Page 154 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

“Help them,” I told Shen. He growled but left after one last lingering glance that said, “Do not get stabbed again or I will be angry and possibly destroy the world to save you.”Or maybe he actually said that in my brain. Who’s to know?

Shen was a thing of beauty. Every move was precise and purposeful. He was guarding a Red who was on the ground with a stab wound. Shen caught the forearm of a lightning-knife-wielding mage before the mage could finish the Red. He stepped back, manipulating the mage’s arm to stab a rogue coming up behind the wounded Red while the Red, still holding their wound, fought a second mage. The rogue werewolf seized as the lightning-knife hit it.

Shen threw another blade, spun the dark mage so he was hit with rocks from a telekinetic mage, and clocked the lightning mage on the head with the hilt of a blade.

He went from place to place, taking on two or three mages and rogues almost at once and leaving them moaning or dead behind him.

As I glanced around and shot darts to protect my people, despair tried to eat at my newfound confidence.

The thorny briar of a vine wrapped around a group of my mages and Shen’s werewolves who were fighting a group of rogues. With a massive snap, it slowly compacted, squeezing inward to kill my Reds and werewolves.

I watched as my people fell under the rising tide of teeth and claws and fire and acid and magic.

A vine trapped Ran’s leg and rogues crawled up her, their teeth and claws finding purchase and tearing scales from her as she roared in pain.

CHAPTER 54

Checkmate

ALIA

We had given it our all…

Rocks danced along the blood-soaked ground as a rhythmic thumping echoed across the battlefield. Unicorns burst from between the trees, their neighs merging with the screams as they rammed their horns into the chests of mages and rogues alike.

I heard another scream behind me and glanced back to see the hydra and sphinx working together to tear open the thorn bush slowly enclosing the team of Reds and werewolves. They emerged mostly unscathed from within, though the hydra and sphinx outside nearly scared the crap out of my Reds.

The dryad held out his hand from near our rear lines. A thin vine trailed through the field and wrapped around the thorny vine binding Ran to the earth. It squeezed and the large vine broke in half. Ran beat her wings, and when she was high enough, did a roll that sent every single rogue falling back to the earth with shrill whimpers.

The dryad’s wife was clinging to his back, sending shields out to block attacks and protect my Reds.

Even little magical creatures darted about, biting and tripping the rogues and mages.

A smile slowly grew on my face.

Ran had called them. I’d been worried that it was too late, that they were too far away. But they’d come back for us. And the Reds fought alongside them without a second glance.

A tear dropped from my eye as I stabbed another rogue.

That was when I saw my grandmother. She had been watching all this unfold with a scowl on her pretty face. Her eyes met mine just as she released a red ball of flame. It crashed against Ran’s chest while she was protecting Jacob from a mage who’d cloaked himself with invisibility.

Ran released a shrill scream as she stood still, taking the full brunt of the fireball to protect Jacob and my family who were behind her. She was thrown backward. Trees snapped like matchsticks against her weight. Her pained shriek sliced my soul.

“Stay away from my dragon!” I roared, running forward to meet my grandmother.

She was no longer my grandmother. I would call her what she was.

The soon to beex-Kingpin.

Kingpin turned. So much about her had changed, from the wrinkled skin to the faded-with-age eyes. She was a smooth-skinned ice queen, her eyes as hard as twin glaciers. The pursed lips of disappointment were the same, as were the eyes that always found me wanting.

The threat of not measuring up still slipped into place in my soul, despite knowing there was no way for me to meet her expectations.

A rogue bounded past a Red not five feet in front of me. The Red turned, doing a backflip. I hissed. Only one person would use such idiotic moves on a battlefield. Brandt. He was fighting against a mage who sent rock shards flying against his hood.

I ducked the rogue’s claws and sliced at her chest. It didn’t phase her. She tried to take my head off while her chest was bleeding.

I angled my blade up and through her chin. Herneedto be set free of this form drove my hand through the soft point of her jaw and angled it up to nick her brain. She fell as I pulled the blade, herneedfading with a rush of something I could only call gratitude.

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