Chapter 66
Elodie
People were starting to stir by the time I reached the enemy generals. The pixie king sprang up off the ground and flew back into the air, angrily adjusting his crown, but I ignored him. There were thousands of people on this battlefield, but only one mattered to me right now.
I’m coming for you. I sent the message again, with more urgency this time.
The only being on this field I cared about was my mate, and he lay still on the ground, held under the crushing weight of Kane’s high alpha mojo. It was a shame Kane couldn’t exert it constantly, but it was an enormous energy drain, even for a shifter as strong as him.
I was ten feet away when his wolf shook roughly and surged to his feet.
Damn it.
He spun toward me, turquoise eyes glowing without recognition, only hate.
Fuck.
My plan hadn’t really extended this far.
Problem one: get to Valens. Problem two: free him somehow.
There was no plan for him charging me in wolf form while I wielded a really fucking deadly broadsword.
I had to get him to shift back. Granted, if he had no sword, I still couldn’t engage him unarmed.
But if he shifted… it was a better shot.
There had to be some sort of magical connection between the guardian’s swords.
A warm feeling of affirmation rolled over me, and I blinked down at the sword for a split second.
Valens used the opportunity to charge me.
I leapt to the side, letting him blast past me, close enough to feel the brush of his fur. An idea came to me. It was a long shot, and Valens in control of himself would never succumb to it. But what if collared Valens reacted differently?
“That’s all you’ve got? I could run you through in a second!” I hollered after his retreating form. “What, don’t tell me the big bad alpha wolf is scared of little old me.”
His retreating wolf froze, turning with a snarl on his lips. It would be utterly terrifying if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted.
I twirled my sword, growling right back at him.
“It would be way too easy with you furry. One good slice and you’re toast. Change back.
Face me on two feet, swordsman to swordsman.
” I stared directly into his glowing eyes, throwing down an irresistible challenge to the alpha inside him.
I was a mere beta, and if our mate bond was frozen, the disrespect should piss him all the way off and then some.
He answered with a livid growl, and I grinned. “Poor widdle wolfman, doesn’t like being challenged, huh? Do something about it. Step up, bitch. Come and get me.”
Valens’s wolf leapt, crossing half the distance between us before I realized he wasn’t going to shift after all. Goddess bless, this was not a great plan A.
I turned and ran toward the forest instead of back toward reinforcements. It was a potentially deadly mistake, but I was thinking on my feet here.
I ducked under a low branch as I reached the tree line, then cut a sharp left, hoping his momentum would take him past me, farther into the brush. I needed some space and time to come up with a plan B, and this wasn’t the direction the enemies were coming from.
It didn’t work. He cut hard, dirt and leaf litter spraying out from under his paws as he kept right on my heels.
He left me no choice but to turn and face him, and my stomach tied itself in knots. At least one of us would take serious damage, and neither of us would be okay with that when it was all over.
Goddess, please let us both be around to be miserable about this when it’s all over. I sent up one last, desperate prayer and spun, lashing out low with the sword that had the ability to lop off one of his paws.
He saw the strike coming and dodged, finally breaking stride and giving me a second to breathe. The sword in my hand pulsed angrily.
Did it want to hit him?
A wave of affirmation was the only response, but I didn’t have time to ponder how utterly messed-up that was.
He lunged, maw open wide and fangs deadly sharp as he aimed for my throat.
I dove down, rolling underneath him with unnatural speed. I just barely missed his attack, a grave reminder that I might have been pulling my punches, but he wasn’t.
Somehow, I landed in a low crouch before he completed his spin to take another pass at me. I swung the sword, letting it bite into his unprotected flank.
The damn thing sizzled and smoked when it made contact, and Valens’s wolf yelped, limping backward for a second before falling to his uncut side.
Horror grabbed me by the throat, and I jumped back to my feet in a split second, darting to his side to make sure he hadn’t been mortally wounded. If the collar thought it was a killing blow, it would finish him off.
Bile rose up the back of my throat as I stared down at the freely bleeding wound. But then his fur began to recede, and bare human skin appeared in its place. The collar shifted with him, shrinking down to rest just below his human chin, too small now to slip off over his head.
To my surprise, he came through the change fully clothed, with his guardian sword in the sheath at his hip.
