Page 70 of Devastation
The pieces must click into place for Keres at the same moment. I step back and stumble, and her arms go under my armpits as I fall, holding me up. "No! Oslana, get up right now. You have a battle to finish."
"Lana!"
My mates all scream my name when they see me stumble.
I understand what Ash and Hale meant now when they said Erebus’ darkness whispers seductively to your mind. It seeps into my brain and whispers for me to close my eyes and sleep. In combination with the blood loss, I'm highly tempted to just rest for a moment.
"How could you kill me if I'm truly your daughter?" Keres cries out, while still holding my weight up and then asks me, “Why did you protect me when I was just attacking you?” Her question is accompanied by tears splashing onto my face.
My eyelids fight to close, and I see Erebus step forward and place a hand against my barricade, shattering it as weariness settles into my limbs.
"Get away from my daughter and niece," a voice made of steel demands, and I briefly recognize the tone of Nyx.
Wow, is she actually defending me and claiming me as family?
Keres gasps and drags me backward a few feet as Nyx approaches us from the side, standing in front of us to face off with Erebus. Her shadows are flashing with bolts of her violent energy swirling around her like a tornado.
Darkness starts to pull at the corners of my vision as Keres lowers me to the ground and my mates surround me. I know I have to fight this spell he has over my mind. I need this arrow sheathed in his energy out of me now.
I don't want any of them to touch it and be subjected to its darkness, so I take a deep breath and reach up with a trembling hand, clamping my hand around the base of the arrow. Faintly I hear my mates screaming at me to leave it in place as Zedd talks about blood loss, but I know I need this out of my body if I'm going to break this spell.
I count down from three in my head and take deep breaths.
3.
2.
1.
Yanking the arrow from my body is agonizing, but I manage to pull it out and toss it down towards my feet where no one is standing.
The relief I feel is immediate, and without the anchor of Erebus’ power in my body, I'm able to center my powers and look internally. I feel each molecule of his darkness leaching into my bloodstream, and I imagine white hot flames of my energy burning those molecules out of existence.
I hear my name being called through the haze, but I can't focus on that right now. I continue to burn every spec of his power out of me, expelling his hold over my body. I feel the exact moment the last drop leaves me.
The pain of the wound settles in as the words stop whispering for me to sleep. My eyes fly open and I yell, "Motherfucker, that hurts! Someone get me a shot of tequila."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lana
I don't know much about sutures or even something as simple as sewing, but an idea comes to mind that is much simpler and probably a hell of a lot more painful, and I follow my instincts. Hovering my hand on top of the wound pumping out an alarming amount of my blood every second, I call my fire to me, heating my hand up as hot as a piece of metal stuck in a forge.
Before anyone can stop me I sear my skin, willing the flames to cauterize the wound, staunching the blood flow for now.
It's likely going to leave a wicked scar, but who cares about that if it's something that will save your life?
"You bastard!" I hear Nyx scream as I sit up with the help of the twins pulling me and holding their hands against my back. I see Erebus get shotputted through the wall by a blow from Nyx, and she flashes out of existence, likely following him.
Glancing behind the wall of muscle my mates put between Keres and me, I call for her. "Keres, I need you to go out there and tell your forces who they are truly fighting against now. Help us save the realms."
She nods, her wings snapping out, and she shoots off the ground and out the Erebus-shaped hole in the side of the wall.
"Lana, are you truly okay to fight still?" Hale asks as he crouches down next to me.
I hear screams ring out, and I close my eyes tightly. "Every second I'm not out there, people are dying. I need to finish this."
My stomach hurts like a bitch, but I grip the twins’ arms and push to my feet, standing up and gazing out of the damaged wall.
