Reaching Retribution (The Prophesized Series) (31 page)

“You do look beautiful, Ryanne
,” I whisper in her ear. Her slight shiver fills me with happiness. It’s been almost a year, and my touch still affects her.

“Okay, everyone get in your places. Emma’s ready,” Natalie says as she walks into the backyard. She’s wearing a dress very similar to Ryanne’s, except hers is strapless while Ryanne’s is one shouldered. I let go of Ryanne and Logan, Liam, and I walk over to stand behind David at the edge of the yard.

“Hey man, you ready?” I ask him as I get into line. David is fidgeting with the cuffs on his jacket and clenching his jaw. “Relax,” I laugh at him.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into me,” he says as he release
s the cuff and clasps his hands in front of him.

Before I can answer, Violet starts playing the wedding song on the piano we brought outside. Travis is standing off
to the side, watching his soulmate as she plays. She grins up at him, but doesn’t let that mess her up. After everything that’s happened to him, I’m glad he found his soulmate.

Incendia enters the aisle and slowly walks down it, holding a smal
l bouquet in her hand. Similar to Ryanne, seeing Incendia in pink is something that just doesn’t happen. Her smile widens as she sees Bragden watching her from one of the lawn chairs. She shakes her head and steps into her place across from us. Natalie is next.

“She looks beautiful,” Liam whispers b
ehind me. She does. I know Natalie caught that because she bites her lip and shakes her head at him. Liam laughs quietly behind me. I’m glad those two found each other too. They both deserve it. Once Natalie is in place, Ryanne steps onto the aisle.

My breath hitches and my stomach tig
htens at her beauty. How is this girl mine? Ryanne smiles as she takes the first step. Her eyes never leave me as she continues walking toward us. Someday she’ll be in a wedding dress, walking toward me.

A couple seconds later, her smile falls and she stops walking.
The crowd starts whispering at her sudden change. I glance at David. What’s going on? Her eyes move from mine and land on the trees behind me. With tears in her eyes, she glances back at me as an arrow shoots out from the trees and implants itself into her chest, impaling her heart. Everyone gasps and jumps up. Ryanne falls to the ground where she stays, her bouquet landing at her side. As the wind picks up the loose flower petals, Logan and I push everyone out of the way and run to her, but I know it’s already too late.

Ryanne is dead.

Logan drops to the ground beside her and attempts to heal her, but he can’t bring back the dead. Only a soulmate can do that and I’ve already healed her once. We only get one chance. Seeing the blood soak through her pink dress chokes me up. I stand up and look toward the tree line. Who did this?

Dravin steps out from the shadows and waves his bow at me. “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”

The vision
stops playing in front of me. I’m lying on the ground in the middle of the field while the fight continues. I can hear grunts of pain echo through the area as punches are being thrown. I look to my right and see Liam still fighting Dravin, so I push myself up, but can’t join Liam right away. Closing my eyes, I try to make the world stop spinning around me.

It wasn’t real.
Dravin made me see that. It didn’t actually happen. David and Emma are not married yet. That was a projection…something of Dravin’s imagination. As the vertigo passes, I look across the field and see Ryanne fighting against Zahtri. Alive. She’s alive. She wasn’t shot with an arrow. Ryanne is moving with the skill of someone who has trained their whole life. She’s ducking at the right time, deflecting his advances with the correct parts of her body, and she’s mentally in the zone. She’s not focusing on what is happening around her.

Hearing Liam
grunt in pain, I return my attention to the man who made me watch my soulmate die again. How did he know all of that? Because from the little details I know about David and Emma’s wedding, that looked like it. How could Dravin have known that? I unsheathe my sword and walk toward him again. This can’t go on for any longer.

Thanks for coming back,
Liam says in my mind. Liam says that in my mind! Why didn’t I think about that before now?

We can use this to our advantage, Liam!

What?

We can communicate to each other with
out Dravin knowing. We can plan something and finally finish this.
I tell him. This could be what saves us.

Dravin’s strong, Colton.
He’s not going to go down easily.

I feel the slight pain of Dravin trying to invade my mind again.
Liam reaches out and punches him, distracting him. What can we do? Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ryanne fall to the ground and Zahtri stalk toward her with a dagger in his hand. She’s grimacing as she tries to get up, but she’s not moving fast enough.

