Page 108 of Beg the Night

Benedict coughed again, blood spattering the ground in front of him. “It’s okay,” he breathed. “You don’t need me. I was just going to speed up the process, remember?”

“Wedoneed you.” Margaret shook him. “Who else is going to keep me company when these two are off saving the world?”

My chest tightened. No, no, no. I hadn’t felt like this in a very, very long time. This desperate.

And feeling desperate was a very dangerous thing.

Eyes locked with Sinner’s, I silently pleaded for him to understand.

I pleaded for everyone to understand.

“Katherine.” I knelt so my face was only inches from hers.

Immediately, her manic smile evaporated.

“Heal him.”

The words were more than a command.

My power came to life, thick and palpable in the air.

Head shaking, she dug her heels into the dirt, trying to scramble away. There was nowhere she could go, though. Nothing she could do. “No, Athena, don’t?—”

“Heal him.”

My body buzzed as I let that magic flow out of me, as I let that animal out of its cage.Heal him. Heal him. Heal him.I looked at her as I played the vision out in my mind. I pictured her kneeling before her claimed, using her power to heal him.

Katherine was in the middle of another protest when she went rigid and the words died on her tongue.

She couldn’t fight me. Not when I had already seen it in my mind.

She pushed herself onto her knees and crawled to Benedict.

Without another moment of hesitation, she held her hands over his wound and began to heal him.

Margaret cursed beneath her breath, but I ignored the reaction. I kept my focus fixed on Katherine. I let my emotion pour into the magic. It was unlike anything I had ever felt. Far different from when I had used my power in the past.

Previously, it had been like drawing from a shallow well. Its limits well-defined. My fear at the forefront of my mind.

But now? Now, I was unstoppable.

Sinner slipped his hand into mine. He didn’t pull me away, though.

No, he let his magic pour into me, too, giving me his strength as I commanded Katherine to heal against her will.

I didn’t stop until Benedict slumped in relief and his breathing came easier.

“Athena,” Sinner whispered. “She’s done.”

His voice echoed off the corners of my mind.

“Now back away from him.”

Face blank, Katherine obeyed my orders, a mindless slave under my control.

“Stay there.”

When she came to a stop several feet away from Benedict, I finally released my hold on her and the world came crashing back to me, the silo that was my power now merging with my surroundings.

---