Whoever made these collars put some heavy-duty magic on them to allow shifters to keep their possessions through the shift.
The only thing that didn’t change was the flat hatred in his eyes.
This man didn’t recognize me, but he did want to murder me.
He surged off the forest floor, sword drawn and arcing toward my neck before a mortal human could have processed that he’d moved.
Thankfully, I was no mere human. I dodged right, swinging my own sword up to block him with well-honed instincts.
The swords clashed together, and he frowned, staring in confusion at the point where they connected.
Was it working? I could only hope.
He shook his head, circling the tip of the blade around and trying to come in with a short jab, which I once again blocked.
We circled and fought on, and each time our blades touched, it seemed to throw him.
As if the magic in our blades combined was strong enough to dampen the effect of the collar.
It’s me, Brute. Come on, let me in! I sent mental words of encouragement, even though I had no idea if he could hear me. We hadn’t even tried mental communication before this, so I had no idea how it worked or if we had the ability yet.
Most couples needed the bonding bites before it kicked in, if it ever did. Not every pair got it. I tried anyway. Because I would be damned if I didn’t give saving him every piece of me.
We hadn’t come this far to lose our chance. Not before we really got to bond, to live, to love. It was too soon, and I refused to let him go.
So I fought him with every vicious trick in my maiden’s repertoire. Sweat dripped down my brow and into my eyes, but I dared not dash it away. I used fancy footwork, I used the trees to block him, I even threw in tactical rolls.
Nothing worked for long. It was as if he was computing and memorizing every move I had. But I had one more move, one last, deadly trick we were taught to save our charges.
The self-sacrifice.
I’d executed it once and only survived by the skin of my teeth and with the advanced magical medicine of dwarves afraid of an interspecies incident. This time, I knew there was no help coming. It was me and my man, to the death or to life.
Still, I had to try. If I could put enough force on the collar with the magical blade fast and hard enough, maybe it would break before it got a chance to harm him. Even now, the magical signatures I could see dancing over its surface taunted me.
I hummed a tune as I waited for an opening.
I chose the soft, mindless, pacing song they taught us to help remember the swordsmanship forms. I refused to sing the death dirge this time.
I had to focus on life, or we were both doomed.
Still, the tune was a drumbeat in my blood that kept me on track.
He reared back, readying for a great, chopping swing.
It was the opening I needed.
I raced forward on too-fast feet, launching off his own knee and a foot on his chest, using my momentum to propel me into the air as I brought the broadsword down, down, down—right toward his collar with a mighty yell.
Our eyes locked at the last moment, and everything else faded until there was nothing in the whole universe except the two of us.
For just that second, time stopped, and he knew me again.
The connection snapped back to life between us as I soared above him, my sword less than an inch from his jugular.
He threw himself sideways, though, and broke the connection as I stumbled.
The targets of that attack couldn’t move before it was complete, yet somehow, he did.
Valens hit the ground in a crumpled heap as I barely managed to recover and land without cutting myself.
I spun, ready for the next attack now that the last trick up my sleeve had failed so utterly, but he didn’t get up.
He lay deathly still, and my heart leaped into my throat. I dropped to my knees at his side, self-defense completely forgotten as I rolled him to his back.
“You can’t be dead. Don’t you dare be dead!
” I screeched, clawing at his shoulder in panic until he was flat on his back.
I only found a little bit of blood on his neck and shoulder, and my lungs finally unfroze.
But that was when I realized that the side of the collar had shattered, bits of lifeless metal littering the grass underneath us.
I reached down and carefully lifted his head, tugged the rest of the collar free, and flung it as far away from us as I could.
I hovered over him worriedly, even though the slim cut on the side of his neck had already begun to close, worried that whoever controlled the collars would realize I’d freed him and come to attack us.
But they didn’t. The sounds of battle reached us, snarls and clangs and dying gasps filtering through the trees, breaking the illusion that this was a peaceful afternoon out in nature.
My palm sweated where it gripped the sword hilt, but I didn’t dare set it down, since enemies could find us at any time.
Valens gasped, his eyes flying open, still glowing turquoise with his wolf.
“It’s okay! It’s just me! Please tell me you recognize me now,” I begged.
He reached up with both hands and dragged me down into a soul-searing kiss.