Liam, we have to end this now.

I know. I see her.

I wonder…I know that Ryanne can feel the feelings of those around us.
I try to send my positive feelings to her to help, but it’s hard to think like that right now. Zahtri is standing right in front of her. Ryanne is scooting back on the ground, but she still can’t get up. What happened to her?

I turn my attenti
on away from Ryanne. I knew this was going to happen. She has to fight Zahtri. I have to be here with Dravin. Harnessing all the anger I’m feeling, I turn toward Dravin. Unlike Ryanne, emotions can’t physically strengthen my magic, but they can help strengthen me. I’m not sloppy when I’m mad. In fact, it’s just the opposite. My attacks are more precise.

Noticing a change in me, Liam steps to the side and lets
me move toward Dravin. I don’t go invisible. I want Dravin to see me. This is the man who stabbed me without a second glance. He didn’t even think about it. He killed me so he could get Ryanne to tell him about her magic. He’s been kidnapping and experimenting on humans and needs to be stopped. All of this needs to stop.

I r
eel back and land a punch of Dravin’s jaw. He falls to the side, but doesn’t react as much as I wanted him to. The force of my hit splits his lip, and blood starts dripping down his chin. “That’s was a good hit,” he says as he flexes his jaw. “But it’s not going to be good enough to save your pretty little girl over there. You’re going to have to try harder than that.”

How are we going to do this?
Liam asks me. I can hear the urgency in his voice which means that he sees something that I don’t. Either Natalie or Ryanne are in trouble. I duck one of Dravin’s punches and take a step back.

I have absolutely no idea
. Dravin reaches out and punches me in the jaw this time, and then turns around and starts attacking Liam. I stumble backward and try to ignore the pain. I hear a small pained cry echo behind me, but I can’t turn around. I have to keep my attention on the fight in front of me. Not the one behind me.

I have to focus on Dravin.

Not Ryanne.

I continue scooting
backward as quickly as I can as Zahtri moves toward me. I’m trying to ignore the pain in my left arm, but I’m pretty sure it is broken. As I move, I try to push magic into my arm. I may not be like Logan, but I do heal quickly. Maybe if I concentrate all my magic into my arm, I can heal myself with its help.

Zahtri stops,
and standing over me with his dagger pointed outward, he says, “Seriously, darling, this could have all been stopped. No one had to die here today. This is all your fault.”

I groan and push myself back a little further. If I don’t heal
soon, this will all be over. Too soon. It can’t end like this. It just can’t.

“You’re the one who
kidnapped me,” I remind him.

“You could have told them to stop the attack,” he says.

“And how would I have done that when I was trapped inside of a cell?” I move back a little further. Zahtri follows my movement, but he doesn’t attempt to stab me yet. I don’t think he wants it to end like this either…However, he did throw me off a cliff, so I don’t really know what he’s thinking. His thoughts are still blocked from me.

“I don’t know
how you did it, but I know you were able to contact them,” he crouches down next to me. “It was either you or Liam; one of you, if not both, was able to contact them. He’s a dream walker, I know that much. He has the ability, but you don’t. How’d you do it?”

I sit up, putting pressure on my left arm. A sharp pain still spreads through my arm, but I don’t let Zahtri know that I’m in pain. He’d use it against me. “That’s not possible,” I tell him.

“Every day we prove things possible that should be impossible,” he whispers as he stands up. “Get up.”

“Why?” I ask him.

“Because we’re going to do this your way.” Using the dagger, he motions for me to stand up. Without moving my eyes away from him, I avoid putting weight on my left arm and stand.

He
raises his arm and flexes his muscles, preparing to throw the dagger. I throw a shield up around my body and wait for him to throw it at me. Without my permission, my eyes close. A
whoosh
sounds by ear and my body flinches as I prepare for the possible pain. After a few seconds of nothing happening, I open my eyes and find Zahtri staring at me. Keeping the shield up, I peek over my shoulder and see the dagger embedded into the trunk of a tree.

“Are you ready?” he asks me.
I bring my attention back to him. “I’m not going to take it easy anymore.”

Yeah, cause he was taking it easy on me before. Cocky jerk. I keep my shield up and continue pushing magic into my arm, but I don’t answer him.
When Zahtri takes a step toward me, I step back mirroring his stance. I can move my arm again, so I know my magic is working. It’s not working as fast as I want it to, but I’m not complaining.

