Page 71 of Pixie Problems
Dice:Okay, how do we keep us safe?”
The shifter nodded at our wizard and Rhys.
Officer/Shifter- I think we do it like before, but maybe Rhys can double layer his shield so that as little sound as possible escapes. I think we’re too close to the other caverns now, and some of them might blow from just the sound of the explosion.
Rhys nodded that he could do that, and we all moved into position in the passageway on the far side of the cavern. People got back as far as they could, while I stuck like glue to Rhys. Maybe he would need me medically. He or the wizard. I didn’t know. But I wanted to stay close, just in case.
Rhys and the wizard looked like they were having an entire conversation with just their eyes and hand gestures, and then they got to work. Rhys made a starlight shield, and then he made another one and layered it tightly over the first one. Then the wizard pulled out another null orb, passed it to August, and then stood back. Rhys and August looked at each other for a moment, and then August nodded andhurledthe null ball at Rhys’ shield. His shield that was still up and completely surrounding the bomb. Rhys, with split-second timing, made a perfect sphere in his shields exactly the size of the null orb, on both layers of the shield, and as the orb went in, the shields reformed. Knowing what was going to happen, I spun away from the light flash just in time and slammed my eyes closed, covering my ears.
I swore I was going to go blind by the time I was thirty. That light was extremely powerful, blindingly bright, and not fun at all. Even though I’d closed my eyes and spun around, when I opened them, I was still blinking dark spots out of my vision.
The boulders of the ceiling above us fragmented and started falling. But this time, instead of letting the rocks just crash to the floor, the wizard activated a device that essentially floated the rocks down so that they landed as soft as rose petals onto the floor, barely making a sound.
It had gone seamlessly. And it went seamlessly the five times after that when we came across another bomb. But, as we worked our way in, I was starting to feel hot and slightly panicky, claustrophobic, because we were also blocking our path back out as more and more cave ins happened.
The air began to feel muggy and dense. I was drenched, and I hadn’t actually gotten wet from any of the sea water. At least nothing higher than the butt-kicking boots I’d worn.
And then we finally got caught up with the other team, and we all quickly realized that we’d walked into the middle of a battle, one where the lines were not clearly drawn. There were thirty coyote shifters in the cavern, plus Hux who was facing off with Finn. Finn looked like he was unleashing his alpha power, and I could tell that every shifter in the room felt it. Rhys started instantly swirling with the night sky, and I could feel and see his power levels go from defcon ten to defcon one.
He pulled starlight daggers out of thin air, and before I could even blink he was in front of Hux. I just sighed and let him go.
He’d been . . . surly lately anytime someone had mentioned Hux. The soul bond had made him extra moody where my safety was concerned, and even though I’d wanted to shoot Hux in the kneecaps for all of the pain and suffering he’d caused, not only toward myself but also a lot of his pack, I realized that if I let Rhys and Finn just have at him, that it would be better justice and payback than what I as a pixie could dish out.
So I got out my gun and my knife, and I started fighting as Hux’s enforcers started coming at me. August and Cy fought together, keeping me in the center as they fought two, maybe three paces away, and then they would switch, making sure I stayed roughly in the center as I fought off vicious packmates of Hux’s in both human and coyote forms. They were more wily in coyote form and they had more raw agility as well. Not saying shifters didn’t have crazy agility in their human forms, but it was something else entirely in their shifter forms. Like they could be practically ninjas. Ninja coyotes. Just what I’d always wanted to fight.
I was gasping for breath when it all went quiet, from both the fighting, and from the stupid humidity that made me feel like I was drowning in air. I had several bites along my arms, shoulders, and legs, but none were critical. I was sweating so fiercely that it ran into the bites and nail gouges that punctured my skin and made them sting like crazy.
I gazed around me, amazed at what our team had accomplished. I think this had been what was politely called a smack down. Hux was on the cavern floor bleeding out, with several starlight daggers pierced through his body and into the floor, pinning him down. His eyes were closed, and it looked like he’d passed out from the pain. I could see that the mages had created clear, magical time-out boxes with the supplies they’d brought with them, and they’d used them on several of the pack. They were howling in them, and hitting the clear walls, but the boxes held.
The other shifters on our team had taken on their shifter forms, and I saw a few lionesses, a panther, a wolf, and of course Cy, my bodyguard bear. He was holding someone down with his big paw, and any time they tried to scoot out of it, he batted at them, almost playfully, and they looked like it knocked them senseless with each swipe of his humongous paw.
“Cy, stop playing with your food,” I told him, still gasping.
Ever heard a bear laugh? I’m telling you right now, it’s not for the faint of heart.
Rhys and Finn both crowded me, but Finn got there first. He gave me a rib-cracking hug, and I squeezed him back. Not at all awkward or ashamed of the fact that one of my best friends was a lion shifter, a sheriff, and someone that had just exacted a little justice on my behalf—and maybe a little retribution as well. And Rhys, well he’d probably just done a whole lot of scary star elf stuff.
I was bummed I’d missed it, and I still felt like maybe I should at least shoot outoneof Hux’s kneecaps. I mean, just a little bit. Was there such a thing as a little bit of a shot kneecap? Like, if I nicked thesideof his kneecap? I could, I knew, do just that. My grandpappy had taught me well.
And that I missed Rhys’ floor show? I was sobummed.But I would have maybe been dead if I’d have watched him and not the coyote shifters who’d come at me, so there was that.
After every pack member had been subdued—they just left Hux stabbed to the floor—the shifters searched for bombs, sheepish that they hadn’t done that before. Personally, I felt like surviving the battle we’d just gone through had been a little more pressing. And also, that Hux was too much of a chicken to put a bomb in the same cavern that he’d been occupying, so I didn’t at all feel sorry that we’d just jumped into defending ourselves without scouring the place for bombs first. Once Finn got the all-clear, he dialed Roark and put it on speaker.
“You all alive?” Roark’s voice sounded like he was in a tunnel.
“Yep,” Finn said. “Were’s our rescue from this forsaken pile of rocks?”
There was shouting on the other end, and what sounded like weak fighting and lots of rocks shifting. My eyes went wide as I looked at Finn and Rhys who were both frowning at the phone. Roark came back on. “Dice?”
“Yes?”
“Can you please let the rest of the pack down here know that I’m not trying to eat them?”
I blinked. Paused. Cleared my throat.“Areyou trying to eat them?” The dragon shifter’s laughter was powerful and deep. “And, umm, are you on the phone in dragon form?”
“Someone’s holding the phone for me. It’s on speaker.” He laughed again. “They heard your voice and response. They’ve stopped fighting. Thanks, kid. Finn, we’re getting these guys back to the mainland first. We’ll be back for you guys soon. Hang tight.”
“Understood.”
