Kissed by Krista Street

Chapter 7

~ AVERY ~

The warlocks stood around a large fire pit. Above us, the galaxy blazed in blinding colors of fuchsia, crimson, and turquoise. Magic bathed the realm, power from the great universe sparking my nerves as the Safrinite comet burned across the sky.

The warlocks joined their hands. Robes draped from their shoulders. They shifted and swayed, their chanting rising above the realm as the night sky was suffused in magic.

I screamed and fought against their restraints. My power was bound because that tall elf lord had tricked me. I’d come to this land, believing that my love walked in this realm.

But he hadn’t.

And I’d realized that too late.

The elf lord joined the other warlocks, coming from the darkness to complete the sacred circle. His voice rose both low and high, deep and soft. A smile curved his wicked lips as my spectral form rose higher and higher.

I tried again to access my power, to freeze time, to stop the progression of this perversion of magic.

But it didn’t work.

My power was ensnared by him.

And when my spectral form reached the apex above the fire, when the Safrinite comet bathed my spirit in fiery purple light, an explosion ripped the power of the Gods away from me.

My power shot from my chest, rushing toward the universe as the elf chanted higher, his magic creating a net around it.

Rage pummeled through me. All-consuming, soul-lashing rage. I gripped and clawed for the power that was mine. I would not let him take it.

But the sacred circle’s great dark magic wove around me, capturing me as easily as a babe. I was as helpless to resist it as a human, as a mere mortal.

I lunged again, fighting my restraints, and I managed to snare the smallest bit of my power, just a tendril of what my kind commanded, but it was enough.

I threw my power at the elf lord, cursing him to a long and painful death, then thrust the remainder of my Godly power through the net, joining it to the Safrinite comet and the galaxy’s magical systems.

When my curse hit the lord, he fell.

A smug feeling filled me as the comet zoomed across the sky, capturing the rest of my escaped power from the elf’s net. It would spread my power into the galaxy. It would birth my prophecy, and he . . . I cast a scathing glance his way. He would—

The elf’s chest rose.

No!

He hadn’t died. My power hadn’t been great enough to kill him. Instead, his eyes stayed rolled back in his head, his form frozen.

But his heart still beat.

Agony ripped through me.

He was still alive, but he didn’t move.

And then it struck me, what my curse had done. It had tied his life to mine in a twist of fate, keeping him alive. Because I wasn’t strong enough to fight him, not without my full power—my power that was currently streaking across the galaxy, joined with the comet, which would spread my power throughout the solar system. It wouldn’t see this land again for thousands of years.

My spectral being drifted higher, my body still on the ground, but a tiny feeling of satisfaction filled me that even though I hadn’t succeeded, the elf hadn’t either.

My power would remain in the heavens, floating through the stars. It would remain untouched until my curse birthed a prophecy of the heir who was worthy.

And when she was born, then I would rise.

And my vengeance would begin.

I shot upright from the stone floor, the dream barreling through me. Grimacing, I brought a hand to the back of my head. Thick wetness greeted my fingers. Congealing blood.

Damn. I’d taken a bad blow to the head, enough of one to knock me out.

Darkness surrounded me, only a flickering fairy light illuminating this part of the cave. I was still here. Trapped.

Head pounding, I wiped the blood off my hand on my pants and took a few deep breaths. Slowly, the pounding in my skull dulled.

“Gods,” I whispered. The dream had felt so real, so alive.

I licked my lips, wishing I had a glass of water, but perhaps the warlocks and elf lord were so out of touch with humanity that they’d forgotten normal supernaturals had to eat and drink. Then again, they didn’t seem to be the types that cared.

Despite my thirst, the dream tugged at me.

It’d been so vivid. And it seemed important.

More important than being abducted by a psycho elf lord?

My lips parted as the crashing realization hit me that the dream was similar to the others I’d had since waking up in the field, except this one was in exact detail and perfectly clear.

My eyes popped.

Because these dreams weren’t just dreams. They were memories.

The goddess’s memories.

Yes!

I squeezed my eyes shut, recalling the dream. Relief swept through me that for once I was able to remember it clearly.

It came back to me like a movie, the image reeling through my brain. The goddess had shot her power into the galaxy, and that power had glued itself to the Safrinite comet and the rest had dispersed throughout the solar system.

She’d believed that her power would return to be born inside someone who was worthy, because she didn’t want the elf lord to have the power. No. She wanted to recapture her power so she could enact her revenge.

So what does that mean? That I now had her power inside me because I was the lucky winner of the Safrinite comet’s poisonous blessing? The heir?

But the goddess had done that on purpose. She’d flung her power into the galaxy to keep it away from Lord Godasara and had spelled it to be born again.

