Suddenly there was a loud buzzing noise, like hundreds of locusts swarming in a small area.
“What the…” Peri heard Riven, who was only a few feet away, say and then he added, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Peri looked up and saw what had caused her fae comrade to grumble. Coming toward them, flying through the air like angry Tinkerbells, were the pixie warriors … or at least the ones that could fly. They might be small, but pixies were no joke. Just like any supernatural race, they were supernatural for a reason; they had powers humans did not possess.
Peri glanced at the elemental sprites. “Light up the sky!” she yelled at them and pointed. One of the sprites looked where Peri was indicating. The sprite nudged the woman next to her and motioned up. A moment later, more lightning arced through the air. Peri saw Ainsel, king of the pixies, take to the air and join with his warriors. She was glad he was helping, but it would make it challenging for the sprites to not hit any of Ainsel’s people.
Pixies began to fall, but when they realized what was happening, they began bobbing and weaving through the air like drunk bumblebees.
A bolt of fire soared through the air, and Peri turned to see Cypher forming another ball of fire in his hand. She knew the warlocks could wield the elements, though it wasn’t something they did often because they believed strongly in fighting a fair fight. A battle of swords. Cypher was smart. He knew that sometimes you fought dirty. Especially when a legion of pixies was about to rain down hell on you.
Other warriors of Cypher’s warlock army began to do the same, but even with their fire, some of the pixies made it down low enough to use their magic. Peri lifted her hands and began to speak in her language. She caused the air around them to be charged with more static electricity. She had to be careful because too much, and she would cause the lightning the sprites were shooting to become a threat to everyone, not just their enemy.
Riven must have realized what she was doing because she saw the male warrior take up arms beside her. “I will keep the enemy from you. You focus so you don’t kill us all.”
Peri laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She began to speak in her language again and focused on her power. The lightning shooting in sharp slashes through the sky seemed to suddenly be drawn toward her, and at the last moment, she pushed her power toward a group of pixies flying straight for the sprites. The pixies fell lifelessly from the sky.
Peri didn’t feel victorious. She’d taken their lives, and it wasn’t something she ever did lightly.
“Incoming,” Riven yelled, pulling Peri from her thoughts.
Peri quickly reined her power in and turned to see what Riven was bellowing about. Her mouth dropped open. “Bloody hell,” she said through gritted teeth as she stared in disbelief. Because it really shouldn’t have been possible.
“Is he riding a draheim?” Lilly asked, coming up beside them, breathless and looking a little worse for wear but showing no serious injuries. Her mate had trained her well.
“You tell us,” Peri said. “You’re the one that has experience with these things.” Not that Peri didn’t know what it was, but she was feeling a little snappish.
“It seems a little small,” Lilly said, tilting her head sideways as if that might somehow explain what she was seeing.
“That’s because it’s not a mature adult,” Riven said. “It’s an adolescent dragon.”
“Are they as temperamental as human teenagers?” Lilly asked.
“Worse,” Peri and Riven said at the same time.
“And who is that on its back?” said Lilly.
“My father,” Thalion said as he appeared on Riven’s other side. “Ludcarab, former king of the elves.”
“Riven, get as many of the fae focused on the dragon as possible,” Peri said quickly. “Thalion, keep the enemy occupied to give my warriors some time to deal with Ludcarab without distraction.”
“On it,” Thalion said as he turned and shouted out to his warriors.
“What should I do?” Lilly asked her.
“Don’t die,” Peri answered as she magicked away her sword and pulled as much power into her body as she could. It was going to take a lot to deal with a draheim, even a young one.
Just as she was about to allow her light to begin to fill the night, she heard her mate's voice in her mind.“Come and get us. And you’d better bring Kale with you.”Peri didn’t take time to look around. She couldn’t let herself think about the fact that she was leaving her comrades to face a dragon. Her mate had called, and she would answer. That was the way it was with true mates. She’d known when she went into this that she might have to leave at a moment's notice. She flashed and prayed to the Great Luna that all her friends would be all right.
Riven’s eyeswidened as Peri disappeared from beside him. He looked around the battlefield, allowing himself a moment to take his eyes off of Ludcarab and his new pet to see if the high fae reappeared somewhere else. He didn’t see Peri anywhere, but he couldn’t keep searching. He had to focus on the biggest threat: the former elf king riding a bloody draheim.
Ludcarab circled around them, his draheim moving slowly, as if he wasn’t looming over a battlefield but instead out for a leisurely flight.
“Where the hell is Peri?” Vale asked as he came up beside Riven.
“I don’t know and don’t have time to care. We need to get a shield up, now,” Riven said as he began to use his power to build a ward over them. It would trap them inside with their enemy on the ground, but it would hopefully protect them from the flames the flying draheim sent their way.
Vale raised his hands and began to chant. He was the offspring of a high fae and that meant his own power was even greater than Riven’s.
