Avery’s body tensed at Savine’s words, and he tugged her tighter to him, possessively wanting everyone to see him with Avery sharing his saddle.
“Can you kill him now?” Avery asked. Savine grimaced at her words. The magic that tugged at his veins and pulled those bonds between them tightened. He didn’t know how she didn’t feel it, and wished in this moment that she could see the illuminated lights that marked them as soulmates.
It was Savine, not the powerful king riding into battle who answered Avery. “My sweet flower, I want nothing more than to protect you and take that burden from you. We will find a way. Now brace yourself. I am going to unleash this power on our enemies.”
Savine let go of the restraint he had on this powerful magic. His vision filled with green and the gold-tinted cords of essence across Aeritis illuminated as he rode Jari into the melee. He gripped Avery and the reins in one hand as he outstretched his sword and plunged into the battle.
Avery’s scream as he threw them into battle nearly sent him out of his bloodthirsty quest for vengeance. The urge to protect her over anything else crawled to the front of hismind.Flee. Get your mate to safety.He forced the errant urge away and let that feral side of him take over his mind and body.
Savine’s sword illuminated as he cut through a loyalist soldier. In another time, another place, this soldier could have been loyal to him. He could have known her and learned to value her talents. Now she was in a bloodied heap on the ground. Even in this state, driven by the need to claim what was rightfully his, Savine’s heart was tattered with regret as he sunk his blade into another fellow Latian.
Shifters from both sides were transforming into their animal selves and sinking teeth and claws into the enemy.
Avery cried out to Savine, but her words were lost in the melee of battle. Warriors tore into each other. The elk bludgeoned the loyalists with antlers and hooves. Even the loyalists’ own elk had turned on them. The battle cry of the trees raged through him. The trees, moving with speed he never imagined, took their vengeance on their torturers in unspeakable ways.
Avery gasped as a group of aspen split a man in half, throwing the wasted body to the ground.
“Savine, stop them! They shouldn’t do this to each other!” Avery cried out. Her muscles were rigid with unease and restlessness.
Savine ignored her cry as he focused on the magical tethers that connected everything to Aeritis. He took his sword and sliced one as easily as if he were slicing a piece of string. Immediately, a loyalist warrior crumpled to the ground. The green light in his vision grew brighter. He could end thisnow.
He would dethrone his father by obliterating his forces and placing him so far removed from the world that nobody would remember the name Jasper Ralathain.
Avery squirmed under his touch as he cut the essence from a group of loyalists.
She shouted in his ear, “Stop this! Savine! Stop!”
Savine paused, slowing Jari’s pace. “This is war, Avery. What would you have me do?” Savine asked as he saw four elk trample a group of loyalist soldiers.
“Let me at least heal your own injured soldiers. Let me help them. If the loyalists see us working together, they may surrender,” Avery said, her voice pained with the horror before her. No, his little flower was not a natural warrior. She was made for saving. For restoring life and bringing life forward, not destroying it. Not like what he was shaped into from such an early age.
He might as well trample his little flower by denying her of her natural ability. No, she had a point.
“Rue! Weston! We go on foot. Guard Avery as she heals the wounded. Stay within earshot at all times.”
Savine pulled himself off Jari before helping Avery down. This could be a terrible mistake, but the battle leaned heavily toward their side. She had the right to be as useful as anyone else. Besides, his people would need to trust her and adore her like he did.
Savine pulled her close to him, tilting her delicate chin upward as he kissed her. She responded to his touch, immediately returning his kiss. The softness of her lips intoxicated him as his possessiveness pushed forward.
So much for just being friends. Now that he recognized the bond with her, not touching her felt like denying himself a vital part of his survival.
Don’t leave her. Take her and flee while you can.
The deep recesses of his mind seemed to rustle through his thoughts. Not yet. He didn’t dare act on that voice.
Avery let out a little whimper that rose above the chaos of the battlefield.He pulled back and looked into the dark pools of her eyes.
“Be safe, my little flower. Stay with Rue and Weston,” Savine said as he tugged her closer, stealing one last embrace before he forced his body to move forward, back into the battle.
Savine tore through the strings of his enemies, felling numbers of them like puppets in a heap. The power that surged through him was so much that he could sink into it and drown in this force.
Snap
Again, the loyalists fell to his feet.
As he scanned the battlefield, he could make out Avery nearby, leaning over a wounded rebel warrior. She cradled his head in her arms as she poured her magic into him. He ignored that pull to keep her close and turned his attention back to the battle before him.
Searching the field, he made out Garnel, transformed into that massive garnet-colored bear. Beside him, Kyla seemed to wield her daggers and her essence simultaneously. The terror on the faces of the enemy in front of him told Savine all he needed to know was the fear Kyla was conjuring in the minds of the loyalists.
