Another cry reverberated around us, a scream of absolute terror. Something or someone was in distress, and it was coming from the direction we were traveling.
Bolting from their spot, Jax and Raya took off at breakneck speed. Storm and I followed fast on their heels.
The number of shouts and shrieks echoed louder the closer we got. Anxiety crept into my veins as my heart beat so hard, I could hear it pounding in my ears. My hands trembled in anticipation of what we were about to see.
Coming through the final pathway of leafless trees, we all stopped abruptly.
The dark ones were everywhere, attacking innocent civilians who scattered through an encampment surrounding a larger stone home. The enemy hunted them down with reckless abandon. Fear and anguish laced the air.
Jax leapt from his saddle and shifted into his panther form, bounding toward the battle ahead. Storm hurled hand-sized balls of fire across the morning sky, targeting the backs of the dark ones. A distraction for Jax to take them out while their clothes began to blaze.
Raya repositioned herself in the saddle, and I called out her name. She turned, looking at me with a steadiness I hadn’t seen from her since before Dargan’s demise.
“I’ll be okay,” she said to me. “Whatever happens, take care of yourself and get to the void.”
“You will not do anything reckless,” I ordered, as if she’d ever listen to a command I’d give her.
“If anyone should have to sacrifice themselves, it should be me for the pain I’ve caused.” Her eyes lowered in shame.
I steered Onyx closer toward her. “For what it’s worth, Raya, I really like you.” I drew my dagger from the sheath at my thigh. “But I never took you for a martyr. Where’s that badass take-no-shit warrior I admired so much? Haven’t you figured out you’re so much more than what Dargan did to you?”
Her eyes filled with determination and she tightened her grip on the reins.
“We’re in this together. I refuse to allow you to believe you’re anything other than worthy. Now let’s go save your people.”
A genuine smile graced her lips. “For what it’s worth, Lana,” she said, nodding, “I might actually like you too.”
Approaching the battle before us felt almost normal now that I knew what we faced. As if a piece of who I could be settled into place each time I pulled my blade. It served as a stark reminder of how quickly life had changed these past few months.
Rolling my shoulders back once, I readied myself, picking my first target: a dark one tearing violently into the siding of a large tent as people inside screamed.
Asshole.
Grabbing Onyx’s reins in one hand, I grasped my dagger in the other. Crouching low in the saddle, my faithful friend steered us straight toward the dark one, and I slashed the crazed Fae’s side as we rode by. She fell, twitching and bleeding out on torn pieces of leather she’d cut from the tent. Raya quickly followed me into the fray.
She sliced the arm of her own dark one, and I circled around and finished him.
“Storm,” Jax yelled as he shifted back into his Fae form, swords twirling in both of his hands, slaughtering those before him. “The safe house.” He grunted as he sliced through the neck of one of his attackers. “There are children in there.”
Children.
My stomach dropped. In no world would I allow harm to come to those sweet innocent children. The Fates themselves would have to pry these daggers from my cold dead hands if they thought I wouldn’t fight for those who could not fight for themselves.
“Raya.” I motioned for her to follow. “We need to get there. We must protect those kids.”
Nodding, she whipped her horse around. This battle seemed to give her strength, as if danger fueled her recovery. She was coming back to us. The Raya we knew.
We rode side by side, taking down all those who tried to stop us. Fireballs laced the sky, and Jax’s roars, mixed with cries for help, echoed across the small-town square as he destroyed the dark ones.
Storm ran, weaving through various-sized tents toward the safe house, standing centered among everything. Dark onesinfiltrated the area from all sides, ducking behind too many of the tents to count. The overcrowding made it nearly impossible to track them all.
As we cleared the last inside row of tents, both Raya and I halted, staring at the amount of people fighting around the house. Storm and Jax were nowhere to be seen, but a small group of dark ones had already made it to the door of the house.
“In here. This must be the spot,” one of the dark ones yelled.
They tried to crash into the door but bounced off the wooden entrance as if magically repelled. But they were not deterred. Again they attempted to break in the door and cross the threshold but were stopped short.
Storm met the small group and engaged in a three-on-one dance as Raya and I raced toward him, desperate to catch up.
