Page 132 of Resolve
A fire burning the cold.
A livewire of heat threading through my limbs, pooling in my stomach.
Aching.
Begging.
To be used.
“Rae!”
“Fight him!”
“Raegan!”
“Raegan.”
As my body warms, the distant voices become clearer. More familiar.
Dane. Kellan. Aiden. Jackson.
Consciousness comes rushing back like a speed train. Air, on the other hand, doesn’t.
My hands wrap around whatever’s cutting off my air on instinct, trying to pull them away as I drag my eyes open.
Charles.
We’re still fighting him.
The men who mean everything to me are calling my name. Their voices are strained or rough with emotion.
But I’m also glad it’s me and not one of them in my place.
I won’t give up.
I promised I wouldn’t die.
I won’t lose.
I’ve barely used my gift in this fight. There’s no way I’m out of it yet.
It hardly takes anything to draw it out; it’s as if my gift’s been simmering beneath the surface, ready and waiting to be let loose. Red lightning arcs and scatters over Charles’s scales. It strikes him in the chest. The arm. The head. His side.
He doesn’t budge from where he’s standing.
But his grip loosens enough that I can breathe again.
I suck down air, focusing my gift on him to keep him distracted while I regain all the oxygen I lost. White-hot pain sears through my gut when I take too deep a breath, and I’m left panting and shaking.
“You can’t hurt me,” Charles reminds me, but I see otherwise.
My lightning doesn’t penetrate his scales, but it still hurts. He’s trying to hide it, but I can see the tiny flinches. The way he shifts himself with discomfort when it crosses his thickened skin.
It hurts him, but it’s not enough to beat him.
Especially not in my current state. Not while I’m dizzy from blood loss. Or in so much pain I’m almost numb.
The others don’t stop attacking the invisible barrier he has up between us and them. I see them repelled off their feet, then race back to try again. Their attacks are struck back just as much. All except Dane, who’s holding his ground against the barrier somehow, his white light a single flame as it slowly forces a hand-shaped hole through.
