Storm conjured another wave of fire and threw it at Samuel, but the Guardian's air magic pushed the flame out of his way.
I reached to my thigh, yanking out the blade, and went to jump from Onyx’s back, but hesitated when I heard Raya whimper to my right. Her body slumped forward. “Fuck,” she hissed.
She looked so defeated. Conflicted, I watched Storm and Jax battle the evil Guardians, but I knew the most vulnerable person here was Raya. I had to protect her. Jax and Storm would never forgive me if something else happened to her. I would never forgive myself.
Fates, Kade would never forgive any of us if we weren’t all alive and well when he returned.
I refused to lose another person I loved.
Moving toward Raya, I positioned Onyx between her and the fight before me.
Jax fought two men, swords and claws clashing in the night. Another Guardian, still on fire, hadn’t regained control as he rolled on the ground trying to put out the flames overtaking him. Samuel flung his arm toward his fellow Guardian and doused him in dirt, just as he had done for himself earlier.
In the blink of an eye, he was back on his feet. His lip curled as vines shot out from the ground around him. Thick, thorny branches crept toward Storm’s ankles. I cried out to warn him,but the vines lurched faster than my shout and he fell flat on his face, taken by surprise.
A flurry of emotions bubbled beneath the surface of my skin. I had a duty to protect Raya, but I couldn’t lose Jax or Storm to the dark ones either. A flicker warmed inside of me.
I had magic. I knew deep down it was there, but calling it the way the others could didn’t feel natural for me. The flicker from earlier was all there was, nothing more.
Come on, I pleaded internally.
I looked at Raya, her eyes glistened as her mouth opened. Jerking my attention forward, I noticed another group of dark ones stalking toward us from an alley away from the others.
We were utterly surrounded.
“Run, Lana,” she rasped, her voice gravelly. “Leave me and run. You must get to the others. To warn them.”
“I will not leave you here to die. To be infected with their darkness,” I barked back. “Can you stay on your horse?”
“I don’t deserve to be saved,” she cried out. “Go!”
My heart raced faster at the certainty in her voice, simultaneously breaking for Raya at seeing her so vulnerable. I’d have to deal with her words later—right now I had to fight. I would protect my friends.
Leaping from Onyx, I grabbed the other blade from my boot. The white dagger I’d found hidden in my parents’ coffin hummed in my grasp the second my hand wrapped around the hilt.
Pushing down the fear at how vastly outnumbered I was, I readied myself against the four Guardians closing in on me.
One ran forward, as the others jeered and taunted. At least they weren’t attacking all at once…yet.
The Guardian fought arrogantly, unaware I could possibly know how to wield a dagger. I sliced it across her forearm, and she laughed. “Little pretty wants to play.”
I yelled in frustration, ducking low before stabbing her in the gut. The smile fell from her face as a cloud of darkness exploded out of her in a shadowy burst. She collapsed to the ground.
The other three watched, their eyes widening in horror before narrowing, prepared to engage me without further hesitation.
“Tits and daggers. Storm!” I yelled over my shoulder above the commotion. “Might need some help over here.”
One of the Guardians shouted Samuel’s name.
As if in slow motion, the scene unfurled before me. Storm had taken down Samuel and was fighting with Jax against the three remaining Guardians, but that didn’t include the group headed my way. Raya struggled behind me to get her dagger out of its sheath.
My resolve strengthened. I wouldn’t fail. Two more steps and one of the remaining Guardians would be within fighting distance.
When the dark one swung his blade in my direction, I was ready. Crossing my daggers, I formed anX, and the attackers’ blade landed in the middle, allowing me to push him off balance.
Grinning, he attacked once more. Parry after parry, I deflected his blows, not allowing him to gain any footing. But another joined the fight, and my strength wavered after so little rest on the road.
My hope faltered. In the past, Storm and Jax could take out dark ones with ease, but these ones were stronger. Quicker, somehow.
