Page 129 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

Runes blaze beneath the primordial, chains of magic snapping into place as they coil tightly around his body, binding him as he thrashes, a scream tearing from him as the glowing chains tighten around him.

The ground fractures further beneath the trap, the cracks spreading in jagged lines as the primordial’s aura begins to surge, growing stronger and stronger with every passing moment.

“It won’t hold,” Heaven’s steady voice states what I already know.

Alessandra steps between the two, shifting back to human form and closing her eyes as she begins to pour her energy into them. With every passing second, the power is pressing in on us with a force that makes it difficult to breathe properly.

Nothing is holding him, not the poison from the net that should have weakened him.

I can feel it building – not just his power but something else.

“We won’t be able to contain him, but we have to.” Ahren’s voice is barely audible from next to us.

We are running out of time.

I have to end him. There were reasons we wanted him alive, but…

My artefacts form around me as I step forward, the power within them igniting the moment they settle into place, surging through my body in a violent rush that sharpens everything, my vision narrowing, my focus locking entirely onto the figure bound within the spell.

“Jayce! What are you doing?!” Sienna shouts from behind me; but she can’t move, the spell she’s maintaining keeps her in place.

I feel the energy of the barrier weaken, even as Ahren rises into the sky, his wings unfurling as a dome begins to spread. So, he finally got those wings he had in the Gods’ Realm.

It will not hold. I know it with every ounce of my being. I know.

The moment it gives, even slightly, he will break free, and then we lose him and this chance.

“I’m ending this now,” I say quietly.

“Jayce! What are you doing? We need him alive! He can return Mama’s power!” Alessandra shouts, edged with something that sounds a lot like panic. Something that doesn’t sound like her.

Every second we hesitate, the pressure inside the trap grows stronger, the cracks widening beneath his feet, the runes burning bright. Too much pressure and they will explode.

Power begins to rise, stronger, and it’s rippling through the air. A wave of unease washes over me, a strong urgency pushing me as my wolf snarls for me to hurry.

There’s only one choice, and even though it might leave what-ifs, I have weighed the odds. This is a decision I’ve made. Some decisions are hard, some are not always right, but as an alpha, as the Deimos King, in this moment, I have to do the right thing, the safest thing, even if it means losing out on helping those he has robbed of their abilities.

“Get back,” I command, drawing every ounce of power into myself. Lightning coils violently around my arm, building with a force that feels almost too powerful for this world. It focuses on my gauntlet as I raise my fist, everything channelled into it as I race forward.

“Jayce!”

“No!”

Now.

My gauntlet fist smashes through the barrier that shatters around me, finally succumbing to the strain. Then I’m past it, and by the primordial’s side. My power still resonates through the air as my fist meets its true target, where instinct is telling me to aim – his throat.

For a fraction of a second, everything stills.

His eyes snap wide, the shock hitting too late as the energy floods through him, lightning tearing through his body from the inside as the cracks begin to spread, thin at first, then rapidly widening, splintering across his skin like cracks in stone.

Then my fist is right through him, hitting the ground and tearing it apart.

His body cracks and the darkness seeps into the air before disintegrating, and I hit the ground on one knee beside the spot where he knelt moments earlier.

The pressure vanishes, and silence crashes down around me.

The only thing left is the echo of power still fading from my body, my chest rising and falling even in the silence of my teammates.