Page 36 of An Arrow to the Heart

Ardál turned immediately, his eyes wide with fear as he screamed out her name. As he did, one of the others used his change in attention to slam a bat into his abdomen, the blow would have seen most fall to their knees, but he stood fast, turning his attention back to the man, and with precision and skill slashed him with his scian.

But just as he went down, more came at him. It didn’t matter how skilled Ardál was, there were too many of them.

She watched in horror, as one of the feral men lifted his axe and prepared to strike. Her lips trembled and she squeezed her eyes shut, tears threatening to fall. She couldn’t watch this. Sylvie cursed herself for allowing him to follow her, for now he was truly in danger.

The human man, who stood before her, putting his life on the line for hers.

The human man she loved.

Her heart hammered against her ribcage.

She was left with no alternative.

She wouldn’t let him die, she just couldn’t.

So she did something she had sworn she’d never again do. For the first time in over a century, she allowed herself to become her other self.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

-Ardál-

Ardál’s heart was racing, the sound of Sylvie’s scream ripping through him in the most brutal of ways. He’d kill them. He’d kill every last one of them for even threatening a hair on her head.

There was a sudden change in the atmosphere as he attempted to steady his breathing in preparation for the incoming onslaught, his scian drawn. From behind him came a great force of power, the wind beneath it pushing him into the wet ground and he tasted the wet dirt.

Followed by an earth-shattering roar.

A dragon.

It was the most incredible sight his eyes had ever laid eyes on. The large-winged creature before him, its light scales glimmered in the moonlight as it stood tall, swallowing everything in its shadow. He didn’t understand how but he knew the dragon had come to their aid. He could somehow feel its intentions. And true enough he watched it swipe at the group of bandits. But where was Sylvie? Somehow in the thrall of the fight breaking out he’d lost sight of her.

“Sylvie!” he roared.

“Sylvie!” he tried again.

Please, Sylvie answer me, he begged to himself.

Please.

Oh Gods. His heart plummeted, his breathing now out of control. He had to find her. The thought of her at the mercy of these wretched excuses of men sent his mind spiralling. His eyes scanned the area for her when his gaze locked with those of the dragon and he knew.

He couldn’t fathom how it could possibly be so but he knew.

He knew those eyes, although they were wholly different in appearance, he knew their intention and he knew the soul beneath them.

It was Sylvie.

She was the dragon.

Ardál began hurtling toward the dragon, toward Sylvie, as fast as his broken human body would carry him when out of the corner of his eye, he saw the bandit perched up on a tree and how he aimed his arrow toward Sylvie. It felt as though time came to a halt as he ran. He didn’t know what type of damage the arrow could do to a dragon if any but it wasn’t something he could risk. He couldn’t risk her for she was truly the most magnificent female he had ever crossed paths with and in his heart, he knew it to be true at this moment. He’d die for her. Happily.

So with nothing else left to do he threw himself in the path of the arrow. Intercepting it. He fell to the floor in a shot of pain, a coppery taste in his mouth.

He was going to die and he accepted that fate. He’d intercepted the arrow and that’s all that mattered.

A deafening roar of bright light was all he remembered as the world around him went black for a second time this year.

To his mercy, this time he was conscious again only a matter of seconds later, taking wheezy breaths as pain roared through him, he looked to his shoulder and his stomach lurched, he saw the arrow sticking out of it. As though suddenly remembering, he drew his attention back to the scene before him.