Reaching Retribution (The Prophesized Series) (28 page)

He threw me off a cliff. Off a freaking cliff. Like really? All I wanted was a fair fight, but no, he had to throw me off a cliff while I was basically unconscious.

Vincent drops
me down in the middle of the cliff edge where we were last time, but Zahtri is nowhere to be seen. I spin around in circles looking for him. “Is he supposed to be here?” Vincent asks me.

“Yeah,” I point to the cliff edge. “He just threw me off of that.” I look behind me. Oh no.
“Take me back. Take me back!” I yell. Vincent doesn’t even question me. He places a hand on my shoulder and transports me back to the area behind the compound. I knew it.

Zahtri is way too cocky for his own good.
He is talking to Dravin while standing on the opposite side of the platform. Landing on it, I look behind me and see everyone fighting. Colton, Liam, and Natalie are all fighting together. Bragden and Incendia are together while David and Emma are helping Logan and Lily fight. Larkin and Kyril are tag-teaming it—still creating chaos around them. Travis is fighting with a smaller girl with his parents right behind him.

Zahtri stops smiling when he sees me standing there. “You just don’t k
now when to stop do you?” he yells as he starts walking toward me.

“Go,” I whisper to Vincent.

“Ryanne,” he says.

“Thank you for helping me, Vincent, but I need you to go.
” When he doesn’t move, I say, “Go or I will make you leave.” Vincent looks down at me for a moment before he blinks away. I don’t know where he went, but I’m glad he listened. Though I don’t know him, I don’t want anything to happen to him.

Love and anger crashes into me. Instantly, I recognize it as Colton’s.
I put a shield up behind me as I turn around.

Colton is still standing with Liam and Natalie, but he’s looking at me.
I want nothing more than to go over to him and forget about everything happening around me, but I can’t. I can’t ignore it anymore. This is happening. This is real. Right here, right now, I have to fight. I have to fight for Colton. I have to fight for our life together. I have to fight. Without him.

I place my hand over my heart and nod at him.
I can’t go to him and I hope he doesn’t come to me. This could very well be the end for me, and I need Colton to know I love him. Colton mimics my stance and nods back to me. He understands. I take a deep breath and turn around, quite possibly facing my imminent death.

Zahtri is waiting patiently at the edge of my shield.
I don’t do anything and neither does he. We just stand there. I can see Dravin moving around us. I want to stop him, but I know I’m not the one destined to stop him. That privilege belongs to Liam and Colton.

“I see you survived the fall,” Zahtri says.

“I used my resources,” I tell him.

“Interesting.”

“What are we doing here, Zahtri? We need to stop this once and for all. No more games. Just us. No one else needs to become involved.”

“I thought I was stopping th
is when I dropped you off the cliff’s edge,” Zahtri tells me with a blank expression.

“
It takes a little more than that to get rid of me, Zahtri. I’m pretty stubborn.”

“I’ve noticed.”

I can hear all of the fighting going on behind me, but I refuse to turn around. I’ve surrounded myself with a shield, so I shouldn’t have any surprise attacks from behind. I can’t read Zahtri’s mind because he’s put up a mental shield to block me. I’ve surrounded my thoughts with magic, so he shouldn’t be able to read mine either. I want to end this fair and square.

“H
ow is this going to go?” Zahtri asks me. I try to keep a neutral expression on my face despite the surprise. I have no idea. I wasn’t expecting him to ask me that.

“
How do you think this should go?” I ask him. Zahtri starts pacing the area in front of my shield. I watch him moving back and forth. He’s going to attempt something, but I don’t know what.

“I think you should drop that shield of your
s, Ryanne, before I make you drop it myself. Then, we’re going to fight. Since you’re so adamant on fighting me, I’ll give you that much, but I’m not a fair fighter, darling. You better be prepared.”

I take a step forward. My shield pushes against Zahtri, so he takes a step
back. I continue moving toward him. I want to distance us from the rest of the fighting. I know I’ll have to bring out all of my magic, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of it. No one but Zahtri, that is.

“It’s a good
thing I don’t plan on fighting fairly either then,” I say.

I drop the shield.

I let my invisibility take over as Ryanne turns around and faces Zahtri again. I can’t see her, but I know that she is talking to him. What is she saying? Since she’s standing on the platform and Zahtri is on the ground below, they are almost the same height. I groan as I focus on the Gadramicks in front of me.

Liam won’t leave Natalie’s side since
she almost died. I can see Jedrek fighting Gadramicks to the side. A ball of fire shoots past me. I look to my right and see Incendia fighting a Gadramick. Bragden is fighting off two, so he can’t make it over to her. The Gadramick fighting her knocks her to the ground. I can see the anger radiating off of Bragden as he attempts to stop the Gadramicks in front of him. His eyes flicker over to Incendia, but he can’t actually make it over to her. His arms lighten as flames erupt from his skin and ignite his body. He’s literally on fire.

I punch the man in the jaw in front of me and make my way over to her. For being on the ground, Incendia is hold
ing her own pretty well, but I can tell she needs help. When Bragden is able to stop those Gadramicks, more start fighting him.

I rush behind t
he man and pull him off of Incendia. Gasping for breath, she slowly pushes herself up. Since he is confused about the invisible force that moved him, it is easy to knock him out. Incendia stands, places her hands on her hips, and thanks me.

