The Lycan King and his Dark Temptation novel Chapter 81

VALERIA

Everything turned into chaos all of a sudden.

Saying I wasn’t afraid would be the biggest lie of my life.

Where did all these specters come from?

It seemed like the closer we got to the ultimate truth, the harder the challenges became.

“Valeria, stay in the middle!” they yelled as they fought, but I knew very well—they were going to die.

I vaguely remembered what happened with that specter that attacked me once. I managed to defeat it, but could I handle five of them?

And how the hell was I supposed to summon that damn power that only showed up whenever it felt like it?

“Ahhh!”

“CELINE!!” I screamed as I saw her struggling on the ground, trapped under the claws of one specter, while another closed in for the final blow.

I desperately searched for Quinn, but my blood froze in my veins when I saw him fighting the other three.

His body was completely covered in blood, a horrific scratch had left one of his eyes shut, and despite the terror on his face and his desperate effort to reach his sister, he wouldn’t make it.

They didn’t stand a chance, so I had to do it myself.

The other times, it was an overwhelming feeling of rage and helplessness that triggered my transformation. That’s exactly how I felt now, so I let that madness take over my body.

I allowed the darkness within me to take control, without resistance, without thought.

I looked up at the shadowed sky and raised my hands to summon my crows, to stir the air and shift the clouds, letting the moonlight shine through to give me strength and drive the shadows away.

The caws of black crows echoed from the forest, their wings beating as a massive flock quickly approached.

“AAAHHHH!” I screamed like a lunatic, and for the first time, I felt that other part of me rise to the surface.

I rushed toward the specter whose claws were already descending to slit Celine’s throat.

My scream made them freeze and look in my direction.

I felt the swift whisper of the breeze rushing past my ears. I couldn’t even measure my speed, and my vision was incredibly sharp, as if everything were bathed in daylight.

The specter turned to face me with that horrifying face, its sunken blood-colored eyes the only discernible features, surrounded by shapeless shadows.

My long claws slashed without mercy, and wails—like the cries of tormented souls—echoed from where its mouth should have been.

She flapped her enormous black wings, and it was as if the crows became one with her. Feathers floated through the air, mingling with the caws and cries that sent fear straight to my heart.

The innocent maiden of the King was killing at the speed of lightning and with the ease of breathing.

Finally, the clouds began to clear, and the radiant moonlight shone down on Valeria, revealing her with her hands raised to the sky, her enormous wings spread wide.

Those red, chilling eyes, closed and surrounded by bulging veins, and a sinister smile on her lips as the lingering darkness of the specters began to swirl like a vortex with her at the center.

“What is she doing?” Celine asked me in a low voice, her unease mirroring my own as my soul hung by a thread.

“I think she’s… absorbing the specters?” I replied uncertainly. I had never heard of such a power before.

But there she was, right before our eyes. The dark energy swirled and swirled until there was less and less of it floating in the air, until finally, all of it merged into Valeria’s pores.

She opened her crimson eyes for the first time and stared at me with such intensity that I didn’t know whether to be mesmerized or to run for my life.

Suddenly, she brought her hand to her head, looking disoriented or dizzy.

“Valeria!” I shouted as I saw her collapse onto her back.

“She faints after using that power!” Celine said, and despite our severe injuries, we ran to Valeria.