Page 588 - Fourth Wing

I have to want to kill that venin, and gods help me, I do.

“Now!” I push my arms toward the venin and command lightning to split
the sky, and it does, branching out in every direction, but I only need to

control one of its silver-blue veins. I focus on the one closest to the venin,

bringing it down in slow bursts that defy time. My arms vibrate, and I feel
Tairn’s power push the boundaries of my body as I yank the branch

sideways in its descent, inch by inch with the last of my strength,

positioning it over the venin. “More, Tairn!”
He roars and lightning itself rips through me, sizzling my lungs and

charring my very breath as Andarna’s gift ebbs. I don’t have to be near her

to feel her fatigue, her strength ebbing. But I only take what I need.
Andarna will live today, even if she is the only one.

I have only a few heartbeats or this much power will burn through me
and take me under.

Xaden screams through the barrier in my mind, and the sounds of his

anguish and fear are nearly more than I can bear. But there’s no time to
focus on him, to wonder what will happen if I don’t succeed. Because right

now, I am focused on vengeance with a coldness that would make even my
mother proud.

Finally dragging the lightning down into place as my skin sizzles and

burns, I release time and hold myself upright long enough to see it strike
true, killing the venin at the first touch of its energy. As if time were still

frozen, his body slowly topples from the top of his wyvern.

In the next breath, more than half the monsters fall from the sky, as if
they were struck themselves, and, as if it had been waiting for me to

accomplish my goal, the wound in my side threatens to burn me alive.

“On the left!” Tairn roars, swinging toward the wyvern and its rider as
they barrel toward us with murder in their eyes.

A rope of shadow flies up, wrapping around the venin’s neck as Tairn
banks left to avoid the hit, and I barely manage to keep my seat.