Athena's Jewel (Aya Harris Collection 2)

Gideon struggled against Jack, but couldn't free his hands. "Aya, listen to me. You need to get out of here. Run!"

I swallowed a sob in my throat. All I wanted to do was run toward him and protect him. Protect the girls in the other room. How had everything gotten so messed up? This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Time to tie up loose ends, wouldn't you say?" Ruth asked Wesley with a tilt of her head. "I'm ready to finish this."

"Definitely," he replied, his eyes shining with anticipation. "Thanks to you, I no longer have a traitor in my organization. I owe you."

"I hope you remember that." She smiled and nodded to Bobby. "Will you give your man the order?"

"Absolutely." Bobby waved to Jack. "Kill him."

A flash of silver from Jack's belt drew my attention. He withdrew a wicked looking blade with a serrated edge the length of my hand. With his left arm around Gideon`s chest, he raised the knife to his throat.

"Gladly, boss." He lifted his chin to look at me. "Watch this, whore."

My body moved before I could think. With Athena's Jewel in my left hand, I raised my right and threw all I had at Jack. A force of energy flew through the air, hitting him square on the face and throwing him against the wall with a sick crunch. He slid to the floor and didn't move again.

"Wesley..." Bobby started.

"On it," he replied.

The blue jolts of electricity that had imprisoned us moments ago began to sp

ark again. They hummed with deadly force and closed in on me, causing me to duck.

"Aya!" Gideon's eyes turned a brilliant green. He charged into the electrical field, his body absorbing the charge. "Stay behind me."

Wesley snarled and dropped the charges. With his right hand, he summoned the wing backed chairs to fly straight at us.

"Watch out!" I threw my hand in the air, forcing the chairs to stop only feet from our faces. They hung there in a silent tug-a-war between myself and the mage.

My mother cried out. In a blur, she rushed past me and dove at Ruth, her giant black wings unfurled. Ruth met her charge and swiped at her with wicked sharp talons extending from her fingernails. At the same time, Bobby Caro ran at Gideon and punched him in the gut, toppling over him as they fell.

The room erupted in battle. Wesley and I exchanged blows with furniture from around the room, while our companions wrestled. When he gave up on furniture throwing, he began to toss energy balls at me from every angle. It took everything in me to use my new psychic powers and redirect them into the walls and floor. Each ball landed with the force of a cannon ball, leaving giant holes in the room. It was beginning to sound like a bowling alley around us, the crashes from our battle like a strike of ten pins.

The sound of our battle drew the notice of the rest of the Ranch. From the doors came the two dozen women Wesley had imprisoned. They stared wide-eyed at the commotion, not daring to fully enter the battlefield. There was no sign of Wesley's guests. No doubt, they didn't want to get involved in a magical skirmish that could run south.

The high of using my magical powers to their full capacity was making my head spin. It wasn't until I noticed the blood running from my nose did I begin to really feel nauseated.

"You can't keep this up," Wesley said with a laugh. "You're bleeding from your ears. Soon, your brain will melt. Give up before you kill yourself."

I gritted my teeth and threw a chair at him, which he easily deflected. It would take more than a nose bleed to finish me off.

"Aya, stop!" My mother stood over Ruth's body, panic on her face. "Stop it. Something isn't right."

Wesley laughed and threw another ball of energy at me, which I sent flying over my head.

"I can't..." It was getting hard to speak. "He'll kill us all if he gets a chance. I can't let him win."

"It's killing you," she cried.

A painful ache had begun behind my eyes. It made it hard to keep my eyes open. I squinted through the pain and set my eyes on Wesley. Nothing would keep me from putting him down. I owed it to Tala and Patty and Anastasia. I owed to my mother. I owed it to myself.

My mom left Ruth and ran to my side, pleading for me to stop. I ignored her and continued blocking Wesley's assault as the blood began to gush from my nose. A buzzing had started in my ears and was getting louder. Maybe Wesley was right. Maybe my brain would melt.

"What is this?" Mom pried my fingers off Athena's Jewel. "Who gave you that?"

Words were quickly dissolving from my mind. Gideon had Bobby pinned to the ground, his arm wrenched behind his back. Ruth was still passed out cold on the floor. And Jack lay in a heap against the wall. Despite our advantages, Wesley was winning. He laughed and threw fistful after fistful of energy, as if pitching in a little league baseball game.