Page 79 of The Discovered
Lucius laughed like I’d just told him the most glorious joke. I gathered thatIwas the punchline. “How many times do I have to spell it out for you? I would never hurt Daelon.” He said the words slowly, his eyes so steady that they nearly revealed boredom.
I started to feel physically ill, a wave of nausea overwhelming my perception. My hold over Lucius dimmed. I recalled in horror that astral encounter in which Lucius had gestured to the place next to him and asked me who I thought belonged there. At the time, I thought he meant me.
Daelon’s off-handed remarks about his friends, his past, his pleads for me to trust him—the wall that Lucius could get through without issue but that shocked me to the touch.
“No,” I whispered to myself, my power spinning out of control.
But he was like me—I saw it in the ocean, I saw it in his energy—all Ihadwas my intuition. There was no way that it had led me so far astray, over and over again. He told me he loved me, one of few to say those words since my mothers’ deaths. As I reminded myself of all the times Daelon had proved himself to be on my side, to truly care for me and yearn to shield me from the darkness, I felt Lucius push back stronger than ever before. His sickening energy began to reach out to me like a thick fog.
It was as if he was syphoning the energy of my pain.
“You’re messing with my head,” I hissed, trying to gain back control over my power as I saw Lucius beginning to flex his fingers.
I took all that was left of my channeling capabilities, using more power than I’d ever used before, and I balled it into a single, lethal weapon. Cool steel materialized in my hand, my eyes widening at the dagger I’d manifested from thin air.That was an interesting new development.
I saw the moonlit blade reflected in Lucius’s glare as he clenched his teeth. His ice blue eyes were rimmed with hatred, but as I brought my hands up above my head, eyeing his heart beneath his rising and falling chest, Lucius smiled. I hesitated, feeling a shift in the atmosphere around us.
“Took you long enough,” Lucius said casually, like he was in the middle of watching a movie rather than paralyzed under a magickal dagger of death.
My breath hitched, and I knew Daelon had found us. I felt time slow down, the forest all too quiet aside from the sound of my labored breathing, the whistle of wind, and the crunch of approaching footsteps.
I was out of time.
The forces around me broke through the stillness, calling upon me to act. They were a cacophony of lyrical notes, of song and loud whispers. With a decisive exhale, I brought down the blade, a visceral sound escaping my throat.
In the same second, I was grabbed from behind, pulled away from Lucius as my only chance to kill him was torn from my grasp. The voices faded from my ears until I could only hear my heartbeat once more. I struggled against Daelon as he twisted the dagger from my grasp and held me in place.
My hold over Lucius had dissipated, along with every last bit of the power I’d channeled. I was fading quickly as I fought against Daelon.
“Let me go!” I yelled, watching Lucius rise from his place in the snow. I looked into Daelon’s eyes and saw nothingness.
It couldn’t all be true.It couldn’t.
My limbs grew heavy, and my vision turned hazy. As unconsciousness reached for me, all I could focus on was Lucius’s triumphant smile. He wasn’t looking at me, though, his gaze focused on the space above me.
He was smiling at Daelon.
“Sleep now,” Daelon whispered in my ear, just as he had the night we first met.
Chapter23
From an empty darkness I was thrust back into reality, my heart sinking as soon as I regained consciousness.
“Glad to be back?”
“Of course.”
“How long is she going to be out?”
“Last time it was nearly a full day.”
Realizing I had awakened much earlier than my captors expected, I kept my eyes closed. I felt softness beneath me, as if I was on a bed or couch of some sort. The room smelled of roses and chamomile.
“You missed so much,” Lucius exclaimed. “Like I had to interrogate half the court because Amos convinced me one of them was behind this whole Armageddon business. Full on plague, locusts, water to blood… it was a whole ordeal.”
Amos. I knew him. His energy was pure.
It took everything within me not to cry, not to fight, not to let them know that I was awake and was going to destroy them both.
