“What? Why?”
“Because the carriages are warded.”
A fist squeezed my chest as I recalled my first day on Svargana soil. Umbra had collected us from the beach to take us to the vortex. We’d traveled in carriages, at least the others had. My big mouth had gotten me put in a crate, but…the carriages had been warded…Warded to protect us from…Oh gods…
I stared at Ravi in horror. “Revenants?”
“Yes,” he said.
His gaze flew over my head.
“Leela!” Keyton appeared beside me. “Get in the carriage.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me away from Ravi.
Revenants were about to attack us, and they wanted me to hide? I’d been weak and untrained during my first encounter with those creatures. But I was stronger now. I pulled free of Keyton, my hands going to my axes. “I can fight.”
Ravi scooped me up. “Not today you can’t.”
“What? Put me down!”
He threw me into the carriage and shut the door, his eyes like wildfire. I tried to push it back open, needing to get out. Needing to act. “Damn you, Ravi. I’m not helpless. Not anymore.”
Dharma pulled me back. “You need to stay put. Your fight isn’t with these beasts. It’s with the Authority, and for that you need a pulse.”
“You cannot risk your life here,” Ravi added. “Promise me you won’t leave the carriage.”
“He’s right,” Keyton said. “We have the weapons to fight them. Trust us.”
Everything in me wanted to argue, to insist that I fight with them, but Dharma was right. I had to think of the bigger picture. I swallowed my frustration and nodded. “I’ll stay in the carriage. Just…Don’t you twodarefucking die.”
“Help will come eventually,” Keyton said. “It always does.”
And then they were gone.
“Leela needs to stay protected, but we have to fight,” Bina said.
“There is no fighting that,” Joe said, his gaze fixed on the view outside the other window. I scrambled across the carriage to join him, heart in my throat, blood thundering in my head as I took in the horrifying sight of a wave of revenants running across the field toward us. We were so fucked.
Chapter 20
OKAY, YOU MADE YOUR POINT
There had to be at least thirty revenants running toward us. Huge, monstrous creatures with sinewy dark limbs, talons, and ravenous maws eager to tear us to shreds. And standing a few meters away, staff held aloft, was Shalani. She screamed words into the rising wind, her hair whipping about as the air fizzed and popped.
Ravi stood to her right, and the other guards lined the road on either side. Yudh and Dhoona were closer to the carriages, the last line of defense along with our drohi. But even then, we were severely outnumbered.
The wave of revenants was almost upon us when Shalani slammed the hilt of her staff into the ground. A wave of green energy shot out of the tip and spread around us with awhooshthat made my ears pop.
“A ward!” Bina said. “Fuck, she’s powerful.”
The revenant attacked, hitting the shimmering green shield in force. Shalani let out a bellow, her body bending at the waist as she held the line.
Ravi roared, his form bulging and growing, doubling in size, as he tore out of his clothes, morphing into his rakshasa form.
“Leela, breathe!” Bina punched my shoulder. I sucked in a breath and stared at her through watery eyes before fixing my gaze back on Ravi, who’d been joined by his rakshasa buddy.
The green shimmer pulsed as the revenants slammed into it again and again.
Whoomph.
