Page 8 of Gift from the Tree
My eyes fly to his hands as I hear foil tearing, staring horrified while he slowly rolls the condom over his dick. The pounding in my chest that was a panicked beat intensifies. I’m pretty sure, at any moment, my heart’s going to burst out of my chest.
He can’t enter me. This can’t happen. I’ll kill myself. I’ll kill everyone in this room who touches me first, then I’ll end myself.
Please no, no, no, no.
“Prepare yourself, bitch. This is going to hurt…for you.”
He grips my hips with bruising strength, the tip of his cock pressing against my vagina as he lines himself up. Time slows as the realization that this is happening hits me.
There’s no saving myself, and that thought finally causes my heart to explode. Pain like nothing I’ve ever experienced rips through my chest, sending a shock wave through the room.
The winds of a category five hurricane rage hell on the study, flinging every man through the air. Sickening cracks echo as they collide with the solid brick walls. My screams mingle with glass shattering, moans of pain, and the sound of the winds whistling, creating a symphony of horror.
The chandelier above me explodes in sharp, jagged pieces, raining down like a violent hailstorm, leaving cuts and nicks all over my exposed body. The smell of copper fills my senses, and I feel a slow drip of blood flowing down me.
My mind whirls in a state of dizzying confusion and my lungs beg for me to take a deep breath. Sucking in a large gulp of air, the winds die down as the echoes of my screams taper out.
Forcing my muscles to work, I roll myself to the side to get a look at the destruction in the study. None of the men are standing. Bodies are spread around the room, on the ground, unmoving. I focus hard on the man lying on the floor to my left with a large gash going across his forehead through his hairline. His chest is falling up and down in slow, measured breaths, so he’s not dead.
A gurgling sound draws my attention ahead, and I push myself up with every ounce of energy I have left. Lying there, six feet in front of me, is Michael on his back, trying to clutch his throat. From ear to ear, his throat is sliced open, glass surrounding him, and a large spear piece is sticking out of his chest.
Gasping, I cover my mouth, fighting back the bile burning its way up. His blood pours faster from the gash as he slowly turns his head. His fading gaze widens for a second as our eyes meet, then the gurgling stops. His hand slips from his throat with a deafening thud on the floor, and his lifeless eyes stare through me.
And with that, I slip into darkness.
Three
Corentin
Pieces of fucking shit.
Pacing back and forth in front of my desk, the fire ants of anger crawling beneath my skin caused me to lose control over my gift for just a second. Now my office looks like a fucking kaleidoscope. I haven’t lost control of my gift in years, but reading the message from my mom informing me of an attack on one of the lower-level academies was an unexpected blow to my control and it’s taken everything in me to get it back under lock and key.
“How the fuck could this happen?” I bellow my rage to the ceiling. The pointless fucking pacing isn’t helping, nor did slinging everything off my desk with a current of my air.
Staring out the floor-to-ceiling windows, the dark academy grounds that are usually full of the strongest and brightest of our people, sit empty, peaceful. This academy, these students, although they’re all grown, some only years younger than me, are my responsibility. They rely on me and my Nexus to teach them, protect them, and provide them with the skills they’re going to need once they leave here.
It’s hard to do with fucking ruthless savages running free in the realm.
The attacks from the rebels are getting crueler, more calculated every time they hit. Women, children, there’s no discrimination of who they are taking, who’s being killed. And now, these terrorists, who continue to go undetected, have attacked an academy full of undertrained students.
Twenty-six dead and twenty more kidnapped.
Small-scale attacks and little rebellion groups have been popping up for centuries. It’s inevitable with such a diverse array of people living under a single Matriarch and Nexus. Places like taverns in the cities, farms on the outskirts, places where there isn’t much use for powerful wards or E.F. teams are where they started.
Destroying property, stealing food, supplies, a few beatings here and there was all that occurred. No deaths or kidnapping, not like now. Now, over the last twenty-plus years, all over, Elementra, larger, more deadly, attacks have begun, wreaking absolute chaos and causing panic. It’s a full-on battle every time these rogue fuckers attack.
This is the first time they’ve been able to break through a ward at an academy. Some of the strongest casters in Elementra are stationed across the academies to ensure the wards are always up and keeping those not permitted in, out. For someone to be able to break them down, even at a lower-level academy, is fucking terrifying.
“Well, brother, you’re letting your light shine today.” Caspian picks, stepping out of the shadows like a damned heathen rather than using the door like he should.
His fucking rugged appearance, more chaos than charm, makes my eye twitch. The top three buttons of his rebelliously untucked shirt are popped open, baring the ink painted across his collarbone, and his sleeves are pushed up, exposing the tapestry of tattoos on his forearms. At least he’s got his fucking suit pants on and there are no wrinkles. I couldn’t give a fuck how he dresses at home or when we’re out, but at least look presentable here.
“I don’t have the patience for your sarcasm right now, Caspian,” I sneer.
His posture stiffens, losing the sarcastic tone as he takes in the seriousness of my mood. “What happened now?”
Flinging my communicator at him, my hands curl in tight fists as I mentally count back from five. Exhaling on one, I set out to rebuild the steel cage I keep my emotions locked in, putting my control back in place like an impenetrable fortress.