Kissed by Krista Street
Chapter 24
~ AVERY ~
The tree lifted me from the ground despite my attempts to break free. I panted and screamed as panic skittered along my limbs, and my lungs seized.
Lord Godasara had Wyatt’s wolf between his two hands, a murderous look in his eyes as he tried to squeeze the life right out of my mate. I knew the only thing keeping Wyatt alive was his dwindling alpha strength.
Around me, the rest of Squad Three was being ravaged by the trees, an entire forested army doing their maker’s bidding.
Squad Three didn’t stand a chance against the elf lord. With power so great, they couldn’t beat him.
But what if I still could? The goddess’s power whirled inside me, crackling and skittering along my nerves, but the whisper of the lord’s binding spell had rendered it untouchable.
Unless I could fight off his spell and stop time again.
I closed my eyes as the forest branches encircled me, pinning me to them and holding me tight. The elf lord needed me alive. He wouldn’t let the trees kill me. But he would kill my mate and my friends.
Please work. Please, please work! I pleaded with the goddess’s power.
Panic consumed me, and I knew this was our last chance. If I couldn’t stop time now and reach a sword, not only were all my friends dead, but this entire realm would fall.
A crack formed in my chest, the goddess’s power sizzling to life. I called upon it with everything I had, reaching deep within me as I tried to access it and break the lord’s spell.
My heart beat at an alarmingly fast speed, but Verasellee’s power was there, just at my fingertips.
I called upon her power with everything I had, clawing at the electricity that hummed and flowed through my veins. It gathered as one, into a giant bolt in the center of my chest.
Yes! Just a little bit more.
I reached and pulled again, and a whisper of mist broke through the lord’s spell.
Grab it!
Her power caressed my inner self.
Yes!
Heart beating so fast I could barely breathe, I concentrated on that funnel of power. I would get one shot at this. Only one strike. I couldn’t miss.
A scream tore from my throat when I called upon the sizzling energy swirling inside me. My eyes locked with Wyatt’s.
His life was fading. His eyes were dull. The lord was killing him, and I only had seconds until he was dead.
“No!” I shot the goddess’s power from my chest, and a bolt of lightning burst toward Lord Godasara as a ripple of time shot through the realm.
The trees stilled. Screams stopped. The flash of lightning collided with the elf just as a momentary lapse in time unfolded.
I scrambled from the trees’ grasp, hacking and cleaving my way through them. Lord Godasara turned, his head still moving. He still managed to move through my ancient power.
I limped toward a sword.
The elf still had his hands around Wyatt. I focused on that. I focused on the life being drained from my mate’s eyes. If I didn’t stop Lord Godasara, Wyatt would die.
My hand enclosed around the sword that had fallen from Terry’s grasp. I raised it above my head.
The elf lord turned, his grip on my mate loosening, as a spell began to form on his lips. It was the spell that would bind me again. If it managed to hit me square in the chest this time, it would bind me completely.
And if that happened, all would be lost.
With movements that felt as if they were done in slow motion, I ran toward the elf, leaping at the last second with the sword raised.
The spell left his lips, traveling toward me at a speed I could physically see. Blue sparks flowed from his body, about to collide with mine.
The sword came down on the bottom of his neck, the feel of metal colliding with flesh reverberating through my grip.
I didn’t stop.
I didn’t let go.
The sword cut through Lord Godasara’s neck just as his spell collided with my body.
I screamed and fell to the ground, paralyzed, as time snapped back into action, the world jolting to a start.
The elf lord’s head rolled to the ground at my side.
Then everything went black.
