Page 52 of Fated In Forever
The red-tinged shadows erupted, crashing into the ceiling high above our heads. Where they touched the ancient stone, cracks spread like spider webs, and chunks of masonry started to rain down around us. The very foundations of the chamber groaned under the assault, and I realized with growing horror that Ravok intended to bring the entire structure down on top of us.
We can’t fucking dematerialize.
He’s going to bury us down here.
“Watch out, my king,” Nash yelled, his shoulder connecting forcefully with my back, sending me sprawling to the side. Before I could react, before I could do anything, Nash’s next words were cut off by a chunk of falling debris, shattering his skull, blood spraying as he was crushed beneath a rock nearly as big as him.
I closed my eyes against the sickening scene—the spreading pool of blood, Nash’s sightless eyes staring, the way his weapons fell from his limp hands—helpless to save him, like he’d saved me. His king.
He’d sacrificed himself for me, and I didn’t deserve the price of his life.
But there was no time to mourn, no time to grieve.
I lunged to my feet, bracing myself. My fire was worthless, Blake’s shadows formed slowly, too slow to shield us from the collapsing ceiling. Then Ravok sent another blast roaring into the stone and the entire room exploded.
We were going to die down here.
Thank you, I sent a prayer up to the sky.Thank you for getting Evie out of here. Keep her safe, protect her from harm. Let me find her in my next life, and…
Nikolai raised a hand and the collapse just…stopped.
Rock froze midair, dust motes were trapped in place as Nikolai’s magic…somehow, impossibly…stopped time.
I met his gaze across the frozen chaos, his grim expression seeming to say—you were never supposed to see this, but this is what true power looks like.
I had seen plenty of magic before, but never anything like this. Nikolai's power wasn’t a visible, tangible magic, like shadow or fire. This was something more, something that happened outside of this dimension. Something that transcended our kind altogether.
Ravok growled something I couldn’t understand, Nikolai growled right back, then Ravok bent over, one hand pressed to his wound, and when he straightened, he threw that wicked looking athame.
End over end, the weapon spun toward me, a blade sharp enough to cleave me in two.
Nikolai didn’t move. Ever so slowly, he twisted his hand in the air and the next second, my ears hollowed out, my chest caved in, as if some enormous weight settled on top of me. In the space of a second, time froze in place, rock and dust suspended midair, then everything began to move backwards.
Everything except Ravok. And me.
The blade was inches away when it paused, then began spinning the opposite direction, toward Ravok.
Broken chunks of stone flew upwards, rearranged themselves back into a smooth ceiling carved with intricate runes, which began glowing red once more. Blake’s shadows snaked across the floor like spilled ink, reabsorbing into his palms,…and Nash was once more on his feet—alive and unharmed, those guns back in his capable hands.
“Holy shit,” my breath whooshed out, knees wobbly from relief and I resolved to thank Nash for saving me, even if he wouldn’t remember his own heroics.
But Ravok was closing in, lifting that blade, a look ofpure death on his face and I flung out my magic—those pure white flames now tinted with red, courtesy of his corruption—and the blast struck him full in the chest, leaving a reek of burnt flesh lingering behind.
The impact sent him reeling, shattering his concentration so badly he lost his grip on the athame, which splashed into the pool, swallowed up by the water.
But Nikolai wasn’t finished.
Another twist of his wrist and time began flowing normally again, and I hit Ravok with another wave of fire, his own shadows rising to meet my attack, but now he was wounded and off-balance. And outnumbered, as we forced him toward the far side of the chamber, trapping him in the pool of silver water that reflected the dead portal overhead.
Blood seeped between Ravok’s fingers, an unstoppable flow of black that dripped into the pool at his feet, spreading like the corruption of my magic, ruined, like everything else this bastard touched. I sensed power radiating from those unseen depths—ancient power, the kind that had existed long before any of us.
A vortex formed around him, the now-black waters hissing and steaming as the magical liquid clung to him, and then, as suddenly as if someone had thrown a switch, he simply vanished.
The pool's surface solidified back into an unbroken plane, the now-mottled surface reflecting nothing but the dying magic still flickering through the air. There was no sign of Ravok—not even a ripple in the frozen water to mark where he had disappeared.
For a moment, silence filled the chamber. Then reality crashed back over me like a cold wave, and I spun toward the portal.
“Evie…”
