Page 205 of Bane of the Wild Hunt

“Someoneis distracted. Just long enough for us to deal with you at last,” answered one of the other elves.

Run. They want me, so please just run while I distract them for as long as I can! Once they have left this plane, you will be able to portal home,I begged my brothers.

Absolutely not, was the consensus.

We are here with you,Sage assured me, a strong and calming presence.They cannot stay long. We just need to survive them until the Mavaari come to remove them.

“Me?” I added aloud to the elves, desperate to keep them talking as long as possible.There is no need for all of you to get caught up in their vendetta! I am the only one with Shadow in my blood!I insisted down the bond. “I’m truly flattered, but this is a little low for you, isn’t it? You cannot face the Mavaari, so you will stoop to taking it all out on me? A lowly aes sídhe,” I taunted the elves.

One of them tilted their head with a preternatural grace that was horrifying.

“We are not here foryou, Scrios,” said one with just a hint of smugness in their voice. And as I watched them in confusion, all three veiled heads turned toward my riders. Toward mycousin…

Toward Sage. The Light Wraith.

“No,” I snarled at them immediately, stepping forward as the ferocity of my rage threatened to unleash my magic with an unforgiving wrath. “You will not touch him.”

The other riders stepped in front of Sage, even Ornella who he tried to push aside, but she remained planted right in front of him. Her hands behind her and clenching on him as if she were terrified to let go of him.

“We thought you might feel that way,” admitted one of the elves, sounding rather pleased.

I was no match for these creatures that were not gods but something far older than the earth. The tiny drop of magic which they hated so vehemently in my blood was nothing compared to the ageless power of the stars.

But I woulddiebefore they took Sage.

The middle one stepped forward, and I struck with all my might, uncaring who I hurt in front of me. My magic ripped out of me so forcefully it shredded and desiccated all living things—plants, trees, grass—and the shock wave rumbled through the ground. It was thunderous enough to take nearby fey and griffins off their feet, but there was a shield of Light in front of them that prevented me from devouring them.

And where my magic hit that Light, it recoiled.

I dug deeper, delving into the depths of my power, and for the first time in my life, I let it all pour out of me into the world. Unchecked. Unrestrained. A force of death and destruction that began toeateverything living around me. Consuming until I felt the fabric of the Griffin King’s magic fraying all around us.

“Rian, stop! You will rupture the wards of the Vale!” someone screamed at me.

But I was holding them back. I had created a barrier of shadow that the elves could not seem to cross, and I did not care that it was cleaving the Vale in half if it kept my cousin away from them.

Rian, please, you can’t do this! There are fey here!Sage objected, but I ignored him. He may decide never to speak to me again after this, and I still would not have a moment of regret, so long as he was safe.

I love you, cousin. I am sorry,I told him before I shut him out of my mind so thoroughly that there was no way he could try and smother my power like he did before.

I held my shield even as magic began snapping around us like threads of a tapestry, and I could feel that Riordan was trying to respond. The Griffin King desperately tried to hold his kingdom together while I cleaved it apart.

“Go back to the stars where you belong,” I snarled at the Sylvan, my voice strained. “You will not have him.”

I could see the Sylvan Elves through the dark haze of my shadows as they hissed at me, their hands all raised, but they were unable to pass through my shadows. I saw the Griffin King go to his knees, the witch and another warrior grabbing his shoulders to support him as he put his hands right against the quaking earth.

It was bleeding. The ground was leaking tendrils of his magic as I sliced through them and sipped from them like a vampire from a vein.

“You would tear this place asunder!” hissed one elf as if they had just come to this horrifying realization.

“Iwould,” I answered them unflinchingly.

Get Sage out of here!I commanded Darragh forcefully.Do not shift. I do not want them coming foryounext!

I felt his shock, confirming my suspicions about him, about where he came from, and the demidragon complied with my order. Now that he saw I might actually be able to hold the elves off by myself, he grabbed my cousin to haul him away, and the others grudgingly retreated too.

The elves screamed their fury, a piercing keen that was raw and primal, and chilled me to the bone, but I could not help smiling at them in triumph.

“Go back to where you belong and do notevercome for my family again,” I warned them.

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