Page 221 of Of Nine So Bold

Branches tore the air, growing so rapidly that in only moments the hallway was choked by them.

Separating us from Harran on the other side.

“Princess!” he shouted. “I-I can’t get through!”

“Run!” she ordered him. “Get out of here. Don’t let this?—”

She cut off with a panicked cry as the branches started tearing into the ceiling and pushing through the outer wall of the castle itself.

Biting back a curse, I spun, my eyes sweeping the courtyard while the steward retreated from the collapsing hallway. As yet, no one had launched an attack, barring the damn branches that had just driven us out into the open.

But that could change at any moment.

“Move,” I ordered the others. “Stay together.”

As one, we started across the courtyard, the princess shielded at our center. I’d spent years training my friends, drilling them on all I knew about how to fight and survive as a unit. It was thebest way I knew to show them I cared, by making sure they could stay alive if worse came to worst.

No matter what else happened, pride in them filled me now.

“Voidborn!” Niko called.

My eyes darted to the side. A dozen of those green-skinned men with tusks were pouring out of the main castle door, massive axes and swords in their hands and vicious lights glowing in their eyes.

“Got more of them!” Lars called back.

On the other side of the courtyard, harpies landed on top of a crenelated wall, leering down at us like they couldn’t wait to tear our flesh from our bones.

“Pick up the pace,” I ordered, gauging our distance to the tree. We’d just crossed the edge of the ring of dirt and roots, with only a short distance left to go. “We’re almost?—”

Like the invisible hand of a full-size giant, something slammed into me, sending me flying. Pain erupted from my shoulder and side as I crashed down, dazing me, and my sword clattered on the flagstones.

Scrambling back up, I grabbed my weapon. My friends were scattered, thrown to the ground same as me. Above us, the harpies were circling, their ear-piercing shrieks of joy tearing the air.

But Gwyneira was on her feet. Unlike the rest of us, she hadn’t been tossed down, and she stood only a few yards from the tree.

A massive globe of misty, crystalline glass surrounded her and the tree alike, as if someone had turned a round bowl on its head, trapping her inside.

“Holy shit.” Clay shoved to his feet. “Hang on, princess!” He charged forward, sword drawn.

Shrieking, the harpies dove, swiping at him and narrowly missing. He skidded to a stop, retreating as another barreled at him.

Growling, Ozias swung at them with his ax, tearing one down while the others darted away.

The green-skinned men thundered toward us, weapons ready.

Swearing blurred through my mind, but it was background noise to the focus that honed my senses. Slashing my sword, I sent one harpy spiraling into the flagstones. Spinning the blade fast, I stabbed behind me, taking down one of the green-skinned monsters at my back.

Ahead, the princess struck the wall, shouting without sound behind the thick barrier. Even her vampire strength couldn’t crack the glass.

Fuck.

“Take that thing down!” I shouted at Byron and Casimir as I cut through another green-skinned attacker.

“I’m trying!” Byron yelled back.

Turning into smoke, Casimir wove through the battlefield at high speed, coalescing into human form just shy of the glass. Pressing his hands to the barrier, he viciously snarled something I couldn’t hear.

Light flared like twin suns bursting to life beneath his palms. The blast roared across the surface of the glass, blindingly bright. Behind him, Byron flung out a hand, shouting something in old Erenlian.

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