I felt stronger and weaker all at once as I watched my people fight.
Dad grabbed Mom’s arm and slung her like some sort of human slingshot. She released a battle yell and landed on a rogue’s back, slitting its throat. She rode it down and rolled.
“I can see where you received your skills from,” Shen said, his voice tinged with forced amusement.
“If I stay much longer, I’ll break before this is done,” I told him.
Shen heard, though. He always hears. Even those things I didn’t say.
He nodded, kissing the side of my head. “Thank you,” he said. "I'll be there when you break, Little Red. Now gowinthis."
As I emerged from the haven of Shen’s arms, Jacob cropped up beside me, his hood falling in front of his eyes. He pushed it up with his forearm—the arm holding a sword—and adjusted his glasses with the other hand. He nearly sliced his own hood.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
He gave me a look. It was so much like Mom’s no-nonsense glare that I nearly smiled.
“You truly think I’d letcha have all the fun?”
“Just don’t die, or I’ll bring you back to kill you again,” I said.
“Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” he said with a salute—nearly slicing his own arm—while I winced.
“Nevercall me ma’am again.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a cheeky grin. He’d been hanging around Brandt too much.
I nearly groaned as I put my blow gun to my lips and took out a mage trying to creep up on Ran.
Jacob ran with a shrill battle yell. He tripped over his own feet, avoiding a slash of claws from the rogue he was fighting and nearly impaled himself.
I sighed, going to save him when Shen caught my arm. “Let him,” he said.
I clenched my teeth and put a blade beneath Shen’s chin. He smiled down at me, as if he saw me as a cute kitten instead of a tigress with claws. “I can’t just stand back and watch my brother die—” I stopped as Jacob rose, taking off the rogue’s hand beforespinning and tripping again, barely righting himself before he kicked out. The rogue was pushed back a step. Jacob turned and ran. The beast roared and pursued my brother.
Jacob tripped… again. This time, he also dropped his sword. I nearly screamed at him as he knewnotto drop his blade, but my words died in my throat as the sword hilt became caught between two rocks and stuck up behind my brother.
The rogue impaled itself. It snapped its foaming jaws even as the sword speared it through the heart. Then, the light went out of its eyes.
Jacob had his arms crossed, his hands extended before him as the dead rogue fell on him. He flicked it off, scrambling back and getting to his feet.
“Your brother also has a Gift. The Gift of Luck.”
I stared at Jacob for a moment. Could that be true? Could all his clumsiness over the years… yep. It all made so much more sense.
When I turned, Anna was calling out to enforcers about a mage with plant powers who would pass out after using too much of their power. They pressed against the mage, arrows flying. The mage threw up vines to protect herself instead of sending them to snake out and trip our warriors. She fell to the ground, out cold.
Markus turned and nodded at Anna. She grinned, her eyes sparkling.
I didn’t have time for tears. But they came anyway.
I stepped out of the circle of my enforcers. A collective cry rose above the din of battle and clash of swords as my people saw me, bloody and weary but alive.
Shen’s presence beside me was a rock. Ifelthim take stock of our odds—they were not looking good.
The rogues kept coming, wave after wave, and my people were exhausted. Kingpin passed like a wraith between the Reds,her fingers causing chaos and her hands bringing death. She targeted my best warriors, taking them out one by one.
The tide was turning. My people were growing fatigued while the black mages and rogues were gaining strength from the scent of blood and death.