Page 33 of Great Falls Protector
Flames erupt around me, the trembling ground sending people toppling from their seats. Wooden benches crackle, screams of pain and fear rising into the air. The birds take to the sky as the warm breeze fans the orange tongues that hop along like blazing rabbits.
Surreal horror floods my blood. I close my hand around Shade’s fur as I struggle to get the magic back under control.I did this. Me. I became the very monster I wanted to protect the Academy from.
In the middle of the arena, Tye is getting up from where the shaking ground threw him off his feet. He looks dazed, shaking his head to clear it from the impact. A trickle of blood runs down his forehead, but he’s alive. The relief rushing through me cools the rampaging cords of magic. The male’s emerald eyes flash around the stands in dawning horror—before the panicking crowd blocks him from my sight.
“Great Hall! Every one to the Great Hall! This way!” The shouts are echoed by servants and guards across the arena as the sea of bewildered spectators and competitors rushes to get away from the flames.
“Lera!” Arisha’s voice hits me in the back. “Lera, we need to go.”
I don’t want to move. I can’t. Not with the reality of what I’ve just done raging around me.Stars.After worrying about the Night Guard’s plans to wreak havoc in the Academy, I’ve done half the work for them.
Shade’s teeth close harshly around my arm, dragging me toward the arena’s bottlenecked exit. I see Arisha’s yellow dress flashing amidst the stampede of bodies racing for the safety of the stone-walled keep, her face blanched with terror. When our eyes meet, my friend flinches away, holding up her hands as if to ward off some assault she thinks I’ll launch.
My throat closes.
The flood of people parts around me—around Shade’s growling wolf—before converging again into a grand stream. I’ve just gathered the courage to chase after my friend when a child’s high-pitched scream spins me to where Rabbit stands in the middle of the flaming benches, his skinny limbs frozen and shaking like his namesake. Guard after guard rushes past, none bothering to help the lowly boy when there are kings to be protected.
“Rabbit!” Mind spinning, I start toward the boy, searching for a path through the flames. “Rabbit, I’m coming.”
Shade blocks my path, his body vibrating with a warning growl, every coarse gray hair standing on end. As if I don’t know the danger. As if the danger even matters. My heart pounds, smoke filling my lungs each time I take a breath.White-hot flames lick down the wooden benches toward us from every side. “I need to get to him,” I scream at the wolf. “Move!”
Yellow eyes flash.No.
Rabbit howls.
I push forward toward him, shoving Shade with all my strength. I didn’t save this boy from Katita’s brutish cousins just to let him die in a fire I started, that I could have prevented if I’d just been more prepared.
Shade snaps his teeth at me, nothing of the male I know behind the furious golden eyes, and I swallow a sob. Salivating fangs reflect the fire, the hackles on the wolf’s neck rising like a rooster’s comb. Retreating one step from me, Shade’s horrendous growl leaves no doubt of his demand that I stay the hell away.
I stop, my chest heaving.
Shade cocks his head for a moment. Then, with a powerful lupine stride, he turns and leaps over the flames toward Rabbit’s whimpering calls.
I wait only a heartbeat before following—only to be shoved aside by a pair of rushing men, the stench of sweaty panic trailing in their wake. Someone steps on my long red gown, sending me tumbling to my knees. I’ve just recovered my footing when Rik and Puckler barrel by, knocking me aside into the blue-clad team from Fothom, which is trying to stay together as they move. Realizing I’m not one of their own, the shouting athletes bump me away to be swept up into the crowd building at the arena’s main exit, crushing together as if by a slowly tightening clamp. Without Shade’s wolf at my side, no one is keeping clear any longer.
Setting my jaw, I aim for where Shade is dragging Rabbit toward the open safety of the arena’s sand, my fists set to forge my way through the cascade of bodies. One step. Two.
Then an iron-hard arm sweeps around me from behind, a familiar woodsy scent filling my lungs.
“River?”
“Come with me.” The male’s cold demand is that much starker for the blazing inferno rising around us.
I shake my head, pressing against his implacable hold. “Rabbit and—”
“That wasn’t a request.” Holding my body against his hard chest with one arm, River drags me out of the arena and across the courtyard toward the keep, his towering body parting the sea of people easily. I shout and twist, craning my neck to try to make eye contact with him, but all I can see is his hard jaw, the pulse beating steadily in the side of his corded neck.
He bellows orders to the guards as he goes—to check around the arena’s exits for anyone injured in the stampede, to let the arena’s structure burn down and focus on ensuring the fire has no chance to jump elsewhere. The guards look askance at me, but River may as well be carrying a sack of grain for all the attention he pays me.
My heart pounds against my ribs. There is nothing I can say to make him understand why I can’t just leave. That I’m responsible for this and can’t just run for cover.
Baring my teeth, I try a new tactic, elbowing the male with all my strength.
River grunts and lets go with surprising speed.
I’ve no time to contemplate my success as I shove my way back toward the arena and the flames roaring within. Black smoke billows so high into the cloudless blue sky that all of Great Falls will be able to see it.
My mind is moving too quickly for conscious thought, just repeating a litany of dread over and over.I did this. I have to make sure no one is in there. I did this.
