As soon as I reached Elias, I dropped to my knees, stretching my hand out instinctively int front of us to shield us, but the fire never touched us. Elias looked up first, while I was still crouched down, my face hidden in his chest, too afraid to look.
“Lyra. Look,” Elias said, and I slowly lifted my head to see what he was talking about. My raised hand had somehow formed a protective shield–something glowing and invisible–that was deflecting the dragon’s fire entirely. It wasn’t getting through at all,pletely guarding.
both Elias and me.
I looked at him, stunned, and the dragon was getting angrier by the second, clearly frustrated
that its attack wasn’t working. But the shield held firm, and eventually, after one final st,
the dragon gave up and turned away, flying off into the sky.
I lowered my hand and stared at it, stunned and unmoving. I had no idea what just happened, and I remained seated on the ground, too shocked to react. Elias had to physically shake me out of my frozen state, grabbing my hand and pulling me up onto my feet.
We have
to go. Before ites back,” Elias said, right in front of my face. I just nodded in
response. He kept hold of my hand as we began running again.
We ran down the lower slope of the mountain, our eyes constantly scanning the
surroundings, making sure we weren’t being followed and that the creature was actually
gone.
Once we were confident that we weren’t being chased anymore, we finally slowed down, and I could feel how tired I really was.
“Are you alright?” Elias asked.
“Yeah. I’m <b>fine</b>,” I replied, trying to sound steady.
“Are we going to talk about what happened back there?” he asked, and I shook my head. I didn’t really think there was anything to say. That shield hade out of nowhere, and I had no idea I was even capable of something like that.
“I’m talking about the shield. I’m talking about you running out of the cave to protect me from a dragon,” Elias rified.
“Oh. That,” I said simply.
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“Yeah. That,” he repeated, looking at me.
“I don’t know why I did that. I just… did,” I said, staring down at the ground. I honestly didn’t have a good exnation. Something just made me move. The thought of him being hurt had overwhelmed everything else.
“You did it to protect me. I understand that. But why <b>would </b>you risk your life like that? You didn’t even know you could stop the fire. And a dragon’s fire is literally hellfire, Elias said
seriously.
“I couldn’t bear the idea of losing you. I knew it was going to kill you, and I didn’t want to live
in a world without you,” I said, looking away awkwardly. I could feel his gaze on me, and it made me ufortable admitting something like that out loud. I wasn’t used to saying how I felt, and I definitely wasn’t used to anyone caring.
Elias, who was still holding my hand, suddenly stopped walking, and I had to stop too. I
turned to look at him, confused, and saw a look on his face I couldn’t quite figure out. I didn’t
know what was going through his mind–at least not until he stepped closer, ced both his hands <b>on </b>my cheeks, and leaned in to kiss me.
“I can’t live without you either,” he said softly. Then he took my hand again, and we started
walking once more.
We ended up in a really thick part of the forest, so dense it was difficult to get through, and
the further we walked, the darker it became. My senses were suddenly heightened in a way
they hadn’t been yesterday–my werewolf instincts were kicking in fully. I could hear everything: every tiny movement, every crack of a branch. My night vision had improved, and
my sense of smell and hearing were sharper than ever. I couldn’t help wondering what it
would be like the first time I shifted. What would my wolf look like?
I had heard tales about people being able to speak with the wolves inside their minds, like at
quiet internal voice that would talk back when their wolvesmunicated–but I hadn’t heard a thing for a long while now. Ever <b>since </b>she first made her presence known, it had gonepletely silent inside my head. I had no idea where she had disappeared to.
As we continued <b>pushing </b>our way through the forest, the wind began to pick up all of a sudden. We both stopped to nce around, but everything appeared normal. The trees were too tightly packed together for a strong gust of wind to break through like this, so the sudden change in weather feltpletely unnatural. My hair was flying all over the ce, <b>whipping </b>across my face, and Elias raised his arm to shield himself while still gripping my hand tightly,
CHAPTER 23 <fn1062> Updates are released by FιndＮovel</fn1062>
making sure I stayed close by his side.
“What the hell is going on?” I shouted, trying to be heard over the howling wind.
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“I don’t know. But whatever it is, I doubt it’s good,” Elias responded, eyes scanning the surroundings. The wind was so forceful now that we were struggling just to stay upright.
“Lyra.” A voice echoed from somewhere around us, and we instantly turned in all directions, trying to figure out where it wasing from.
“Lyra,” the voice repeated, drifting eerily through the trees again. We couldn’t see anything, but the sound sent a chill down my spine. Elias nced over at me, clearly rmed, and without saying another word, he squeezed my hand tighter and took off running, dragging me through
the forest with him.
The brush was so thick that it made moving quickly almost impossible, and I was having a hard time keeping up. I wasn’t used to pushing my body like this, but Elias didn’t slow down. Finally, he stopped abruptly, turned around, and scooped me up into his arms bridal–style, charging forward again despite not being able to see whaty ahead.
“Elias, you can’t just keep running like this,” I told him, breathless.
“I don’t care. I’m not letting them take you,” he said with full conviction, not slowing his pace even slightly. It was obvious he wasn’t going to stop no matter what.
Eventually, we burst through the edge of the dense forest, only to find ourselves staring at a massive cliff on the other side. Elias stopped dead in his tracks and gently set me down so we could both look over the edge. The drop had to be at least 200 feet. Not even werewolves could survive a fall like that. There was no way we could jump across either. And I hadn’t even shifted for the first time y
yet.
Elias scanned both sides, searching for any visible way to escape, but there was nothing we
could see.
“Alright. We’re <b>going </b>to have to climb down,” Elias said. I peered cautiously over the side.
“Good thing I’m not afraid of heights,” I muttered, trying to sound braver <b>than </b>I felt. He scoffed at that..
“I’ll go first. If you slip, I’ll catch you. <b>Just </b>follow exactly where I step and ce your hands and feet where I do,” he instructed firmly.
“I’ll try,” I said, and before he began climbing, he leaned in and gave me another kiss. Once he
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had descended far enough down, I began to carefully follow him.
my
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I stuck to his every direction. He stayed right below me, calmly guiding me on where to ce feet and hands before he’d move downward again. It wasn’t until I felt the sting that I realized blood was dripping from my feet–I wasn’t even wearing shoes. Somehow, in all the chaos, I hadn’t noticed before. I couldn’t believe I had gone this long without realizing it.
We had made it about a quarter of the way down when the wind picked up again–and this time it was even worse. It hit so hard it nearly knocked me off the cliffside. One of my hands slipped off the rock, and I was left hanging by just the other. I let out a small scream as my grip faltered. Then I heard it again. “Lyra.” The voice echoed hauntingly through the wind.
I looked up, and at the top of the cliff where I had just been looking, I saw something beginning to appear. Right above us, standing at the edge, was a woman cloaked in ck.
She was the one doing this.
“The ck Witch,” I said.