The seventh strike came down like divine wrath.
Under the shocked eyes of everyone watching, Michael did not rise to meet it. Instead, a loud gulping sound echoed across the ruined battlefield, so out of place that several elders thought they had misheard it.
Below, Michael's body lay collapsed in a pool of blood, barely conscious, his breathing shallow. Beside him stood Lily.
The instant the lightning descended, Michael forced his will through their connection. This was not simple control. Lily became something closer to an extension of him, a second body, and in that desperate moment he made an insane decision. He made Lily open her mouth and try to swallow the lightning whole.
The moment it touched her, her body convulsed violently. The lightning did not vanish. It thrashed inside her like a trapped dragon, tearing through her throat and chest in blinding flashes.
