Page 322 of Cursed Evermore

Fire painted the twilight sky and tore across the courtyard. Wolfe was in the sky, wings of shadow flared wide. With his sword, he slashed the air, but… there was nothing there.

No foe I could see, only the rippling distortion of power clashing against his own.

Gods above. The force he fought was invisible, yet I felt it in my bones, a pressure crushing the air that made the world groan.

Through the fire, I could just make out Hedion and Pyrion behind Wolfe. They bellowed their fury, flapping against the wind, but their massive forms strained against a lattice of red light that held them bound. Sigils etched into the air shimmered and held them fast, sealing them away from their rider.

My heart stopped. Whoever had come for us hadn't only found us, they had come prepared.

Think, Elariya. Think. Do something. And fast.The seconds were ticking by.

If Wolfe could see what he was fighting, that might help.

A spell came to me, and I lifted my hands, summoning what little focus I had left.

"Blessed Mother, give us sight!”I shouted as loudly as I could. “Let the things unseen be revealed. Let no enchantment hide them from our sight."

Light flared from my hands in response, scattering into the air, then it burst across the sky, revealing phantom specters.

For a heartbeat, shapes flickered where the force pressed against Wolfe in spectral outlines wreathed in red sigils. Gods, they were clawing at him from every side.

My stomach dropped. My spell didn't seem powerful enough to completely remove the cloak that kept them hidden, and I couldn't tell who or what they were.

I chanted another spell that fizzled in the air to nothing. I repeated the first spell, but nothing happened.

Lightning cracked where Wolfe flew, splitting the air with violent energy.

For a heartbeat, the world held its breath, then reality bent and shimmered. From the fractured air, a sword wreathed in lightning materialized, driving straight through Wolfe's chest with sickening finality, the wet, terrible sound of steel punching through flesh and bone.

"Wolfe!" I screamed from somewhere deeper than my lungs, as if my very soul was being flayed.

Wolfe hung suspended in the air, the sword protruding from his chest at an obscene angle. Dark blood seeped around the steel, staining his white shirt in expanding crimson blooms. He swayed in the air, one hand instinctively reaching toward the blade before falling uselessly to his side. His face had goneashen, eyes wide with shock, lips parted as if he were trying to speak but only managing shallow, rattling breaths.

"No!"

I ran toward him. I didn't think, didn't breathe, didn't care that the ground was cracking beneath me. I just ran.

But before I could reach him, light snared my limbs. Shackles, blazing and merciless, wrapped tight around my wrists and ankles. I screamed and fought, but the bindings gripped me relentlessly.

Every movement seared like fire, every pulse of magic I tried to summon fizzled uselessly against the light.

This close, I could see it wasn't just the sword holding Wolfe in place. A thick blue substance sparked around the blade and pulsed into his wound.

A blinding shimmer crackled before him, then, to my utter, absolute horror, Thayden appeared, his hand clenched around the hilt of the sword buried deep inside Wolfe's chest.

Thayden.

Thayden from the mortal realm.

Thayden, whom I was supposed to marry.

Hewas here.

A cruel smile painted his features with triumph as he shoved the blade deeper. Wolfe cried out, the sound ripped from his chest as lightning crackled over his body.

The sky split open behind him, fusing with the spirals of lightning crackling around the sword.

His gaze found mine through the haze of blood and light. His lips parted, trembling around the words, "I... love you, Ziy...ka."