Aydra took a short glance around them. “What did he mean by ‘Man’?”
The battle continued to rage around them, and Aydra gave Lex a short nod. “Think you can handle that thing?” she asked.
Lex grinned. “Living the dream,” she said with a wink.
Aydra smirked at her. “Let’s finish this.”
Aydra ran from her side then. Her sword met and clashed with man after man as the sun continued to rise. Her birds dove and pecked the eyes of strangers, taking some down whole and eating them alive. She’d just turned her attention to a man coming up on her left when—
“My Queen! Your left!”
The noise of Ash’s voice made her cringe. She’d nearly forgotten he was there. She dove under the man’s parry, cutting his kneecaps, and then she sliced his head from his body just as Ash paused short beside her.
Aydra nearly sent the crows at him.
“You want to be useful, captain?” Aydra said, her sword pointed at his throat. “Kill the intruders and stop paying attention to what I’m doing.”
As to whether he listened to her order or not, she didn’t care. She turned on her heel and ran down the beach to the next kill.
Ash intervened a few more times, and each time she tried to run further down the beach away from him.
At one point, she battled a man in the surf, and one of the cannonstinger creatures had wrapped its lightning tentacles around her arm when she fell into the water.
The sand and sting of it made her blood boil.
So she made sure the man died a slow death by raven and crow peck.
Blood sprayed on her face with every kill, and she felt her hair coming undone from beneath the black fabric, the splay of her ginger curls growing with with every frustrated breath she took.
“Whoa—”
The noise of Draven’s voice didn’t startle her. She kicked her opponent to the ground and thrust her blade into his face before turning to Draven standing behind her. He moved the skull up so she could see his face, and he muttered, “Having some trouble?”
Frustration swelled through her, and she whipped the scarf he’d made her wear off her head. Her curls flayed out and over her shoulders wildly. Another man was coming at them behind Draven. She pulled an arrow through on her bow and it zoomed past Draven’s shoulder, making him flinch backwards as it went whizzing by him.
“Well—” her blade met an oncoming man and she blocked him above her, then kicked him backwards “I have sand in my ass—”
Left!the raven called.
She pulled another arrow and smashed it into the stranger’s throat to her left, knocking him backwards.
“—burns on my arm from astupidcannonstinger—”
She grabbed another and hit the man running at them from the water.
“—dealing with Ash trying to save me every few minutes—”
Another arrow flew from her bow.
“—and you’re standing there staring at me instead of helping me take the lives of those who want our land—” her blade pushed into the neck of a stranger, and he fell to her feet as she whirled around to Draven again. She blew upwards to puff the hair out of her eyes, and she took a few steps forward to meet his figure. “Are you going to help or are you going to fuck me here on the beach?”
His brows raised. “Bit of an audience.”
“I doubt it’s ever stopped you before.”
The raven screeched overhead, and she impetuously pulled an arrow, sending it flying past Draven’s ear and into the man running towards them.
Before she could move, Draven pushed her behind and struck swords with the man running towards them. Another met Aydra, and she forgot about the battlefield flirting for a moment as this new opponent dodged her advances. Her short sword cut swiftly across the man’s throat, and she kicked him to the ground.
