Page 25 of Sienna Rossi: Beyond Shattered Trust

Pain detonates through me.

It rips the breath from my lungs, excruciatingly painful, and I stagger back as if the strike had hit me directly and not the barrier. My vision is blurring as fire races through every nerve, my neck and jaw spasming. I barely register when I stagger, a pained whimper escaping my lips.

“Sienna!” Jayce’s voice cuts through the pain as he turns sharply towards me. Through blurred eyes, I see the worry flare in his brilliant blue eyes, bright and raw, before he masks those emotions almost instantly as he moves swiftly towards me. That urgency itself gives away the panic.

“You felt that,” Jayce says, already close, his voice tight.

I nod, breathing unevenly.

“You’re connected to the barriers,” he says, realisation dawning on him.

I blink several times to clear my focus, looking at the barrier, even as my chest burns and my head spins. There’s a thin spider crack across the barrier’s surface; it’s been weakened, and yet it holds, vibrating under the strain. One more strike like that and it will fail.

“I think I am,” I murmur through the pain. “I didn’t know I would-”

I break off sharply, feeling the coppery taste of blood in my mouth.

I turn away slightly, intending to wipe my mouth before he notices, but his hand reaches for me, his fingers closing around my jaw, the contact sending sparks dancing through me. He forces me to look at him, heat flaring beneath my skin as my heart stammers violently in my chest.

His thumb slowly brushes my lower lip, making my core clench. That simple move is so intimate…

I’m unable to move, as if he’s cast a spell on me.

I remain still as he wipes the blood away, his touch impossibly gentle compared to the power he wields, his gaze dropping to follow the movement, eyes still blazing blue.

I’m too aware of the way his touch feels, the way his gaze ignites a fire within me, the way his breath causes small puffs of mist, remembering how the warmth of his breath makes goosebumps rise on my skin.

“This plan is too dangerous, then,” he murmurs, more to himself than me, before his gaze locks with mine, his brows knitting. “You can’t use barriers here if every attack on them means you will feel it.”

I’m still in too much pain to process or think straight, unable to focus on anything but him.

His thumb lingers for a fraction longer before his hand finally drops, the loss of his touch almost jarring as he turns away, jaw clenched, shoulders rigid as he drags his composure back into place. The tension between us is intense, but at this moment, I don’t know what to say, and I can’t bring myself to push him to admit he cares.

“You should get checked over by a healer,” he says quietly.

I nod. “I will.” I manage to answer without my voice cracking.

Why isn’t it easing up? Do I need to get rid of the barrier? I raise my hand and focus on bringing it down.

Jayce is watching, and I refuse to let him see how much pain I’m in.

Once the barrier is gone, I brush past him and, turning, head towards the barracks and straight for my room, each step sending pain through my stomach and chest. But I refuse to let it break me.

Only when my cabin door is shut behind me, and I’ve locked it, do I deactivate my Schattenblüte and look down, seeing the angry mark that runs across my stomach. It still sears agonisingly where the pain from Jayce’s lightning bolt had torn through me.

Praying I’m not called on again today, I stagger to the bed and drop onto it as I curl up, hoping the pain eases up soon because it’s excruciating.

I take a deep breath as I touch my stomach, hissing at how tender and painful my stomach feels.

Gods… help me.

I clutch the bedsheet beneath me with one hand as I begin to whisper a spell to take the edge off the pain, but even as I’m whispering the spell, it does nothing for the angry welt.

I close my eyes, taking deep breaths to steady the burning pain that is searing through me. I don’t know what’s happening, or why, but the pain only seems to be getting worse with each passing second.

What have I done?

The Balance of Power