A/N – Keep reading. I haven't read any reviews from the last chapter. I'm kinda scared to. Just keep reading, that's all I can say without ruining anything.
Chapter 21
Tobias
I watched through horrified eyes as Cassie was lugged off of the arena floor. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. The little details mocked me with their gruesomeness, as if someone was saying, 'That's right. It really happened. You really just stood by and let Cassie die.' The blood that clotted the dirt in trickles behind Cassie laughed at me. I saw in intricate detail as a drop of the same blood fell slowly from the tip of Jamei's sword to splash onto the ground. Cassie's blood. Not the blood of an animal she'd morphed. Her blood. Her life. (Ahhhhh!) I howled, a wild, inhuman sound. Taruffs looked around wildly for the source of the disembodied cry of pain. Of hatred.
The slow motion effect returned when I saw Jake. I saw his expression – it was the same one I'd have worn had I been a human. Of unchecked sorrow. The sheer agony and rage on his face was almost comical. He wound up and hurled his sword at the treacherous 'princess,' but it was plucked out the air short of its target by one of her bodyguards. He ripped off his armor and launched that at her too, but the wind caught it and dropped it to the dusty sand meters before it came close. Sweating and bare-chested, he looked around wildly for something else to throw, anything else, and when he didn't find it, he started yelling. Not even words. Inarticulate screams tore from him like he was some mythical beast howling for blood. As I watched him, I noticed that he was changing into the animal he sounded like. At first I thought I was hallucinating, and then it hit me ferociously – He's morphing, idiot!
A little voice in the back of my head said it was a bad idea. Killing Jamei wouldn't solve a thing, and would almost certainly ruin the very goal Cassie had sacrificed herself for. A way more influential voice told me to kill Jamei. Fall on her eyes with your talons. Pop them open and laugh as she screams in pain. Hurt her so bad her ancestors feel it. I did what it said.
I tucked my wings and allowed myself to start a controlled fall towards the murderous alien. The atmosphere was tricky on this planet – the air was thin and wispy with unpredictable wind gusts – but that served to my advantage. I plummeted at a speed I'd never be able to manage back on Earth. I closed with my target and was unable to stop myself from screaming. It was the pure outrage of a red-tailed hawk, and I knew it was a mistake. Alerting my target of my arrival was a good way to end up dead. Maybe that's what I wanted. I know Cassie sure didn't deserve it.
Jamei saw me a split second before I struck. All eyes were on me as she threw her arm up to protect her face and half-succeeded. I caught her left eye with a talon, but the other talon stuck in the thick reptilian flesh of her forearm. She flung me away forcefully, and I bounced in the dirt. I could feel my hollow bones breaking with every bounce, and finally came to rest in a crumpled heap. Pain was good. Pain was my friend. It reminded me that I was alive in a way that Cassie wasn't.
I hadn't killed Jamei. Hadn't even crippled her. But I'd given Jake the distraction he'd needed. In the tiger's body, far larger than Jamei herself, he didn't wait. He launched himself through the air and furiously clawed and bit as he took her to the ground. I saw her bodyguards, too stunned to react. Jake's tackle had taken them out of my field of vision, and I couldn't bring myself to move my head to look. 'Broken neck,' I told myself. 'At least she died. That's all that matters.' I drifted off with that as my mantra. All that matters...all that matters…
I was shocked awake when one word entered my consciousness – Rachel. I hastily, but groggily, opened my eyes. You're about to put her through what you felt for over three years. I found the strength from somewhere to morph. It was hard to focus on the creature I wanted to morph, but I felt myself growing stronger as my human body replaced my crippled hawk form. I focused on a picture of me with Rachel. I couldn't let myself die, no matter how bad I wanted to. Rachel.
I was fully human, physically fine, but mentally a total wreck. I couldn't move. I couldn't stop shaking. I couldn't even open my eyes. I knew that I would either live now or I would be killed. I'd done all I could to stay alive for Rachel. I simply couldn't do anymore. The darkness swam up and swallowed me whole.