Page 71 of Veiled Fate
“Jada,” Kiel whispered as I swam in and out of consciousness. “Jada, we’re here. The altar, it’s here. What now? Do I put you on it?”
I nodded weakly, one hand grasping for the stone. He set me down, the rock surprisingly warm to the touch, spreading its beckoning embrace across my body as I lay back, fresh blood dripping over the sides as it spilled out from my various wounds.
“Now, what?” Kiel asked nervously, shifting his weight from side to side.
“Must … bind …”My good hand came to my throat. I turned to the side, drooling blood. Being on my back was not good for speaking.
Brilliant lightning burst from my stomach, connecting with my arm and throat, dancing across every hair on my skin, frying each one. The whistling scream that emerged from my mouth was nothing but air forced between the rents in my flesh.
“Bind what?” Kiel said, his face contorted as he watched me struggle helplessly in a fight I couldn’t hope to win but also one he couldn’t assist with.
“Bind her power!”I screamed, destroying my vocal cords. “Bind it to something. Like the stones!”
Kiel looked around frantically. “There’s nothinghere,Jada. We don’t have anything.”
A soft scrape was the only warning he had.
Kiel exploded to the right just as a blade stabbed through the space he’d just occupied. He rolled, coming to his feet as Arcadus’ Nehringi came after him, his chest a blackened, ruined mass. The flesh had been instantly cauterized, so there was no blood, but the wound remained.
Dodging the next attack, Kiel dive-rolled across the chamber, distancing himself from the assassin. Meanwhile, the Nehringi kept a wary eye on me as he moved to attack, no doubt wanting to try to dodge any further wrist-ray of doom attacks.
Lucky for him, I was all out. My body wasn’t responding as I tried to twist my head to follow the fight. They moved out of range, leaving me with nothing but grunts, scrapes of feet, and the occasional ring of steel as it bounced off the stones.
The Nehringi bounded back into view uncomfortably close. For a moment, I thought he would come after me, but he just as quickly reversed course and whipped his short blade through a circle in front of him.
An explosive hiss and grunt from Kiel had me tensing as he took a wound. But then the Nehringi abruptly flew through the air, his sword clattering to the ground next to the altar.
“So predictable,” Kiel growled as he stalked past me, a line of blood dripping down his abdomen from where he’d been cut.
He’d clearly allowed himself to be struck to deal a brutal retaliatory strike to the assassin. He marched on past, his hands curling to fists as the two were now on even terms.
The chamber exploded in a wild display of green light rocketing from my body in all directions. Emerald lightning bounced off the walls, off the altar, and even blasted apart one of the ears of the wolf statues next to me, sending flying bits of debris everywhere.
“Kiel!” I screamed, my skin taut, veins and arteries glowing a brilliant green, pushing out from the inside. My back arched, and a huge fork of lightning shot out of my stomach, plowing into the ceiling and raining stone down on me.
The two shifters continued to fight somewhere outside of my vision as I twisted and writhed, my body being torn apart by the power inside me. I lifted my good hand, eyes widening as I saw the skin parting as energy sought release, forging its escape from within me.
If I didn’t free it, didn’t bind it to something,soon, I would literally be torn apart. But Kiel was right. We had nothing I could use.
There was a meatythudof flesh hitting flesh, and Kiel spilled to the floor nearby. The Nehringi pounced, and the pair rolled out of sight nearby. In the distance, the racket of approaching soldiers, all shouting commands, was nearly upon us.
Time was running out.
Metal glinted in my periphery as fresh lightning filled the air around me. Grimacing, working against the thrumming power that set my entire body vibrating, I turned my head to the left. What was it? What did I see?
There, at the base of the altar, was the Nehringi’s short blade, lying where it had fallen when Kiel disarmed him.
I lifted my hand, trying to force my hand to reach for the sword. Lightning spat from both sides of the now gaping wound on my forearm. That wound was almost from a lifetime ago now, but it still haunted me. My muscles screamed, refusing to extend my arm. Each pulse of lightning flexed them taut, bending them and forcing them into my frame.
If you want it. Make it so.
I screamed, doubling down on Fate’s words, thrusting my hand toward the sword.
One more time. I just needed it to work one more time. I pushed my arm out, extending my fingers toward the handle. It was just out of reach.
“What the fuck is going on in here?”
The soldiers boiled into the room, immediately ducking for cover as new waves of lighting forked out from my body, digging deep into the ceiling, the walls, and even the floor.