“This needs to stop,” she says. Bragden is finally able to finish off the two Gadramicks that were fighting him and runs over to Incendia. He pulls her against his chest and apologizes to her. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t get to you.”

“Hey, hey. It’s fine. Colton helped me,” she says. Bragden nods in my direction, thanking me.

“You’re welcome.” Bragden
helped Liam save Ryanne when she was kidnapped the first time. That moment feels like so long ago even though it was only a few months ago. Helping him with Incendia is the least I can do. I turn and look back up at Ryanne. Now she’s talking to him. Since her shield is still up, Zahtri is taking small steps away.

I hear a girl scream behind me. I turn around expecting to see Lily or Emma, but instead I see Logan falling to the ground while a Gadramick pulls a sword out of his side. Lily is the one
who screamed. I move away from Bragden and Incendia and make my way over to him

Logan can’t die.
I can’t lose another family member. I knock down any Gadramicks in my way as I move through the crowds. Lily is crouched down beside him, tears falling down her face. Logan is trying not to let his pain obvious, but we all know what is going on.

The sword Logan was hit with was infused with dark magic. H
e won’t be able to heal himself. “What do we do?” Lily frantically asks when I fall to the ground beside him. She grabs Logan’s hands and makes him look toward her. “Logan, what do we do?” she asks quietly. James and Travis move around us, fighting off any Gadramicks who try to come close.

My eyes scan the crowd around us, but I don’t see Jedrek anymore.

Logan looks at her with unshed tears in his eyes and shakes his head. There’s nothing that can be done.

“Logan, you can’t leave us
,” I tell him. “Ryanne will never forgive you if you leave us,” I try to joke, but I know that it falls short. “I won’t forgive you.”

Lily chokes on her tears as Logan turns
toward her. “Lily, if you accept Logan you may be able to heal him,” James shouts from behind her. Lily whips around and looks at him.

“What?”

“If you accept him, you may be able to heal him,” he repeats.

“
Lily, he’s telling you Logan is your soulmate.” Logan gasps, and his eyes roll into the back of his head. He’s still breathing but it is very shallow.

“How?”

“Do you believe that he’s your soulmate?” I ask her. She looks up at me and then brings her attention back to Logan. I already know the answer. She wouldn’t be acting this way if she didn’t already feel something for him. They’ve been inseparable this week. Whether they were arguing or joking with each other, they were still together.

“I don’t deserve someone like him,
Colton” she says. “I’ve not done anything to deserve him.”

“But you
could see yourself falling in love with him, don’t you?” Lily wipes the tears away from her eyes. I can tell that she’s thinking about everything. Her brown eyes look toward me and she nods. I motion for her to come toward me.

Another ring of fire forms around us, separating us from the fighting.

Lily rushes to my side. “What do I do?”

“You have to fully accept Logan for who he is,” Logan’s body shudders once before going completely still. Lily gasps and more tears fall down her face.
“It won’t work if you don’t accept him.”

Lily leans down and rests her head on Logan’s still chest. She fists her hands into the fabric of his shirt. I know all of this is very sudden, but if it is meant to be, everything will work out in the end. I clench my
hands to keep from showing how upset this is making me. Death is never easy to see, but this is Logan. We basically grew up together. He’s as much of a brother to me as David is. Lily needs me to remain calm right now.

I can hear her whispering
something, but I can’t hear the words. Her body tenses over his and she shoots up and looks at me, scared. “His heart stopped beating.”

“Lily, you have to heal him now,” I tell her. If she can’t do this…I can’t think like that.

“I don’t know how. I don’t know what to do.”

“Let the mage inside you take over, Lily,” I say. “You know exactly what to do.”

“What if it doesn’t work?” she whispers. “I don’t have a lot of magic in me. I don’t even have a power.”

“You never know unless you try.”

Lily nods and leans toward Logan again. She gasps as her hands move toward Logan’s wound. She’s kneeling in the blood that is seeping out of his wound, but she doesn’t care. A few months ago, I never would have believed that Logan and Lily were soulmates. My cousin and the cheerleader? It wouldn’t have made sense.

Lily was this stuck-up girl, while Logan is one of the most caring people I know.
They are complete opposite, but since Lily’s near death experience, I’ve found out that everything I thought about her was a lie. She’s not from a rich home like she made everyone in school believe. She’s not this heartless cheerleader like everyone thought. There’s so much more to her. People are capable of creating a false exterior, so no one gets to know the true person underneath. She was afraid of what the truth could bring her. I’m so glad Ryanne was able to help her that day, because despite neither Logan or Lily admitting their feelings for each other, I can see the change in both of them. I’ve never seen Logan light up the way he does when Lily’s around and she seems genuinely happy when near him.

“Nothing is happening,” Lily cries. The wound isn’t healing. “Logan, you can’
t leave me!” she shouts at him.

She doesn’t remove her hands from the wound, but she leans down again and sobs onto his chest. I reach forward and attem
pt to calm her, but I know there’s nothing I can do.

I’m about to shout for Bragden or Incendia to drop the shield when Lily gasps and jumps back. “What’s going
on?” she looks back toward me. I recognize the look on her face.