The beast and the blessed novel by Ashley Breanne novel Chapter 160

Fifty-Three: Joselin

Joselin's P.O.V.

His body rose. The oversized, wooden chair fell backward with a loud crack as his feet lifted off the floor. Guards, including Tobias, quickly removed Natalie and Killian from the table. It was his job. But as I watched Cyrus rise until his knees were aligned with the top of the table, possessed by an unknown force, I had one second where I wished Tobias had rushed to my rescue instead.

I scoffed at that thought as quickly as it came to mind. We both knew that I could handle myself, even if I were feeling under the weather.

I'm sure Natalie could too, but I had way more experience with magic than her. She was strong and good with light magic, but I knew light and dark magic thanks to my time with Talia. This... was dark magic.

Cyrus's scream cut off as his head was thrown back. His veins bulged from his body, and his already pale skin turned a sickly shade of grey.

I stepped toward him. Tobias's chair between us had been pushed several feet back during his rush to get the queen out.

My hand lifted, and I slowly approached Cyrus, wanting to feel the magic at play, to taste and familiarize myself with it.

The air was thin until I reached the wall of magic, and while chaos surrounded us from the packed dining hall rapidly emptying, I couldn't hear anything beyond the angry gurgling coming from his mouth.

The magic around him was thick and suffocating. Yet, I wasted no time jumping on the table and trying to force his head down to free his airway. A thick bloodstream spilled from his mouth before the pain-filled yell erupted again. The horror in his voice was haunting...familiar.

Aurora approached from his other side, holding her hands onto his body as she began chanting under her breath.

As usual, the rest of the council had been eating in either their chambers or the private dining room, leaving us to combat this evil on our own while we waited for someone to fetch them.

Cyrus shook, his body convulsing as fat tears slid down his cheeks. His arms were out to his sides, and he flinched as if he were fighting against restraints. His arms and legs were spread, his wrists bent so his palms were forward.

I was very familiar with the position he was in.

His pale yellow eyes were squeezed tightly shut as he gasped for breath." No! No!"

A force shot from his body, sending me flying through the air. I flipped once before hitting the ground on my side.

I groaned as a wave of pain shot through me and then used the air to push me right back up. Several Lycans stood at my sides, growling as if Cyrus was the enemy.

"Stand down!" I ordered, and the sound cut off. Yet, they stood tall and proud, defensive as they waited for his next move. But it wasn't him doing it. It was his attacker. The person who tried to drain him in his mountain. Possibly, the person who had tried the ritual during the war.

The person I had been hunting was so close, yet I felt like they were further away than ever.

"Help me..." The wet croak from the lanky man made my chest ache and my heart clench.

Grabbing a bowl from the table, I dumped the food onto the floor before holding the item under his dripping chin.

If Rona wanted to play with dark magic, she would have to face me, and I learned from the best...for a few years at least.

As the bowl filled with his black-laced blood, I began to chant lowly in Latin.

If she was active in his blood, then maybe...just maybe, I could tap into her.

I could feel their magic feeding into Cyrus's blood like an infection, working its way through his system. It was different than when it happened to me fifteen years ago. I had felt the witches like a thread being worked through my veins, something I could grab onto and manipulate.

In Cyrus's blood, the thread was barbed. Each time I tried to grab it, it sent a painful stab through my head, encouraging me to chant louder, to fight harder.

His chest thrust forward as if he were arching his back away from something. The sobbing cries for it to stop were layered, echoing through the room.

The sound of chains rattling in the distance was faint, but as I dug deeper into his blood, I could hear it more clearly with each jerk of his arms and legs.

"What can I do to help?" Natalie's voice called out, but growling returned as multiple guards tried to form a barrier between the royal couple and Cyrus." Let me through.*

The darkness moving through him was so thick I could almost taste it, and I turned my head to glare at the guards. "Get them out of here! Now!"