Page 19 of Loving Nightmares
“Ashur,” I murmured, “is this a bad time to mention that I don’t know exactly how I did what I did before?”
I mean, I sort of did…to an extent. I remember the sensation, the vibration in the center of my chest that had somehow guided me—something I hoped would make an appearance again, sooner rather than later. I couldn’t touch every human onthe battlefield, so I needed to channel that energy into a magic that Ashur could blast across the space. I needed to break the thread of power that War was using to influence everyone, the subtle but powerful manipulation that my magic was practically begging me to shatter.
“You know how to do it.” Ashur stopped us in a central location, running his finger over the center of my sternum. “It’s right here—you just have to let it out.”
Let it out.
Now that he mentioned it, I could feel the energy underneath my chest practically banging at my rib cage, begging to be let out. My skin lit up as I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds around me and what they meant—the violence and what I could do to stop it. Electricity rushed over my skin in what I knew to be colorful patterns as they joined with Ashur’s magic.
Not just Ashur’s magic.
No, I began to siphon from all my mates, and I knew that each strand of magic running over my skin was keyed up and ready to focus on one sole task—breaking War’s hold over the humans. For just a second it felt hard to breathe, the magic overloading my chest and making it feel heavy, making it feel like I was going to break under the pressure—
My magic exploded.
All at once, my hearing went out as a sonic wave had my eyes snapping open. The ward of Ashur’s magic around us blasted open in an array of colors, turning the entire battlefield into a hurricane of magic that made me feel breathless. Snaps echoed loudly in my ear as each thread broke, human after human, all around the institute, leaving the influence of War.
His furious scream of realization broke through everything, visions of the past flashing across my gaze and giving me a glimpse of why he hatedsis metasso much. Slaughter andcarnage accompanied him, all in the goal to hurt the one species that could stop god terrors—that could stophim.
Tears leaked down my face, and I relished in every enraged battle cry that came from War. The nightmares turned their attention to him, stopping him from getting closer as I continued to break the bonds of each human under his control. He was no match for us, not here. Not in our own home.
The last snap broke, and my eyes closed as I felt a satisfied smile reach my face.
That was when the power rebounded back into me, just like it had at the field. I screamed as my eyes rolled back in my head and my knees went weak, my chest feeling like it was both absolutely empty and overly full at once. I dropped, hard, and I had no idea whether or not I touched the ground or not because all at once…
I was soaring again.
Through the galaxy and above any linear timeline, silence wrapping me in a comforting blanket as I flew over the vibrant lights ofsis metasfrom past and present.
Present?
Everything came to a full stop.
Nothing existed outside of the moment as I hung suspended amongst the stars, my gaze moving over a group of golden and silver lights. I couldn’t tell where they were located, but they were weak, almost as if they were diminishing their own glow, and they were all huddled together. I tried to surge forward, but a vibrating wall of magic blocked me, the lights flickering back out of view.
Had…had I imagined that? I felt dizzy from the knowledge that maybe…maybe there were moresis metasout there than I even realized.
8
AMUN
This wasthe second time within twenty-four hours that I’d stood at the bedside of my precious human as she lay unconscious. Although, could I call her a human anymore? Not truly. Arabella was so much more than that.
I’d known she was special from the moment I’d met her, though, so that wasn’t entirely surprising. Despite her newly discovered durability, I couldn’t ignore the concern saturating every ounce of my being, mounting higher the longer I stared at her limp form surrounded by blankets and pillows.
I knew her being unconscious was a good thing in theory, because it meant hersis metapower had worked. When it rebounded back, this was the result. We had even experienced it before, and of course it helped knowing that she wasn’t unconscious because she was hurt, that it was the overload of power that had knocked her out…but it didn’t make me feel better. It may have reduced the tension of the group to an extent, but that was about it.
Everyone was still anxiously waiting for her to wake up.
Although there was plenty to keep us busy—so much so that Ashur and I, along with the healer that was monitoring her, werethe only ones in the room. The others were helping with the aftermath of what Arabella had accomplished, and it showed a lot of trust that they’d left her in such a vulnerable state with the two of us. Saint could give me all the shit he wanted, but it was obvious he had accepted my place in Arabella’s life.
A place I was honored to have.
For a very long time, the idea of having a mate wasn’t one I’d found appealing, but it was obvious that was only because I hadn’t met my precious human yet, the woman who’d changed everything in a matter of seconds. And now that my mark was on her arm? I craved to complete the bond so that we were joined in the most basic and primal ways.
Unfortunately, it was hard to do that when War was literally at your doorstep.
While the battle had been won, War weakened and his control over the humans broken, we were still in a precarious position.
