Chapter Forty-Three
Shaw Black
The sun disappeared behind a thick layer of storm clouds overhead.
Bile rose in the back of my throat as a horde of human soldiers and mages stood at the front lines, with hunters surrounding them for protection.
Their shined-out eyes were covered by circular contraptions to dim the light from the midday sun, billowy cloaks black, just like their hearts.
Yet I could feel their haunting stares peering straight through my soul.
The world sharpened as I shifted into my panther form. Muscles stretched, bones realigned, and my senses opened like floodgates. The battlefield unfolded before me, not as chaos, but as a strategic board game I was determined to win.
I crouched low behind a ridge of scorched stone still somehow ablaze from Skylar’s assault. To my left, a human mage’s barrier flickered as it absorbed another impact. To my right, Gunnar launched into action, carving a path through enemies with devastating precision.
I crouched low and waited, counting the breaths between enemy strikes, calculating the rhythm of their attacks. With Skylar soaring above and incinerating their arrows from the sky, the battle raged on foot, or paw, below.
I leaped into action, racing between debris from the mountainside, tail slicing through the air to keep me balanced. I leaped behind a cluster of armored soldiers to the eastern side of the horde.
The low growl curling in my throat raged once I opened my mouth and sank my fangs into a pale-skinned neck.
I pivoted and struck the next soldier at the knee and felt bone give beneath the strike of my claws.
The human collapsed, his leg a shred of skin and spray of blood as I passed over him, prowling toward my next kill.
High Fae glided through the battle with an elegance that defied the carnage around them. Their blades moved in deathly arcs, so fluid they seemed to be dancing rather than fighting.
The chill of Daxton and Castor’s ice magic was a blessing along my fur.
They formed barriers to combat the human mages before raising their own steel and joining the fight.
For a second, I spared a glance toward them, mesmerized by the killing force of the legendary Silver Shadow and the silver-tongued high prince.
Thank the gods above, they were on our side.
A solid force slammed into me from the side like a battle ram, sending me soaring over the grass, landing with a solid crack against the base of the mountain. Blinding white light danced before my eyes as I struggled to regain my senses.
All around me, translucent walls of energy rippled like a heat haze, yet they were firm when metal, arrows, or claws collided with them.
Between waves of our attack, mages summoned magical weapons into their hands.
Spears, swords, and other blades forged from what looked to be an essence of pure energy.
Ignoring the bruising to my torso, I pushed myself onto my four legs as a blade hissed toward my side.
I twisted, using my momentum to roll beneath the strike.
My claws raked across the soldier’s torso, shredding his armor and flesh like ribbons of parchment.
I then turned my attention to the mage surrounded by a barricade of light.
I ran toward the mountain before turning back around, gaining speed, and leaping high over the shield of magic.
My jaw opened as my teeth sank into the flesh of her neck.
In one swift snap, her bones shattered, crimson flowed, and her magic disappeared.
I hissed, releasing my hold, dodging a spear aimed for my skull.
Turning, I met the eyes of a stone-cold hunter. I bared my teeth, not out of fear, but from pure delight. I’d waited twenty years to take my revenge on these monstrosities. I roared and leaped, slamming into the hunter’s chest with my claws outstretched, pinning him to the ground.
He tried to reach for his blade, but I swatted it from his hand. Lowering my teeth to the thumping pulse at the base of his neck, I tilted my head and roared into his ear. His shined-out eyes closed in agony as his advanced senses turned against him.
He would die today, and by the gods above, a shifter would be the last thing he’d see.
I pushed my claws deeper into his chest, his heart ceasing to beat as crimson painted the grass beneath.
Across the battlefield, as I dealt my death blow, my name rang out, “Shaw!”
Zola.
My head snapped toward the sound before the thought even formed, the lifeless hunter beneath me forgotten. The ground blurred as I sprinted toward her, each stride devouring yards of churned earth and blood-soaked grass.
I scented her before I saw her. Shadows were swirling along the tree line as she faced off against an alan—a larger, male harpy—in the sky while trying to escape the jaws of three garmr from the ground.
“Zola!”
“Shaw!” Relief flared through our bond as she locked eyes with me.
The nearest garmr turned toward me. It had a single second to register the black shape lunging at it before my weight slammed into its side. I dodged the lethal spikes along its back as it turned on me, but I was faster. My claws tore through its neck, and it went down with a breaking scream.
Good riddance. These creatures were an abomination.
Zola whipped her hand outward, sending a ribbon of shadows to wrap around another’s throat, cutting off its airway and snapping its neck. But the final beast was closing in fast, and Zola was in the wrong position to evade its strike.
My paws struck the ground in a spray of dirt as I leaped again. My spine jolted, and my skull rattled as I collided with the male harpy. We hit the ground with a sickening thud, my vision blurring from the force of the impact.
The unmistakable zip of thrown daggers echoed through the space above me, along with a spew of arrows from our archers hiding in the trees. Shadows curled around me in a protective embrace as the alan’s scream turned silent.
I released my shifter magic to catch my breath, trying to balance myself as the world came into focus. Tilting my gaze up, Zola’s face was streaked with dust and blood. Her eyes softened as she raced toward me.
“Thank the gods above,” she breathed, reaching out. “You came just in time.”
“You mean I came just in time.”
A whirl of red hair came into view, and I smiled, laughing to myself at the audacity of my fearless friend standing with a bow clutched in her hands.
“Thanks, Rhea,” I said.
I sat up and pressed my forehead to Zola. She closed her eyes, shuddering against me in a moment of relief. In the next breath, another explosion sounded behind us, and our eyes snapped open.
“We’re not done,” Rhea said, granting me a smile only she could muster. “Now, get your ass up and get back out there. Or else I’m telling your brother a bird was able to slay the kitty.”
I shook my head. “Gods above, Rhea.”
She winked before recalling the archers and disappearing back into the cover of the trees.
I turned to my mate, lowering my voice so only she could hear, “Try not to wander off this time.”
“No promises, shifter.”
I huffed a pained laugh as I reached for my magic and shifted back into my panther, ready to leap back into the fight.