Chapter 172
AMELIA
I froze.
My heart was pounding so hard making it hard to breathe.
“Amelia!” He gripped my hands. “Look at me!”
“Lucius!” Panicking, I stared at him in shock. I could see the fear in his eyes, too, and Lucius wasn’t easy to be scared until today. “What the fuck is going on?”
The rumbling went on and on. I looked around, everything was moving, trees were dancing, and the ground was rolling in waves.
“Earthquake!”
“No this isn’t. I’ve never experienced an earthquake as strong as this.” I began to shake in fear.
“Don’t let my hands go. It’s gonna be okay,” he said, trying to calm me down, but he knew it wasn’t working.
As the apprehension trickled down my spine, my power pulsed through me, making my senses heightened and slightly agitated somehow.
It only lasted for like ten seconds, yet it felt like an eternity. When the forest went dead silent, the back of my neck tingled.
“Something is wrong.” I barely finished my words, a low rumbling vibration ran between us again. The ground thundered, simultaneously, and an ear-spilling crack pulled us apart.
“Something is coming.” Horror filled his eyes.
“Lucius!” I screamed in shock.
It happened so fast.
With wide eyes, I gripped his hands tight, and he did the same but something unexpected happened.
“No, no, no.”
We were pulled apart. I still tried to reach out for him, but his hands were getting far I couldn’t hold them anymore. I saw the fear in his eyes as the fault line pulled us apart, separating me from Lucius.
“Amelia, stay back!” He yelled out loud.
I was too focused on him that I didn’t notice the large gap in the ground between us, and I trembled harder every time I stepped back, the ground eroded and fell into the gap, making me farther and farther from Lucius, and it hadn’t stopped.
Gasping, my knees felt weaker and my heart raced. I stumbled to the ground. Lucius was yelling something at me that I could barely hear. At that moment, I understood what he meant. He was jumping from the other side.
“No! No! You won’t make it!” I raised my and screamed at him in terror as I watched him ready to jump to my side.
Then he did it. That son of a bitch jumped.
Goosebumps erupted all over my skin, and my heart stopped, and I stopped breathing all at once. Endless horrifying thoughts rushed through my head as I watched him cross the crack in a slow motion, landing his foot on the edge just in front of me.
He made it until the ground he was standing fell.
“Lucius!” I screamed until my voice cracked. I thought I just had a heart attack as I staggered and stumbled to crawl and catch him.
A gasp escaped my lips as I grabbed him by his forearm. If only I was a millisecond late, he would have been dead by now.
Considering he was heavy, and the slips were still ongoing, the ground under me was extremely unstable, there was no guarantee we would make it.
“Don’t let my arm go!”
“You won’t make it. Just let me go, Amelia.” The fear and regrets were deep in his eyes.
When he loosened his grip around my arm, I wanted to go with him. I’d rather die with him than watch him fall into that gap. At that moment, I realized I loved him as much as I loved Ryden.
“Don’t ever think of it! I won’t ever forgive you, Lucius! I swear!” I looked at him with teary eyes. With my heart breaking, my body was dragging down with him. My arm was stretched out, and I felt like it was splitting off my body.
“Sweetheart, you’re destined for something bigger than any of us. You have to let me go to fulfill it.”
“No!” With all my strength, I closed my eyes and pulled him up. “Help!”
“Amelia, please?” he begged me to let his arm go, instead, I grabbed him with another hand. “No. I died once. You suffered because of me. This time, we die together or we don’t. Do you hear me?”
A howl ripped through my thoughts, it was Ryden, calling for his pack.
I reached out to Ryden’s thoughts. “I need you, Alpha. Please? Where here at the crack.”
Tears began to fall from my eyes, and it wasn’t helping. Why couldn’t I just hold it for a moment before I crumbled and fell once I saved Lucius?
“Save yourself for once, Amelia!” He swung his free arm, pulling my grip off his other arm. “Listen to me. It’s okay.”
“I said no! No!” I growled at him.
For a brief moment, I forgot that I had power, and I was too focused on saving him. I couldn’t think of anything to convince him and I only came up with a stupid idea. “I’m pregnant!”
“What?” He stared at me in shock and horror.
When the shock of my power pulsed through me, it created a gravity force to shake the shallow ground, causing it to slip, and my body fell with Lucius into the crack.
Gasping for air, I looked at him in horror and regret, and he was still holding my hand, never letting me go. For a few seconds, I’d come to accept my fate and prepared myself to die.
As we kept falling and falling, I closed my eyes, and the feeling of weightlessness and hopelessness succumbed to me until he called my name.
“Amelia, you’re the daughter of Enoch.”
“Enoch,” I mumbled, and the warmth of power within me flooded through with endless pulses until it detonated within me.
Rather than terror, a sudden calmness spread through my chest. I wasn’t scared anymore.
One moment we were falling, the next second, I felt myself lifting up, and Lucius was holding my hand. And I felt like flying, like really flying. We reached up to the ground and dropped Lucius, yet I was still flying, and the flapping sound swelled in the air.
My heart pumped so hard, and my body was enraptured as I realized that I got my wings.
I laughed like crazy and even cried. I watched them coming to Lucius, including my alpha clapping their hands at me while staring up into the sky.
“I have wings. I got my wings!” I shouted, and my voice echoed. I flew for a while, so grateful to my father for this gift. Inhaling the air deep into my lungs, feeling the air breeze touching my skin, my hair, and my wings still felt surreal.
I let go of all the worries for a moment and closed my eyes. “Father, if you can hear me. Whatever the reason you have bestowed me with this powerful gift, I promise you, I would not abuse it. Instead, I will use it to do good, for humans and supernatural beings alike. Please, guide me through my adventure, what is destined for me, and show me the right path from the darkness to the light.”
I landed smoothly on my feet, and my wings were gone. I looked over my shoulder and saw nothing.
“Damn.” Ryden smiled from ear to ear and pulled me into a tight hug. I thought I would never be able to see him again.
“What the hell happened? Will there be a tsunami?” I asked Ryden, Zeph, and Trent. Nora, Ren, and Theia just arrived. “Anyone hurt?”
“We’re still looking into it,” Nora replied.
I looked at Ren. “We need to talk.”
“So we’re not gonna talk about how did you pull it off?” Zeph asked in amazement.
“I don’t think it will come out sooner.” I searched for Lucius, and he stepped back and stood behind everyone. I looked at Ryden and mouthed to give me a minute.
“Lucius!” I called his name and ran in his direction.
“Are you?” he asked me softly.
I shook my head. “I lied. That’s the only thing I could think at that moment.”
“Why?” He crossed his arms over his chest. For a moment, he looked hurt.
“Why what? Why did I save you?” I asked. My voice was as cold as ice. “Do you really want to hear me say it out loud? Or you jumped because you tested me if I would save you or not?”
“No.” His voice was low. “I just wanted to jump over to you. I knew the risk, and I didn’t expect you to risk your life for me. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” I closed the distance between us and hugged him. “I will do it in a heartbeat, but don’t make it a habit.”
He chuckled as he pulled away, stroking his thumb over my cheekbone. “That was a good deed with the intention of your heart.”
“How do I wing out again?”
He laughed. “I don’t know, angel.”
I turned it into a more serious conversation. “Let me guess, it was the first of the last two signs.”
“Alpha Guston?”
I turned to Ryden’s urgent voice. “What’s wrong?”