Page 17

T his couldn’t be happening. I desperately prayed this was only a nightmare, but when I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and opened them once more, the group of Noctani still stood before me. Nik’s head was cocked to the side, that familiar lazy smile across his lips.

His hand moved to his chest, right above his heart. Did it still beat?

“You wound me, Firecracker.”

He took a step closer, and I took a step back. He lifted his brow at me.

“Are you afraid of me?” he asked, his voice that same velvety tone he used when he would flirt. I could taste bile rising up the back of my throat and I tried my best to swallow it back down.

I shook my head. “No, not afraid. I don’t want to hurt you. ”

He laughed, his head falling back as his mouth opened, showcasing those sharpened white teeth.

Fangs.

“Hurt me ? You could never hurt me, Firecracker. Not when I’m like this.”

I took another step backwards towards Puck and Tess, and he tracked the movement. He inclined his head ever so slightly, but he stayed put.

It was Puck whose voice broke the heavy silence that had fallen across the clearing. “Just leave. We don’t want to fight you, Nikolai. Take this opportunity and turn back.” His voice sounded as if it were a desperate plea.

“I don’t want to fight you either, brother, ” Nik replied.

Puck flinched.

“My quarrel isn’t with you.” Nik shook his head. “We simply need to take Diana with us.” Nik reached for the hilt of the broadsword strapped to his back, sliding it free. The sound echoed across the clearing, rising above the pelting rain.

“You can’t take her.” Puck’s voice was stern as he adjusted his grip on the Katana, stepping in front of me even more to obscure me from Nikolai’s gaze.

My own gaze flitted to Tess, and she could see the tears gathering in my eyes.

“I’m afraid this isn’t multiple choice. There is no other option.”

Before Nik even finished speaking, he had made his move. He surged forward with the broadsword swinging down towards Puck. He moved fast enough that it was difficult to track his movements, but Puck had met his sword with his own, pushing him back with all his strength.

But Nik was faster.

He was so much faster .

We stood no chance against the increased speed and power of the Noctani.

They moved forward all at once, Ms. Finch’s arms reaching out towards me.

I slashed Stormslayer towards her and she stepped back, a surprised expression flitting across her face.

She stepped back, and in her place another Noctani surged forward, one I didn’t recognize.

Stormslayer met the blade of the other Noctani as I pushed her back, her blonde hair plastered to her forehead from the rain.

The thunder boomed overhead once more as the sounds of fighting filled the clearing.

I could see Tess engaging with another Noctani out of the corner of my eye before focusing back on the one before me.

This was truly a nightmare. I hadn’t wanted to fight them, but I could see there was no other option.

A Noctani was sneaking up behind me and I turned quickly, plunging the dagger into her neck. They were coming from every angle. We were outnumbered. I cut a glance towards Puck, who had been disarmed, and he and Nik grappled with Nik’s broadsword.

What a fucking mess.

I turned from the Noctani, sliding my blade out of her neck to face the next one.

This man was much taller than me, his muscled arm grasping a club in his fist. My vision snapped away quickly—to an image of that club buried deep within my skull—but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

Had it been a vision? Or had it only been my own fear, materialized?

I dodged the club as it came towards me, right before it could crush me beneath its weight.

I kicked the Noctani in the back of the legs, but he didn’t budge.

I brought Stormslayer into an uppercut towards his chin, but he batted my arm away as if I were merely a toy.

The hand not holding the club swung towards me—too quickly for me to dodge—and it slammed into the side of my face.

I could taste blood as it filled my mouth, my head turning under the force of his fist.

Before he could get another hit in, I flattened to the mud, rolling to escape his grasp.

His club swept towards me again, and I narrowly avoided it, stepping back into the clutches of two other waiting Noctani.

One grasped my arm and twisted it behind my back hard enough that I heard a crack in my shoulder, my arm going limp and Stormslayer sliding from my grasp.

My legs were kicked out from under me before the Noctani pinned my other arm behind me.

I hung my head, the tendrils of my auburn hair darkened from the rain dripping onto my cheeks.

“No!” Tess cried, lunging towards me.

In that single moment of distraction, Nik was able to get the upper hand. He slid the broadsword free from Puck’s grasp and hitting him in the temple with the hilt of it. Puck’s body slumped into the mud before he lay there, motionless.

I pressed my eyes closed, unable to watch as he approached Tess from behind. She was too focused on me. He smacked the hilt of the sword into the back of her head as her gaze remained locked onto me. She slipped to her knees before sprawling in the mud.

He hadn’t killed them.

He hadn’t killed them.

He hadn’t killed them.

I kept repeating it to myself over and over again as he moved towards me, wiping the mud on the broadsword off on his wet tunic.

If he had wanted to, he could have. They were merely unconscious.

The rain hadn’t let up, and the storm raged above us in earnest now.

My magic pulsed right beneath the surface, begging to be set free.

I wanted to release it badly , but I had no idea what would happen if I did. It had been disastrous every time my unbound magic had lashed out before, and I doubted it would be any different this time. But what other choice did I have?

Before I could reach for it as a last resort, take the risk of using my unbound magic to get out of this mess, Nik placed a hand on my shoulder.

I recoiled away from his touch.

Was this the part where he sunk his fangs into me, draining me of any and all storm magic?

A tear slipped free and ran down my cheek, but with my hands bound behind my back I couldn’t reach up to wipe it away. I didn’t want them to see me cry. I was completely and utterly defeated.

Nik’s hand found my jaw, and he grasped it, turning my face up towards his. He ran his thumb along my cheek, capturing the single tear with his finger. He stared at it for a long, interminable moment before slipping the finger into his mouth to taste it.

“Please,” I begged, “please just let me go.”

He narrowed his eyes down at me. “Afraid I can’t do that, Firecracker.”

Nik tilted his head to the side as he gazed down into my face, before slamming the butt of his sword against my temple. Everything went black.