AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I was so preoccupied as I walked back, I didn’t notice the presence. The tiny crackles of leaves and stones shifting underfoot. The utter silence of the fauna in the woods because there were two predators among them.
I should have. I should have stayed on my guard to protect myself, but nope. Now I was the pretty girl in a horror movie, dumb and unaware. And I’d been having way too much sex to survive this movie.
By the time I realized I wasn’t alone, my ability to move was gone. One second I was walking along, nice and oblivious to my surroundings, and the next my limbs had locked up and I was tipping rapidly toward the ground.
Sticks and rocks jabbed me as I landed with a crunch. It might have been a thud, but thankfully the leaves cushioned my fall to a degree.
My heart beat wildly as my eyes scanned for the danger I’d been stupid enough to miss. Thankfully, I’d fallen at an angle, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see a damn thing.
A familiar figure stooped in front of me.
“Really, Thea, is there anything you are good at? You can’t even sneak without making a shit ton of noise. Do you know how hard it was not to look back while you followed me out here and tell you to keep it the fuck down?”
That stung my pride. She’d known I was behind her that whole time?
Well, that was embarrassing.
Now that I knew it was her, though, a bit of my panic ebbed. Sure, Illyria might fuck me up some, but she wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill me.
Right?
Right.
Probably.
There was something about her stare that had me questioning my initial reaction. How the fuck was she doing this? Visions didn’t come with super immobilizing power, at least as far as I knew.
Oh my gods, what if she has another ability, too?
No, the chances were astronomical. Which meant the more likely scenario was that someone else was helping her. But who? I tried to see past her, and unfortunately, she noticed.
“Looking for someone? One of your knights in shining armor? They’re not here. It’s just me and you. And I’ve been itching to pay you back for this.” She reached up to stroke her hair. It still pissed me off that it looked so good on her, but short of shaving it off while she slept, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
She was clearly enjoying this, and a feeling of foreboding began to build in my gut. When she started circling me, I suddenly knew what being actual prey felt like: outmatched and unable to defend itself against a true predator that wanted nothing more than to tear it to pieces.
And she did. She wanted that more than she cared about staying out of trouble with Alvina. I would’ve screamed to see if she could hear me, maybe come running back to my rescue, but my vocal cords were still, no vibration passing through them to make a sound. I was well and truly alone with someone who wanted to hurt me.
The realization made my power flare to life.
Or to death, I suppose.
My inner-self sprinted through that dark space straight past the warm, welcoming glow of life to find the shadows where death awaited my call. I jabbed a metaphysical hand into the ball and called my power forward, the demand fueled by my urgency and fear.
The darkness multiplied and filled every tiny corner of my being, and for a brief second, I felt sorry for Illyria.
No way was she going to have an open casket, unless someone put her in a museum as a mummy exhibit.
I shoved outward, directing all my rage and accumulated energy at her.
She laughed. Laughed right in my gods damned face.
Again and again, I tried to push it outward. Somehow, she was preventing my power from breaking the barrier of my flesh. It just ricocheted back toward my center, uselessly. Worse still, the energy was building within me.
How long until it was too much for my body to contain?
“Can’t get it up, huh? Looks like my metaphorical dick is bigger than yours tonight. Thanks to my special friend, you’re powerless. I learned after last time, and unlike you, I’m smart enough to know my enemy.”
That really pissed me off. I didn’t have to be her enemy. She was the one who had chosen this, all because of a fucking vision.
