I raced forward on too-fast feet, launching off his own knee and a foot on his chest, using my momentum to propel me into the air as I brought the broadsword down, down, down—right toward his collar with a mighty yell.
Our eyes locked at the last moment, and everything else faded until there was nothing in the whole universe except the two of us. For just that second, time stopped, and he knew me again. The connection snapped back to life between us as I soared above him, my sword less than an inch from his jugular. He threw himself sideways, though, and broke the connection as I stumbled.
The targets of that attack couldn’t move before it was complete, yet somehow, he did. Valens hit the ground in a crumpled heap as I barely managed to recover and land without cutting myself. I spun, ready for the next attack now that the last trick up my sleeve had failed so utterly, but he didn’t get up.
He lay deathly still, and my heart leaped into my throat. I dropped to my knees at his side, self-defense completely forgotten as I rolled him to his back.
“You can’t be dead. Don’t you dare be dead!” I screeched, clawing at his shoulder in panic until he was flat on his back. I only found a little bit of blood on his neck and shoulder, and my lungs finally unfroze. But that was when I realized that the side of the collar had shattered, bits of lifeless metal littering the grass underneath us. I reached down and carefully lifted his head, tugged the rest of the collar free, and flung it as far away from us as I could.
I hovered over him worriedly, even though the slim cut on the side of his neck had already begun to close, worried that whoever controlled the collars would realize I’d freed him and come to attack us. But they didn’t. The sounds of battle reached us, snarls and clangs and dying gasps filtering through the trees, breaking the illusion that this was a peaceful afternoon out in nature.
My palm sweated where it gripped the sword hilt, but I didn’t dare set it down, since enemies could find us at any time.
Valens gasped, his eyes flying open, still glowing turquoise with his wolf.
“It’s okay! It’s just me! Please tell me you recognize me now,” I begged.
He reached up with both hands and dragged me down into a soul-searing kiss.
Chapter 67
Valens
Elodie melted against me, and I could feel her relief and joy overflowing in my own chest. I didn’t remember much, but I knew she’d walked directly into the fires of hell to get me back, and my heart was ready to burst with how much I loved this woman.
I released her after a moment, stroking her hair gently. “You came for me.”
“I’ll always come for you. You’remine.” The little growl she put on that word shouldn’t have been so damn sexy, but fuck me, it was.
She nipped my bottom lip possessively. “But unfortunately, we can’t sit around and make out. Are you okay? I nicked your neck.”
I touched my neck, and my fingertips came away bloody, but there was no pain. “I think it’s healed already.”
She exhaled harshly, raising her eyes to the treetops. She’d been worried sick.
“I’m okay, promise. Other than furious that I let myself walk into a trap.”
“We’ll talk about that later. Right now, we’ve got collars to get off everyone else on that field. Our pack mates are in danger.”
I surged up to my feet, a memory rushing back to me. “No, not everyone. If we can get back to the general, I’m ninety percent sure he’s the only one with a control device. Left arm, under his uniform sleeve. He psychically commands the rest of the enforcers, which means once we free him, a good chunk of their forces should walk away.”
“Fuck yes. But are you sure you’re up to it? Not to mention, I’m not sure I can get the collar off him the way I did with you. If you hadn’t been holding your sword at the same time… I don’t know if either one of the swords would have been strong enough to break the magic solo.”
I reached down, pulling the small silver device from my pocket. It almost looked like a staple remover, but instead, it was a collar remover.
“I can sense wolf magic all over that thing. You made it yourself?” She sounded impressed.
“I did. I had to carve the guardian’s mark into it to make it work. It was in one of the journals.” The journals I’d started reading late into the night, after she and Bence were sound asleep.
She nodded thoughtfully. “So we’ve got to get you close enough to the general to use it, huh?”
“If you can distract him, I think I can get it off him.”
“Let’s end this thing.” She held up a hand for me, and I twined my fingers with hers, kissing her knuckles as we walked back to the battlefield.
When we reached the end of our cover, we paused, both scanning the battle carefully. The general and the king were easy to spot and not that far away. The king seemed to want to be close enough towatchthe devastation he was causing, even though he didn’t want to get his own hands dirty.
Their backs were to the forest, less than forty yards away. They had several guards, but they were spread out and all facingthe raging battle, not looking behind them, to where we hid in the woods.
