Page 97 of Of Withering Dreams
And I deserved it.
Movement caught my eye. Gavrel’s fists pounded against the watery dome, his yells muffled. A smoky haze slithered around Melina, her brows pinching.
Numbly, I looked around the arena.
Everyone was consumed or slain.
Everyone but Kaden and me. And the female Druik, who was sloshing through the river, water up to her knees, as she avoided the last chasm spider.
Violet mist swept over her as the limping alpha stalked her along the shore, her dark-blond hair whipping around her indigo leather tunic.
“Bloody void.” Kaden pushed his shoulders back and raced toward the towering predator.
My body sauntered after him, aura blazing.
Kaden whipped toward me, hearing the crunch of gravel. His face crumpled, a look of disdain coating his features. “Get back.”
My head tilted, but my body stilled in the center of the ring, light pulsing through the patterns on my arms and hands.
As he turned around, a zap of shining purplish light zoomed toward him. My mind screamed, wrenching against my tethers. My aura flared.
The lines of time slackened, and everything around me moved sluggishly.
Something cracked within me, and a glint cut through the looming shadows inside my skull. I reached out, digging my nails into the fissure, tearing at it until my will breached the vibrating prison walls.
In the next moment, my thumb—under my control once more—swept over the tingling stone of my ring. It hummed against my skin, and the melodic words of the little girl from the Weald twirled around my head.
Heed your terminus.
My eyes locked onto Kaden as my fingers closed into a fist, the tourmaline branding my forefinger.
In a flash, my body splintered and reappeared next to him—time tugging the line taut once more. He yelped as I shoved him out of the way, and the female’s attack splattered against the dome. I sprung up, the energy once again coiling between my outstretched palms.
Melina was standing now, her eyes blazing silver, fists clenching at her sides.
Gavrel was gone.
From the corner of my eye, Kaden’s clover aura flared as the alpha spider skittered in our direction.
My eyes shifted back to the Druik. She squinted, rosy lips pressing together. Hastily, she shifted, leaving the river and lobbing power at the spider. Radiance splashed on its back like lavender-colored water but clung to it and ignited. The creature squealed, a series of angry clicks echoing through the stadium.
Kaden’s ember tugged the roots in the wall, and while they were heeding his call, they were moving too slowly. Too tangled within the soil and stone.
Another flare of purple raced toward me, and I spun, the orbiting sphere in my hands snapping and slurping as it gobbled up her ember before it got the chance to ram into me. She was closer now. My halo latched onto hers, shock painted on her pretty face.
Energy shoved at me from all sides, trying to bury me once more. But I was more concerned about Kaden’s well-being. My power stopped sparring with me once it realized I wasn’t preventing it from draining her. Within moments, she fell—completely depleted—and burst into ash as I turned, her energy weaving through mine.
The urge to touch Kaden was overwhelming. My ring vibrated, heating at my touch and transporting me to his side.
He jolted away, but not far enough as my palm clamped onto his forearm. My ember poured into him. His head flung back, both eyelids fluttering.
As my power waned to a faint shimmer, his expanded, the green of it vibrant and pulsating around him.
His eyes snapped open, irises igniting as he thrust one hand forward, verdant hues spilling into the roots he’d been calling upon. With a reverberating crack, a massive wood spike ripped free of the wall, contorting and bending.
As the last spider leaped at us, Kaden flicked his wrist, and the jagged root skewered the beast.
He turned to me, shoulders slumping. Confusion swept across his face as he gaped at me. He looked down, stretching his fingers wide as they shimmered.