“How do you thin
k your soulmate will react to your death?” he asks me. I stop pushing my magic into my arm and start calling it around me. He wants to do this my way. I’m about to show him what my way really means.

Zahtri takes another step
forward, so I do the opposite. I just need a few more seconds and then I’ll be able to fully go up against him.

“What made
you change your mind?” I ask in an attempt to stall him. “You could have easily ended me when I was lying on the ground. You had your opportunity. You had a weapon, and I was injured. Why’d you change your mind?” I ask again.

“There’s something about you,” he says. “I like you.”

“You’re just prolonging the inevitable. One or both of us is going to end up dead. There’s no way to change this scenario.”

“You could join me,” he suggests with a wide smile
.

“That’s not an option,” I tell him.
I’d rather die than work with him. He keeps suggesting that because he already knows what my response is going to be.

“Didn’t think so,” he says, “which is why you’re going to die here. Look around. This will be the last thing
you see. I’m going to be the last man you see before your eyes forever close. Not your soulmate. Not your protector. Me. You’ll never see that soulmate of yours again. He’s going to be so guilt ridden after your death that it’ll make killing him that much easier. You’ll have your own little Romeo and Juliet story. Isn’t that what all you girls want? A romantic story?”

I feel my magic strengthening around me at the mention of him killing Colton. That’s not going to happen. If I’m going to die here, I’m taking Zahtri with me. He can’t come out of this alive.

“After your soulmate, I’ll move onto his Uncle. The old man won’t last very long. It’ll be easy. In his heyday, he may have been a good fighter. Maybe even one of the best, but he’s getting old. He hasn’t been training as often. It’ll be easy. One simple swipe of a blade and he’ll be a goner.”

My magic is bubbling to the surface. I can feel it moving around me waiting to heed my command.
He’s not going to kill Tom. I just need a few more seconds to gather enough magic. I push my shield around my mind. I don’t need Zahtri reading my thoughts. He already knows I’m planning something, but hopefully he doesn’t know what. Surprise has to be on my side for this.

“Then, I’ll move onto that protector of yours.
Little Liam. He’s tough, I have firsthand knowledge of that, but when a mage finds their soulmate, their focus changes. He’s determined to protect you and her. He can’t do both. With you out of the picture, his focus will be entirely on her. Soulmates are a weakness. Hurt her, I hurt him. It’s a domino effect.

Zahtri continues moving forward.

“He’ll grieve her death and like your soulmate, it’ll make him easier to kill. It doesn’t matter how good of a fighter they are. When you hurt someone they love, they become weak. They become easy kills. It’ll be a breeze. Killing Liam, I’ll get my payback for this,” he motions to the scar running down his face and neck. “I’ll enjoy watching him struggle. I’ll enjoy seeing the anger for me leave his eyes as he dies next to her. It’ll be fun.

“
You’ll set it all off. They all love you,” he says. “In the end, it all comes down to you. You, Ryanne, will be responsible for their deaths.”

“You cannot pin this on me, Zahtri. You cannot blame any of this on me. If it didn’t happen tonight, it would have happened eventually. You cannot say that all of this is surprising. You can’t tell me that you didn’t see this coming. You are responsible for all of this. You are the reason that there is a fight here. Not me.”

I’m about to push my magic out when I’m hit with an unforeseen force and am sent flying backward. Sometime during Zahtri’s taunts, I must have dropped my shield. My back slams into the trunk of a tree and I fall limply to the ground. I attempt to slow my fall, but the magic took me by surprise and I fall like a ton of bricks to the ground where I remain.

I need to get up. I need to fight.

But I can’t.

Any ideas?
Liam’s voice speaks in my mind. I hear a collective gasp around me, and it takes all of my willpower not to turn around and look at Ryanne. I know something is going on. I want to see that she’s alright, but I can’t.

Do I have any ideas? There has to be something.

I’m about to reply to Liam when a man barrels into me, knocking me to the ground. The air is knocked out of me when I land on the hard grass. Rolling onto my back, I get a good look at the man that ran into me. Jedrek rolls to the side with a grimace on his face. I push myself up and move toward him.

“What did you do?” I whisper to him.

