Page 48 of The Last One Standing (Rogue X Ara #4)

ARA

R age was an odd emotion, more all-consuming than the others, a volatile red fog.

My heart beat faster. Blood pumped louder. Ringing in my ears drowned out any thoughts of reason. My body tensed, numb with adrenaline, and my magic…

Well, my magic responded the fiercest.

Silver light illuminated my fingers, and Guardian’s blood sizzled away. It was darker beneath his wing now, the sun swallowed by storms. I looked up, my hands falling to my sides in fists.

He’d gone limp, his wing merely a cave left behind in the way he’d fallen.

Through a thin sliver, I caught sight of his throat, shredded and flayed open. His head lay at an awkward angle in a puddle of blood.

The air beneath his wing electrified, my scalp tingling as strands of hair lifted. Thunder rumbled in the distance, an eerie whistle blowing through the valley, and the only light to be found was that of lightning— my lightning.

Crack .

I absorbed the energy from miles away.

Crack .

Another pulse of energy surged in my veins.

Crack. Crack.

Again and again, it struck.

When the bolts finally ceased, my cave shone brighter than daylight, my skin too tight, burning, and ready to burst.

My magic’s well overflowed, but unlike last time, I was not at its mercy. No, it was at mine. The thrashing ocean of power was nothing against the stone wall my rage had built, and my will was the only gateway.

Staring at Guardian’s wound, if it could be reduced to that, I flattened my hand on his scales, feeling for his pulse. It was weak but there. His head had nearly been bitten off, his vertebrae visible, at least two cracked and misaligned.

Glaring, I gritted my teeth and let go.

Veins of white burst from me, snaking beneath his skin, racing in every direction, finding his heart, his lungs, his wounds.

I knitted his throat closed, watching as each bone sank beneath new flesh and skin and scale.

I flooded his system with life, pulling a steady stream of energy from the ground beneath my feet.

It didn’t matter how much I had to take. I would take it all.

The blood on Guardian’s skin sizzled and burned away in wisps of smoke, the puddle beneath him boiling until it, too, dried and cracked.

I poured enough energy into him that every wound healed, every ailment, every scar and ache, and I didn’t stop until his eye popped open—a burning orb of amber, looking directly at me, my reflection a body of silver light.

At the sound of crunching metal and a guttural roar, his gaze snapped toward the fighting.

“Let me out,” I said. When Guardian didn’t move, my magic sank beneath his skin again, his distress loud as I moved his wing for him.

I flinched when a raindrop hit my cheek, then another and another. They fell faster as I took in the scene before me, unable to blink or react. Wind whipped around us, turning the rain to stinging pricks of ice, and fear seeped through my soaked clothes into my bones.

Two wyverns fought, their maws and talons bloodied, the growls and snapping jaws a terrifying chorus against the roar of rain—no, a wyvern and a dragon.

Rain washed the blood from their scales, running down in red rivulets, but the navy wyvern had no defensive wounds, which meant the blood was…

The wyvern bit and tore and maimed the wingless dragon.

Rogue.

He had a thick chain lodged between his teeth and deep gashes on his shoulder.

The clank of a heavy chain rang out louder than any rain, thunder, growls, or roars. It pierced my skull—a spike of agonizing memories—and thrust me back into the cold, hungry darkness.

Chains.

Wind ripped through the forest, tree trunks cracking, branches snapping.

The massive creatures swayed from the force before they braced against it, but I was still as stone, an untouched statue in the storm.

The distant whistling morphed into a high-pitched howl, but that sound, metal on metal, was already in my head.

Nothing would ever be loud enough to drown the noise in my fucking skull.

Dripping water.

Footsteps on stone.

Screams echoing into the void.

Chains.

My wrists and ankles stung where the scars should’ve been, and I ran my trembling fingers over the skin of one wrist—smooth, as if it’d never happened.

But only the visible scars had been erased.

The chain wrenched the dragon’s head back, digging into his skin as a second wyvern emerged from the tree line. It was smaller with its head low and teeth bared. A growl rumbled in its throat, but I couldn’t tell who it was directed at.

Except…

The rain slowed as I squinted, holding my hand over my eyes.

It wasn’t a wyvern or a dragon, not exactly. It was similar, a creature created to emulate the powerful beasts, but it was wrong. It moved like it was uncomfortable in its own skin, like it was in pain.

It was wingless, too, two scars remaining where its wings should’ve sprouted. Its canine teeth were far too long for its mouth, the tips reaching down to its jaw where they sank into its skin, dark liquid dripped down its chin—blood.

