Page 152 of The Fifth Life of Alicia
“Rina!” I stopped, turning back.
She was on one knee, and her right arm was bleeding from a giant slash that almost ran the entire length of her upper arm. She almost looked as if…
Oh, no.
Had it got her with its claw?
Was she paralysed?
Why was nobody helping us?
I couldn’t let her die.
Heat flooded my body. Every inch of my skin prickled almost painfully, and I was both energised and lethargic at the same time. My head grew heavier and heavier as inexplicable pain throbbed across my skull, almost dulling my senses. The intense heat that was enveloping me had my legs trembling, and I stumbled, gritting my teeth as I desperately tried to stay upright.
What was happening?
Noisy.
It was noisy, but muffled to my ears, almost as if I was underwater. The shouts and screams around me were distant and hazy, and I was vaguely aware of someone taking the child from my arms.
The heat within me morphed into a suffocating pressure. I was going to burst from the inside out. I couldn’t breathe. I was completely numb. I had to… get rid of this.
Yes.
I had to let this, whatever it was, out.
I forced my eyes open. The wraithhusk was a blurry mess of slow-moving blackness to my weakened vision, but it was clear enough that I could see the moment it raised its spindly arm, flexing its long claws.
No.
Rina.
These people. The innocent people around me.
I couldn’t let it hurt them.
“No,” I croaked, holding out a hand.
A mix of blue and golden light poured out of my body. It flew towards the creature, spreading out into something that almost resembled a dome that stretched back over Rina and the rest of us.
Sweat dripped from my brow as the light petered out from my hand. The pressure was gone, and so was the blinding pain in my head, leaving behind nothing but an aching emptiness that weighed me down.
Darkness tickled the edges of my vision.
Oh.
“Allie!” Kalon’s voice cut through it, and I turned towards the sound.
“Kalon,” I whispered, my legs finally giving out beneath me.
A blazing red light cut through the air accompanied by a guttural roar, and then…
Darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Four – Kalon
A Coincidence
