Daughter of Tide and Illusion

Chapter 59

Chapter 59

Even with the chaos around him, all Jai could hear was those words rushing at him.

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

He watched as her lips formed them then, even though he couldn't hear her.

Elys was screaming, lunging forward even as Jai tightened his hold on him.  "Lyvi!" he cried, trying his hardest to pull himself from his grasp in a bid to get to her.  "You can't leave me!  You promised!"

Jai tightened his arms around the little boy, squeezing his eyes closed as he pressed his face into his hair.  He kissed the top of his head before looking back at Lyv.

He tried not to panic as he felt a shiver of darkness and silence rush down the bond from her.  But two words reached him before it crashed into him. 

Find me.

And then...there was that silence.  Smothering their bond with darkness.

Elys was screaming again as Lyv closed her eyes, leaning her forehead against the ward. 

Jai didn't have to feel her panic to see it on her face. 

Not when the obsidian stone began to glow beneath the skin of her forearm. 

The shadows within the ward were rushing toward her then, swirling around on an invisible wind that engulfed her fully.  Her emerald eyes flew open as she tried to rip them from her, but she couldn't catch them.  Those shadows encased her, smothered her, snuffed out every bit of light and love and hope inside her. 

Just like what they'd witness with Mik months before in the desert of Ethran, the shadows swallowed her in darkness and forced her to her knees, his spine snapping backward as she tried to fight it. 

And eventually lost.

The shadows were excitedly rushing into Lyv through her mouth and nose, devouring her from the inside then. 

And all Corliss was doing was laughing as she watched.

Mik's hands were balled into fists at his side, jaw clenched.  He blinked slowly twice.  Black...hazel...and black again...

Lyv's body pitched forward, blood dripped down her chin and from her nose and ears onto the stone below her.  Her burgundy hair was glowing, floating around her head as those shadows continued their spiral into her.  Her nails dug into the stone so roughly they broke and bloodied, body twisting and snapping once more.

And the last of the shadows disappeared inside her. 

Jai's heart skipped to a stop in his chest.

The others were silent behind him now.  He hadn't realized they'd stopped their attack to watch in horror. 

Even Elys stilled in his arms, his little hands still pressed against the ward and trembling. 

Lyv's hands flattened against the ground, her head still down, blood still dripping.  She took one deep breath before her head slowly lifted, eyes still closed.  Her tongue darted out, tasting the blood on her skin as a slight smile curved at one corner of her mouth. 

The obsidian stone pulsed beneath the skin of her forearm.

Hopelessness and despair rushed through Jai then as tears filled his eyes.  A sob broke from his chest as he pressed his face into Elys's hair once more. 

They'd lost. 

"Lyv?" Elys whispered then, leaning forward.

She must have heard him, her head swiveling toward them as the ward around her, Corliss, and Mik disappeared. 

And when Jai looked back at her, Lyv's gaze met his. 

Gone were those emerald eyes Jai had stared into just that evening with love and excitement and hope for the future.  Their future with their family and friends and each other. 

And in their place was nothing but glittering, pitch-black eyes staring right back at him. 

Corliss started laughing again as those shadows swirled around her, pulling her and Mik inside.  Her laugh echoed around them even as she disappeared. 

But Lyv stayed.  Her tongue darted out to taste her blood again, a cruel smile stretching across her lips as darkness pulsed around her. 

Jai was moving then, quickly passing Elys to Gideon, and bolting forward.  Without the ward to separate them, maybe he could get to her, take that darkness and smother it himself...

Lyv's hand shot out, her magic lashing out at him without her even having to touch him.  His throat constricted as she squeezed her hand into a fist, choking him just as Corliss had her.

The laugh she gave then...it sent a shiver down his spine at the wickedness laced in it. 

"I will..." Jai rasped out through his teeth.  "I will find you, Lyv.  I promise."

Lyv laughed again, pulling him forward with her magic until they were just inches apart.  Her head cocked to the right as she looked at him, those black eyes flashing in recognition at the bond that tried to push its way through the darkness inside her that smothered it.

Her hold on him tightened.  But then she threw him back, making him land in a heap in front of the others.  His head cracked against the stone and stars burst in front of his eyes.  He struggled to move, to stand, to get to her again. 

Lyv only smiled. 

Pulled the darkness around her just as Mik did almost every time they'd come in contact with him. 

And disappeared into the shadows.

***I have waited to write that ending since I first started this book on September 1st of last year.

AND THERE IT IS! YOU KNOW HOW I LOVE MY CLIFFHANGERS!

You have no idea just how much I have loved writing this book and having all of you join me on this crazy journey. I hit a huge personal writing milestone for myself I NEVER thought I'd hit - getting to 200,000 words for a single book! And with DOTAI, I got to 200,080! Whoo!

Now, for the information you all want now...what's next?

The fourth book in this lovely series - Song of Blood and Reign.

I will have the description up in a few hours just like I have before with the previous books...I just have to write it first! Not only are we going to explore more of all three lands, we're going to get to know more of these characters. Definitely more of Corliss and Mik, obviously, but also Allel. All of them are officially main characters now and we'll create some bonds you never would have seen coming.

AND I CAN'T WAIT!

As for a time frame of when I'll be starting it...probably not for a few weeks. I'll start writing it well before that, for sure. Heck, I might even cave and start uploading earlier than planned like I always seem to do when I'm as excited as I am about the next in a series (which I more than likely will...because I CAN'T WAIT!).  But it's my birthday month, so there will be at least a week and a half where I know I won't upload anything since I'm going to Disney World and Universal to celebrate because I'm still totally a kid!

But for now, my plan for April is to do a revision of MOEAM for Camp NaNoWriMo and read to my heart's content since practically 80% of my books on my two huge bookshelves have been bought on my book hauls over the last month and a half.  (Yes, I have a problem, but I could be buying worse things.)

So for the last time in DOTAI, tell me your thoughts! Comment and vote!

Happy reading!

- Ansley***