Page 57 of Prey of the Lycan Queen (Unwanted #2)

Chapter Fifty-Six

My veins thrum with the power of generations past. It courses through me, a river of ancestral magic so potent it feels as if I am being torn apart and stitched together at the same moment.

The connection is profound, dizzying, and utterly terrifying.

But through it all, I feel my granny’s comforting presence, her whispered words echoing within my very soul.

“You are a woman, Zirah,” her voice, soft yet steely, resonates within me. “You have a will that can move mountains, a heart that can calm the fiercest storm, and a spirit that can wage war against man and beast alike...and still, you stand as a queen, as High Priestess.”

The tunnel shakes around us, rubble falling like hail, but her words empower me, wrapping me in a cocoon of determination and resilience.

With a shout, I channel this newfound strength and will the mountain to bend to me, mapping out the vast tunnels, feeling and looking.

The vibrations fall to a hollow, revealing a hidden pathway, an alternate exit leading us to safety.

“This way,” I tell Regan at the fork we come to with the wolves at our heels. A loud crack echoes like thunder, making me stop. I peer up when Regan grabs my arms, only to hear another.

“Run,” Regan snarls, ripping me out of my stupor and pulling me down the tunnels.

“Faster, Zirah,” Regan snaps, shoving me ahead.

I stumble but pick up my pace as we race toward the glimmer of lights ahead.

Breaking through the opening of the cave, I grip my knees trying to catch my breath, feeling relieved when I hear murmurs.

Lifting my gaze, I see the coven, Zeke, and Lyon—who is still fighting instinct to fight and kill.

The taste of freedom is short-lived. Once we reach the coven, the sight that greets us is grim and full of despair and uncertainty. Zeke and Lyon.

“Where’s King Theron? Where’s Leila?” I demand, my gaze sweeping over the uneasy faces of the coven members. The silence that follows is damning. We’ve left two of our own in the mountain.

“They’re still in there?” Regan asks. “But they were with you,” he growls.

That’s when I realize exactly why they haven’t come out. “She’s channeling your father,” I murmur, looking at Regan to find him gone. I spin, turning to look at the mountain, and my eyes widen in horror.

Regan darts back toward the chaotic tunnels of tumbling rocks and pitch-black shadows. Gnash is on his heels.

“No!” I gasp and Zeke hurls himself at me, trapping me within his iron grip before I make it three steps. “It’s suicide. The entire place is caving in,” he growls. But his warning arrives too late, and the ground quakes beneath us as if agreeing with him.

Leila’s magic must have broken, or she did. The cracking is loud, and I scream as the mountain rumbles.

A raw cry tears from my throat as I hurl Zeke aside. His surprised yelp is drowned by the cataclysmic roar of the mountain. My heart bleeds for my mate, for Leila, and Gnash, who are all buried beneath the stone belly of the mountain.

Suddenly, Kelly’s words from before come to mind . “We won’t channel from you.”

My steps falter as I stop and peer back at her. “This is what you saw,” I gasp, peering up at the mountain and then my coven, my eyes dart to Zeke and Lyon, wondering how much power I can channel from them before it kills me. My mind races as seconds tick by, then I make up my mind. I have to try.

Words pour from my lips in an ancient dialect, a chant forged from desperation and grief. Power ripples around me, flowing from the coven, feeding my spell. It’s too much, far too much, like trying to contain a raging river in cupped hands.

My voice splits the wild sky, the ancient words vibrating through the violent swirl of energy I’ve called upon.

This is a gamble, a desperate plea to the Fates themselves.

The air crackles around me as my magic unfurls, a harsh, unyielding force that births a storm.

Thunder rolls across the sky like a deafening battle cry, echoing my distress, but nothing happens.

“I broke the curse,” I scream toward the merciless sky just as thunder cracks and the rains fall, drowning the earth.

“I did what you requested! I have given up everything and everyone I love for this. You will not take them from me! You will not take him. You will not take my mate!” I scream angrily.

The storm rages in response, each flash of lightning reflecting the wildfire in my eyes. Around me, my coven crumples like marionettes with severed strings, their grief-soaked wails piercing my heart. Leila’s loss sends a pang through me, at the Fate’s refusal.

“I didn’t ask for this!” My words twist into the howling wind. “I never wanted to be your oracle. I didn’t want to have to choose! But I did what you asked! I still did it.”

My hands stretch toward the writhing sky, fingers dancing amid the chaotic elements. Electricity zapping through the air, water drenching the earth, the wind bending trees, all while fire zaps from the power lines leading into the mountains surrounding this place.

Power floods into me, the raw, untamed might of the storm. It’s a vortex within me, churning, threatening to rip me apart. But I channel it, let it spiral around me, creating miniature tornadoes, electrifying the air until lightning rends the sky apart.

It strikes the earth, jolting the mountain, then jolting me. Pain explodes, a harsh, relentless blossom of agony as blood seeps from my eyes, my ears, my nose. Distantly, I hear Lyon and Zeke screaming, trying to reach me. But the winds are a savage barrier.

Lightning sears through me, a bolt of pure, incandescent pain.

My knees buckle, hands slapping into the mud and rock.

Still, I refuse to surrender. Chanting, defiant, furious, I summon more power.

The earth responds with a violent shudder, splitting and cracking as if in agony and screaming along with me.

Rocks tumble, the earth shifts, and for a moment, the world is chaos.

Then, as if compelled by some unseen force, a landslide shatters the mountain, tearing away the colossal boulders, breaking and pushing the debris covering the tunnels, crack after crack.

Like a porcelain doll, the mountain shatters.

However, the power is too much, and I collapse, wails of grief wrenching from my throat.

Finally, a bolt of lightning strikes the boulder covering the tunnel’s exit.

The once dark maw now bathed in the dim light of the surviving torches.

Theron barrels out, his eyes wide with horror and shock.

Close on his heels, Regan stumbles into the open, cradling Leila’s limp body with Gnash at his heel.

Relief washes over me, sweet and dizzying, until I see Regan falter a step. Gnash whimpers in pain as he walks ahead of Regan only to collapse. Regan gasps, staggering to one knee, and my eyes widen. Regan’s ashen face, the way he crumples to his knees, how his breath comes in ragged gasps.

My heart lurches at the sight of Regan collapsing into the mud. I scramble to my feet, his name catching in my throat. “Regan!” Every other thought is lost in the deafening echo of his fall, and Leila slides down his body into the dirt, he stares down at her, breathing heavily.

“Theron?” I distantly hear James shriek, yet I don’t stop or glance in his direction. My feet hit the ground in rapid thuds, thuds that meet every beat of my heart.

No...