Chapter 18
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Stars Above. This doesn’t look good,” I whispered as anxiety churned within me.
I frantically assessed the Wood more, looking for a way to avoid the group we were quickly approaching, but the canopy above was thick and woven so tightly together that we wouldn’t be able to fly over them.
“What are we going to do?”
Kole’s attention stayed on the males. “Let me handle this.”
Our carpet was nearly upon them, and the six males widened their stances. All of them smiled menacingly. My stomach dropped even more. Their sinister grins were as sharp as the blades in their hands.
When only ten yards separated us, Kole commanded the enchanted carpet to careen to a halt. The supplies behind us heaved in protest, but their magical bands held, and we hovered silently.
Kole scanned the trees around us, his nostrils flaring as he scented the wind. Even the Wood had grown eerily quiet.
I did the same, but instead of smelling for more fae, I released a stream of magic and sought additional lifeforms around us. But no siltenite consciousnesses pulsed back to me, only nervous wildlings and other woodland creatures that remained hidden and still.
“It’s just the six of them,” I said under my breath to the warrior, then sucked my magic back inside me. “No other fae are lurking about.”
Kole glanced at me, but he didn’t question how I could know that. “Stay here.”
He leaped from the carpet and strode forward, not showing the least bit of hesitation at being confronted or outnumbered by males who obviously weren’t here to offer us tea and refreshments along our journey.
Kole stopped halfway to them, his arms loose at his sides. “You’re blocking the road.”
One of the males in the middle, the tallest one with a wiry build, sneered. “You noticed that, did you? How very observant you are.”
Kole’s demeanor didn’t change, not even a flicker. “I’ll say this once. Move.”
All six laughed, and the two near the end eyed me. One leered. The other made a rude gesture with his tongue.
A jolt of energy surged in Kole’s aura, and his head tilted as he assessed the end two.
“There’s a fee to go farther.” The middle male rapped a baton against his palm, the motion slow, precise, and clearly meant to intimidate. “A hundred rulibs if you wish to carry on.”
“Is that so?” Kole’s tone remained impassive. “I don’t recall fees being placed on this road previously. Under what jurisdiction are you claiming this for?”
The male beside the tallest one snorted. “The jurisdiction of we’re shifter fae who live here, and this is our territory. That’s who.”
I sat up straighter and glanced around, but even though there were no signs of a discarded carpet or goods strewn through the Wood, I wondered if Nym, Jessip, and Felix had ventured this way.
I could only hope they hadn’t. We’d passed one intersection a few miles back, and I prayed that they’d taken one of the other paths.
The male at the end jerked his chin my way. “If you and your pretty lady wish to travel farther, you’ll need to pay up. If not . . .” He ran his tongue suggestively over his upper lip. “I certainly wouldn’t mind taking her as payment.”
“As if.” I scoffed at the male, not feeling threatened in the slightest considering it would only take me seconds to shred through him completely.
But Kole’s aura swelled even more, and in a low, lethal voice, the warrior replied, “She’s mine. You touch her, and you die.”
My eyebrows shot up at the warrior’s possessive admission. Mine. I hadn’t heard that claim since Whiteolf, when Kole had been playacting during Abel’s delusional attack.
But I shook my head and quickly reasoned it was simply because of where we were, and it was a tactic Kole was consciously using in hopes of avoiding bloodshed.
All fae males were possessive of their females, mine being a common word among those who were mated, but shifter males were notoriously violent about protecting their females.
With any luck, these males would think twice before doing whatever they’d planned.
The end male snickered, but when Kole’s challenging stare hit him directly, his gaze averted.
“She’ll only remain yours if you pay the fee,” the middle one countered. He stopped rapping his baton and held out a palm. “Pay up.”
Kole’s tone dipped. “I won’t be paying.”
All six males took a step forward simultaneously, and I knew from that coordinated movement that they were all the same type of shifter. They had to be a pack animal or one that stayed in a herd. Whatever they shifted into, they hunted as a unit.
Tensing, I stood from the carpet. “There’s no need for a fight. Do as he says and move.”
But the males didn’t stop. Their group progressively closed the distance to Kole, weapons in hand, stances readying for attack.
The one on the end eyed me from head to toe, and since I was now standing, his gaze paused on my breasts. He licked his lips again, then palmed his crotch suggestively. “I think I’d rather not move. You’re a nice piece of arse. I’ll gladly take you as—”
A blade abruptly sliced through the air.
