Chapter 145 You can have me

Chapter 145 You can have me
~ Lyra's POV ~

Seeing Dagan standing there with a few warriors and several individuals I recognized to be witches, I immediately knew there was no escaping for us without a fight.

They had positioned themselves perfectly, cutting off every possible route we could take, and judging by the confidence on Dagan's face, he had expected us to arrive exactly where we were standing. It was obvious he had planned for this long before we stepped into the tunnel, and now we had walked straight into the trap he had laid for us.

Inside me, the powers surging through my body still had not settled completely. Ever since they awakened, they had refused to become still.

Some of them still seemed to be searching for a place to anchor themselves within me, while others continued pressing against the limits of my body, demanding to be released. The sensation had become impossible to ignore.

When Dagan told Taren to hand me over in exchange for mercy, my brows knitted together and my hands curled tightly into fists as anger surged through me. The sheer audacity of him standing there after everything he had done and speaking about mercy made my blood boil.

"Mercy? I'd rather choose death over and over again than accept mercy from you, Dagan," Taren responded before I could say anything, planting his feet firmly on the ground as he assumed a battle ready stance, making it abundantly clear that surrender had never crossed his mind.

"Stop trying to play the hero. It will only end in tears. Look around you. You're surrounded. There is no way you are leaving this tunnel alive with her or without her. I am only offering you mercy because you managed to beat my expectation and actually impress me," Dagan replied in an almost casual tone, sounding like a man who believed the outcome had already been decided.

There was no trace of concern in his voice, only the confidence of someone who was convinced he had complete control over everyone standing before him.

At that point, I could not remain silent any longer.

"You don't like to be underestimated, yet you are a professional at underestimating other people. But hey, it's good because I think I like being underestimated, especially by people like you," I fired back before Taren had the chance to respond, refusing to let Dagan dominate the conversation without reminding him that arrogance had a way of blinding people to the dangers standing right in front of them.

Deep down, I already knew we were cornered and that words alone would not get us out of this tunnel. The only path left was to fight our way through whoever stood in our way.

Thankfully, the restless energy coursing through me had reached a point where it demanded an outlet. It pulsed beneath my skin with increasing intensity, making me feel as though it was urging me toward the battle that seemed inevitable.

For the first time since my capture, I no longer had the restraints limiting me, and that alone gave me a reason to believe we still had a chance.

"That is big talk for someone who isn't even sure if she belongs to the witch community or the werewolf community," Dagan said with a scoff that carried nothing but mockery. "Until you resolve that crisis, you are and will always be beneath me."

"I belong to both the witch and the werewolf community, and I stand for both," I replied without hesitation, refusing to allow his words to find their way beneath my skin because I knew exactly what he was trying to do. He wanted me distracted. He wanted me questioning myself. I had no intention of giving him that satisfaction.

He merely smiled, completely unfazed by my response. "Those who belong to the werewolf community can shift. Can you?" His brows rose slowly as the question left his lips, his expression becoming even more smug when I did not answer immediately. "Oh wait. The last time I checked, your wolf is trapped inside your body simply because it doesn't understand what kind of creature you are. Even your witchcraft couldn't help the situation. Now you see, you are completely useless both as a witch and as a werewolf."

His words struck me harder than I wanted to admit because they touched the one truth I had spent so much time trying to understand myself. For a brief moment, my mind wandered to Lunaris, and I found myself wondering how Dagan had managed to learn about something so personal.

Even so, I refused to let him see that his words had affected me. If he wanted a reaction, he would not get one. Whatever questions his revelation raised could wait until we found a way out of the tunnel alive.

Just then, the sound of approaching footsteps echoed from behind us, and I immediately knew the fully shifted werewolves we had encountered beyond the second door had finally caught up to our position. Their footsteps grew louder with every passing second, leaving no doubt that they were closing in and that the space available to us was rapidly disappearing.

"You must be really foolish to think you can get into my head. I already know the kind of person you are. Tell your men behind us to back off or they will pay with their lives," I threatened, abandoning any remaining hope that talking sense into Dagan would accomplish anything.

