Athena
I look down at Tristan, and his eyes are starting to lose focus. The golden color is fading back to his normal brown, but there’s something distant about them now.
Something that’s already leaving.
“Now,” Sarah says, her voice thick with tears. “You have to try now, before it’s too late.”
I move closer to the mattress, and Orion and Derek shift to give me room without letting go of Tristan completely. My hands are shaking so hard I can
barely control them.
time.
The gloves, I still have the stupid protective gloves on.
With trembling fingers, I start to peel them off. The latex clings to my sweaty skin and makes soft snapping sounds as I pull it away.
My hands look small and pale without the gloves, and I can see the faint lines of power running under my skin like blue lightning.
“I don’t know how to do this,” I whisper, and my voice breaks on the words.
“Yes, you do,” Sarah says firmly. “You’ve always known, you just have to trust yourself.”
My bare hands hover over Tristan’s chest, just inches from the wound that’s still bleeding and killing him.
The air between my palms and his skin feels charged, like the moment before lightning strikes.
His breathing is so slow now that I have to watch his chest carefully to see it rise and fall. And the falls are lasting longer than the rises, longer each
“Hurry, Derek says quietly, but there’s urgency in his voice that makes my heart race.
The moment my hands touch Tristan’s chest, the power explodes through me like a dam bursting.
It’s nothing like the gentle flow I was expecting, nothing like the controlled healing I imagined in my head.
This is violent and consuming and completely beyond my control.
More than I’d felt when it drained life from Daxon or Seraphine.
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It starts in my chest, a burning sensation that spreads through my arms and down into my hands.
But instead of flowing out into Tristan like I want it to, it turns inward, pulling something from deep inside me and dragging it toward the surface.
The burning gets worse, spreading through my entire body like liquid fire. My bones feel like they’re vibrating, and my skin tingles with electricity that makes every nerve ending scream.
I can feel my heart racing, pounding so hard it feels like it might burst out of my chest.
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17:52 Tue, Jan 13 GRM
Chapter 216
My vision goes black around the edges, and I can feel myself falling even though I’m still kneeling beside the mattress. The power is taking over wrapping around my consciousness like thick smoke, and I’m losing myself in it.
Everything that makes me who I am, my thoughts and memories and personality, it’s all being pushed aside to make room for this thing that’s been
hiding inside me for years.
“Athena, I hear Derek’s voice from somewhere far away, but it sounds muffled and distant like he’s speaking from underwater. “What’s happening?”
I try to answer him, but my mouth won’t work. My tongue feels thick and heavy, and my jaw is clenched so tight I can’t pry it open.
The power is consuming everything, every thought and feeling and sensation, until there’s nothing left but the overwhelming need to take.
To drain.
To kill.
And it’s focused entirely on Tristan.
I can feel it reaching into him through my hands, finding the places where his life force is strongest and latching onto them like a parasite.
His already weak heartbeat falters under the assault, and his breathing, which was already shallow, becomes almost nonexistent.
The life force flowing from him into me is warm and bright and precious, and it makes the power inside me grow stronger. Hungrier. More desperate for
more.
“No,” I try to scream, but no sound comes out. This isn’t what I want, this isn’t what I’m trying to do. I’m supposed to be saving him, not killing him
faster.
But the power doesn’t care what I want. It’s been starved for so long, trapped and suppressed and feared, and now it’s finally free. It’s going to take everything it can get.
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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.
