Page 121 of The Girl in the Forest

My gaze flew to Levi. His fingers were taut—clawed in the mud by his hips. But I saw the subtle movement as he tightened his grip around the spear, there in the wet muck beside him.

Brin huffed, smirking as she pointed the sword toward the bow I still held. “Inadequate.”

“I could have burned him,” I told her, mixed in my emotions when she bent to grab my hand, pull me to my feet.

I was still half up and off balance when a pair of rampaging pigs crashed into us from the side.

Brin sidestepped, away from the trampling feet, but as I tried to pivot, I couldn’t get free from her hand. Her strength alarmed me. Almost as if… as if she held me in place.

The pig jerked his head with a twisting motion. His tusk caught in my jeans, wrenching my knee, dragging my leg. I collapsed on my hip. Kicked with my free foot. Heard the grunt as I smashed the creature’s snout. Energy boiled up. I kicked again.

The squeal was jarring, but I’d ripped my jeans enough to break free.

Brin was already moving away.

Levi was up and following her, and I wasn’t sure about the aggression bristling from him. But my mate was screaming in my head and he was the priority.

“You’ll go hoarse,” I told Grayson. “I’m fine. And thanks for the warning.”

“Gods-damn it, Bedisa…”

Even through our mental connection, I recognized the stony silence. Grayson was furious, with that beautiful, lethal anger that only the Alpha of Sentinel Falls could wield with utter destruction.

An anger only my dread lord could use with me, where I’d not be terrified—but exhilarated instead.

“I got tangled up in a pig,” I said. “Brin was trying to help. Levi’s fine, going after her… can’t we fight about this later?”

I almost added a pathetic please, but I’d distracted him enough. “It was an accident. I’ll be more careful. Going to find Fallon now.”

“Julien?”

“Still with me.” I could see him—the shadowy blur as he tore through the enemy. In the distance, Fallon was fighting, shouting orders; she held two swords, one in each hand. Men around her fell. She kept swinging, her blonde braid the flag I focused on as I stumbled through the littered field, stepping around the fallen. Closing out the groans and inhuman screams.

Sunlight caught on the edge of Fallon’s blades. She spun in slow motion and then… jolted, like a moving wheel that suddenly wedges against a rock.

I screamed, although I heard no sound. Men were there, picking Fallon up, turning away. Her body was limp. Boneless. Blond hair fell across her face, free from the braid. Her arm swung with the movement of the man who carried her, as if the body attached was lifeless.

Time slowed.

I wanted to moisten my lips. Swallow. Breathe.

I could do none of those things.

Levi faced off with a man twice his size, battling hand-to-hand. So much blood. So many men screaming. Amal had opened the door—but where was my vengeance?

Why was I even here, if I could do nothing to end this carnage?

At the base of the valley, the open passage shimmered with a dark malice I could feel like ice against my skin.

“Brin,” I screamed. “Stand by my side.”

But when I saw her, saw the expression on her face… I imagined I looked worse. Her features were taut, her mouth twisted. Carnage was an awful thing, and to a girl, abused by so many…

But she was staring at Julien with a strangely chilling smile.

While—from behind him—a man raced wildly, a spear in his clenched hands.

I shouted a warning. Too late as the bloody spear rammed into Julien’s back, exploding out through his chest. Shock widened Julien’s eyes. He looked down at the bloody point that dripped gore.

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