A minor explosion sounded across the valley and the pop, pop, pop signaled the real fighting to start. A projectile shot out of the mist and hit Greg in the shoulder, missing Evie by inches. The horse screeched, but remained upright.
“To the temple!” Evie shouted at everyone before the brood descended into fear and chaos. Noth took off into the mist, the sound of screams without the tearing of flesh somehow more hair-raising. Noth might clear a path for us with his living nightmares, but the soldier’s frightening, long-range weapons evened the playing field with our magic.
With me, I reminded Evie. For once, she looked completely focused and only half afraid. The relic in our hands was our best chance to end this quickly. We surged forward, onto the battleground, my claws digging into the earth.
Declan mangled any shifter on Evie’s right side. I stayed to her left. With the mist, we had to stick to as straight a line as possible to find the Shrine in the shroud. Flashing canines broke through the mist. Wolves bubbled out of the fog, aiming to drag me down, cut my heels, bite any part of me they could manage. Evie swiped at them with the sword I had given her, but it might as well have been a stick in her hands for all the skill she had with it. We were at a disadvantage, trying to convert rather than kill them. I could only pull off so many crowns at once with my claws and teeth.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a tiger skidding to a stop in our path, snarling a warning in her deep bass. Claws extended, she focused solely on Greg. The wounded horse would never survive a direct attack and I was buried in wolves, projectiles still zipping overhead. Declan had gotten lost somewhere in the melee. I was about to yell to Evie to charge Greg forward when a brown, warty missile fell from the sky, breaking the tiger’s back as Toad crushed him. On a mission, the toad shifter flicked out his tongue, nabbing one wolf off my side, and launched it in the air. His landing created a sickening splat as the wolf collapsed beneath him.
Maybe the toad had the right idea. We were prolonging everyone’s suffering when we made no progress to the shrine. Evie scooped up our amphibian friend. My bear roared his approval as we cut a path through the army, decimating the surrounding wolves. Humans drew no quarter. Their weapons were too dangerous.
The slog through was still slow, releasing shifters where we could, killing where we couldn’t. Two figures darted out of the mist and my claws stopped inches from Evie’s sister, Maggie.
“Fallon?” Evie called to the other woman, who appeared.
I blocked Evie from riding to them. This had to be a trick.
Noth stalked out of the fog, circling behind Maggie, his gaze predatory.
“Who do we have here? You taste like a dream.” Noth extended his rather long tongue toward Maggie, complete with laddered piercings just like his ears.
Greg sidled to the side in agitation as Evie went to get between them. I went to warn my friend, but he was too intent on the woman before she pulled back and punched him right in the junk. He wheezed and toppled over like a felled tree.
“Is this one mated, too?” he groaned, curling into a ball.
“Seeing dreams yet, or just stars?” she asked him, bending over him like she was going to hurt him again.
“He’s stupid, but valuable,” Evie told Maggie.
“I doubt that. Elves never are,” she retorted.
“Lovely clique you picked up, E.” Fallon followed behind Maggie and Evie didn’t wait anymore.
Dismounting, she ran to embrace them. I didn’t miss their assessment of my mate. It was uncomfortable to think they might find my care of her lacking. They had the power to take her away from me, at least mentally, but I had to trust her.
“What are you doing here?” Evie asked.
“You’re tanned!” Maggie said.
“Is that a muscle on that arm?” Fallon teased.
I highly doubted it, but she looked down anyway and flexed. There might be a bit of muscle somewhere, but it was probably from our pleasure workouts more than anything else.
“What are you doing here?” she asked again.
“Brad came to get us in Harrowood and told us he would bring us to you, but I think he was just holding us hostage.”
“We sneaked out to see if you were okay,” Fallon said.
“You did figure out Brad is the bad guy, right?” Evie said.
“He has a giant, glowing crystal in a secret room. So… of course,” Maggie scoffed.
“Looks like the other relics worked. You don’t look too scaly,” Fallon said.
“Please tell me you got some, too,” Maggie whispered, but I heard her.
Evie glanced back at me and blushed. My smile grew bigger on my ursine face and I wouldn’t hide it. My mate still made me burn, even in the middle of a battle.
