Page 125 of Fated In Forever
And all of us are going to survive this, I swear it. Nobody is going to die today.
Her head lifted, eyes hazy with pain meeting mine, then clearing. focusing, her hand moving to her boot, to the knife hidden there. I gave her a subtle head shake. This was not her fight.
And I’d seen something else. Ravok was hurt. Beneath his brimming strength and magic, he’d been injured. He was favoring his stomach, unconsciously protecting himself with an arm banded over his abdomen, revealing a small wince of pain here and there, every time he moved.
Romulus’s shadowy bindings slid away as power flooded through me—a dark, shadow magic, shot through with red lightning, a power that shouldn’t exist here in this realm, just like me.
I burst to my feet in one fluid motion, my body already expanding, horns bursting from my head, fangs extending as a snarl rumbled in my chest. I rose above Ravok and Romulus, rose until my horns crushed one of the flickering lights, coating me in a shower of sparks.
Romulus gathered a handful of shadows—pale as mistwithout a hint of lightning—and cast them, but they slid off me like water, a poor imitation of the real thing.
You can never copy my magic, you pathetic traitor. You should have listened to me, you should have never chosen power over your friends.His eyes—one still soft brown, one stained solid black—widened in shock, but I was already moving. I slammed into him with the force of a freight train, crushing him into the concrete wall. His already smashed-in skull exploded against the stone, and he slumped to the ground, unconscious or worse.
Ravok whirled around, his perfect composure finally cracking. “Impossible,” he snarled. “The blood oath?—”
“Is broken,” I said, my voice carrying a strength I hadn't used in this realm, and the underground bunker shook, cracks spreading across the floor and up the walls. One whisper of my own glamour and Ravok’s collapsed, shattering like a pane of thin glass.
Blake and Riordan's heads snapped up, they rose to their feet as the illusion faded, leaving them staring at a very much alive Evie…and me.
“What the fuck…” Blake started, confusion and hope warring in his voice.
Glamour, I thought tersely, never taking my eyes off Ravok.His true magic is glamour, like mine. All of this was only an illusion.
Ravok's face contorted with rage. “You forget yourself. You forget what you are. What Imadeyou.”
I know exactly what I am, I replied, rolling my thick neck with a satisfying pop, strength and resolve settling into my bones so deep, my feet feel grounded in the realm for the first time.Someone who has found the family he claims as his own, and will defend them until the day I die.
My Maker came at me, moving with inhuman speed,fangs bared. But I was ready. I’d been waiting for this moment ever since I’d knelt before him on that muddy battlefield and sworn my future away.
We collided in the center of the cell block, the impact sending shockwaves through the concrete floor. His claws raked across my chest, but I caught his wrists, our supernatural strength locked in deadly balance.
“You are mine,” he hissed, his face inches from mine. “You will always be mine.”
No, I said, driving my knee up into his ribs and the crunch of breaking bone echoed through the space.None of us will ever belong to you. You are finished, Ravok.
My blow broke something else, too, a foul, rotten scent staining the air, and a black stain seeped through his shirt, as if I’d opened up an old wound on his stomach. Ravok pressed his hand to the wet spot, eyes flaring in panic.
We broke apart, circling each other like predators. Behind us, Blake and Riordan helped Evangeline to her feet, their voices urgent as they dragged her to a safe distance. This was between Ravok and me now—Maker and progeny, master and slave no longer.
“I have fed from thousands.Thousands,” Ravok hissed, his smile returning as he wiped blood from the corner of his mouth, some of the foul scent ebbing. “Let me show you what true power looks like.”
Let me show you, I replied, feeling the darkness of the Underworld crest inside me,what keeping an oath looks like, because I have a family to protect, and a task to complete, and I mean to do both.
Then we launched ourselves at each other.
60
EVANGELINE
The moment Malachi's power ripped away Ravok's glamour, reality crashed back into focus with devastating clarity. My throat was raw from screaming, my heart hammering as I watched the two ancient adversaries collide in the center of the cell block with enough force to rupture the concrete around us.
But there was no time to process my relief, or Blake and Riordan's utter shock.
Impossibly, Romulus was already on his feet after Malachi's assault, shaking his head to clear it from being tossed against the wall. He stumbled to one side, but raised his hands, red, glittering magic gathering around his fingers, his narrowed gaze focused on my mate.
“Blake,” I shouted, pointing toward the rising threat.
Blake's shadows responded instantly, but something was wrong with Romulus’s magic. Instead of mimicking Blake's power and turning those deathly shadows against us, he churned out a weak flare of pale fire. Then a puff of shadow. Then more of that crimson magic, little more than a holiday sparkler.