But why?

And then it hit me.

She’d done that because she wasn’t dead. If she was in a dormant sleep—as Nicholas had said she could be—she could be awoken, just like Lord Godasara had woken.

Nicholas’s findings in the Bulgarian libraries returned to me in a flurry. “Verasellee, the Goddess of Time, was rumored to have touched down in this realm where she was captured and enslaved by a circle of supernaturals, and was then forced into a dormant state.”

And she wanted her power to be born again, because she wanted to reclaim it.

I didn’t know if I was right, but it was a logical guess, which meant that I needed to not only escape here, but I needed to find her.

I didn’t know how I knew that, but the knowledge hummed to the center of my soul. Verasellee had been trying to show me what had happened. She’d wanted me to figure this out.

As if realizing that I now understood, her power throbbed and zapped against my skin, trying to break free yet still trapped inside.

I pushed to a stand and began pacing inside my rocky cell, my feet scurrying over the rough floor. The goddess had been trying all along to show me her plan.

My head throbbed anew from the weight of this new knowledge.

I eventually stopped pacing and stood silently by the barrier. I had no idea how much time had passed since the two warlocks had deposited me here, but it’d been long enough for me to have that dream.

I tried to see around the corner, to where the figure we’d passed—the one lying in another rock enclosure and covered with a sheet—waited.

“Hello?” I called to them quietly. “Can you hear me? Please say something if you can.”

Silence.

Who was under that sheet? Another prisoner? A dead person?

The goddess?

It seemed almost too good to be true that she could be so close.

I shifted where I stood, trying to see into that cell again when a figure emerged from the darkness of the intricate cave tunnels.

I yelped and nearly fell over. It was him, the elf lord.

Giant ears rose alongside his head, and his dark eyes regarded me steadily from an olive-green face as he stepped closer to my cell. Two warlocks followed behind him.

Gods, he was ugly.

“Malis.” The lord dipped his head, and one of the warlocks came forward to stand next to him. “Unlock your shield.”

“Yes, my lord.” The warlock’s tone was full of reverence.

I scrambled to the side of the enclosure, my eyes darting about as I tried to think of a way to run and escape the second his shield fell.

Malis lifted his hand, and a shimmer of magic erupted from his fingers. He did it so quickly and easily. I didn’t even hear him mutter a spell.

Damn, these men were so powerful.

The barrier to my cell crackled, then disappeared, and I knew it was my only chance.

I launched myself at the elf lord, calling upon whatever training I’d once been taught.

Lord Godasara held up a hand, but he was too late, obviously not anticipating that I’d fight back physically and so violently, but fear was making me desperate.

I crashed into him, both of us going down in a tangle of limbs.

Those terrible-looking ears, so large and alien-like, brushed against my hand.

His lips peeled back in a wicked grin, but before he could say anything, I punched him in the face, my fist connecting with his flesh like it was a punching bag.

An awful crunching sound followed, and the lord’s grin disappeared as he howled in pain.

A roar of rage erupted from Malis as the warlock reached for me.

But I anticipated that too. Kicking out, my feet swept underneath him, catching him at his Achilles tendon. His legs buckled beneath him.

He began to fall at the exact moment I pushed up.

Before either of them knew what had hit them, I was on my feet and running.

I dodged down the tunnel, my hair flying behind me as the cold rocks pressed in on me. A snarl rose from behind, and I knew I only had seconds until they caught up.

Sprinting, I searched wildly for a way out, but all I saw were snaking tunnels and dark corners.

I was going so fast I nearly forgot about the other person who was trapped down here.

I passed their cell a second later, intent on seeing if they were awake too. If, by any luck, fate was on my side, perhaps they wouldn’t be dead and we could fight off the warlocks and elf lord together and make our escape.

Yet when I reached their cell, the sight left me even more shocked than before.

The cell was empty.

A deep, dark chuckle rose from behind me, and I didn’t give the prisoner another thought. I began sprinting again because I had to escape. Run. Get out. Now!

The tunnel reached the cavern I’d been in previously, where the other warlocks had all encircled me before I’d fought them off.

It was dark, the fairy lights absent. My eyes widened, searching for any light that would help me navigate this underground tomb.

Footsteps came from behind me.

I lunged to the left just as a rush of air kissed my back.

Another wicked chuckle followed.

I nearly gagged. Good Gods, he was enjoying this.

Of course he is. He’s a hunter, and you’re his prey. Every hunter loves a good chase.

I reached another tunnel in the cave. The light was almost completely gone now, the little that had been illuminating the tunnel outside of my cell not able to reach these darker regions.

