Kole was near it too, hidden behind a tree, but the edge of his shoulder was visible. Amazingly, the large warrior was nearly undetectable in the Wood despite his size.
I felt, rather than saw, the creature’s interest shift to me. Something burned in its mind. An awareness. A knowing.
It’d known Kole was there too—my magic told me that much—but now that it sensed me, a new excitement grew in it.
What in the realm?
It was the only thought I had before a snarl emitted from the creature, that same stomach-lurching foreign-sounding growl that it’d made back in the village.
My blood ran cold. Everything inside me told me to retreat, but I sank lower into the brush, and it was only then I realized the Wood had gone silent.Completelysilent. Just like the other night.
“Shite.” The curse left me a second before thething’sear-piercing scream wrenched through the air.
Before my mind could process what was happening, the creature shot toward me. It moved at blinding speed, blurring through the Wood so quickly that even with my eyesight activated and my mental magic on high alert, I could barely track it.
I staggered backward and gasped just as Kole lunged from behind the tree, sword raised, teeth bared.
He met the creature mid-stride, halting its run for me with the swing of his blade.
I stumbled back even more and nearly fell. They were only ten paces away, and Kole had slowed the thing enough for me to fully see it, and athingwas the only way to describe it.
It stood on two legs and looked like a fairy...but it wasn’t. Sunken eyes. Hollowed cheeks. Pale and taut skin. Long fangs. And when it swung its arm toward Kole, black claws tipped each finger. Yet it wore ragged, dirty clothes.
Stars Above!
The warrior leaped back just before those claws tore his belly open. Kole’s magic surged, cycling around him in growing intensity.
The creature snarled again and ripped its clawed handtoward Kole once more, but the warrior became a whirling mass of limb, power, and steel. He slashed and slayed, keeping the creature from moving any closer to me, and his utter might filled the air around him.
For a moment, all I could do was stare. The male was pure wrath. Pure power. Kole moved in a song of indescribable beauty. Every twist of his limbs, dance of his feet, swing of his hand, was all precisely coordinated in an effortless, liquid rhythm.
Kole was death.
Powerful might.
Savage vengeance.
Primal skill.
I’d never seenanyonefight like him.
And the only reason I couldseeanything at all was due to my sensory magic. Otherwise, it would have all been a blur.
A tornado of magic swirled around the warrior as he kept the creature at bay, and every time I thought for certain the creature’s speed would allow him to escape, Kole was there, matching him stride for stride.
Kole’s sword abruptly arced through the air, and a surprised snarl tore from the creature’s lips just as the warrior’s blade met its neck.
Athumpcame.
I gasped.
The creature’s head rolled on the forest floor, then a tangleof branches crackled as its body fell limply into the foliage beside it.
Dazed, I stood mutely, breaths coming so quickly that I began to feel lightheaded. But I made myself gulp in a lungful of air, just as the warrior swung toward me, his eyes blazing and pure rage emitting from his aura.
“Primelle Hollaran,” he said in a deadly quiet voice. “What thefuckare you doing out here?”
I held up my hands in surrender because Kole was mad. Really,reallymad.
