Chapter 267. A Selfless Bargain I

Chapter 267: 267. A Selfless Bargain I

Maisie

I let my eyelids flutter shut, giving in to the exhaustion that weighed on my bones.

The cold returned again and with it came the distant din, the screaming, the ramming of fists into ice. Someone was yelling my name.

"Reach for it," he told me as he wrapped his fingers around my freezing ones and held up my bleeding hand.

It started like a hum in my veins before it hit me, slammed into me with such force, I recoiled into him. A strange thrill bubbled in my blood, as if the very iron in it was being... magnetized.

Like called to like, he’d said.

I found it instantly, felt it like I felt my own heart slowing. It tugged harshly at me, like it had been waiting all along, and when I opened my eyes, I was no longer cold.

The dragon’s wall of ice around us exploded, throwing Mercer and Quinlan several feet away from us. Mercer hit the floor with a hard grunt, skidding across the debris, while Quinlan scrambled frantically to his knees.

"Maisie!" Quinlan roared, trying to push through the crushing, invisible pressure radiating off us.

I didn’t care. I didn’t remember why they should’ve mattered to me. All I cared about was the ruby.

I could hear it. It wanted to be rejoined with me. And I wanted nothing more, too.

"Take it, sweetling," the dragon told me, his arm curving around my waist, bringing me to rest against his naked chest. His nose ran up and down the curve of my neck. "It is all yours."

I cocked my head at the exit door of the wrecked stadium, already knowing I would find her there. The Queen and Tessa were surrounded by her mates and her personal guard. They were fleeing the hall.

My fingers curled as I reached in the Queen’s direction.

She stopped walking, causing the entire entourage to stop too. And then, like she could somehow feel what I was trying to do, she spun, green eyes wide with shock.

Our eyes connected briefly, and for the first time, I thought I saw fear in her eyes. "You stupid, stupid child," she whispered, but I heard her like she might have screamed the words into my ears.

My lips pulled back from my teeth in a feral snarl and I yanked at the ruby.

And the crown lifted off her head.

It circled above her for a second, a second that felt like the world held its breath. Fights across the room faltered. Bloodied students and guards alike turned their heads, their screams dying in their throats as they tracked the impossible sight.

Then, it came hurtling for me with speed.

It cut through the air, a blur of gold and red, crossing the space in a heartbeat.

Then, it stopped.

The crown hovered just inches away from my face. The ruby pulsed, a deep, rhythmic throb that I felt in my blood. And then, a cacophony of whispers erupted from the sentient thing, none of which I could make out but one.

"I see you, my Queen."

The words sent a hard shiver down my spineand beforeI could even take a breath, the crown dropped.

The cold metal landed on my head, sliding down a size too large. And then, it adjusted, tightening around my skull until it fit snugly, like it had always belonged there.

Like a dam had been cracked open inside me, I gasped, my spine arching as raw, untamed power and knowledge flooded me too fast, too much.

A wave blasted out of me, sending the nearest creatures to me splattering against the wall.

I gripped at the crown, crying out as my head felt one second away from exploding. I reached for the ruby, my blood smearing over it, and it lit up so brightly, all I saw was red light for a moment.

I gripped at the crown, crying out as my head felt one second away from exploding. I reached for the ruby, my blood smearing over it, and it lit up so brightly, all I saw was red light for a moment.

"Adams!" Mercer’s voice tore through the roaring in my ears. He was on his feet now, shielding his eyes against the rippling wind.

Then it stopped all together, my body trembling with... excitement.

The ruby sang to me, "The false queen knows nothing of what we could do together. Let me inside. Let me ease your burdens. I am the rest you seek. Use me."

I felt my feet leave the ground, felt my body become weightless. The stadium fell into a breathless hush beneath me as I ignited.

My consciousness expanded and I could see... everything.

Not a lot of time had passed. For what felt like I had lived and loved for a lifetime, it looked like in real life, it had only been seconds.

I saw Jericho and Soren in the dark field outside, shifting into their Lycan forms to tackle one of those screeching beasts to protect the defenseless students and teachers, but they were surrounded.

I saw other things too. I saw Juliette trapped in the school’s lodgings, where she had been helping out with accommodations. The walls had been destroyed, blood streaked the tiles and walls, and her ankle was bent the wrong way. She shuffled back on her hands and ass as the grotesque creature tracked after her, raising its clawed limb to rip her apart.

And I saw Gruer take a stand in front of her with a catty hiss, a lot bigger than the last shape he’d been this morning, now as large as a mountain cat.

He growled, his eerie green eyes glowing as his fangs lengthened, and he lunged for it, burying his teeth into its jaw.

I saw Juliette take it in, something that shouldn’t have been possible, her eyes wide with terror as she watched Gruer take the thing apart piece by piece in his much smaller form, the creature’s black blood spraying down his black fur as it shrieked.

My subconscious glossed over the image, flipping onto the next like it were going through pages of an already written book.

There was Jenny and Regina backed up against the wall, all that stood between them and another one of those things being Kisten and Brody.

Bastian and Ryder were fighting to protect a screaming Kara, but it didn’t look good. None of it did. They were being cracked down on, and there were so many already injured, so many already dying.

"And more will be if you do not make a choice, sweetling."

There was such hunger in his voice, it fueled mine for a second, making me feel the same things he did. That bottomless chasm of rage and thirst for carnage. The need to conquer.

"Open the rift. Fix all that has been broken," he urged, voice more urgent now than seductive.

A distant part of me screamed at me. Something wasn’t right. But I was too far gone as I directed my hands at the sky.

"No!" I heard the Lycan Queen’s alarmed shout.

Like my body was a living conduit for it, the light shimmering under my skin shot straight to the skies, parting the dark clouds beyond.

I choked on a raw, pained gasp, my eyes widening as the atmosphere before me begin to split.

A raw laugh of victory echoed below me. I blinked through the blinding light and glanced down, down to the stadium floor where the dragon stood, his eyes bright with a depraved sort of excitement.

And when my gaze flicked back to the rift and I saw what waited beyond, I realized what an idiot I truly was.

"There’s no going back, is there?" I whispered.

Suspended high above the wreckage, I felt my strength drain out of me so fast that my limbs went numb, hanging uselessly beneath me in the empty air.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t lower my arms. I was locked in a horrifying levitation, held up by the very magic that was now turning on me.

The rip in the atmosphere grew stronger and it felt like... the life was being pulled straight out of my veins to fuel it. The crown on my head felt like a lead weight, and the ruby was a parasite, siphoning my soul into the bleeding sky.

The dragon’s eyes crinkled. "Everyone wants a do over, sweetling. For that same reason, I have travelled all this way, my brothers and fathers before me have waited and searched eons for a crack, a weakness in the rift.

"Your death gave us hope and brought me here. And now, it will begin the world anew. For even we monsters deserve a second chance. And if the gods won’t give us one, we’ll just have to take it. It is only fitting that the bloodline that began this, ends it."

His body expanded and morphed, scales spreading all over his skin quickly. "And for whatever it is worth to your damaged soul, my mirages aren’t entirely false. Some of us who walked the earth in the time the Goddess did still share her foresight."

"In some other life. Some other world. If you had survived opening the rift on your own," he tilted his head, mocking pity flickering across his face. "It could have been your future. How tragic."