Page 124 of The Alpha's Bullied Rejected Mate

Athena tensed as she tried to focus. Maybe the demon was right. She was failing. She really wasn’t strong enough.

“Athena!” Marcus called out to her, jolting her out of her thoughts.

“Focus.”

I can’t.

“Athena, you can do this.”

No, I couldn’t. She shook.

“You’re the strongest witch I know.”

No, I’m not.

“I’m right here and I trust you!”

She blinked.Trust.

‘I’m asking you to trust me.’Her own words echoed in her mind.

Her head snapped up as she stared into Marcus’s eyes. Despite the magical distance building between them, their mate bond still connected strongly.

Yes. She could do this.

Athena focused on the spell again as images from her visions flashed through her eyes. This was the moment. If she wanted to avert danger for her loved ones, it was now or never.

A glow of white light shone from her palms as the barrier began to disappear. The demon shrieked in surprise, and beforeit could do anything, Athena speared her magic bolts toward it, completing the spell, and it writhed in pain.

Without wasting any time, she picked up one of Marcus’s daggers on the floor and whispered a spell on it as the silver markings glowed even brighter.

She swung it toward Marcus, who went straight for the kill.

“This is not over!”

The demon’s final words tore through the air in a deafening scream just before Marcus drove the silver dagger deeper into its chest. Its eyes burned black-red before flickering out like dying embers.

Marcus yanked the blade free from its chest, and thick, sizzling black blood dripped down the metal blade. The creature staggered, its body collapsing with a sickening thud before it dissolved into a cloud of ash and foul smoke.

A thick thunderous sound rumbled in the sky above them as rain started to pour down heavily on them.

Athena stood, her chest heaving as her eyes scanned toward Marcus.

He was already looking at her.

Their eyes met, and the unspoken words passed between them like a surge of warmth amidst the downpour. He ran to her, without hesitation, and wrapped his arms tightly around her trembling frame.

“You did it,” he whispered against her drenched hair. “You did it. Gods, Athena...you did it.”

“No,” she murmured into his shoulder, breathless. “We did.”

The rain poured down on them, but neither of them seemed to care. To Athena, it wasn’t just water. It felt like absolution. Like the sky was crying, weeping in relief for her.

Marcus pulled away from her and

Athena could feel her magic humming softly inside her.

And then the air around her shifted, sucking her into a trance.