Chapter 126 126- Do Not Let Him Keep His Hand On Your Back
LEXI
Something cold slaps against my face. Sharp. Wet. Jarring. My nose stings and I think I inhaleed water. What… Where… Everything is wrong. My head throbs, a deep, pulsing ache that makes it hard to even think, and my vision swims as I try to open my eyes properly. The world tilts and spins, light blurring into shapes that don’t quite make sense. I blink. Once. Twice. The shapes sharpen, slightly. Water. Stone. Movement. I realise, dimly, that I’m being carried. Someone’s arms are wrapped around me, holding me awkwardly, my body jostling with every step they take. And the water… The water must have come from the courtyard fountain we’re walking past. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Except… The water hit me harder than it should have. Higher than it should have reached. Like something, or someone, made it. The Academy. The thought flickers weakly through my mind. Did it… try to wake me? I try to focus, but everything doubles, then triples, figures overlapping and splitting apart every time I attempt to track them. There are people around me. I think. More than one. But I can’t tell how many. It could be two. It could be ten. Everything is blurred and shifting, like I’m looking through warped glass. My stomach twists violently. I feel sick dizzy and disoriented. My head hurts. Badly. A sharp, stabbing pain sits behind my eyes, radiating outward with every movement, every heartbeat. can’t think clearly enough to even try to heal it. I can barely string thoughts together. I try to move anyway. Try to push myself up, to get some control back. That’s when I realise. My arms. They’re pulled behind my back. Bound tightly. I groan softly, the sound muffled and weak. The person carrying me pauses. Just for a second.
“She’s waking up,” an unfamiliar voice says. Male. And way too close.
“Doesn’t matter. Just don’t drop her. We gagged her so she can’t scream.” another voice replies, colder. My heart slams painfully against my ribs. Gagged. Right. That explains why my mouth feels wrong. Why I can’t properly open it, why everything feels restricted and dry and… Panic spikes. None of these voices are familiar. Not a single one. I twist slightly, trying to get a better look, trying to see, but the world spins harder in response, nausea surging up my throat. No. No, no, no… This is bad. This is really bad. I start to wriggle, instinct taking over where clear thought can’t. My body fights even if my mind can’t keep up, twisting and jerking, trying to pull free, trying to do something, ANYTHING!
“Stop that!” the man carrying me hisses. Then he shakes me. Hard. Pain explodes through my skull. White–hot and blinding. My vision flashes, darkness creeping in at the edges. SHIT! Shit, shit, shit! This is very, very bad. Panic floods me completely now, overwhelming everything else. My heart races, adrenaline surging through my system in a desperate, instinctive attempt to survive. And then, magic. It bursts through me like a dam breaking. Wild and uncontrolled. Fueled by fear and instinct and the desperate need to get out. The feeling hits all at once. Familiar. And yet still so strange. I’m suddenly too big. Too powerful. Too much. There’s a blinding flash of light, bright enough that even through the pain in my head, I feel it. See it. The shift tears through me, sudden and overwhelming, and the sensation of my body changing sends sharp pins of pain stabbing through my skull, amplifying the dizziness, the disorientation… But it works. Because suddenly, I’m not small anymore. Not fragile. Not something that can just be carried away. My body expands, strength replacing weakness, and the man holding me lets out a startled shout as my weight becomes too much. He drops me. Hard. I hit the ground awkwardly, my limbs tangling beneath me, but whatever was binding my wrists snaps under the strain of the shift. Freedom. For a second I just lie there Collapsed. Breathing hard. The world still spinning violently around me. Shit. I need to move. I need to run. NOW! But my legs, my body, this form. It still feels wrong. Unfamiliar. Unsteady, I haven’t practiced enough. I know I haven’t. I’d been too scared. Too worried about being seen. Too focused on avoiding exactly this… And now I’m here anyway. In the worst possible situation. Shit. I should have practiced. I should have been ready to protect myself, like Ellorie said, because now… Now I’m not. And they are not waiting for me to catch up.
I force myself to my feet. It’s messy and unsteady, my legs too long, too strong, too unfamiliar, and my head is still spinning so badly I can barely tell which direction I’m facing. The world tilts and sways around me, but I move anyway because I know I have to. I take one shaky step, then another, then a third, and suddenly someone slams into me. Arms hook over my neck, dragging me back, while another hady collides with my side, scrambling up onto my back. Hands grab at me, pulling, clawing, trying to force me down. I can’t think. I can’t move. I can’t even figure out which way is up anymore. Panic surges, sharp and overwhelming, freezing me in place as my mind fails to keep up with what’s happening. And then something inside me snaps. It isn’t a thought. It isn’t a decision. It’s like a switch flips deep in my mind and everything just… stops. The fear disappears. The confusion vanishes. Even the pain in my head dulls, pushed aside by something far stronger. A wave of raw, violent instinct crashes through me, flooding my body with adrenaline so intense it burns. There are no thoughts left, no hesitation, no awareness of consequence, Just one overwhelming, instinctive need. Survive. Eliminate the threat. Get somewhere sate. My body moves before I realise it. Smooth. Precise. Powerful in a way that feels terrifyingly natural. I rear back, muscles colling and releasing in perfect coordination, and both men are thrown off me like they weigh nothing. They hit the ground hard, but I don’t pause. Someone rushes toward me and I lash out instantly, my hind leg striking with brutal force. I hear the crack of bone as he goes down, the sound sharp and sickening, but it barely registers. Another comes at me from the side and I twist, faster than I should be able to, striking again, then again, each movement efficient and devastating. There
are screams now, but they feel distant, irrelevant. None of it matters. Nothing matters except getting them away from me before they can hurt me again. Someone grabs for me again and I jerk free, pivoting sharply, My horn lowers without conscious thought, my body already moving, already committing
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Chapter 126 126- Do Not Let Him Keep His Hand On Your Back
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Hands clamp around it, trying to hold me back, trying to stop me, but I don’t stop. I pull back hard, then drive forward with everything I have. There’s resistance for a split second, a horrible, jarring impact, and then it gives way. My horn plunges straight through his chest. The force of it shudders through my entire body, but I don’t hesitate, don’t process, don’t even pause long enough to understand what I’ve done. I wrench back, shaking him off, already turning to find the next threat. The others have stopped moving. They’re staring at me, frozen in place, their fear thick and obvious. I lower my head again, ready to charge, ready to keep going, to make sure none of them can get close to me again… And then something warm drips down my face. It slides over my skin, thick and sticky, blurring my vision as it seeps into my eye. I blink, and the world shifts. The frenzy falters, cracks forming in that blank, instinct- driven state, and reality crashes back in all at once. Sound, pain, awareness, all of it slams into me, overwhelming and suffocating. I realise what it is. Blood. His blood. I freeze. The memory hits me in full, unfiltered clarity. The movement, the force, the moment my horn drove straight through him. My breath catches painfully in my chest. What did I just do? I didn’t think. I didn’t hesitate. I didn’t even try to stop. I just… killed him. The realisation makes my stomach twist violently, nausea rising as the horror of it settles in. My legs tremble beneath me, the adrenaline still surging but now it feels wrong, jagged and uncontrollable without the numbness to contain it. The others are still there. Still watching. Hesitant now, but still a threat. But I can’t. I can’t do that again. I turn and I run.
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Ohh no! lexi isn’t going to cope well after killing someone regardless if it was to save her life.. blake seriously where the hell are you??
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
