CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN TREW #2
The first bird dove at us, its talons extended. Lakast rolled, and I swung my blade in an arc that caught the creature across its breast. Blood sprayed, but it kept coming.
Isi’s blade flashed past my shoulder, driving into a bird’s eye. It shrieked and fell away, tumbling toward the wasteland below.
“Nicely done,” I said.
“Watch your right.”
Another bird dove toward us, angling its approach to avoid Lakast’s flames. I leaned out, ignoring the protest from my wounds, and caught it across the wing joint. Bone cracked, and it spiraled away.
Around us, the others fought. Kyreth’s flames incinerated two birds at once. Levar, in dragon form, caught one in his jaws and shook it like a toy before flinging the corpse away.
They swarmed us in waves, coordinated attacks that spoke of strategy. These weren’t mindless beasts. Someone was directing them.
The realization hit like a sword in my chest. Had the creatures in the wasteland who’d nearly killed me been sent too? Were we being herded? Tracked across the entire wasteland while we searched for a place we weren’t even certain existed?
We needed to find Marlane’s sanctuary before whoever was hunting us figured out why.
A bird came at us from below, where Lakast’s flames couldn’t reach. I twisted, bringing my sword down, but the angle was wrong. The bird’s talons were going to connect with Lakast’s vulnerable underbelly.
Isi launched herself forward, her body covering mine as she drove both blades into the bird’s eyes. The momentum of its dive carried it past us, and it was dead before it started falling.
“Are you out of your mind?” I grabbed her waist, urging her back behind me. “You could’ve fallen.”
“So could you.” She was breathing hard, her body tense with adrenaline. “We’re even.”
The fierce protectiveness in her eyes made arousal spike through me despite the battle raging around us.
The battle lasted another brutal ten minutes before the surviving birds broke off, fleeing back toward the heart of the wasteland. We didn’t pursue.
“Everyone alright?” I called, sheathing my sword.
A chorus of yesses came back, though Derren was bleeding from a gash on his forearm and Kerralyn’s tunic had a tear across her right shoulder.
“We could find this place any time, right?” Lexie wiped blood from her blade on her thigh before sheathing it.
“Sure hope so,” Kerralyn muttered.
We continued, flying lower now, all of us watching for threats.
“There.” Isi’s hand shot out, pointing toward a canyon barely visible through the haze of corruption. “Do you see that shimmer?”
Faint, like heat waves rising from stone, but unmistakably magical.
“Wards,” I said, already guiding Lakast in that direction, the others following.
As we drew closer, the shimmer resolved into complex patterns of gold and silver light. As we drew closer, the shimmer Isi had spotted resolved into patterns even I could partially perceive, made up of gold and silver light.
Isi’s breath caught. “I believe they’re keyed to bloodlines. I can see it in the structure.”
“Can you break them?”
“I think so.” But uncertainty clouded her voice. “I think…three layers?” This woman who could see things I couldn’t perceive was a marvel. “I’m worried this will fight back if I go at it wrong.”
“Then don’t go at it wrong.” I meant it to be encouraging.
Her glare suggested otherwise. “Helpful, thanks.”
I watched her work, mesmerized by her total focus, by the competence in every gesture.
Her fingers moved through patterns only she could see, unraveling magic with the same deadly precision she brought to combat.
There was something deeply arousing about watching her work—the furrow of concentration between her brows, the way her lips moved soundlessly as she counted threads of power invisible to everyone else. This was her domain. Her expertise.
Watching her manipulate forces that would kill anyone else who tried and seeing her command magic like a conductor leading an orchestra stirred the same primal satisfaction I felt while watching her fight. She was power incarnate, and she was mine.
“You’re staring,” she said without looking at me, amusement coming through her voice.
“You’re magnificent.”
Her smile held satisfaction. She knew exactly what she did to me.
The first ward shimmered and fell away like a curtain being drawn back.
The second proved harder. Twice, Isi reached for it and pulled back, reassessing. The third time, she grasped the threads of magic and twisted.
Power exploded outward.
The feedback hit us, even knocking the dragons backward. Blood began flowing from Isi’s nose, her body going rigid behind me.
“Minx,” I hissed, grabbing her arm to hold her steady. Fury burned through me, at the ward, and at myself for letting her try. At whoever had created protections that could hurt her.
“I’m alright.” But her voice shook. She wiped blood from her upper lip with the back of her hand. “I need to try again.”
“No. We’ll find another way.”
“There is no other way.” Determination solidified across her features. “This is what I’m supposed to do. One of the few things I can do.”
“If it hurts you again, I’ll kill it. Someone.”
“Then so be it.”
She turned back to the ward, and while I kept Lakast close enough for her to work yet far enough back not to be hurt, she reached for it cautiously. I watched her fingers dance through patterns I couldn’t see, unraveling magic thread by thread.
The second ward fell.