Davina (The Immortal Prophecy 3)

No matter what she said, this was the end.

Roane closed his eyes. He didn’t know if the sorcerer was in his head or not, but he made himself think of Davy. He tried to talk to her. “Davy. I love you. Can you hear me?” As he spoke, his hand reached for a dagger tucked behind his back. His hand found the handle and wrapped around it, gripping it tight. A tear slipped from his eye. “Davy, I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but no matter our ending, we’ll have the next life together. A new chapter. I promise.”

He imagined she was there. She was standing in front of him. He could hold her. He could rest his forehead to hers and whisper, “I love you so very much, to the deepest parts of my soul. You, Davina, you make me an honorable man. You are why I have fought in this life and you are why I will continue to the next. I love you . . . wherever you are.”

She was there, gripping his hands with hers. Her tears mixed with his and she whispered back, kissing him at the same time, “I love you, too. I will be there. I’m waiting for you, Lucas. Come to me. Come to me . . .”

They were kissing. They were hugging. They were happy—and at the last thought, he pulled his dagger out and plunged it into Jacith’s stomach. The sorcerer jerked back, a thunderous roar ripping from him. Lucas was unfazed. He pushed up from the wall and held onto the dagger with a better hold, then he pushed it as deep as he could. His hand was inside of the vampire, and knowing it wouldn’t be enough, he thrust his other hand and wrapped his fingers around Jacith’s heart.

No creature could live without a beating heart.

He yanked it out.

The body crumbled to the floor, but his other hand held onto the dagger. The Immortal screamed, and in the midst of it all, Lucas held the sorcerer’s heart in his hand and the dagger in his other. A feral smile adorned his face as he met The Immortal’s horrified eyes.

He said, “Oops.”

Then, he threw the dagger at her.

“NO!”

She deflected the dagger.

It flew right at her, would’ve landed smack center in her chest, but The Immortal lifted her hand. The dagger stopped and flew right back at him, except it sheathed itself into the cave wall behind it. Roane froze, his eyes wide at how quick her response was. She rushed to Jacith’s side, and placed her hands on his chest.

Roane didn’t say a word. She could’ve killed him with the dagger, but didn’t. She could still kill him, but after that one scream, she was concentrating. Resting on her knees, her eyes closed, she remained perfectly still.

Roane stood there. He needed to run, but he stayed. He needed to see what she was doing, and when a black coloring formed under her hand and began to move up her arms, he had a good idea. She was absorbing all of Jacith’s power.

Roane turned to go. It was time, but before he could even form the thought, she opened her eyes, pure black, and said, “Stay.”

An invisible wall slammed in place. He couldn’t get through. Hitting it only hurt his hand. It felt like ten cement walls glued together. Vampire strength couldn’t stand up against magic. He waited, leaning against the wall as The Immortal continued to pull the rest of Jacith’s magic into her. When she was done, the black coloring was gone except as she stood and opened her eyes once more. They were still black.

Her hair billowed out behind her. She didn’t say a word and Roane didn’t think she could. The magic was settling inside of her, and another few seconds, her normal chocolate brown eyes snapped back into place. Her hair rested against her back again and her normal coloring came to her face.

Jacith was different. He was a corpse with a giant hole in the chest. A second later, his body burst into flames. He really was dead now. He couldn’t come back from that.

Roane grunted. “If I knew it would’ve been that easy to kill him, I would’ve done it a long time ago.”

“You’re a fool,” The Immortal spat at him, waving her hand in the air again.

The invisible wall fell from behind him and Roane caught himself. She swept past him, and he followed behind. “What do you mean?” He was waiting for the wrath to come out on him, but she kept heading back toward the waterfall.

She said over her shoulder, “Everyone has a weakness. Jacith’s was just like a normal vampire. You had to get close to him in order to kill him, and that was my mistake.”

He was still waiting for her wrath.

Sensing his thought, she said, “I wanted to kill Jacith. That was why I gave you my power.”

Wait . . .

“What?”

She glanced back, rolled her eyes, and turned back. “Everything I’ve said to you was a lie since I broke free. Everything, Lucas.”

“You told me that I loved you.”

She said, “You don’t.”