Page 114 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

E very bone in my body ached, every muscle, every joint, every fiber.

I gasped for breath, lungs burning like the air had been knocked from them as I crawled to Rogue.

Thick, hot emotion caught in my throat as I reached for him, gripped his shoulder, and recoiled.

His skin was cold.

Lightning cracked again, but not my lightning.

I rolled over and pushed myself up.

Adonis held a dagger to Mother’s throat, her eyes wide and watery. Her lips quivered, but they tipped up in a hopeful smile.

Vaelor appeared behind Adonis.

Adonis’s eyes flared, his entire body trembling. He swallowed hard, his throat bobbing, then shook his head.

He turned, pulling Mother with him as he faced Vaelor.

Mother’s broken cry pierced my heart as she laid eyes on him for the first time in twenty-seven years.

Even with a blade at her throat, she cried, “I missed you,” again and again.

Vaelor’s expression crumpled for a split second, then hardened into a mask of fury.

I didn’t hear what was said after that, because as the sun crested the horizon, heat surged at my back.

I swiveled, my heart pounding painfully as I watched its counterpart ignite into a raging inferno.

He burned—and burned brighter.

A body of fire rose with the dawn, and not the one he died with.

It was more.

Wings of flame burst open, snapping wide against the rising sun.

My lungs seized, my vision blurred—too much heat, too much hope.

Then, I was running.

No thought. No hesitation.

I sprinted straight into the fire, straight at him , but his flames didn’t burn me. They parted, curling over my skin.

He barely had time to register anything at all before I collided with him, legs locking around his waist, arms around his neck.

For a heartbeat, he just stood there, stunned.

“You’re alive,” I rasped, clutching him tighter. “You’re here. You’re alive… and you…your wings. You have wings. ”

His arms wrapped around me in a crushing hold.

“I’m here, little storm.” He buried his face in my neck, a slight tremor in his voice. “I’m here.”

Mother’s scream snapped us back to reality. Rogue set me on my feet as we faced them.

“No!” Adonis roared. “No, you’ll stay fucking dead!”

He threw Mother aside, and Vaelor darted forward to catch her just before she hit the ground.

Mother clutched at him, grabbing his arms, his shoulders, his face, sobbing violently, “No, stay. Please stay.”

Adonis charged at Rogue, cursed dagger gleaming in his hand.

Rogue stood tall, chin high, wings blazing—and I did as I had once before.

I coiled my magic around Sacrifice’s hilt, a sizzling rope of white energy that Adonis was too distracted, too angry to notice.

I yanked.

The blade snapped into my palm with a sharp sting.

Adonis swung at Rogue in a blinding fury, chaotic and uncontrolled. Rogue dodged.

As he moved to swing again, I stepped between them.

Adonis froze.

I whispered his own words back to him, “You’ll thank me.”

He looked down.

Sacrifice was buried deep beneath his sternum, angled into a lung.

He met my gaze with a strained gargle, red bubbling from his mouth.

Adonis Draki finally drowned in his own blood.