?
??Hurry up! I can’t hold him as long! He’s hella fucking strong!” Ella shouts from behind him.
Snapping out of my surprise, I swing the sword as hard as I can, the blade slicing through the gray neck.
One second can feel like an eternity when you’re staring into eyes you don’t remember, yet look so similar to yours. I’ve spent my life searching for answers from the man who abandoned me, yet now I only have more questions that will never be answered.
I look away before the next second starts, because I can’t watch. I hear the sounds of his body dropping. Hear the sounds of the epic battle we’ve dreaded as it rages on. And I spend that second trying to remember I have a much more important part to play.
I can’t afford to be irrationally emotional right now.
“Leah!” Ella shouts, and I glance over in time to see Slade and Alton joining hands.
When I glance back to shout at Ella, her eyes turn black, and power like I’ve never felt explodes from her as she walks into the fray where our shifters have been abandoned to fight alone, unable to escape the monsters who are trying to rip them apart.
Singlehandedly, she levels beasts we’ve had to team up on just to take out one. She’s gone to the next level, pushing past all her previous limits, and doesn’t hit a single one of our people.
She’s doing her part.
Turning, I spot the shadow and find Drackus as he arrives with Shaylan right on time, even though he has no clue why we told him to bring his leashed demon with him.
A full-blooded demon who is old enough and strong enough to wrestle with Hannah for at least a few seconds.
Everything happens within a blink in the very next instant. With every ounce of strength I have, I crash into Slade’s side, knocking him away from the shadows just as they collide.
I lose sight of everything but the two shadows as they rush into me.
Pain seizes my lungs as the pressure in my chest boulders through me. I hear Shaylan’s voice shout in my mind for me to release him, even though I had no idea I was holding him.
I hear a hissing mad, venomous woman snapping in my mind, even as I remain rigid, unable to move my body.
Some of the pressure quickly releases, and I feel one presence desert me as I focus only on the female fighting to get out of me.
I’ll kill you. The hissing voice in my head grows louder, and my eyes are unseeing as I stay in the darkness, only focusing on her. The pressure in my chest grows stronger, but I lock onto her, keeping her inside me just like I’ve practiced with Kya over the past few days.
The pressure decreases, even as I struggle to lock her down. But a smirk tugs my lips when I feel it working, feel her trapped in here with me.
Her magic bounces around inside me, being absorbed instead of tearing me apart. It’s the same magic Gavin forced on Zee. The same magic that runs through my veins now because of Zee.
And it works the same way for me as it does for her.
She’s the perfect, unnatural anomaly to counter Ella.
The first burst of power blasts into me, burning me uncomfortably, but I channel it all into the soul I’m clinging to. The demonic soul that never planned for this.
Because I was never supposed to exist.
Because Slade turned himself into a monster, I turned into the perfect, unnatural anomaly to counter Hannah.
And that demon is screaming in agony inside my mind.
Chapter 39
ELLA
Heartbeats. So many heartbeats. All of them going off at once, quickening, descending, flat-lining. I keep trying to trace all the heartbeats I’m protecting, and I blink.
The darkness clears for a second, and I see fire flashing in front of me, cutting down the line of harbingers as more and more deserters start returning.