Page 211 of The Delta's Rogue
My steps are slower than usual. The silver, the unhealed wounds all over my body, and a limp in my left leg mess with my pace. The others stay by my side instead of running ahead and leaving me in the dust.
We barely make it halfway to my dad and Maddie when another yell stops us in our tracks.
One hundred yards away from where Amara lays dead, two individuals appear—a male and a female.
The male roars his displeasure. His beady eyes glare at Maddie, who prepares to give our dad a high-five in celebration of their win over Amara. The female—dark-haired and blue-eyed—scans the grounds desperately, searching for something or someone.
Brenna, and the male who must be Lyall.
Everything slows to a crawl. The moments play out at a snail’s pace but also overlap, happening almost simultaneously.
Lyall’s yell of displeasure catches my dad’s attention. A weapon—blinding white and as long as a forearm—slides out of Lyall’s sleeve and into his hand. He angles his body and launches the weapon at Maddie like a javelin. It hurtles through the air, sparking and crackling, creating rumbles of thunder so loud they rattle my teeth.
“Maddie!” Wes exclaims.
We both dart forward, but the others hold us back.
Across the lake, my dad and Cav move at the same time. Cav lunges towards Maddie, striking her in the chest and knocking her to the ground. They roll until they land, with her on her back and him on her chest.
My dad dives in front of them, blocking them from the lightning flying through the sky. He hovers in midair. The weapon hits him in the center of his chest. He convulses, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, and he falls to the ground, unmoving.
Wes shoves at the hands holding his arms. His face twists, and a roar tears from his chest as he breaks free of their grasp. “No!”
I’m right beside him, sprinting across the shore, as Maddie’s screaming sobs pierce my eardrums.
“Dad!” she cries, reaching for him. Cav presses her down to the ground with all his might to keep her away from Dad’s body. “Dad, get up, please. Please…”
Her desperate pleas spur me to keep pace with Wes’s strides, even with my unhealed injuries. Sarina darts in front of me, palms flattening on my chest to stop me. Reid tackles Wesley, and Nolan tackles me.
Under normal circumstances, Reid and Nolan wouldn’t be a fair match for either of us, but the overwhelming grief and the sobs wracking our exhausted bodies weaken us.
I clutch Sarina to my chest as I fall, angling myself to take the brunt of the impact. The air slams out of my lungs, and sand clings to my tears.
“Get up, you stupid bastard!” Wesley gasps, struggling against Reid’s grip. “Get up!”
My dad doesn’t move. He doesn’t blink, doesn’t breathe, doesn’t flinch.
He’s gone.
He’s gone, and he didn’t let any of us say goodbye.
“Finish them! Finish all of them!” Lyall yells as time returns to normal speed. He gestures wildly at the grounds, eyes bulging and crazed. “Just because our warriors are down, it doesn’t mean we’ve lost! We can still end them! Take them out now, Brenna!”
When nothing happens, he whirls on her with a growl. But she’s yards away from him, running up the hill towards the forest, where Dominic beckons to her from behind a fallen log. Every few steps, she glances back to check if Lyall has noticed her escape.
Her eyes widen as they clash with Lyall’s. She picks up her pace, keeping her focus on Lyall as she continues running to Dominic.
Lyall whips out a second lightning bolt and catapults it into the air.
“Brenna!” Sarina pushes to her elbows, but I yank her down and clamp my hand over her mouth.
The bolt flies insanely fast, almost too fast to track, but Brenna’s face turns ghostly white as she follows its trajectory. Up and over her it flies, missing her as it heads straight to—
“Dominic!” Brenna shrieks.
Her arms fling out in front of her as she breaks into a sprint. An ear-splitting, earth-shaking crack rents the air. Dazzling white and burning blue lights ripple across the ground, forcing us to close our eyes.
When the light fades and our eyes open, Dominic is gone.Gone. There’s no body, no trace of him. Just a smoking log, sizzling grass, and sparks in the air where he stood only one second before.
