Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Ryker
“Look out!” I shouted as I lunged to the side, wrapped my arms around Ellery, and pulled her down.
Twisting, I cradled her protectively while my shoulder and back took the brunt of the impact from the fall. When we hit the ground, her breath burst out of her as we bounced down the hill toward the road.
An arrow kissed my ear as it whistled past me when we came to a stop near the bottom of the hill. Keeping Ellery pinned beneath me, I ignored her grumbled complaints, wiggling, and an elbow to the ribs as I sheltered her body with mine.
“Ryker—”
“Stay still,” I told her.
Four archers had emerged from the carriage with their bows raised and their arrows nocked. Four guards with swords followed them out the door.
This was something we hadn’t anticipated while making our plan for this robbery. I should have considered the possibility that my father would hide guards in some, if not all, of the vehicles.
Fuck!
I’d felt confident about how my father would handle this, and he’d been just as confident he knew exactly how I would. It was rare for me to underestimate anyone, let alone that asshole, but I’d greatly misjudged this.
I’d expected my father to be so greedy that he’d only fill the vehicles with chests full of money meant for him. I hadn’t foreseen him taking up precious space with guards.
“Shit,” I hissed.
While the riders at the front and back of the carriage were still trying to handle their mounts, and failing miserably, these eight guards, the one driving the carriage, and the guard with the driver were in control.
Luna darted out from her hiding place and dashed between the steeds pulling the carriage before vanishing again.
Once she was gone, the horses attached to the vehicle lunged forward again, but this time, the driver had no lines to control them. The wheels and springs creaked as the animals dragged the carriage forward a few steps before coming to a stop behind the horses blocking their way.
With the lines cut, the driver couldn’t stop the horses’ frantic movements. The animals tried to spin, but the straps binding their harnesses to the carriage shafts remained in place and kept the animals bound to the contraption.
The horses’ nostrils flared, their hooves tore up the ground as the driver jumped from the carriage, and one of the shafts snapped. The driver hit the ground and rolled toward the guards who’d emerged from the vehicle. The second man on the carriage leapt off the other side and vanished.
The horse closest to us heaved forward, dragging broken wood and severed lines with it. The other horse tried to bolt in the opposite direction, but it was still too entangled with the contraption to break free.
Bows twanged and arrows whistled through the air. I tensed as my body braced for impact. Lately, I’d become a pincushion for the deadly projectiles, and I’d prefer not to have any more of them invading my body.
Throwing up my hand, I unleashed a wave of lightning that sizzled through the air. The bolts of electricity split apart to deflect the arrows as Scarlet, Tucker, and Fletcher army crawled across the grass toward us.
Ellery lifted her head when more lightning lanced out of the sky; it struck the earth and flung chunks of dirt and grass upward. The horses, still connected to the carriage, screamed as they reeled back to evade the deadly bolts, but I hadn’t aimed at them.
The guards on the hills shouted as they threw themselves away from the bolts, but some of their brethren weren’t so lucky.
Smoke streamed from their eyes as the lightning pinned them to the spot, burning them from the inside out, until it relinquished its electrifying hold.
Their charred bodies crumpled to the ground.
Ellery’s fingers entwined with mine as movement to the right caught my attention. Blocked by the horses and riders trapped in this section of road, the other guards had spread across the land as they came over the hills toward us.