“Be ready to run! Grab your things. Pick up the children,” I ordered. I heard clanking noises as the women hurried forward, and realized most of them were shackled at the feet. Anger rushed through me.‘Most of the women are shackled at the feet.’
If his plan involved them running, that wasn’t happening.
Luka’s rage filtered through our bond.‘Sending Marmal,’was all he replied.
Grunts and growls came from the doors at the top of the stairs. I walked halfway up and peeked out.
Whoa.
Sage and Demi stood in front of the open cellar, fighting Munai left and right. How were there so many of them? More must have shown up. There was a wolf next to Demi that I guessed was Sawyer, but it was smaller and more feminine looking. It moved as she moved, and as I watched them fight the realization hit me. It washerwolf. Split shifter.
Crazy.
The troll who commanded Pearl suddenly sped across the space and slipped behind Sage and Demi, zooming into view.
“Hey, you got a lock problem?” she asked me.
I just nodded, trying to peer past the pandemonium and get a glimpse of Luka. He was nowhere to be seen. It was a bloodbath, and from the looks of it, we’d lost many.
Marmal took the stairs two at a time, but when she came face to face with all of the women and children, her expression sobered.
“If you are shackled, please step forward.” Marmal’s voice had an urgency to it.
One by one,clank clank clank, the women stepped forward, and I realized they were all pregnant. They bound the pregnant ones so they couldn’t flee with their merchandise; the others were kept here out of fear for their living child. Whoever masterminded this knew how to manipulate, and it made me sick.
Marmal took in a deep breath and then snapped her fingers once. Suddenly all of the metal cuffs sprang open and fell from their ankles, clattering to the floor. There were gasps, open weeping, and looks of wonder as Marmal’s cheeks went red.
Okay … sothat’swhat troll magic did.
“We need to go. Many are dying,” Marmal told me.
I nodded.
“Get ready to run,” I announced to everyone present.
My mother and half-sister gathered a small cloth bundle and held hands, stepping up beside me expectantly. I wasn’t used to having people to take care of—other than Liv. This would take some time.
‘Coming out. Ready?’I asked Luka.
‘Yes,’he said, but I felt fear take hold of him and filter into me. What kind of plan was this?
I led the women up the steps and out into the melee, just in time to see Luka appear in the center of the pandemonium. He was covered in black and red blood; it mixed down his arms in a gory show of death and war.
He took a deep breath and then threw his arms out, looking at everyone present. “I command that youstand down!”
Power lashed out of his voice as if it were a physicalthingand knocked into my chest with such force it took my breath away.
Everyone stopped. They just froze what they were doing, and Luka started to shake, gritting his teeth.
It hit me then, what he was doing.
Dominus coercere. Master of compulsion. Instead of focusing on one person like a normal sane man would do, he’d compulsed all of them!
“Run!” I told the women, knowing that this was what he meant. He couldn’t hold them off forever, but for now he’d literally paused the war so that they could escape. These women didn’t need to be told twice. The second I issued the command and stepped out of the way, they started to flee toward the open gates.
I passed a frozen Demi and Sage, though Demi was starting to move as if wading through water or sand. I think Luka didn’t have as good of aim for his gift as he’d thought and he’d frozen most of our people too, but luckily the women and I were free.
The little children slipped from their mothers’ grasps, falling to the floor, and the women yanked them into their arms. They looked around in wonder at the frozen fey, Munai, vampires, and wolves. I had no idea Luka had this kind of power.
