Filed To Story: Traded To The Lycan King Novel (Colette & Merikh) by MG Wattsons
It’s not just others whose lives depend on me being able to drown out the blast, but my own. If I fail, I will be the first one to go and I can’t imagine what that will do to Merikh.
My ankle twists as a stone rolls from under my foot, tossing me to the right. I collide with a tree trunk, my shoulder smacking into it with a loud thud as I grunt out in pain. Percy is next to me in a heartbeat, swooping under my aching shoulder and wrapping his arm around my back as he continues to blaze through the trees.
Branches reach out, as if they are long fingers extending to entwine me. Twigs, slice at my face, catch as my waist as we try like fucking hell to break away from whatever the fuck is happening.
Then I am dropped, my support disappearing as I take a step onto my ankle and pain tears through my calf. I cry out, and land on my hands and knees, turning to look at Percy, who stands in front, his back to me and his arms at the ready.
“She is here.” He murmurs. “I can feel her now, she is so fucking close, I can taste her on my Tongue.”
“Fight it, Percy.” I say, forcing myself to stand as I roll my shoulders back. He looks over his shoulders at me, a sly smirk on his lips.
“I fully intend to do just that, Luna Letty.”
The fear that was gripping me suddenly seems to fade. The sheer truth of Percy’s words is enough to make me bet my life on him winning this battle. He is young and new to this role, but I am not sure there has ever been a better gamma duo than the one I had.
A woman in a velvet green dress drops out of a tree, her eyes swirling with red and her face pale, almost gaunt. When she smiles, she reveals a mouth of missing teeth and lips that are colored red by her own blood.
With every step closer she takes, I see the stains on her garb. The way it is tattered and soaked with blood. Elm must have failed to kill her. She has clearly been tortured, so there is no doubting he was telling the truth.
“Luna,” she says, her lips cracking and a droplet of blood dripping down her chin. “You turned him against me.”
“Elm?” I ask and she looks sad for a moment, glancing down at her bloodied finger tips.
“He loved me,” she whispers. “He chose me until you came along.”
“Direct your word to me, bitch.” Percy says, stepping in between us to block her view of me.
A tree branch snaps out, grabbing hold of Percy’s wrist. He is fast as he grabs it back, yanking it toward him as his lycan surfaces and he tears into the tree’s bark, breaking it clean off of him.
Another flies for him, taking his other hand just as one grabs his leg. He howls, breaking his hind leg free as he snaps at the branch that lifts him high, then slams him down toward the earth.
I press my hands to the dry dirt, reaching for the water and swiftly pulling it from the earth intime to break his strike to the ground with a soft mud. Lily’s eyes squint as she smiles wide and then giggles, covering her mouth.
“I’m not the only one with a party trick, I guess.” She says.
Percy looks at me, giving me a ‘don’t do that’ glare and I roll my eyes. I know I need to save my strength, but I refuse to watch him fight an unfair fight. There is nothing for me to say to Lily, so instead I shoot her a fake smile. One that really says ‘fuck you’, it only pleases her as she giggles again.
Percy takes the time she is distracted to inch his way closer to her, but even without using her eyes, she witnesses it. Roots rise from the ground, breaking through with such force that Percy is unable to maintain his balance.
He falls onto his ass. They circle him, twisting together at the top slowly, trapping him. He tears them to shreds, but they replace quicker than he can move out of the way.
He is snatched to the ground, his lycan form roaring in anger as he tries like hell to break free. A green root slips around his neck, tightening as his lycan retreats and Percy’s human form takes its place. His sad eyes meet mine.
“Stop!” I scream, scrambling from the ground and trying to make it over to him. “Please! Don’t kill him!”
The wooden noose around his neck stops, and I look up at Lily, who looks all too happy with what she is doing. Then he leans forward and tilts her head.
“I will let you say goodbye.” She says. “It’s more than you got to do with his sister.”
Rage boils in me as I lick my lips and dig as deep in myself as I can. What use is water at this moment? What use is a wolf against a magic that took down a lycan warrior?
“You are not allowed to die.” I command him with my tone. He meets my gaze, unsure of how to respond as he lies, unable to move. Then I realize what it is I have to do, fuck saving my strength, fuck hiding how strong I am. “When I do this, you get your ass up and finish it.”
My words register to him, and he furrows his brows in confusion as I close my eyes. I dig deeper than the cold reserves of water just below the surface. My siren reaches past the flowing waters in the caverns hidden far below even what we could comprehend.
