I watched in horror, feeling completely helpless, as the man slowly dug his knife into the side of Isidore’s neck. He wasn’t trying to kill her—he knew he’d be dead in seconds if he did—but he was making her suffer.
And making us watch.
Beside me, Oakley dropped their sword to the ground, grabbed their knife with their now-free hand, stepped forward, and threw it. Oak was fast—so much faster than me, even in thisform. So I wasn’t surprised the blood witch didn’t notice them—his eyes were on Ailin.
I sucked in a breath as I watched the dragonscale knife soar through the air. It cut through the blood witch’s shield and went straight through the man’s eye.
Perfect aim.
The blood witch froze, jerked a few times as a strangled sound came out of him, and then he fell over, releasing his grip on Isidore.
With his death, his shield fell, and Ailin didn’t waste a single millisecond. He threw a shield over the teenager and ran forward to guard her.
Thank Scales for his quick thinking.
At the same time, Oakley squatted down to grab their sword from the ground, rushed forward, and pointed the sword at the blood witch holding a toddler.
Oak said, “If you make one wrong move, I won’t hesitate to put you down. Remove your knife and gently put the baby on the ground. Now.”
I held my breath—I was sure everyone did, hell, the entire building held its breath—as we waited to see what he’d do.
The man glared daggers at Oak for a long second, then dropped his knife and set the baby down.
Oak didn’t hesitate to pop the blood witch’s shield with their sword, then hold it to his neck as they squatted down to pick up the baby one-handed. I was kind of impressed since I was sure I’d be awkward picking her up with two hands, let alone one.
Ailin moved closer to Oak and took the baby from them with ease before moving into the shield with Isidore.
I walked forward to stand beside my viramore, sword in hand. Lifting it at the nearest cultist, I said, “Does anyone else want to try us? Or are you gonna be smart and let the children go?”
They were all pissed, but I was hoping they weren’t stupid.
A minute later, Ailin had all of the children behind a shield with him standing in front of them, looking like an angry goth god ready to defend his followers.
Quickly, the rest of the asshole cultists were handcuffed, and Jed’s team began leading them outside to the vans waiting to take them to the dungeons in Sedoba. They would all be charged and sent to prison. We had enough evidence on each and every one of them that they would never see the light of day again.
Good. They deserved far worse, in my opinion.
I gave Oakley a side hug, pulling them into me as I kissed their temple. They were shaking, and I couldn’t blame them. Seeing Isidore like that had really rattled them. Hell, it’d rattled me too, and I didn’t even know her.
They leaned into me for several seconds, clearly gathering their strength before they took a deep breath and stood up, giving me a nod.
“You alright?”I asked through our link as I touched our foreheads together for just a moment.
“Not really, but… I will be.”
“Good. I’m here if you need me.”
They smiled a tiny bit. “I know.”
Since I hadn’t had a chance to say it yet, I cupped Oak’s cheeks and whispered, “I love you too, you little loony, amazing, wonderful dragon.”
They snorted and pulled me into a hug, pressing their mouth to mine, and in my head, I heard,“I love you so much.”
“Right back atcha, babydoll.”
We hugged for a few seconds, and then they said through our link,“I need to talk to Isidore and Reef.”
I gave them a nod and released them.“Can I come with you?”
