Page 46 of Power of Five
Except it isn’t working the same way, because Pyker’s body is moving too. Spinning. A slave to the recoil of his last parry. He’s lost control, I realize with an icy shock. Pyker has lost control, and this wild attempt to save me will get me cut to pieces instead.
I shove away from him, summoning all my strength to throw myself clear of the melee.
Instead of releasing me, Pyker’s arm tightens, and a second realization strikes me with cold clarity.
He never lost control.
A trap. This is all a trap to get the quint separated. To get me killed despite Pyker’s heroic attempts to save my life. To pave the way for the males—mymales—to welcome Pyker into their fold.
I am too angry to even scream as Pyker swings me directly into the path of the dark warrior’s coming blade.
The male catches my gaze, grinning wickedly as he swings for my neck. A fountain of red blood splatters his brown tunic.
I wait for the pain. The dizziness. The darkness.
The world stubbornly refuses to so much as blink.
So I blink instead. Blink and realize that the blood on the dark male’s clothing is his own, spurting around the tip of Coal’s blade, which has just pierced the bastard from back to front.
Pyker steps away from us, his breath heavy, his eyes wide. “Thank the stars—” he starts to say.
“Down!” Coal orders, throwing himself on top of me, pinning me beneath his muscular frame.
My head rings from the impact against the ground. In the sliver of daylight between Coal’s body and the earth, I see an arrow flying down at us from the cliffs. Then another. Another still. For a heartbeat, confusion rushes through me. At least one of the projectiles should have hit us by now. Surely the high-up archer isn’t so bad as to miss a stationary target, shot after shot.
One heartbeat and then I realize the truth. The archerishitting us. And Coal is taking each and every arrow as he continues to cover me in silence.