He didn't even flinch. "People who want to kill don't go around announcing it. They simply go for the kill. Show me what you've got, witch," he dared me, his voice dripping with confidence as though he had already decided how this confrontation would end.

The instant those words left his mouth, the werewolves behind us surged forward at the same time as the ones standing beside him, while the witches accompanying them immediately began casting dark magic. The coordinated attack came so suddenly that it caught me off guard for a brief moment. They moved with frightening precision, forcing me to react instead of think.

Knowing Taren would not be able to fight effectively while being bombarded with dark magic, I immediately raised an anti magic shield between him and the witches, cutting off their attacks before they could reach him. The barrier shimmered into existence just in time, allowing me to turn my full attention toward the werewolves charging at us from behind.

Manipulating the air inside the narrow tunnel, I sent a powerful gust crashing into them, forcing them backward before slamming them repeatedly against the rocky walls surrounding us. Their bodies struck the stone with enough force to echo throughout the passage, buying us precious seconds to breathe.

Since I knew very little about actual combat, I relied entirely on what came naturally to me. Rather than trying to overpower them physically, I focused all my energy on forcing them away from Taren and me.

Every wave of wind I summoned hurled them farther back, creating distance between us. However, no matter how many times I sent them crashing into the walls, they kept getting back up. They staggered briefly before charging again with the same determination they had shown from the beginning.

It quickly became obvious that this was going to be a long fight, and time was the one thing we no longer had.

Realizing that simply throwing them into the walls was accomplishing very little, I immediately changed my approach. Instead of driving them sideways again, I redirected the force and sent them flying straight toward Dagan and the others. The collision disrupted their formation and briefly cleared the path behind us.

If we could make it back to the second door, I could seal it again and hopefully buy us enough time to escape through the tunnel before they managed to break through.

"Retreat, Taren. We have to go," I called out when I saw him tangled on the ground with one of the werewolves.

Thankfully, he heard me. He shoved the werewolf off his body with visible effort, and I immediately used the wind to carry the attacker even farther away until he landed among the others I had thrown earlier. For the first time since the fighting began, the path behind us appeared open enough to attempt an escape.

Taren struggled to his feet before shifting back into his human form. He took only a few steps toward me before stumbling again, his body betraying him at the worst possible moment.

Without thinking, I instinctively reached out and grabbed his hand to steady him.

The moment our skin touched, I knew I had made a mistake.

Just like every other time, his free hand flew to his chest, and he doubled over with a painful groan that echoed through the tunnel.

I released him immediately, but the damage had already been done.

The sudden panic broke my concentration, and the anti magic shield I had been maintaining around him disappeared.

That brief opening was all Dagan's witches needed to turn everything against us.

Dark spell after dark spell came hurtling toward Taren before I could recover. They wasted no time exploiting the opportunity, unleashing one attack after another with relentless determination.

His groans became louder and more frequent, and for a brief moment I didn't understand why his pain was increasing even though I had already let go of him. Then the realization struck me. The witches were pouring their dark magic into him without pause, each spell intensifying his suffering until it became almost unbearable to witness.

Alarm surged through me. At this rate, they were going to kill him.

"What are you doing to him? Stop it!" I shouted, watching helplessly as he collapsed completely onto the ground, his body writhing uncontrollably beneath the relentless assault.

I desperately searched for something I could do. Touching him again was out of the question because it would only make things worse.

Instead, I tried raising another anti magic shield around him, but every attempt failed before it could fully form. The continuous barrage of dark magic prevented me from stabilizing the barrier, leaving me completely powerless to stop what was happening to him.

"In a few seconds, he is going to die. If you want them to stop, then you have to surrender yourself," Dagan said, his voice filled with pride and cruel amusement, thoroughly enjoying every second of the nightmare unfolding before us.

"No... my lady... don't listen to them. P... please go... arghhh..." Taren managed to force out between agonized grunts, each word sounding more painful than the last.

His eyes found mine. They pleaded with me to leave him behind. They begged me to save myself while there was still a chance.

But how could I do that?

How could I turn my back on someone who had risked everything to save me, knowing full well he would lose his life the moment I walked away?

The answer came before I could think of anything else.

"Fine. Let him go. You can have me," I surrendered.