“I can’t dematerialize us across,” he murmured. “Too much ward and magic interference might disrupt my ability. I can’t take that chance. We make a run for it the moment they’re attacked. Ready?”
Ash nodded. She swiped her hand over her sweaty brow, leaving a streak of soot. And his chest tightened as he watched her. No, he refused to allow even so much as a hair on her head to be harmed.
He rose and held out his hand.
“Wait. I don’t want to lose this.” She slipped themorvaenstone she fisted into the backpack pocket?—
Yells broke out, shattering the quiet. The guards sprinted up the caldera toward the forest where the fight erupted, but two stayed behind.
Fuck.“Ash, I’m going to take out those two. Stay behind me. Got it?”
“Yes,” she rasped.
“Now.” He grabbed her hand and ran down the slope, onyx gravel skittering like an avalanche breaking loose, dust flying.
“There!” someone shouted.
The two guards charged across the basin, their talons half-formed.
“Stay here—” Race pushed Ash behind a looming shard of night-glass rock and summoned his Gaian sword. As it took form, the two men leaped at him.
Race lunged, blade swinging, and scored a deadly hit, slicing one’s hand clean off the wrist, its talons airborne?—
A screech echoed, blood spraying everywhere.
“Get the female,” the other snarled, lumbering for Race as the bleeding fucker rushed across to Ash, roaring, “Talon-Marshal Flaeron awaits you,Storm Summoner.”
He’d fucking figured out her powers.
“Then come and get me, you overgrown lizard,” Ash snarled.
What the fuck?—?
“Ash, don’t!” he roared, ducking as the semi-shifted bastard lunged at him, his huge body blocking Race’s view. Race shoved him off—dammit, he couldn’t risk torching him with Ash so close.
Lightning snapped and crackled from behind the shifter, flaring in forks of white. A grunt echoed. Muffled groans of pure agony broke free. Then silence.
“Ash!” he yelled, his heart jamming in his throat as the guard leapt for him with a brutal strike of talons.
Race ducked, leaped, and flung out his hand. A ball of fire struck the guard in the chest as he swung his sword. The shifter’s head hit the grit before the body fell.
He spun for Ash, and his jaw unhinged.
Lightning crackled from her palms—godsfire bright—radiant enough to blind even a dragon.
She stood there like a warrior, her chest heaving while she watched the shifter convulsing on the ground. His talons and smoking wings flickered in and out, the asshole unable to control his shift.
“Ash!”
She snapped out of her trance, snatched up her fallen backpack, and raced across to him. Shouts echoed off the obsidian slopes as a wave of soldiers charged down toward them.
Ward-light blazed, a blinding white now, yanking at him, trying to rip him away from the crackling portal. He dug his heels in, one arm outstretched to his female. “C’mon, c’mon, Ash!”
She strained against the force dragging her back as well, every movement warped to a crawl.
Shit!“C’mon, heart-fire, you can do it!” he yelled, fighting the pull of the wards attempting to fling him out.
The soldiers drew closer, their bows raised, raining arrows toward them, all of it caught in slow-mo.
