Page 193 of In Violent Waves

“Let him go!” Lyra shrieked. “Let him go, and I will go willingly. But harm him, and I will fight. Every day of my life, I will do nothing but make your life miserable. And you know I will succeed.”

Drystan shook his head as if clearing the images of her touching Wilder from his head.

“Let him go, please,” Lyra begged.

If anything happened to him, she couldn’t bear the thought of it. Of everything she had come to love, taken away from her.

“You will do as I bid?” Drystan asked.

Her magic. He was after her magic. But it was her life or Wilder’s now.

Lyra nodded.

“No!” Wilder barked out before the sword pressed against his skin.

Lyra looked back at him with pleading eyes and trembling hands. “Stop,” she mouthed. And prayed that he would listen.

“Fine,” Drystan agreed. He grabbed hold of her chains and tugged her to him. But he turned around to face Wilder.

“I see how much he means to you,” Drystan whispered in her ear. And the nearness made her stomach roil. But it was the edge in his voice that had her heart racing. Drystan nodded to the guard, and he removed his sword. “And because of that. He cannot live.”

Lyra sucked in a sharp inhale, and her eyes widened. The guard reared back with his sword in an arc meant to decapitate Wilder.

“Stop,” Lyra commanded, plucking on that thread of her magic. Her voice rang out with the dominance of the entire universe.

Everything stopped.

The sea, the wind, and the birds flying in the sky.

Everything froze.

“You will not harm him.”

The sword thunked as it landed in the sand.

She couldn’t imagine one more scar upon Wilder’s body, much less the end of his life.

Wilder stared, enthralled. And it broke her heart into a million pieces.

The thread within her went out, the magic all used up.

She had never practiced how to wield it to last and had burned through it already. There was nothing left for her to save herself.

All at once, the world started spinning again. The waves crashed against the shore, the birds flew by, and the wind blew her hair in her face.

The guard picked up his sword and stepped past Wilder as if he weren’t there. The guard holding Wilder let go and stepped towards the sea. Drystan whirled her around to face him.

“I knew it,” he spat. Tugging her close to him, he dragged her through the surf.

It was as if Wilder didn’t even exist.

A slow breath slipped through her lips. The magic held—they could not harm him.

Wilder clambered to his feet and raced towards her.

But it was too late.

Drystan shoved a vial down her throat.