Page 18 of Detonation
She spits my name out like bile on her tongue.
Clenching my jaw at the blatant disrespect, I tilt my head up to meet her eyes, biting down my impulsive, acidic response. My immediate reaction is to deflect blame or lighten the severity of the situation with a smart remark, but no more. Change starts from here.
I nod once at her. “You’re right. I do. All I’m asking for is a chance.”
She holds my gaze, her eyes narrowing as I wait out her inspection.
The smallest inclination of her head has my shoulders relaxing a touch.
“Training starts at dawn,” she says. “If you’re not there, I’ll assume you’re packing to leave—or we’llmakeyou leave.”
She pushes past me without waiting for a response, her shoulder bumping into mine. After a few breaths of silence, the dining hall erupts into chatter, all eyes turning away from me.
Sweat trickles down my brow, my skin alight from the nerves after that interaction.
My grandma steers me to the food table, muttering in my ear, “We might make a queen out of you yet, my dear.”
The rest of the evening is uneventful. After dinner, she shows me around the rest of the camp, marching us through the training yard, a small school, and the gardens, where the majority of the food is grown.
After the tour, we sit around a bonfire with the community, giving me a glimpse into the camaraderie and love in the group. I remain quiet through the night, simply happy to sit among them, despite the dirty looks I receive.
I can handle their judgement and scathing looks. I kept reminding myself that I deserve it all, and more. Very rarely in life have I been able to admit my wrongdoings but I need to grow the hell up, andfast,and part of that is accepting responsibility.
When Grammie calls it a night, she instructs me to lead us back to our tent, testing how well I’ve gotten my bearing. After a few hiccups, I finally make it to the tent, gesturing her inside before me.
She collapses onto the bed and quickly falls asleep. I claim the second, newer bed that must have brought in for us while we were away.
Exhaustion comes knocking at my door and I fall onto the bed, giving into sleep willingly.
Chapter Five
Lana
Smoke, thick in the air, obscures my vision of the fallen bodies as bricks from the castle spires fall around me.
I’m thankful for the cloak of fog that prevents me from seeing the fallen. I can’t lose myself to emotion right now, so close to the end. My mates and I haven't come this far to fall apart before getting Ash back.
My voice rings out loud and clear. “Come out, Anshar. We know you’re wounded. There’s nowhere to go.”
My heart thumps loudly enough to impair my hearing but my voice is strong and confident, my posture sure. Outwardly, I’ve got this shit.
A hand falls on my elbow and I look to Hale, letting him guide me towards a corner of the once-grand ballroom of the castle. In the rubble, a dark semblance of a man crawls, searching desperately for an escape.
This ends now.
I glance around, Hale on high alert as well, searching for any of his minions who may have survived. The twins emerge from the two connecting hallways and nod the all-clear.
She told me we’d need everything within us to focus on our connection to bring Ash back. We can’t afford any distractions, if we wish to expel Anshar’s soul.
I stride towards Anshar, trying to pretend that it’s not my mate’s body that’s so broken, but my enemy’s. My mate is in there somewhere but the man who crawls in front of me is far from him.
As he takes another pathetic step on all fours, I put the toe of my boot to his shoulder, pushing him down into the ground. “Stop struggling. You’ve taken enough from us all. This is over.”
In a feeble voice, he says, “It will never be over between us.”
Zedd comes to stand behind me, placing his hand on my shoulder. “It’s impossible for something to be over when it never started.”
He creates a tunnel of air in front of Anshar’s mouth, silencing his any further attempts at speaking, as we form a circle around Anshar’s body. Joining hands as the goddess instructed, we open our soul connections. Teal threads of energy flare to life between us all, a sphere of energy encompasses us as individuals and as a unit. Just as she said it would.
