Page 120 of Faerie Hunted

The words were at the tip of my tongue and ready to fall. I blasted them with everything I had. Power rose from the pit in my gut and the moment I let it loose, I went lightheaded and dizzy. My knees were like jelly.

Onyx grabbed me by the back of the shirt to keep me upright but we weren’t fighting with our full power. Not evenhalf. We were exhausted and pushed as far as we could go.

The noise volume inside of the temple went to blasting loud, the dull roar of an invisible wind making rational thought impossible.

“Do you know of a way to make it past them?” I asked, screaming to be overheard.

The terrible howling sound ratcheted higher into a keening wail like a banshee cry. It took everything in me to maintain the shield rather than covering my ears with my hands, the sound spiked into my eardrums and through them to my entire body. I felt it in my toes.

Onyx’s eyes rounded, filled with pain. On the other side of the temple were Livvy and Bronwen, their backs pressed together as the two of them supported each other. Blood seeped from the wounds in Bronwen’s heels but she gritted her teeth and kept going.

The shadows split apart from each other to surround us. Noren nipped at them and they divided, circling him, striking him hard enough to send tufts of fur flying everywhere. He was movement incarnate and yet he wasn’t fast enough to outrun them.

“I have no idea!” Onyx yelled back. “Things are different exiting the Abyss than they are trying to enter it.”

His father had sent him in. Onyx hadn’t gone inside on his own.

My eyes burned with the effort to maintain the shield and I doubled down as the edges constricted and sputtered. Growing smaller and allowing a tiny crack to form around us.

The nearest guardian moved immediately.

It swung its blade through the crack and I wasn’t fast enough to avoid the hit. The tip of the blade slid into my skin, splitting it along my calf. Agonizing pain spread from the area and my shield sputtered again before it died.

At once, a calming green glow surrounded us. There was Mike, his arms outstretched and every ounce of his magic poured into us. Into me.

Our eyes met, his narrowed and stubborn and so damn appealing.

It shouldn't be up to him to protect me.

I should be able to handle this myself. Frustration burned my throat.

But he wasn’t helpless. Laina was there, spreading her own power over him while cutting down the guardians around her. When one fell, two formed from the pieces. The shadows were relentless.

Their weapons clashed against our shields and only Livvy had the knowledge to form a weapon of light. Laina knew what to do, of course, but with her attention fractured between us, there was no way for her?—

The queen fell.

In slow motion, the queen dropped to the ground with the pommel of a shadow sword stuck in her shoulder and piercing out the other side, sent through the single chink in her shield.

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The sound of Mike’s yell colored the air around us, loud enough to cut through the roaring wind. His shield disappeared and left us vulnerable.

In an instant, I reached for Livvy, to grab the weapon from her hands. It split apart and formed two pieces, the weight of it natural in my hand.

I didn’t think. I couldn’t.

Not with Laina bleeding out on the stone.

The guardians closed in around us and I swung the sword of light, taking out the arms of the one closest to her.

I swore I heard a scream as I charged.

The shadows threw themselves at me but I refused to slow down, calling to Noren as I moved. He was motion itself. The shadows seemed to bounce off of him.

Something about the Unseelie direwolf made it impossible for the guardians to wound him. They may have gouged out chunks of hair but none of their attacks penetrated his skin.

A part of the land itself, Laina had said once, culled from its magic. His strength was mine now.

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