Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Ryker
“We have to go!” Tucker shouted as his sword clashed against a guard’s.
He grimaced as the guard leaned into him, using his heavier weight to bend Tucker back. Callan spun and, with a ferocious shout I never would have expected from the musician, he slashed his sword across the guard’s back.
I tore my sword free of the guard in front of me and brought it down across his nape, severing his head. Many of the others had fallen back, but the emergence of the riders emboldened them as they tried to navigate a way around the fissure.
“Not without the money!” Ellery yelled back.
A cold blast of wind whipped past me as it blew up the hill toward the guards racing down it. Lightning arced across the sky as snow fell so rapidly it caused the first wave of guards to vanish within its white wrath.
Ellery twisted her hands, spinning them around until a tornado of lightning and hail formed. She moved it across the field toward the riders as the blizzard she’d unleashed blanketed the hills, turning them from green to white as it coated the riders and their mounts.
Unprepared for the sudden, slippery surface, some of the horses lost their footing when the snow packed into their hooves, sending them crashing down. The riders either launched from their saddles or were crushed beneath the toppling horses.
Some of the guards tried to use their wind to push it back, but while they managed to deter it a little, they couldn’t stop its destruction. Before it reached them, they turned and fled.
Lightning fired from the tornado as it swept across the land. Its deafening roar sucked all other sounds out of the air as it churned up the earth, sending chunks of dirt and rock everywhere.
The wind howled, and lightning lashed out of the growing funnel, striking down anyone in its path. On the other side of the carriage, Ellery formed another tornado of lightning and set it free on all those seeking to harm us.
Wind and snow tore at my hood and clothes, soaking them to my skin, but the worst of her weathers were unleashed on the guards. We’d been working to strengthen and build Ellery’s confidence in her abilities, so I’d seen what she could do, but I’d never witnessed it unleashed in this magnitude.
With the threat of the guards closest to us eradicated—for now—the others all stood and gawked at the fantastic spectacle of two tornadoes, full of lightning, churning across the snow-covered earth. I’d never seen anything like it before.
She was a truly powerful, amazing being, and I had to get her out of here. I shifted my attention from the storm to Ellery as she twisted her hands to create another powerful rush of wind.
The cold current of air rushed past us as hail the size of small stones pelted the field. The guards yelped as the ice hammered them; it drove back all those who’d dismounted and were now coming across the field toward us.
Many of the guards were trapped in the blizzard, but that wouldn’t last. They’d find their way out, and we had to be away from here when they did.
“Get the money!” I yelled.
I glanced behind me as I sprinted for the carriage. Since no more arrows were being fired on the land, I suspected they were still trying to get their bearings and were unsure of where to shoot now. They were probably moving forward, hoping to break free of the storm.
I only made it a few feet before more guards appeared on the roads ahead and behind us. I shot lightning at the ones at the back of the carriage, but the vehicle blocked the ones in the front. Unless I wanted to set fire to the chests, I couldn’t get to those soldiers.
As we ran for the carriage, Ellery shifted her attention to the guards on the road. The lightning she rained down from above drove back the archers trying to set up there.
The lightning didn’t encompass her like it had when she was on the field with all the other women; she wasn’t drawing on her ability enough for it to take over in such a way.
Instead, having gained confidence and strength in her abilities, she kept complete control as she unleashed her powers on the land.
I couldn’t see her face, and her hair remained trapped beneath the hood, but the pure beauty of her wild soul emanated from her. This was the woman who thrived in the Revenant Woods, a place of monsters and death.
This was the woman who’d stolen my heart and become my wife, and she was magnificent.
Sensing my attention, her head turned toward me. “Go!” she shouted.
I grinned before turning and sprinting for the carriage. She had this under control.