Dragons remain close to heat, a heat that comes from the earth, so I find the water that is bubbling, the water that steams and roars with pockets of heat. It feels as if my veins are being stretched as I pull it from the earth, the energy it requires making the fibers of my muscles quiver in use.
Then it happens, a geyser that rises to the surface, exploding from the very earth beneath Lily’s feet as she screeches and flies into the air. The water drips down onto us, the searing burns ones I relish as i proves I did it. Then I look at Percy and he roars, his lycan back and breaking free as he leaps up a tree, tackles her from the geyser as it slows and falls away.
Lily’s skin is red and covered in blisters as he hammers her to the ground and sinks his teeth into her throat. Her cry turns to a gurgling as she drowns in her own boiling blood, her body twitching as the nerves die off.
“Holy shit, Luna.” Percy says, panting in his human form, his eyes wide. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Me either,” I say, shocked, with a little surprised chuckle. “That was…”
“Amazing.” A voice whispers from behind us.
We whip around, and Percy leaps in front of me just as Ezrah steps out from the shadows. I furrow my brows, looking at him.
“What are you doing here? You are supposed to be coming from—”
“I didn’t trust Elm, so I followed him.” He admits, with an ashamed frown.
“And what did you find?” Percy asks, but he doesn’t drop his guard.
“Elm wasn’t the one torturing her. He was there to rescue her and set her free, and clearly he succeeded.” Ezrah shakes his head. Percy looks at me and then back at him.
“What did you do to stop it?” He asks.
“I fought with Elm while she escaped. He ran off, and I went after Lily, hence me showing up right now. I have been tracking her.” Ezrah explains.
I sigh, tiredness tugging at my body as I look at Percy and he presses his lips together, turning to look at me. He glances over his shoulders once more to make sure Ezrah isn’t listening before he whispers so low I barely hear him.
“I don’t trust him.” He says. I bite my lip and nod.
“Understood. We tread lightly then, okay?” I say and he nods, then I smile at Ezrah. “With Lily dead, what do you plan to do now?” I ask him and he shrugs.
“Follow the original plan, of course. Unless you are feeling tired, I could carry you, if you wish? I see that your gamma still has fresh injuries that need healing.”
I glance at Percy, noticing Ezrah is right. Percy’s bite mark from the dragon fight, though looking much better, has re-opened in a few spots. I wrestle with what to do, but I know I need the rest. So does Percy.
“Actually, that sounds like a good idea for now.” I say hesitantly. “Just for a little bit.”
“Perfect.” He gives me a bright smile. “Let’s go kill a queen.”
It’s incredibly difficult to rest on the back of someone you aren’t sure you can trust. Every muscle in my body feels tense, my neck aching from keeping it pressing into his back too hard. I am used to being carried around; it seems lately it’s been happening more frequently. But this time is different. It feels forced.
Ezrah feels…fake. Or rather, I am seeing the real him for the first time. Each time he looks over his shoulder to check on me, I see something in his eyes. If I were more optimistic about him, I would think it was a concern, but it feels deeper. Almost as if he is concerned, but not for me. More my presence.
Percy remains near, his eyes constantly cutting in my direction like a worried watch dog looking for orders. He can feel it too, which only makes me more unnerved. What happens when we arrive?
Is Ezrah really a bad guy, and if he is, why not kill us after what he saw I could do? Clearly, he isn’t under some magic spell like the many others out here fighting.
“We should go separate ways here.” Percy says, sniffing the air.
It smells of heated metal, the trees brown and shriveling while the branches further north of us begins to smoke. Not only are we close, but it would seem that Lily’s death has been felt already. We are running out of time.
“I think I should take you all the way. It seems like we are almost there now.” Ezrah says, a frown on his face as I squirm off of his back and take a step over to Percy.
“There is a plan in place for a reason,” Percy says, his words clipped and pointed.
“Sometimes plans change for the better.” Ezrah shrugs. I say nothing as he stares at me, neither of us breaking. Then he rolls his eyes and lets out an enormous sigh. “Well, come on then. I might as well walk you the rest of the way.”
“We need to stick to the plan.” I reiterate, and he scoffs.
“Your plan was ruined the second you trusted Elm.”
“It’s not Elm who is the issue,” Percy says, his voice defensive as he inches in front of me, ready to fight Ezrah if he has to. I reach out to touch his upper arm, reassuring him.