curious as to what powers I might wield. I didn’t get a chance to see.

They were gone. Death, Charon, all of them. In a second, they’d disappeared.

The arena disintegrated around me, blown away as if it had been nothing but dust, an illusion.

Chapter Thirty-Three

I stoodfifty or so feet from the settlement I’d been at, staring at the buildings in the distance, my wolf beside me.

There were shouts in the distance, and I saw two of Varic’s men running toward me.

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will.” My wolf was growling as one of the men pointed his gun at it.

“Shoot the thing,” Varic’s man said to his partner.

Power leapt out of me without my even having to lift a finger. The man with the gun was lying on the ground, too still to be anything but dead. His face was already graying.

I was back. All the holds had been lifted. I could feel power pulsating through me, yet the darkness felt contained. In trying to kill me, Death had set me free.

“I don’t want to kill you, but I will,” I said to the remaining man.

He didn’t need to hear anything else—he turned tail and ran for his life.

I didn’t see Varic as I scanned the horizon. The idea of hunting him down and killing him made the power in my veins hum with pleasure.

My wolf grabbed the sleeve of my jacket, tugging me in a direction away from the settlement.

“You want to leave? You think we need to go?”

It tugged again.

Varic would try to kill me instantly if we were found, and I wasn’t sure how long this surge of power would last. What if it was temporary? There were no guarantees.

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