**************
CHAPTER 450
~Vera's POV~
The power I had poured into that strike… it wasn't meant to wound. It was meant to end.
Snow dropped like a lifeless rag. And everything inside me—everything I had worked for—broke.
The moment his body hit the floor, Zara screamed and lunged, not giving me any moment to react before she struck and her hand slammed through my chest, piercing through flesh, blood, bone—everything.
I felt the magic flicker inside me and within a second, my heart stopped.
But what she didn't know—what none of them ever knew—was that I always prepared.
Even before the fight, I had wrapped myself in a protection spell. It wasn't strong enough to keep me alive after the blow—but it was enough to delay death. Just long enough.