Page 18 of Land of Monsters

“They can if they aren’t either fae or human,” Ash muttered more to himself, staring off toward the commotion. Gunfire and screams ballooned in the air, the voices growing closer, coming for the encampment.

“We need to get everyone to safety! Now! Do you have an escape plan?” Ash shouted at Iacob. His need to protect, to make sure everyone was out of harm’s way, took over.

“Y-Yes.” It took another beat for the human to snap out of his shock, his attention finally going to his people, the pandemonium bustling at the seams, whipping up more terror.

“Go!” Ash pushed Iacob, invoking him to act. The flip switched on the stunned leader as more gunfire and cries progressed toward the center.

“Retragere!” Retreat.Iacob ordered his people, rounding up the terrified parents with their kids, rushing them for the west side of the encampment. “Get yourself to the caves!”

There were a thousand caves in this area, so I knew he wasn’t talking about the ones Ash and I came from. Probably one they had secured with provisions, a hideout in case of this very event.

“Go with them!” Ash demanded me, heading for the first line.

“No!” I sprinted after him, furious he was trying to sideline me.

“Raven…” His expression twisted up. “Please go!”

“I’m not leaving you,” I volleyed, the sounds of war thrumming into every fiber. “When will you get it through your head? I am not a child!”

“No, you’re a fucking princess,” he snapped back. “And if anything happened to you…”

“I am your greatest weapon here.”

“You aren’t strong enough yet.”

My mouth parted in surprise. How did he know that?

“Please.” His eyes pleaded with me right as the piercing shriek of a hawk, no longer muffled by the barrier, rang out at us.

Ash’s head jerked up and the hawk swooped in for the ground, her body appearing like it was morphing back into a human form. This time, I saw a weapon strapped to her breastbone.

A gun.

Not far behind her, Codrin and others were retreating, a swell of soldiers on their tail.

There was no chance to fight. They outnumbered us by dozens, all loaded down with armor. Everything Vlad had feared.

A strangled noise rose from Ash, his hand grabbing mine as he swung us around and started running. The satchel knocked against my thighs, my pulse beating in my ears as we tore through the encampment. A loud squawk chilled my blood, and I twisted my head to see Nyx swooping down at me, her talons scraping over my scalp.

“Ow!” I screamed, my arms trying to cover my head as she swooped in again.

“Get the hell off her!” Ash batted at her, yet she returned for me over and over, her claws cutting into my skin. Why was she coming after me?

Nyx’s wings fluttered as she dove toward me. Her talons pierced my shoulder, digging in, pain exploding down my arm.

“Ahhh!” I wailed, curling over, spots dotting my vision, the pain swishing my stomach. The dweller growled; the pain was a trigger to attack. To kill. I could feel my claws pushing from my hands, my teeth digging sharply into my lip. A whisper ofthe obscurer rode the dweller’s back like a horseman of the apocalypse. A symbol of death.

A rush of fear slammed the cage on them. It was a knee-jerk reaction to the power they conjured, the terror of having no control.

“Get. Off!” Ash bellowed, trees cracking overhead, limbs bending to his energy, raining snow on us. He grabbed one of her wings. “How many times do I have to kill you before you die?” I heard a pop of cartilage, then a long shriek of pain rang through the skies before her body fluttered to the ground with a broken wing.

“Go!” Ash grabbed me, hurrying me on.

Clenching my teeth, I hurried my steps, feeling blood leak from my shoulder. The trees this time of year were twisted webs of empty branches, making us easy to see. The snow marked out our path. There was no way to not leave footprints in the snow, so our only escape was to outrun them.

We were their target, and though staying and fighting was the honorable thing to do, I understood we’d merely bring them more suffering.

While gunfire echoed behind us and the troop searched for Ash, we slipped away over the rocky terrain, heading to the one place we could disappear.

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