Page 76 of Immortal Origins (Chronicles of the Immortal Trials #1)

C heers turned to horrified gasps as the beings gathered around her noticed the body she cradled. Ambrose didn’t care that she was out. Didn’t care that they were watching. Didn’t even care how she’d gotten back. All she cared about was Akadian.

She couldn’t lose him.

Not now.

Not like this.

She placed her hands on his chest and called it. Called everything inside of her to answer.

She wouldn’t let him die.

Her skin singed under the force as she pushed every ounce of will and Magick she had into him.

Ignoring the pain in her body that wanted to cripple her, she put all her focus into the only thing that mattered anymore.

Her channels flowed, engulfing her as heat rose from her skin and pushed against her. Her nerves protested in agony and she wanted to pull away. To stop. but she forced her body to remain obedient. Forced her magick to obey.

A warm light came from her hands and spread across his chest, growing brighter until the only thing she could see was that light. Until it filled the entire Grand Hall and muffled the startled gasps of the nobility that watched her.

Until it shadowed the protests of the other Trial Champions.

Until it was the only thing in existence .

Her head split as though it might tear in half as blood dripped from her nose down onto her hands. She didn’t care.

She’d save him if it took every last ounce of mana she had.

Her channels flowed with more power than she’d ever felt before, more than seemed truly possible. No more asking. No more calling. This time, it was a demand.

All her power was useless if she couldn’t bring him back.

If she couldn’t save him.

“Ambrose stop! It’s too much!” Adym shouted from somewhere that felt very far away. But she wouldn’t. Couldn’t.

“She can do it!” She heard Lily’s ragged voice snap back.

She’d keep calling until she had enough. Not a second sooner.

She forced her magick to grow inside of her, filling her to its absolute limit.

Her lungs tensed as she coughed and the taste of iron coated the back of her throat as she forced her mana into him. More. More .

“Stop this!” Casimir roared from a corner of the room and Ambrose threw her hand to the spot where his voice had come from and a purple-white streak exploded and hit something, but she didn’t have the time to see if she’d made her mark.

She placed her hand back on Akadian’s chest and threw everything inside of her into him.

“Heal him. Heal him!” she screamed in her mind, knowing they could hear her.

“You could die, young mage, you must stop this.”

“Heal him!” s he demanded and pushed more of her mana into him as her vision began to grow dark. “Now!”

“We cannot. His life is in fate’s hands now.”

“Like hell it is!” She called more. Letting it flow into him. “It’s in mine .”

She called more, until she was sure she’d explode from the pressure but commanded her body to hold as the power flowed from her to him.

She called until her screams and pain fused into one and her nerves fired under her skin, burning her from the inside out. Her arms shook but she forced them still. Her back arched as the light in the palm of her hands exploded into a scorching flash and vanished altogether.

Ambrose stared down at her hands, then to Akadian’s still face as she waited with baited breath.

And waited.

And waited.

His wounds were gone but his eyes stayed shut and his chest didn’t move.

“No…“ she sobbed. It wasn’t enough. It still wasn’t enough. “No!”

Her body shook as her tears ran down her face. She wrapped her arms around him and didn’t bother to restrain her sorrow. She didn’t care who was watching or that she was surrounded by her enemies. She’d put everything into that magick and it still wasn’t enough.

She couldn’t save Marybeth.

She couldn’t save Antony.

She couldn’t save Danthan.

She couldn’t save any or them—

Akadian’s eyes flew open and his body convulsed as his lungs gasped for air.

“Oh, thank the gods ,” Ambrose sobbed, her tears staining his shirt. “You’re alive.”

He stared up at her through wide eyes, the corners of his mouth turned down as his hands ran over his body checking for wounds. She placed a hand to his temple and almost sobbed when she felt the shimmering haze was gone and his eyes looked at her. Really looked at her.

The sound of relief that left her lips was something mixed with hysteria.

“You don’t look very pleased for someone who’s just cheated death,” she choked as tears ran down her cheeks.

He gave her a half smile. “Cheated for now, you mean.”

Wrapping her fingers in his hair, she pulled him close and hugged him. Sobbing into his shoulder, she squeezed his neck and let the relief take her.

She did it.

She placed her forehead against his, face contorted into pain and gratitude .

