Chapter 239
Chapter 239
#Chapter 239: Down to Earth
Moana
I opened my eyes, and started to panic as I felt myself starting to come back down. The shifting process wasn’t complete, and although I could feel myself shifting a little more with each moment, I was worried that Michael would kill me before I could shift fully.
However, my eyes widened as I saw Edrick standing in the mist behind Michael.
“Edrick!” I called, feeling my heart lift at the sight of him. He came for me after all…
His glowing silver eyes met mine for the briefest of moments.
“Hold on,” he said, his voice reverberating in my skull. “I’ll buy you some time.”
Suddenly, as I came back down, Michael lurched forward with the knife in his hand. I shrieked as I was practically touching the ground now, and held my hands up in self defense. But Edrick was too fast, and dashed forward.
I watched in horror as Edrick grabbed Michael by the back of his shirt collar and threw him backwards, putting himself between us. He growled and raised his hackles as he stalked closer to Michael, who was scrambling to his feet.
Michael shifted next into a large, gray wolf with a menacing appearance. I gasped at the sight of him; he was even bigger than Edrick, somehow.
“Edrick, no—” I said, reaching out to touch Edrick’s fur. “It’s too dangerous. Let’s just run away.”
But Edrick didn’t seem to be listening. I could tell that his sights were set on taking down his father.
The two wolves faced each other, snarling and pacing around in a circle. I wondered if they were saying something to each other telepathically, but I couldn’t be sure.
Suddenly, a sharp pain overtook my head. I yelped and fell to my knees, clutching the side of my head where the pain rang out. I was starting to shift; I could feel it. The sensation of my bones and my atoms shifting and changing made me almost sick, and I felt as though I could retch right there on the spot.
While I was on the ground, I heard the snarling intensify. Edrick leaped forward and collided with Michael mid-air, and all I could do was watch as they fought viciously in a flurry of teeth and claws and blood.
This was so much more vicious than the fight with Ethan. Michael wanted to kill me so badly that he was willing to kill his own son.
Michael’s large paw made contact with Edrick’s neck, sending Edrick skidding off to the side. Michael started to run at me, and I shrieked again.
“Edrick!” I screamed. I tried to scramble to my feet, but it was no use. The pain was traveling down my neck, over my shoulders and my arms, and it was slowly working its way down my spine.
The pain seared through my body. I clutched at the dirt with my hands while I shook violently from the ache in my bones, and could only watch in a state of abject horror while Michael charged at me.
But then, all of a sudden, Edrick scrambled back to his feet and slammed into Michael again. The two of them went rolling off toward the edge of the cliff, and I gasped again as they rolled dangerously close.
I could see rocks breaking and falling off of the cliff and into the misty abyss below. All it would take was one shove or one wrong turn, and one or both of them would go flying off of the cliff.
I had to shift.
“Hurry, Mina,” I begged my wolf. “We have to do this.”
She didn’t respond, but I knew that she could hear my pleas. I felt another surge of power course through me, and I screamed again as another flash of pain took over my body. It was so intense that it felt as though the world was spinning around me, and I thought for sure that I would vomit.
“Come on…” I gritted my teeth against the pain and held the vomit down in my stomach.
I heard a loud yelp, followed by a thud. I whipped my head around to see that Edrick had thrown Michael backwards once more, and now they were fighting further away from the cliff’s edge. Edrick seemed to have the upper hand over Michael, which gave me some peace of mind.
But Edrick’s upper hand over Michael didn’t last for long. I could only watch, still in agony on the ground, as Michael clawed at Edrick’s throat and belly. Blood spewed out across the wet ground and mixed in with the mud.
Edrick yelped and howled agonizingly, and fell to the ground.
“Edrick!” I yelled. I managed to climb to my feet and, clutching my pregnant belly, I started to hobble toward him. His fur was caked in mud, and his eyelids were fluttering.
Suddenly, I saw Michael shift back into his human form. I felt another surge of excruciating pain as I saw him pick up the Golden Knife, and I could only fall to my knees beside Edrick. I dug my fingers into Edrick’s fur and held him there as I watched Michael sprinting at a full clip toward me with the knife clutched tightly in his hand.
“It’s over now, Moana,” Michael said, raising the knife above my head. “Just accept it.”
But I knew that I didn’t need to — because I was shifting. I closed my eyes and pictured my parents there, holding my hands, and then…
I felt myself shift fully. My wolf’s immense power surged through me.
A blinding light emanated out of me, even more blinding than the one from before. At the same time, however, I felt a searing pain in my belly. An excruciating scream escaped my lips, and I doubled over, clutching at my stomach.
“Please, no,” I whispered, pulling one hand away to see red, sticky blood coating my fingers. “My baby…” NôvelDrama.Org exclusive content.
No… This couldn’t be real.
I felt another surge of power. The light became even brighter, and I was on the ground now, and my eyelids were fluttering shut…
“No!” I heard Edrick shout. His voice sounded so far away, like it was being carried off by the wind.
I’d been stabbed. Michael got what he wanted.
But something strange happened then.
The golden light burst outward like an atomic bomb. The air felt like static electricity, and there was a loud boom like thunder, followed by silence. A silent wind whooshed all around me, tangling itself in my fur and beating against my face.
The power was too much. I opened my eyes and found myself lying on the ground.
Edrick was no longer beside me, and nor was Michael.
Everything was silent, as though the world was frozen. My eyes opened fully, but they weren’t my human eyes anymore; everything was so bright and clear, as though the mist had never even been there to begin with.
“E-Edrick?” I called out. But my voice only echoed in my head. I looked around a little, but all I could see was the golden light.
Was I alive? Did I shift in time and stop Michael from using the knife?
Or was I… dead?