Kissed by Krista Street

Chapter 2

~ AVERY ~

I awoke with a start, jolting up to a sitting position. Frantic breaths filled my chest. The power inside me hummed and swelled. Streaks of electrical energy zapped my skin, making the hairs on my arms stand up.

It was so dark I could barely see.

I brought a hand to my forehead and used the other to feel the area around me. Cold, damp rock met my fingers.

My breaths eventually slowed, and I became aware of my numb butt which was wedged against a cold, hard surface.

And . . . fuck! My head pounded. It throbbed like a steady bass drum.

What the hell?

Was I in the castle?

“Wyatt?” I whispered.

No response.

“Nicholas?”

Silence.

I rubbed my temple, barely suppressing the moan as an intense headache pounded my skull. The pain was so strong that my stomach churned, its contents threatening to heave up my throat.

But I swallowed the feeling down and sucked in large breaths of dank, humid air.

Dank, humid air?

I reached a hand out to the wall again as the icy tendrils of panic set in. Where am I?

Fuzzy memories filled my mind.

Air.

Wind.

A battle.

Hands on me.

Hands that belonged to a tall elf with huge pointed ears—

“Oh my Gods!” My fist flew to my mouth.

The powerful elf, Lord Godasara, had abducted me.

“Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!”

I reached out again. My hand encountered more coarse grainy rock. I felt along its surface. It was rough, cutting my skin at times when my fingertips grazed over needle-like ridges.

Wincing, I brought my hand back to my side as panic threatened to choke me.

“I see you’ve woken up.”

I shrieked when an eerily gravelly voice spoke from behind me. Heart pounding, I whipped around as a dim fairy light burst to life, illuminating a robed man. He stood three yards away, an endlessly black cavern behind him.

My jaw dropped. I’m in a cave.

Wet rock loomed in the vast underground chamber. I breathed in the musty, oppressive air, as the sound of trickling water reached my ears.

The hood of the man’s robe was so long that it draped over his features, hiding him.

“Who are you?” My question came out all wrong. It was filled with fear, yet I wasn’t powerless. The power of Verasellee, the Goddess of Time, hummed inside me. I could access it and wield it. Hopefully. “Where am I? Why did you take me?”

“So many questions.” The man hunkered down, his robe covering his limbs.

My hammering heart picked up a rapid beat. Everything in me screamed to run away. But where?

An image of the dome I’d built around myself appeared in my mind. That magical impenetrable dome that I’d created when I’d woken in the field only a few days ago beckoned me.

The man straightened and stepped forward, his face still hidden by the hood of his robe.

I squeezed my eyes shut, determined to build that fortress around me once more.

“I’m afraid that won’t work.”

My eyes flew open to see him only feet away. He gazed down at me, his face a black hole of nothingness.

“You see, we’ve learned a thing or two since the last time we tried to take you. Our lord has woven a spell over you. It won’t allow you to access the goddess’s power, not until the ritual.”

“Ritual?” I echoed.

“Yes, the ritual.” He crouched again and entwined his fingers.

I recoiled when I saw his hands. Gray skin with blood-red veins streaked through the backs of his hands. His skin didn’t look normal, not of fae, human, or supernatural descent. Not even of demon descent.

“What are you?” I inched back farther toward the jagged cave wall.

He laughed darkly before he lifted those awful-looking hands and slipped the hood from his face.

And when I saw him, my breath sucked in before a blood-curdling scream surged from my throat.