Page 128 of Ashes and Lilies
Upon inspection, I realized it wasn’t a knife at all. It was a dagger.
Which was perfect—considering this was my expertise.
Some part of me resisted even as I reached for the blade.
This wasn’t me.
I grabbed it, and the warm, golden handle was a comforting weight against my palm. My stomach twisted in hesitation—I didn’t want to fight, to hurt anyone—but the thoughts quieted as another shot rang through the room, missing my nose by barely a hair.
I didn’t have a choice.
Their panicked, shouted exclamations were a balm to my rage,and I smirked. The witless rabble had trapped themselves with a power they had no hope of controlling.
For me, though, it meant nothing.
My tormentors were right to fret. While Tu would naturally be the one to rule his own people, engaging in more violent acts tended to upset the witch. Moreover, I was here and had no such reservations.
The thought hardly passed before the warm spray of blood washed over me. The scene had changed again, and I knelt on the floor. The time-worn tingle of my blade tearing through flesh made my skin crawl, and the motion sharpened the ache in my shoulder.
The witch was dead before he fell.
One down. Four more to go.
The tainted spell continued to press in around me. The feeling almost overshadowed something within that sought to contain my strength. I clenched my jaw, my muscles tight, as I briefly paused to address it.
Who dared to bind my power?
Regardless, with an instant of concentration, it shattered.
My heart raced, pounding painfully within, as newfound vigor radiated through me. The smell grew stronger, and my focus shifted across the room.
Daniel Cole, the leader of this coven, stumbled backward as our eyes met. He grasped his weapon, attempting to reload his pistol, before he dropped it to the ground and turned toward the sealed door.
He wouldn’t make it.
But he was now weaponless. A slight hesitation twisted in my stomach.
I could let him live.
As quickly as the thought came, I squashed it, shaking myhead. No. I couldn’t let him hurt anyone else. I had to ignore my conscious, if only for another moment. I swung my arm back, the world exploding in movement, and then he, too, lay in a broken heap on the floor as his life’s essence poured out of the gaping wound in his chest.
The enchantment was broken the instant his blood touched my skin. A screaming began to resound in my head, and as my feet were coated in crimson, the reality of my actions slammed into me. My weapon fell as I touched my lips.
I hadn’t meant to take things this far.
The shooting had stopped, and so had the shouts. The three remaining men had retreated to the opposite end of the room where they begged for mercy.
Daniel was dead, and the spell was broken. Could I allow them to leave?
Yes. I didn’t want this.
I fell to the floor near Finn—who was beginning to stir. It seemed like an ocean of red surrounded me, staining my legs and arms. My pain was still a distant thing, slowly beginning to inch its way back to my awareness. The feel of it seeped into my pores, and I lost my breath as my thoughts began to whirl.
A roar caused the room to shake, and the black dots faded from the corner of my vision.
Titus.
Somehow, I knew it was him. Although he sounded so far away.
