NovelApexChapter 458 - 458: Lisa: Line of Fire
LISA
Everything in my head has narrowed into one simple thought, repeated over. And over. Until my heart's every
beat repeats the message, until my soul feels like it's shredding apart.
Kellan's in danger.
My Kellan.
The man who's never once pushedpast my comfort zone. The man who's stood quietly behind me. Loyal.
Patient. Sweet and protective.
He stole my heart so quietly, | didn't notice it was gone.
Each breath burns in my lungs, but | push through it. Thank God for whatever magic the Magister cast on me—
my legs shouldn't be able to move this fast.
The oversized Fae keeps pace beside me, his long robes somehow never catching on the underbrush. Pain lances
through my thigh with every step, threatening to buckle my knees. | grit my teeth and shove it down.
There's something else insidenow, something which makes every other pain insignificant. A hollowness in
my chest, expanding with every heartbeat. This feeling—like someone's carved out something essential from my
body. Terror and love and need so powerful | can barely breathe around it.
Kellan's in danger. | need to see him—touch him—make sure he's safe.
Lucas throws up a fist, and our strange procession slows. | bite back a curse. We're too slow. Every second
wasted is another Kellan faces alone.
But I don't know what's happening or what Lucas has sensed, so | ignore the impatience in my veins and stick
close to Magister Orion, following Lucas's deliberate movements through the snow.
The Alpha's arm cuts through the air in a sharp motion, and suddenly we're moving again—faster, more urgent,
angling left of our original path. The wolves around us surge forward, like a wave breaking on shore.
The wind shifts, carrying the unmistakable sounds of battle. Snarls and screams pierce the night air. My heart
hammers against my ribs like it wants to break free and reach Kellan first.
Sof the wolves peel away, following commands I didn't hear. | don't care. My focus locks onto Lucas's broad
back—he's my compass in this chaos. Where he fights, Kellan will be.
Magister Orion's fingers brush my shoulder as we run, his voice soft beside my ear. The language he speaks
sounds like water over stone, musical and otherworldly. A strange tingle washes over my skin, starting from his
touch and spreading outward until I'm wrapped in what feels like the thinnest layer of static electricity.
"A barrier," he says simply.
Luckily, I've been around Ava enough to understand. It's a defensive ward. Protection.
"Thanks."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtWe burst into a clearing, and the scene before us is utter chaos.
My thigh explodes with white-hot agony, so sudden and intense that someone might as well have taken a
blowtorch to the flesh. Something pulls at my mind, yanking my consciousness sideways, trying to tearaway
from myself.
Cto me, my little Fae-blessed lover.
The voice isn't audible—it's inside my head, slithering through my thoughts, and | know exactly who it belongs
to. The Mad Prince.
"No," | whisper, though no one can hearthrough the cacophony of battle.
Only the ache in my chest anchors me—my desperate need to find Kellan. | refuse to give in to the compulsion.
My leg nearly gives out beneath me, but | lock my knee and stagger forward.
Magister Orion's hand clamps around my upper arm, steadyingas Lucas and the others charge into the fray.
They're fighting impossibly fast figures, people with pale skin and long hair, covered in blood.
So many of them. How many? We outnumber them, but all the corpses on the ground are... wolves.
No. There. A vampire, its throat torn out. My heart slows a little with hope, only to race again as the corpse sits
up.
The Magister points a hand in its direction, with another melodic phrase, and the vampire's head bursts into a
splash of blood and bone fragments.
My stomach churns, but the body falls back against the ground.
"They aren't human," the Fae says calmly, already pointing at another. "You have to render recovery impossible.
Take off their heads. Losing an arm or a leg is nothing to these creatures. They can't bleed to death, either. If
you're going to cut their throat, you need to take off their head."
Noted.
| take a deep breath, grimacing at the pain in my head. It feels like my brain's trying to split apart.
The two of us are in the back, slightly removed from the chaos of battle. I'm not a fighter—at least, not like them.
And the Magister won't leave my side, which boosts my confidence. The Magister raises his hands, murmuring
his strange, musical words again. The air around us stirs with power.
I lift my arm, the familiar weight of my gnome-tinkered magitech brace settling the panic trying to cloud my
head. It's fine. | can fight my own way; | won't be a burden on these people, who have risked their lives to keep
But there are no clear shots. Even the Magister hesitates.
Too much movement, too many allies in the way. The hundreds of bodies we have brought outnumber the
vampires, but it also makes it impossible to provide cover fire.
| scan the writhing mass of bodies desperately. Where is he? Where's Kellan?
My head pounds with each pulse of pain from my thigh. Compulsion claws at my skull. The ghost of his bite
burns like acid, and | swear | can feel something moving beneath the surface.
Cto me.
"Shut up," | hiss through clenched teeth. The feeling of compulsion is sickening, like a slimy hand grasping my
soul. Nothing like the bond Kellan shares with me.
| never want to give in again.
Never.
The battle rages, a blur of fur and fangs and blood on the snow. Lucas is no longer Lucas, but Aurum, and he
tears through a vampire with terrifying efficiency, his massive jaws wrapping around one's head to rip it clear off
its shoulders.
People are dying, but the tide of battle seems... positive.
A flash of familiar russet fur appears
at the edge of my vision, and my
heart stops. There—Kellan, locked in
combat with two v pifescatofice.
y | Gatohing o
'RaReTD tching one
a
vampire's arm. Three wolves cto
aid him, and blood sprays across the
snow. Movement, too fast for my
human eyes to follow, and then there
are two more corpses on the ground.
' q q 3
Kellan's still standing, swaying, but
both vampires are still standing— The
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My body moves before my brain can catch up. The pain in my thigh recedes beneath a flood of adrenaline. | raise
my wrist, the brace humming with energy as I aim.
"Lisa, wait!" Magister Orion calls after me, but I'm already moving.
Two wolves in the way.
| just need to go a little more left.
A little more.
The Grand Sage has focused on
efficiency, listening to my complaints
about the steps iq engape ny brhte
ltner{ongefreies solely on vocal
. f
commands; there's now a
streamlined button | can press for a
specialized option—a lance of fire.
All | need is thirty feet and an unobstructed view of my target.
Three steps.
Two.
One.
I've practiced a thousand times, and can gauge thirty feet with a hundred percent accuracy.
I have a clear shot.
| press the button and a bolt of fire
flies. It takes only the tiniest fraction
of a second 9 reaciitsmérk, striking
the Ee aire in the shoulder.
The force is enough to rip his arm off
at the joint. The content is on
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chapter there!
Not a kill shot, but enough to tear a shriek out of his throat, and to take his attention off my mate.
Magister Orion whispers something from behind me, and this vampire's head also explodes in a shower of
organic matter.
"Why not do that to all of them?" | ask, lowering my arm with a curse. People are in the way.
"Magic isn't infallible, Lisa. I, too, need an unobstructed line of fire." He yanks at my shoulder, pullingout of
the way of a wolf thrown ten yards.
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