Chapter 216
Irina’s POV
I couldn’t stop crying. The tears blurred my vision. They stung my frozen cheeks. I was trapped in a living nightmare. My mind was breaking under the sheer weight of the grief. The weak light pulsing from his bloody shirt did not register in my brain. I was blind to everything.
I buried my wet face into his cold neck. I sobbed. My tears soaked the torn fabric of his tactical gear. The salt water mixed with his drying blood. I refused to loosen my grip on his shoulders. I held him tight. I held onto him like my embrace alone could tether his soul to the earth.
"Please," I whimpered against his skin. "Please, Nicholas. Don’t do this to me. I love you."
I squeezed my swollen eyes shut. The bitter winter wind whipped through my tangled hair. The heavy boots of the royal guards crunched in the snow behind me. They were pacing the perimeter. They were searching for threats. I tuned out the noise. I was drowning in my own pain.
His massive body was so cold. It felt wrong. It felt impossible. My Alpha King was supposed to be burning hot. He always radiated a comforting heat. He was supposed to wrap his strong arms around me. He was supposed to hold me close and promise we were safe.
Now, he was just lying in the mud. Still. Lifeless. A statue made of ice and blood.
Another sob tore through my chest. I cried harder. I screamed my agony into the dark, silent forest.
Then, something shifted.
It started as a faint, subtle sensation. A tiny spark of warmth brushed against my tear-soaked cheek. It came from deep underneath the stiff layers of his ruined armor.
At first, I did not stop crying. I thought my mind was playing cruel tricks on me. I thought I was losing my sanity in the cold. Maybe it was just the heat of my own tears sliding down my face.
But the warmth did not fade. It grew.
It felt like a burning ember igniting in the frozen mud. The heat seeped through the wet, thick fabric of his ruined shirt. It reached my bare fingers. It shocked my freezing skin.
I gasped. The breath caught sharp in my dry throat.
I forced my heavy eyelids open.
My vision blurred with fresh tears. I blinked them away. I looked down at his broad chest.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
The weak light was no longer weak. It was growing stronger by the second. Small, glowing spots of brilliant silver light pushed through his torn clothing. They looked like tiny, burning stars trapped underneath his pale skin. The silver was laced with bright threads of gold.
"What..." I choked out. My voice shook with fear. "What is happening?"
The glowing spots expanded. They reached out to one another. They connected, forming a bright, intricate web across his torso. The deep, fatal gashes on his chest began to radiate an ancient magic. The dark, sticky blood covering his skin started to glow with a divine energy.
I was shocked. I froze in the mud. My bloody hands remained pressed against his chest. I felt the impossible heat surging through his dormant veins. It was a comforting heat. It chased away the biting cold of the winter wind.
I couldn’t look away. I was mesmerized. I was terrified by the raw power radiating from his motionless body.
"Luna?" a deep, rough voice broke the silence.
It was Roman.
I did not look up. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Nicholas. But I heard the crunch of heavy combat boots rushing through the snow.
Roman stopped dead in his tracks right behind me. A loud gasp ripped from his chest.
"Goddess..." Andrei whispered. His voice cracked with terror.
The chaotic sounds of the royal guards came to a halt. One by one, every deadly warrior in the clearing stopped moving. The brutal mafia underworld paused. Heavy assault rifles dropped to the ground with dull thuds. Bloody tactical knives slipped from scarred hands.
The entire pack was stunned. They stared at us in blind disbelief.
The light spilled out from Nicholas’s chest. It illuminated the dark woods. It cast dancing shadows across the red snow. It blinded the sharp, predatory eyes of the fierce warriors. The ambient noise of the forest died. The howling wind stopped. Without a single word, the men fell to their knees in the mud. They bowed their heads in pure reverence.
I didn’t care about the warriors. I didn’t care about their shock. I didn’t care about anything else in the universe. My wide eyes locked on my mate’s glowing face.
The blinding light engulfed his torso. The intense heat pushed the winter cold away from us. The frozen mud beneath my knees began to melt, turning to warm water. The falling snow evaporated before it could touch his skin.
A spark of hope flared in my shattered soul.
"Nicholas?" I murmured softly. My voice was a fragile whisper. "Nicholas, can you hear me? Are you there?"
He did not answer. His thick, dark eyelashes did not flutter. His beautiful face remained still. He was locked in a deep unconsciousness. He wasn’t waking up. His chest wasn’t rising with breath.
But then, the impossible happened right in front of my eyes.
I felt his heavy body shift in my lap. He wasn’t moving his own muscles. He wasn’t trying to sit up or roll over.
He was becoming weightless.
I gasped. My shaking hands slipped off his glowing chest.
Nicholas’s armored body began to lift. He was rising out of my arms.
"No, wait!" I cried. Panic exploded in my chest again. I reached for him. I grabbed his bloody shoulders. I dug my fingers into his tactical vest. I wanted to pull his body back down to the earth. I refused to let him go.
I pulled with all my human strength. But I couldn’t hold him.
An invisible, overwhelming force pushed my hands away. It wasn’t rough, but it was absolute. It peeled my fingers off his armor. It forced me to release my grip on my mate.
Nicholas levitated.
His powerful body floated up into the night air. He hovered suspended above the bloody snow. He disconnected from the ground, floating a few feet above my head. He just hung there, unconscious, defying gravity. The tips of his combat boots drifted inches above the mud.
The glowing spots on his chest merged together into a solid sun. The ancient Moon Goddess magic consumed his entire form. The brilliant glow expanded outward, swallowing the dark forest in pure radiance.
He emitted an enormous light.