In my next breath, the male’s head rolled from his shoulders. Before I could comprehend what’d happened, his decapitated head fell with a thunk to the Wood’s road.
Sword in hand, Kole raised his weapon dripping with fresh blood.
My jaw dropped. In less than a blink, Kole had drawn his weapon and killed the male.
Stars Above. So much for no bloodshed.
“As I said, she’s mine.” Kole lifted his sword higher. Glistening droplets of the male’s blood pooled around his lifeless body, sparkling like rubies in the dim light. “Does anyone else care to disrespect her?”
Shocked expressions passed among the remaining five males. Eyes wide, shoulders stiff, they stared at their dead friend.
“You killed Peelin,” the tallest one finally said, disbelief evident in his tone.
“I told you I was only saying it once.” Ice filled Kole’s voice. “You chose not to move. He continually made lewd comments about my female, and I warned you that she was mine.”
“She’s not yours anymore.” The tall one met Kole’s stare directly. “You just sealed her fate. We’ll each ride her a dozen times, and when we’re done, we’ll slice through her pretty neck and watch the life drain out of her.”
Magic surged inside me at his violent threat just as a roar from the males filled the Wood. The remaining five shifters exploded into action.
Battle cries emitted from their mouths.
Vengeful expressions coated their faces.
In a blink, they’d circled Kole and lunged at him as one.
The criminals moved in blurred speed, in precise coordinated movements, and my heart shot into my throat.
I called upon my magic, about to take all of them down at once, but I paused.
Moving even faster than the criminals, Kole arced his sword, his grace and precision rendering me into stunned immobility.
Steel met steel as the five males brought their weapons down on Kole, yet Kole’s sword met every move inflicted to kill him, countering their blows just as fast.
Heated magic surged around the warrior, his arms twirling faster, his legs blurring into impossible speeds. Air shot from him in gusts too, knocking back the males just as fast.
I was so completely shocked by how he moved and manipulated his air element that I kept my magic within me. It was just like the fight I’d witnessed last night. Kole’s intrinsic magic swelled, clouding around him in a powerful aura as his body and sword became one.
He dipped. Lunged. Impaled. Danced.
Kole was death on wings, and every slice of his sword and gouge of his hand was like watching a symphony of music come to life.
He moved so fast it was difficult to track him, and it was only my activated sight sensory magic that allowed me to watch him at all. He was that fluid. That swift. And the last thing he needed was me helping him.
Something stirred in my chest. Something yearned as I watched him.
But one thing I was certain of. An ancient and primal power embodied the warrior, as if the gods and goddesses had placed him upon this realm to slay and fight. To do exactly as a warrior should.
I didn’t interfere, even though my Mistvale magic was crackling inside me, just ready to be let loose. But I knew enough, and I’d seen enough to understand that Kole wasn’t an Imperial Warrior for nothing.
And he was truly breathtaking to watch.
He cut down the males, one by one, and even though their shifter origins gave them unnatural strength and speed, they were no match for Kole.
Blood rushed in rivers along the road, and groans filled the air as each male lay dying or dead under Kole’s hand.
When only their leader remained standing, he raised his baton, now scarred and punctured from Kole’s vicious attacks. With one last cry, the shifter swung with everything he had.
But an arc of Kole’s sword had his baton splitting in two.
The force of Kole’s blow had the male pitching off balance. He went down on his knees, and on my next breath, the tip of Kole’s sword sliced clear through his throat.
The male’s eyes went as round as the moons, disbelief and shock filling his last expression, a second before his head and body fell in opposite directions.
Breathing hard, my knees sagged in relief that the fight was over, but then I surveyed the carnage, and my stomach churned.
Death spread out before us like a bloody banquet.
A severed arm.
A gutted belly.
Slitted throats.
Two decapitated males.
Six siltenites had died at Kole’s hand in less time than it took me to dress in the morning.
Calmly, the warrior walked to a tree and wiped the majority of the blood from his sword onto a leaf, then he cleansed himself and his weapon with his magic.
Once all traces of gore were gone, he sheathed his sword, then jumped back onto the carpet to sit beside me.
“Are you all right?” A violent storm churned in his irises, the energy from the battle still apparent in his aura.
I nodded a yes, too stunned to speak.