✧The Earthe of the Elves✧

58

Mia's POV

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This can't be happening. This can not be happening.

Every muscle in my body tightens as I see Knox on his knees, pinned there by four Cin soldiers.

"No no no, Knox," I whisper. Our eyes lock, and I have to blink away a tear so I can see him properly.

Narys bends down, his disgusting breath hot on my ear as he murmurs, "you took away someone I love. Now I get to take away someone you love."

I realize with a jolt of terrifying fear that Knox's chest plate is gone, discarded in the snow. He only wears a long sleeved top underneath.

No no no no no no no, I repeat at a million miles an hour. That horrible, awful dream I had in the hotel, about Knox being stabbed, surfaces, running through my mind. My throat closes, my body starts to tremble.

I can barely hear my agonized scream over the ringing in my ears as one of the Cin grabs his sword and holds it up. Tears are falling freely down my face, stinging as the saltwater hits the cut on my cheek. I can't see anything other than Knox, and that blade. That blade that stabs directly into Knox's chest. My best friend, someone who protected me and trained me, laughed with me, held me, loved me.

His eyes glass over.

"No!" I scream. I scream until my throat burns. Despair, terror, shock, numbness- all of it- runs through me in a sickening wave as I watch him fall face first into the snow. I bend over and vomit.

I told him before we came out here that I needed him to be okay. That I needed this to work out. He promised we'd be fine. He said we would be okay.

My eyes squeeze shut as memories of me and Knox run through my head without warning. Every moment since the first time I saw him pop up like fireworks in the night sky. I won't be able to see those beautiful eyes anymore, or his smile. Will I forget what his voice sounds like? What it feels like to be around him? My chest physically hurts, it feels broken. This can't be real. This can't be happening. Can't be real.

Knox is dead. Dead.

I can't breathe.

"Now, about that stone," Narys says from behind me, as if he hadn't just killed Knox. I don't even care that I'm bawling my eyes out as Narys turns me around, ripping the Heartstone from my armor. He hisses at how hot it is, but grips it tightly.

"Thank you, Mia," he says, words dripping with sarcasm. Chaos surrounds us still, shouts growing louder as the sound of horse hooves fill the other end of the field, where the Cin came out of.

I tremble in his grasp, staring at him. It takes not even a second for that sadness of Knox to turn into rage greater than I've ever felt. I fuel it by remembering- once again- that this is man that killed my dad. And now he's killed Knox.

I don't even have the energy to scream as I draw every single drop of power I can from the Heartstone, even though my body is begging me to stop, that it's too much. My breaths are loud and heaving with an inferno of rage and power.

The stone drops to the ground as Narys lifts into the air in time with the motion of my hand. His mouth parts in shock as I bring him slamming down into the earth as hard as I can. My hand clenches into a fast as I pin him there with bone-crushing force, slowly walking over until I'm standing over him. His face is etched in pain, neck muscles straining as he tries to sit up. But he won't be able to escape me this time. I scan the battlefield, spotting a long sword a few yards away. I bring it to me in midair, catching it. I don't even know how I'm doing this. I'm just doing it.