Page 131 of Legendary

“Nick!” I heard Reese shout from the ground. “Do it!” He had managed to grab his bow, and even collapsed on the floor, he held it like the best marksman I knew. His magic enveloped the bow, and he pulled back, releasing it. It hit Dani in the shoulder, causing her to stumble forward a bit. Her brows turned inward, and she whipped her head around, aiming her focus on him. She eased her tension on my wrist, while my broken one remained in her shadowy hold. Dani brought her hand back and ripped the arrow from her shoulder, throwing it to the ground.

Reese sucked in a sharp breath. “Nick, fucking do it!”

I looked up at the ceiling, counting to five as fast as I could before reaching behind me with my free hand and untucking the dagger from my waistband. Dani snarled at Reese, and just as quickly as she turned back to me, I brought the dagger to my front, holding the hilt as tight as I could before I thrusted it into her stomach. The moment was so quick, I wouldn’t have realized it happened if I wasn’t the one doing it. My knuckles were white from where I was gripping the leather hilt as tight as I could, and I did what Natalia said: my angelic magic flooded down my arm and through my hand, trailing around the dagger and fusing its power with my own. My hand felt like it was on fire, the hilt scorching hot as I kept holding on, pulsing my own light into her.

She looked down at where the dagger pressed into her stomach. The light kept moving into the dagger, emanating through her chest and her arms. Her hair flashed with golden light as the dark tried to fight for dominance. She looked up at me as if it didn’t hurt, as if it didn’t work.

“What the hell are you doing?” Lilith raged. “Do you really think your weapons will work, you stupid boy?” Dani started to move towards me, trying to come after me, but then, suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes flashed from black to brown, back and forth as if she couldn’t make up her mind. She brought her hands to where her weapon sat, lodged inside of her, and she took a few steps back, her hand shaking as she touched the hilt. The shadows had stopped pulling on my neck and I took a moment to try to breathe. When she looked at me again, her eyes were their beautiful solid brown.

“Nick.” One word. She said one word and I knew she was my Dani again. She said my name and all the pain she’d inflicted on me was instantly forgiven.

The shadows surrounding my face and my neck disappeared and I reached for my throat, pressing my hand against my skin, feeling an indentfrom where it held me. All the shadow demons around us dispersed, removing themselves, as if they never existed in the first place.

“What the hell is going on?” I heard Dimitri shout, his irritation showcased in his tone.

I hardly felt my broken wrist as I raced over to Dani, wanting to tell her that everything would be okay, that we fixed this. She started to give me a small smile, but it faltered as she teetered on her feet. “Dani?” She started to cough and then her knees buckled as she pulled the dagger from her stomach. Black blood covered the blade and more of it pulsed out and onto her shirt. I almost didn’t catch her when she fell to the ground, landing on her knees.

The shadows released Elise from their hold, and she tumbled to the ground with a loud thud. Reese shifted his leg up slowly and pushed himself up from the floor, his legs covered in thick, red blood. Lilith fumed with dark red and auburn smoke.

“What have you done?” She started to race towards me, her hands out like she could strangle me, but Elise wound her tail around her wrist, twirling her around. She slashed her tail along one side of the dark queen’s face and then the other.

Lilith threw out her own magic at Elise, who met her with the same force. Their magic met in the middle battling it out, almost as if they were equal. Isabel shook her head and nearly screeched, “We should have just killed them from the very start, like I said! I would rather see them fucking dead!” She started to send her magic towards a helpless Beetee still struggling on the ground, finally starting to come to. Elise’s magic looked so much thicker than Lilith’s, I didn’t know if that made it stronger, but it looked that way oddly enough. Lilith jerked her hands forward, propelling her magic at Elise which sent the demon toppling over in a huff. She moved her bangs out of her face and stood back up, her tail swinging behind her. Lilith looked at Elise, then at Dani who appeared as if she wanted to throw up. She opened her mouth and copious amounts of black smoke streamed out, flooding onto the floor before becoming translucent.

