Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
One of the guards puts a hand on me. I let the power fill me.
There’s a scream and the guard falls back, holding his hand up. It’s already blistering. I can feel the power. It isn’t just in my hands or flowing from my gut. I am this power.
I send out a flame from my fingertips, catching the nearest guard’s tunic. The guard steps away from Duffy, trying to put out the flames.
But Duffy’s too close to the others. He’s wielding his axe, proving that he took his training seriously. He catches one guard squarely in the chest, but he doesn’t have the strength of a larger man. The axe strikes, but it clangs and bounces back off, sending Duffy to his ass in the dirt.
I’m about to send fire to the guard standing above Duffy when a terrible pain catches me on the bicep. Blood flows down my left arm, soaking my tunic.
Duffy rolls, balling up his small body and narrowly missing the sword that descends toward his neck. He somersaults his way to me and kicks out, catching the guard nearest him in the knees.
But now we’re surrounded, and I can’t feel my left hand. My right sparks, a blast of fire, but my control is shot and my eyes are still affected by the sunlight. It peeks through the eddy cloud, causing pockets of blindness.
I can see vague shadows circling us.
“That fucker is using magic. Didn’t you know we kill witches here, son?” a hoarse voice asks.
“He burned me. Don’t touch him. He has some sort of spell on him.”
“Aim for his heart. He might have a spell, but he ain’t got no armor.”
Duffy is at my side, but the gnome lost his axe. The sun passes again, and my sight comes back. I rather wished it didn’t, since now I can see the men who will kill me. Even the ones I managed to burn are back on their feet.
“Let’s have some fun with them, boys. What do you say?” a muscular guard offers.
“Now would be the time for you to start up with the fireballs, Shim,” Duffy suggests. “I think a little flame-roasted guard would do us some good.”
I hold out my only usable arm, and the shot goes wild, sending an arc of flame straight to the house across from us. The roof goes up like tinder, scorching across the straw and catching both houses beside it.
Fuck all. There are Fae in those houses. I hear a faint screaming and wonder how many innocents I hurt.
The guards look up and then turn back, settling on their target. Me.
And then there’s a low growl and a wolf pounces. Delicate and graceful and ruthless. The wolf leaps on the guard who was about to charge and has her teeth around his sword arm. Hoarse shouts fill the air. I grab Duffy, prepared to run, when the guard next to me suddenly groans and looks down at the long knife in his chest. Whoever threw that fucker doesn’t have Duffy’s strength problems.
“Get down!” a feminine voice shouts.
I sink to the ground, covering my brother as two arrows speed over.
When I look up, all four guards are dead and we were saved by a bunch of women.
Bronwyn walks through the smoke, her face a mask of willpower. She’s a fucking gorgeous warrior goddess, and despite the pain in my arm and the panic in my gut, my cock gets hard at the very sight of her.
“Put those fires out, Shim.” Gillian walks from the doorstep, bow in hand.
Bronwyn pulls her knife free of the guard’s armor, wiping the blood off on her pants. She looks down at me, her eyes softening a bit. “Please, Shim. If you can put that fire out, I would be grateful.”
The fire winks out as though she has more control over my power than I do.
Bronwyn holds out a hand. “Now let’s go use that power of yours on someone who deserves it. What do you say? Do you want to help me kill a hag?”
Gillian is at my side, her hand on my arm. “I don’t know if he’s going to be doing much of anything for a while. That arm is bad. He’s lost a lot of blood.”
“I’ll be fine.” I struggle to get up. My twin is starting to get into trouble. I can feel it. I can’t let Lach down or Bron. She came back when it made more sense for her to run. Perhaps she only came back to save her village, but it doesn’t matter. She’s here, and I’m not about to let a thing like massive blood loss stop me from helping her. I try to get to my feet.
Kaja shifts, her body forming into her two-legged state. Gillian takes a step back.
“She’s fine, Gilly,” Bron says in a stiff-sounding voice. “She’s Dante’s consort.”