Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I punched the earth, furious at myself for allowing my emotions to take me
under. The ground rumbled beneath my strike, cracking. Stand up, I told myself. Stand up and find that bitch. Finish it.
My legs wobbled with the effort.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, a tear tracking down my cheek as I breathed the word to the five fae on the field. “I’m so—”
Claire! Exos’s scream ripped through my being, his agony a slap to my senses.
I looked for his tower and found it wavering in the night, electricity flickering all around him.
Exos! I took off at a run, leaving my mother behind. It physically hurt, but my soul drove my actions, forcing me to make the impossible choice. I’m coming!
But he didn’t respond, his spirit lost in a duel I should have been engaged in with him, at his side.
How could I be so stupid?
Elana played the one card she knew I wouldn’t ignore.
Using my mother against me yet again.
Hatred fueled my steps. Vengeance darkened my heart.
A watery haze overcame me once more, power erupting through my veins. And I arrived on an explosion of elements to find Exos unconscious at Elana’s feet.
Unconscious but alive.
Because I felt his life thriving around me.
He’d taken Elana to battle in the spirit plane.
Only, she seemed to be in both places at once. Her arms seemed to lower in slow motion, the blade in her hand on a perfect trajectory to hit Exos’s chest.
“No!” I sent a fistful of water into her face while grabbing hold of the metal with my fire and melting it right from her hand. A drop of it sizzled against Exos while the rest scattered on a breeze I shot sideways.
Elana roared, coming for me in a split second of speed I hadn’t seen coming, sending us both over the side of the tower.
Vox’s scream assaulted my ears, his howl seeming to circle around me to soften my descent, just as the earth cushioned my fall.
A fall that should have killed me and Elana both.
Only, she was again nowhere to be seen.
Another mirage!
I rolled to my side and up to my feet, furious, and spun around. “Where are you?” I demanded. “Where the fuck are you?”
“Where’s Exos?” Cyrus breathed, having misted to my side.
I pointed upward.
And Cyrus disappeared, only to reappear with my unconscious spirit mate in his arms.
“What happened?” he demanded.
I shook my head. “She’s creating fucking visions.”
Hell, for all I knew, Cyrus could be one. Except I felt in my soul that he wasn’t, our bond thriving from our nearness.