Reese cleared his throat. “Not today.” He pulled his arrow back and launched it in her direction, burying itself into her chest, and she ran into Dimitri as she tried to regain her footing.

“Do something!” Isabel shouted, reaching up to pull the arrow from her shoulder, but Reese shot another one, making sure she remained in pain. Lilith ignored her and stared at Beetee on the ground, then Garrett.

“You seem so much into friendship these days. I would hate to see that be for nothing, but it looks like it already was, you insolent little demon. A conscience is a dangerous thing to have, my dear.” Lilith waved her handtowards Dani as Elise raged, creating thick, red orbs of dark magic.

“You said this would go smoothly,” Dimitri complained, shaking his head. “My father will have a field day with this. They all will.” He looked over to Dani, taking shallow breaths on the floor. The look he gave her was one of longing and I wish I could have wiped it from his fucking face. Lilith scoffed, keeping up the facade of nonchalance.

“She’ll remain here like she was always meant to.” Elise rushed over to her, but she was gone in a dark flash, leaving only smoke in her wake. Dimitri adjusted the lapels of his jacket before he waggled his fingers in my direction, taunting me as followed Lilith’s lead, just barely avoiding one of Reese’s arrows.

Dani fell further to the side, and I caught her, careful not to put too much pressure on or make too much movement with my broken wrist. Still, I fought through the pain. Her head rested on my thigh as she placed one of her hands over her bleeding wound. A light pulsed there, flashing over and over.

“Oh no, where do you think you’re going?” Elise tsked, racing over to Isabel and pulling her by the back of her neck. “We know someone who isveryinterested in seeing you again.” Isabel started to fuel herself with her own magic, ready to fight again, but Elise readjusted her hold and thrusted Isabel into the wall, making sure her head connected with it until the Enchanter was truly out cold. Reese and Elise knelt down next to Garrett and Beetee, gently rolling each of them over and examining them.

Dani drew in a breath that sounded like it hurt, and I used my good hand to stroke her face and move her hair from her eyes. She looked up at me, taking another deep breath in. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I watched as that light near her stomach kept pulsing, but it was faint. “You’re going to be okay.”

She closed her eyes and tried to readjust herself so she could cuddle closer as she made a noise of pain. “Mmhmm, this definitely feels okay.”

“We’ll get you back. You’ll be okay. Everything will be okay.” I said the words, but they felt more like false reassurance. She knew it too, and she simply shook her head as best she could. She looked down at her wound as she lifted her hands, her palms were covered in the black blood, and I felt her shudder with a kind of nervous understanding that what she would say next was probably something I didn’t want to hear.

“Nick…” she started, and I shook my head as she pressed her lips together at my stubbornness. “Nick.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from being overwhelmed, from letting my emotions take over and wreck this moment. “No. No! You’llbe okay. You have to be.”

I heard Reese’s voice over all the noise in my head for just a moment. “Nick, we have to go.” I knew he was speaking, but everything sounded like he was underwater. It was like his mouth was moving but no sound was coming out. I didn’t need to be anywhere but right here.

I cradled her head closer to me. “I’m sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.” I felt one, two, three tears slip down my face, and I couldn’t hold the rest of it in. I had caused this, and I didn’t know a way to fix it. “We’re going to get you back. Natalia is going to make sure you’re safe and good. I’m going to take care of you. Is that okay?”

She nodded carefully. Her eyes looked tired, and her breathing was shallow, slow, like it was taking all her strength to make out one or two words. “Nick, stop. You did…everything…you could have. I don’t…blame…you.” As if she was mirroring me, small tears appeared at the corners of her eyes. She reached her hand up and stroked my face with her thumb.

I leaned into her touch, hearing Garrett and Beetee in front of us. I could be aware of our surroundings and still not care to acknowledge them right now. Even though my wrist hurt, so fucking much, I delicately brought it up to place my hand over hers, moving my thumb against her skin. “It’s my fault. I could have figured something else out. I did this. I did this. I did this.” I repeated. It reminded me of the things that voice would tell me in my head when I was so lost in the dark, I almost couldn’t find my way out.

You weren’t good enough. You did this.

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