He reaches down and pulls a small dagger out of his side. Blood starts oozing out of the wound. “You…you didn’t see it….coming. It’s,” he gasps and lies on his back, trying to take deep breaths, “tainted with d-d-dark magi…” he trails off.

“Jedrek where is the antidote?” I can’t let him die like this. He just saved my life. He saved Natalie’s life earlier
, and even though Ryanne doesn’t know him well, she does care about him. I have to do something.

“N-no more. Used all of…it,” he sputters. “Now, you can…stop D-d-ravin.” He rests his head on the ground. I push myself up into a seated position. His normally pale skin is turning an ashy shade of gray—the color of death. There’s literally nothing I can do to save him. Jedrek is going to die
, and all I can do is watch.

“Ssssave her, Colton. Don’t l-let her go,” he says as his eyes slowly close. The blood is still pouring out of the wound on his side, but his breathing stops.

“Jedrek?” I stare at his chest, waiting for the subtle rise and fall. “Come on, don’t do this.” I hit his chest. He can’t just save me and then die. It’s not supposed to work like that. The good guys are supposed to survive.

“Larkin,” I say quietly, knowing that he’ll come.

Larkin transports in behind me. I can see the anger in his expression. I saw what happened to Kyril, and I know that Larkin and Kyril were really close. “Can you move his body?” I ask him. “I want to give him a proper burial when all of this is over.”

Without saying anything to me, Larkin bends down and touches Jedrek’s shoulder and leaves the clearing. Jedrek died saving my life. Ryanne’s father saved Natalie and me today. Who knows how many people he gave the antidote to while we were fighting—how many people he saved. I stand up and look back in Dravin’s direction
. I don’t know where his body was moved to, but I can’t focus on that. Liam needs my help right now.

Turning around, I find
Liam and Dravin very much concentrated on their fighting. Unsheathing my sword, I slowly move behind Dravin. It looks like Dravin has stopped the mental attacks and is just focusing on his fighting. Liam has a split lip and blood dripping down his arm. Even though he has a larger sword on his back, he is only fighting with a dagger. I see blood sliding down Dravin’s forearm and blood oozing down his throat from a cut on his cheek. Both of them are injured, but neither one is wavering. They’re not going to stop until this is finished. I can help finish it.

Liam mov
es forward and thrusts the dagger into Dravin’s side. Dravin grunts, but doesn’t stop fighting. Hastily removing the weapon, Liam steps back and blocks Dravin’s punch. Blood starts soaking Dravin’s shirt and spreading down his torso.

If I can move without being noticed, I may be able to end this right now. Liam
’s eyes quickly move in my direction, but they continue moving across the clearing as if he doesn’t see me. He can’t make it obvious that I’m coming. My cover could be blown.

As Lia
m continues to fight, I move forward, little by little, keeping my eyes on Dravin, but my ears open to the crowd around me. I don’t need to get stabbed with a dagger right now. This could be what we need. Liam moves to the right and deflects Dravin’s punch. He’s fighting in a way that keeps Dravin’s back to me, giving me the outing I need. The shot I need to finally end this. I hear another scream behind me, but it’s not Ryanne’s. I’m unsure of who it actually belonged to.

I take another step further. Liam ducks to avoid
Dravin’s arm. While down, he punches Dravin in the gut. When Dravin doubles over, Liam stands up and nods at me. Dravin looks over his shoulder at the same moment as I swing my sword around and using all the force I can muster, I sweep the blade through his neck. Dravin attempts to move, but it’s too late. My sword pushes through flesh and bone and makes a clean cut all the way through. His eyes widen and mouth opens as his head rolls off his shoulders and bounces on the ground. His body falls to its knees before it lies down and blood begins pooling onto the grass beneath. Panting, Liam looks up at me and nods. We did it.

Without knowing it, Jedrek saved my life and helped us stop Dravin.

One down…how many more to go?

I turn around and look at the clearing where Ryanne and Zahtri are supposed to be. Zahtri is moving
toward Ryanne…who is lying unmoving beneath a tree. The wood is splintered at the base which tells me Ryanne was forcefully thrown into it.

Without giving me an
y advance notice, my invisibility takes over. Seeing that, Liam turns and looks in her direction. She’s supposed to be doing this on her own, but she really could use some help.