The world is not what you think. Love isn't what it seems to be. Life is a cycle of magic. And Scarlet is the girl who has that magic. Once they called her a halfling, an aberration that shouldn't have existed but now others say she's special.
In a...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Wolves springing into action, human shapes jumping in front of her to cut her path toward me, the pack joining with thunderous paws against concrete with their teeth bared to strike—I watched them all dive into the nightmare untamed by fear.
And I wondered what it was that I could do now when all plans had fallen apart.
The sky above heaved, clouds gathering overhead as if some invisible hand was pulling a blanket on top of us. A bolt of light followed by the roar of nature blasted down the earth, revolting against this fate the same way we were. Despite fear or probably because of it.
The flash of lighting dying out a few meters from where the line of ghosts had been mere seconds ago, the wildlings were met by wolves stepping unafraid onto the blackened ground as they collided with their bestial relatives.
Blood splattered on black. She laughed looking at the mess her servants were creating out of mine and Regan's. The mocking sound carried to my ear, it echoed above the commotion like a chant of horror.
I wanted to crash my fist against her jaw so she never laughed at us again, never laughed at all.
Regan was throwing off the wildlings that came at him, making a bloody path as he tried to reach her, screaming her name, "Leila!" again and again.
A king after his retribution.
Not much different in his change than they were in their unrelenting reality now that he was in full on Apex mode, his body was as much beast's as it was a man's. Still just a body, every strike wounded him and added new gashes to his flesh.
To remember or die covered it them, it was all because, unlike the wildlings, this man wasn't trying to hurt me but to spare me, to keep me safe, to protect me.
Save me when I was the one who was supposed to do this for him from the beginning.
Oracle's words replayed in my mind.
'In reverse,' she had said then later taught me how and this was what I had to do.
She was flanking my mate. Her eyes blind to the monsters launching toward her, yet somehow she knew exactly where to find them as fragile, wrinkled hands pushed them away to ward them off.
Some of them still managed to cut through her defense, biting onto her to tear her texture and rip the flesh from the bones. Her lips never parted to let out a scream. Her movements never faltered.
If anything, she looked like she barely noticed the sting of teeth and claws as if they had no effect on her other than maiming her body.
Moving my eyes off of her, I saw Lucas—resting on his knees still, palms clasped in front of himself, eyes closed in deep concentration almost like he was praying.
Which gods he sought out inside the hell unfolding I didn't know, but there was not one that I wanted on his side of this battle.
"What do I do, Oracle?" I shouted jumping to the older woman's side to help her with her two attackers and hoping her hearing was sharp enough to pick up the words through the clashing of sounds.