“Fuck!” I whispered, then snapped my lips closed when I realized all sound carried in this underground system.

“You’re going to pay for breaking my nose,” a sinister-sounding voice called from behind me. “I’m going to enjoy making you scream.”

Bile rose in the back of my throat, but I didn’t stop moving. I bumped into a cold rocky wall, the light completely gone here. Inky blackness surrounded me, yet I kept moving.

I reached my hands out in front of me, so I didn’t collide with another rock, but I wasn’t running anymore. I couldn’t. I was blind. Only darkness surrounded me.

Keep going. Don’t stop!

Terror clawed up my throat, threatening to tighten my windpipe and slow my breath. My heart felt like a battering ram in my chest, hammering over and over and over again.

Trickling water reached my ears, growing louder with every second. The trickle turned into a streaming sound, then a churn.

“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you.”

I stopped midstride, my heart thumping when the sound of rushing water grew so loud it nearly drowned out the elf lord. Shit!

Plastering myself against the wall, I stopped and waited. Panting breaths rushed out of me, and I slapped a hand over my mouth, trying to quiet my sounds.

I listened.

Waiting.

The rushing water continued to my left, and the sickening realization came that it was probably a river. A horrible, rushing river in this underground cave that most likely flooded some of the tunnels and went to who knew where. If I fell into it, it wouldn’t matter that the elf lord had taken me. I’d be dead from drowning.

Straining, I tried to hear past the rushing water, but I couldn’t.

Knowing that I needed to do something, I inched along the wall again, my palms flat against the rock wall behind me as I felt for another tunnel away from the river.

I crept closer to where I’d run from, my ears pricked for the slightest sound.

A hand abruptly wrapped around my throat, then hot breath rushed against my ear.

The heavy scent of radishes—the elf lord’s godawful scent—flooded my nose. “Did you really think it would be that easy to escape?” he whispered in my ear.

I kicked and thrashed but it was as if I wasn’t even trying. His grip didn’t budge.

“You will never escape from me. Never.”

His hand tightened around my throat, his palm so large that he encircled my entire neck with one hand.

I choked, my lungs squeezing when my air was cut off. Panic bloomed inside me, and I clawed desperately at his grip, but the elf lord wouldn’t let go.

He squeezed harder.

Stars crept into my vision. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t breathe!

“After I take the power from inside you I’m going to enjoy ending your life. You shouldn’t have fought me. If you hadn’t, I would have made your death quick, but because you did, I’m going to make it hurt.”

The last thing I heard was his dark laughter before unconsciousness claimed me.

∞     ∞     ∞

I awoke to the feel of cold air flowing over my limbs. A shiver struck me and then another. My eyes cracked open to see three glowing orbs above me.

With a scream trapped in my throat, my stomach muscles curled as I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t move.

A spell trapped me. I recoiled internally, remembering the feel of the elf lord’s hand wrapped around my throat. Aching pain shot through me when I tried to swallow.

How long ago had that been? Minutes? Hours?

Breathing heavily, a crackling sound came from my right, and my eyes shot that way. A fire rose from a pit in the earth.

Oh, Gods. No!

Above, the glowing orbs took shape. Moons. Behind that, the galaxy.

The ritual.

Oh, shit.

Everything around me looked eerily familiar, the dream come to life.

No, no, no! I mentally thrashed as hard as I could, trying to break whatever spell Lord Godasara had placed on me, but my limbs wouldn’t move.

“Now, now, none of that,” a cold voice said on my left.

I tried to turn my head, to see who had spoken, but nothing would move. Nothing!

A hooded face appeared above me, and I choked on a sob. Gray-colored hands lifted and pushed the hood back. A terrifying grin spread across the warlock’s face, and fear that burned as hot as acid scorched my skin.

“Is she awake?” the elf lord asked. He stood just beyond the warlock, his hood also pushed down. Large, curved ears rose from the sides of his head. Whatever damage I’d inflicted on his nose no longer showed.

He’d healed. Gods, he’d completely healed since I’d punched him square in the face.

“She’s awake, my lord.”

“Good. Bring her to me. It’s time we begin.”

The warlock lifted his hand, swishing his fingers precisely through the air. As before, I didn’t hear him say a spell. His magic was either so strong that he no longer needed spells or he whispered it so quietly I couldn’t hear him.

Cold, icy fear raced down my spine. It was just like the dream. The moons and stars shone throughout the galaxy, and I was powerless.

I knew what was to come. I knew what they were going to do. They were going to take the goddess’s power and then kill me.

Damn you, Wyatt! Damn you for not letting me fight!

Tears threatened to fill my eyes.

I’d never felt so helpless.