For the raven did screech over their heads.
And the battle had begun.
Draven slid the phoenix skull over his face, and Aydra felt her mouth dry, her thighs squeeze together at the sight of him standing over her, his face hidden behind the great creature’s ivory skull, his eyes staring menacingly into her being.
She’d never seen a skull look diabolically sexy until that moment.
And then Draven reached out for her hand, and when his lips pressed to her knuckles beneath the skull, she felt her chest cave, her mouth open, and her breaths shorten.
The wind picked up around them, her hair billowing from beneath the scarf she’d tied around her head. A low whistle sounded as it pulsed through the forest towards them. But she couldn’t look away from him, too entranced by the carnal man standing before her that made her heart constrict with a single look. His wind was pushed down the hill and over the dunes, and she swallowed hard as the raven circled them over once more.
Fucking curses of Duarb.
Focus Aydra.
She forced herself to push her distraction from mind as her raven cursed at her.
Draven let go of her hand, and together they turned away from each other to face the ocean. Sand was picking up in the wind he’d sent, wrapping itself around the centuries that were left and confusing those coming out from the tents.
Aydra closed her fist at her side, and her eyes rolled backwards as she felt for the cores of the birds in the trees above them.
A ray of sun hit her back.
Every bird in the forest rose from the top of the canopy. Bewildered shouts filled the air. The swarm swallowed the sunlight.
Aydra’s eyes opened. She felt as the noir of the creatures’ cores ate her insides.
Kill them.
Screams.
The sight of her flock attacking the strangers on the beach filled her vision. Bellows echoed out of the water. Nadir and his men charged the beach. The wind pushed hard over the dunes, sweeping men off their feet.
Aydra pulled an arrow from her quiver through her bow. Draven’s open hand went up into the air. His wind slowed their side of the dune.
The arrow released from her hand. Draven’s fist tightened, and the noise of a hundred more cut the sky. The thud of their hitting their targets reverberated in her ears. Some of his company continued firing as Aydra paused to watch the scene. More and more of the strangers were coming out from their tents. She saw a cluster forming to her right, shrouded around a weapon she knew was a ballista.
“Lex and I will take care of the ballista,” Aydra told him as she drew her sword from her belt.
Draven didn’t say anything to her. Instead, he thrust his own sword in to the air, shouting, “Venari!” to his people. A great bellow echoed back, and Aydra’s heart pounded in her ears as she heard him say—
“Show them who you are.”
They ran.
Lex already had her sword drawn. Aydra caught up with her at the bottom of the hill. They charged at the front of the throng of Venari soldiers, blood pulsating through their veins.
“We’re taking the ballista to the right,” Aydra called to her Second, who was smiling maniacally as she ran at her side. “Keep grinning like that and the Venari will think you mad,” she mocked.
“No more mad than you, my Queen,” Lex bantered.
Balandria’s company was at the top of the dunes, knelt down and firing arrows down below. At some point, Aydra threw her boots off as her feet were heavy in the dumpy sand. Traction caught onto her steps, and she dove her way down the front of the sandy dune on her back. She met the bottom with a somersault, and was immediately in contact with a man running at her.
Loudly.
Her sword struck his kneecaps. She jumped to her feet and thrust her blade into his neck just as another came running up on her side.
She and Lex made their way to the right, slashing down men coming at them as they pushed through the sand. Blood spattered over its nude innocence, guts spilling onto the coarse of it. She kept one eye on the men charging the ballista at all times. They’d begun to pull the bolt through.
