Page 156 of Never Kiss a Fae

Whirling around, I sought his presence, only to see miles and miles of clouds in all directions. The ground began to shake, my name a chant on the wind.

Cyrus…

I couldn’t sense him.

Couldn’t breathe.

What’s happening?

The moss was climbing again, still invisible, but there. It drove through the fibers of my clothes, seeping into my veins and painting my blood in shades of black.

I shook in time with the ground, my soul screaming at me to run. But I didn’t know where to go. I couldn’t remember where I’d entered, couldn’t focus on anything other than the impending doom surrounding me.

Tears streaked down my face.

My heart raced.

The world blinked in and out.

And all I could do was fall, fall, fall… into nothingness. And everything. And bittersweet darkness.

My home.

Chapter19

Cyrus

Fuck!

Now I knew what Mortus had been up to last night. He’d set a fucking trap. And not for me, but for Claire.

I wrapped my arms around her, tugging harshly against some unknown force. It seemed to be sucking the elements right out of her, as if starving for her life. And it was fucking killing her.

Her skin turned ashen, her breath stuttering between blue lips. It’d all happened so quickly, her body whirling around in a violent circle as her life drained before my eyes.

“Claire!” I shouted.

Nothing.

Not even an acknowledgment.

Just a limp, boneless body collapsing into mine.

I had to get her out of here. But that force had its claws so deep into her, preventing me from moving. So I did the only thing I could think to do. I misted.

Water overwhelmed my senses, transforming me into a breeze that allowed me to traverse kingdoms via magical means. Only, I’d never taken another being with me before.

Come on, I urged, thickening my energy and forcing it to overwhelm Claire. A hint of her water responded, as if a hand was forming from within her and reaching for me. I grasped it with my mind, locking our element together in a whirlpool of power.

My chest ached beneath the force of it, a connection forming that surpassed time and space, but it was the only way to free her from that violent hold.

I felt it now. The inky abyss sucking her into a black hole of malevolence, stripping her of her gifts, and cascading her to the darkest depths of the ocean floor.

Not on my watch, asshole!I shoved the shadow back with a tidal wave so strong that the being—trap—thing—unlatched, releasing Claire to my superior strength, causing me to stumble backward in mist form.

I didn’t think; I acted.

My power wrapped around her in earnest, forcing her to disintegrate into water molecules that I could manipulate, and I took her with me to the only place I knew would help.