Though it was its energy that caused my gut to churn.

My heart raced painfully, ribs cinched too tight, but I forced in breath after breath, staring daggers at it—at him , and for once in my Goddess-forsaken life, my lungs remembered how to breathe.

His energy was a suffocating smog, vile and black.

“Adonis,” I whispered.

Billowing flames burst into the sky, chasing the dragon’s roar in a plume of blistering heat. Blood poured from either side of his mouth, rolling down his glowing maroon throat, lit from the inside as his fire raged on.

The metal chain between his teeth turned red, bright orange, yellow, and finally white, but it didn’t shatter or melt.

Rogue was chained.

I staggered forward a step.

Rogue was chained .

Time slowed as flashes of him blurred reality: restrained, cold, starved, tortured, captured.

Heat pulsed under my skin, my vision tunneling on him—on his shackle. Sparks flickered in my peripheral vision. Energy buzzed, popping, the air electrified.

My Rogue.

Bleeding. Hurt.

Chained.

A deafening crack cleaved the air.

Power snaked beneath the ground, and I felt for every living body in the surrounding area, human and animal, every mind tinged black with Adonis’s touch.

Two dozen soldiers miles away dropped dead on the spot, their quick deaths the only mercy I’d grant as I funneled their lives into me.

My magic’s feelers raced farther, miles away, beyond the trees, the valley, the mountains.

Somewhere in the distance, I found more men, more armies. They weren’t far enough.

A hundred men dropped like flies.

Every living being in the vicinity felt me as my power ran through them, stealing any and every trace of Adonis, including the navy wyvern, his mind the darkest. It was pitch black, so overloaded with manipulation, dense fog covered the clearing as I pulled and pulled.

When I’d taken everything I could, I glowed a blinding white, raindrops sizzling as they hit my searing skin. Energy escaped from the scar on my forearm as it split open again, bleeding light.

Power ripped at the seams of my existence when time resumed. Every pair of eyes turned to me, my form a body of silver in Rogue’s flaming eyes.

A bolt of lightning struck the chain in his mouth, and it disappeared in a flash of light. It took every ounce of concentration I had to hold it, sweat beading on my forehead and down my spine as I braced my feet, not daring to breathe.

I imagined the chain disintegrating into sparks, or dropping into a barren land, or the middle of the ocean.

Anywhere else.

My eyes darted to Adonis and connected with wide, muddy red eyes. My breath caught. They might be slitted, more animal than Fae, but shock was visible across all life forms, and I recognized it in him now.

He hadn’t known I lived.

He did now.

My concentration broke, and the chain slipped and fell between realms.

My chest clenched when lightning cleaved the dark clouds, and the faint whistle started—the sound of air hissing through the chain. I didn’t dare pull my eyes away from Adonis, though, certain he’d attack the moment I looked away.

My magic’s feelers shot up through the sky, reaching for the chain, high, higher…

Oh, Goddess.

It fell from above the clouds.

Through the clouds.

Gaining speed.

Fuck.

I tried to latch on, but I was too slow, too tired, and it moved too fast. I finally tore my eyes from Adonis to look up at the falling weapon of destruction, but the world swayed, my vision blurry. I lifted a hand over my eyes and squinted.

Lightning struck at it. Missed.

Rogue’s massive form moved in my peripheral vision. All the creatures did.

Lightning struck again. Missed again.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

The dark shape loomed closer, growing larger, whistling louder, until it seemed to cover us all, then?—

A thunderclap flung me backwards, splintered wood and dirt exploding as the chain hit like a fucking wildfyre bomb. My back slammed into Guardian’s side with a force that knocked the wind from my lungs, and I fell forward, wheezing.

My hands and knees hit the ground, and I would’ve screamed had I any air left.

Stars sparked in my vision, white-hot agony lancing through my leg.

The muscle seized, my thigh immediately soaked in wet heat, but I managed to stagger to my feet, blinking rapidly when the ground tried to spin beneath me.

It was dark—too dark. Had I gone blind, too?

I rubbed my eyes and shook my head, the buzzing too loud for me to hear, or think, or function.

No, I wasn’t blind.

A wing was thrown over the back of the dragon in front of me.

Rogue and Guardian.

A delirious laugh bubbled up. So much protection, and I’d still been hit with…

I looked down at my limb. I couldn’t see anything, the stain blending in with the black fabric, though I didn’t think I normally had a six-inch appendage extending from my leg.

Hmm, it doesn’t hurt that bad.