“ Thank you ,” she whispered into the depths of her mind. “ Thank you. ”

“ There is nothing to thank, young mage ,” they soothed, “ We did not do this . Well done. ”

“I’m okay?” His voice was so faint as he looked at her, one of his hands tentatively wrapped around her waist as though he wasn’t sure what he was seeing and feeling was real.

She couldn’t hold back.

She leaned down and pressed her lips against his. Lips she’d stared at so many times, wondering what they felt like. Tasted like.

They tasted of roses.

She cradled his face in her hands as her tears fell into their mouths.

Lightly at first, as though to tell him, ‘‘Yes, this is real.’’ When her lips parted and he opened his own to invite her, she eagerly responded.

His tongue slipped over hers as his mouth pressed harder, claiming her in a way she never imagined.

The nobles gasped but she ignored them. Her head swam and she didn’t know if it was from the exhaustion or from the way he felt pressed against her as though nothing in this world could be more right.

His fingers squeezed her sides and his arm wound tightly around her waist, leaving no space between them that wasn’t… them. As one. Together.

She held him like she could lose him again at any moment, fingers curled into the collar of his shirt as she whispered with her mouth still pressed against his, “You’re okay.”

Akadian wrapped his other hand around her and pulled her close, his mouth exploring hers hungrily as she wrapped her hands back into his hair.

Stomach fluttering, her chest squeezed, wanting him closer but no amount of closeness would ever be enough.

He wrapped a hand in her tangled hair and pulled her in as though nothing else mattered more than that moment.

Neither of them gave a gods damned who was watching.

Stuck in time, they stayed like that, melting into one before he pulled away and touched his mouth to her forehead. “I’m okay.”

The hall of beings around them had fallen deathly silent. Some stared open-mouthed at the sight before them. Servants, guards, Trial Champions, and nobility couldn’t take their eyes of the pair as Akadian pulled them onto their feet.

“By gods, she healed him.” The King of Sepikara stood in his chair as his wife held onto him with one hand, while the other clutched her chest. Their servants stood behind them in a congregation of stunned silence.

Ambrose looked around at the crowd while she kept one hand on Akadian as though she was afraid she still hadn’t used enough mana and might need to call her power back at any moment.

Adym looked at her with a mixture of pride and horror.

Lily caught her eye with a satisfied grin as she raised her swords into the air with a yelp of victory. Coated in minor injuries she’d have no problem healing, Ambrose didn’t see the shadow mage among the survivors and returned Lily’s triumphant smile.

A few royals seemed as though they didn’t know how to react but instead looked at Casimir waiting for…. something.

“Champion indeed.” Jovian raised a goblet to her in toast, a wicked grin on his face.

Akadian pulled Ambrose in close to him, keeping one arm wrapped around her waist.

“She even healed herself!” someone gasped from a corner of the room.

Ambrose looked down to check her wounds but there were none.

The throbbing in her shoulder was gone as well as the pain in her back and neck.

Even Eurus’ teeth marks had vanished along with the decay that almost took her arm.

She wiped her face and only a clear liquid remained, rather than the pink salty mixture that had been her blood and tears.

She stretched out her hand to make sure her shoulder had full mobility and it responded in full.

It even felt stronger than before she injured it.

In fact, everything felt stronger.

“Unacceptable!” Casimir spat as he climbed down from his seat. Ice reached across the floor towards Ambrose, freezing everything it touched.

She lifted her hand but before she could channel, the arm Akadian had wrapped around her pulled her closer and turned her away from the ice that rushed for her with deadly intention.

Blue flames formed a protective circle around them, pushing Casimir’s ice back with a burst, and Akadian glared at the new king—ready for a fight.

Casimir stumbled, strands of his blond hair coming loose around his head as his eyes burned with cold rage. “How dare you. Do you forget what you are ?”

“That’s enough.” Akadian held Ambrose close as he challenged him. “It’s over. She beat your little game.”

“My little game, has only just begun,” Casimir raged and threw blades of ice as big as swords, and just as sharp, at them with a blinding speed. “How dare you defy me, you have no right !”

Swords flew from their homes at the Imperial Guards’ sides and crashed into the icicles one at a time, shattering them into shards and snow as the swords returned to where they came.

Casimir turned around, eyes wild as he looked for the culprit. “Who dares to stop me?”