Page 347 of The Curse Trilogy

I know I have to, so why won’t my hands work for me? Why am I finding it so hard to drop the vehicles armored with uranium explosives? It could all be over in seconds if I could just release the flaming balls of fury the hunks of metal would become in an explosion.

“Araya, please don’t, baby,” the man called Hale screams.

Why does his face haunt me? Why does he seem so familiar when I didn’t even know his name moments ago? Why do I hear concern, heartbreak, and desire all at once coming from his smooth voice through the crackles of his emotion? Why is his face etched with concern and dread while streaked with tears?

“It’s because he’s afraid of dying, my queen. His gift is one of trickery. You have to destroy him before he gets inside your head,” Ty says to answer the inner questions plaguing me right now.

“I can’t reach her blood,” the man they call Clay shouts. “It’s as if she’s blocking me somehow. I can’t pull out the virus or the blood. Hale, stay away.”

“I won’t fucking leave her. She’s mine not his,” he blares back as the explosive vehicles swirl above. “Araya, baby, I love you. Come back to me.”

Come back? Why does he think I’m his? Love? How can he love me?

“Kill him now,” my king compels.

There’s a twist in my gut forcing me to touch the belly of mine which feels to be carrying a life force I can’t explain. It’s strong, and it’s begging me not to hurt this man claiming to love me.

He blows through the packs with his explosive hands leading the way. My blood simmers in my veins as the display seems to force me to gravitate toward him with an unexplainable power.

“No! Araya, do as I said!” my king screams, and my eyes darken and soften back and forth between the eyes of the two men claiming me as their own.

“Araya, don’t listen to him, baby. He’s not your counter, I am. It’s me. It has always been me,” Hale pleads, and I tilt my head curiously.

“You can’t fuck with her, Hale. Her blood is too strong for you to try to cause a division,” Ty screams, and then suddenly I hear a roaring blast from sound waves disrupted as the dark-haired girl squares off with my king.

My king yelps and screeches as he digs up the dirt behind him, caught off guard by her attack. I turn to show the girl a lesson when I feel arms around my waist. The battle rages like the inferno I never thought I could see. The blue eyes hold mine, begging me to recognize his beauty within. I see a golden-haired girl with savage eyes coupled with a blond-haired boy incinerating the world around them as they stalk toward my king.

This creature in front of me beckons for my attention to return. His lips find mine without permission, but I can’t stop him. It doesn’t feel a betrayal as it should.

“It’s me, baby. It’s Hale. I’m yours and your mine. Come back to me.”

I start to fling him off of me - to show him he has crossed a line and punish him for his insolence. I can’t though. Those soft eyes laced with mounds of love pull me in closer. I press my lips against his this time, and he jerks me to his body to feel the heat just before an electrical burst strikes my side.

He rips the cord free as the shooting pain digs into me, and I feel a burning growing stronger inside of me. I feel myself… going darker, deeper, and I feel the power begging to escape from my mouth, my eyes, my fingers… everything.

“Araya,” he breathes, and I gasp as the air runs through my lungs as if for the first time.

The explosive trucks still circling above us suddenly explode into the air driving all the debris into the vacuuming cyclone forming in the sky like a phase five storm. I stroke his face lovingly before a screaming howl erupts from behind us.

“I have to take care of something,” my drunken voice chimes.

He steps up beside me, and images of a fatal blow flash through my head as the small boy I came to save delivers me a warning using his gift from so far away. I can see Hale’s death, his body being smashed to pieces before blown to ashes. It’s so real I feel as though I could reach out and touch his sparking embers.

I tremble slightly, and then I place my hand on his head before whispering.

“Sleep,” my voice commands so gently.

His eyes roll back in his head, and I look around at all the others before they too drop to the ground under my words.

Angelica, Grayson, Symphony, and Clay follow suit - falling in front of the man who was seconds away from killing them. I glance over to see the resting body of Brazen who had been on his way to me before the sudden urge to shut his eyes came into play.

Ty’s eyes narrow at me as he snarls through his gritted teeth.

“That’s new,” he growls.

“I told you not to be so dismissive,” my dark tone eases out, and I feel the power growing stronger, darker, and more uncontrollable by the second.

His eyes try to roll back in his head from my newly found sedating powers, but he’s so strong. I can feel his burning desire for my death. I can feel his dark aura shining through to break free from the force of my trance… which is fine. I want him to feel the pain of his death.