I KNEW I'D FIND YOU

Chapter 7

I knew I'd Find You

Final Part

I felt something like a whip snap around the room as energy surged. Without thinking, I quickly moved around Masha, pushing Zaylee behind me.

So much for hiding in the background.

Xanth snapped into action like he was about to shield Zaylee but stopped when he saw I wasn't so much as twitching. Instead of screaming out in agony as the king had wanted, I stood strong, while my dragons absorbed whatever he was sending my way. The waves swirled around me as pushed the vile energy into them. They swallowed it all with a vengeance to keep the dark energy from consuming me whole. Xanth stared at me with wide-eyes. Shock swept across the room. No one understanding what exactly was transpiring. Keeping my focus strong, I stared right into those dark gray eyes and smiled. As recognition shot through them, the king stood gradually as he returned my smile. His smile, however, was a lot more sinister than mine.

"I knew I would find you eventually."

My teammates' links all surged up in surprise, but none of them chose to speak. I was grateful. This was going to take everything I had and more. Locked in a staredown with the King, I felt his energy surge higher, trying to get me to fall to my knees. My dragons only absorbed more, thriving on the newfound force being given. Still, they were struggling to keep up as he shot more energy. They felt extremely warm, nearly becoming unbearable as they seared into my skin. The king slammed his hand down, sending out more power. Trying to crush the retaliation rising in me. Seeking out the anguish and torture he so desperately craved. My dragons heated to excruciating as they fought to keep me safe. Sweat poured down the sides of my face. My knees quivered as I took on more, and it took everything in me not to collapse.

"Father, enough!" Vale interjected.

The king blinked, immediately withdrawing his energy. Xanth quickly recovered from shock as he stepped in front of me.

"My Crown, you will have a weekly report of our progress sent to you with extraneous detail pertaining to our training. I will work harder on myself and my team to ensure that no mistakes will be made for the foreseeable future. Including that of my second lead." The king answered finally taking those pale eyes off of me. "Very well, I look forward to those reports." He moved to exit the room. Even if I never wanted to bow to this man, I was thankful to use it as an excuse to rest. As we all kneeled, the king halted at the door.

"and Xanth?" Xanth stiffened next to me.

On the outside, he was frozen stiff as the day we first met, but on the inside, I felt the waves of rage coming from him full force.

"Should your team strive for anything but perfection. It will not be them who receives the punishment; It will be you. Is that clear?" Xanth kneeled his fist clenched over his bended knee. Between the strands of his long hair, I could see the fury flashing in his amber eyes.

"I understand." Stooped down on bended knee, hands to the side to signify obedience, we stayed like that until the noise of a leaving hovercraft could no longer be heard.

…

I watched with tired eyes as Xanth slowly rose from his knelt position. His amber eyes staring ahead. No one dared to speak yet. All of us in fear of retribution if we chose to. Xanth's deep voice rang across the silent room.

"I have gone eons trying to find ways to block my father's power and you have done it in a few seconds, How?" I tried to rise, but my vision swam as my knees gave out from under me.

"Mute!" One of my teammates exclaimed or someone. It was hard to tell everything was muggy and felt too far away. I felt like everything was burning me from the inside out. Masha's face appeared above me.

"Mute talk to me." She reached for my arm and snapped her hand back as it stung her.

"What the kings, it's like she's on fire." Xanth crouched down next to me, carefully peeling back my sleeves.

"It's her weapons their overheating her." Shocks and tremors wreaked havoc across my body as my dragons still fought to keep the energy from blasting out.

"How the grozit do we get them off her?" Zaylee exclaimed, kneeling beside me.

I felt warm liquid drip from my nose as I pushed a wavelength into them, sending my dragons an image of what to do. Everyone jumped back when they slithered off of me, causing burn marks in their path out the window. I opened my mouth to scream but couldn't. I need to relieve the heat, the pressure. If I did, then I would be revealing what I could do or die in the process. Dire circumstances called for dire actions. I slammed my hand on the ground sending waves into the planet. Everyone gasped and tried to keep themselves from falling over as the dome shook. I heard things around the crash and fall to the ground as my energy rocked and inflicted chaos on the floor. My body cooled down a degree as the last of the waves left me. I gasped, breathing heavily. It still wasn't enough. The heat still surging in me. The room went still as the last of my swells were sucked up by the planet. While everyone tried to grasp their heads around what just happened. Xanth took the lead returning to me with a worried look on his face. He pressed his hand to my cheek, and all I could do was blink at him as black and white dots peppered my vision.

"We have to get her to the Bio-medical room. Now!" The last thing I felt was someone lift me in their arms before everything went pitch black.