Page 21 of Surrendering Her Heart

I whip around, scanning the battlefield. Our forces are holding, but barely. The Order presses forward, their line tightening. Behind the advancing line something catches my eye. There are three Zmaj. Two of them are large and hulking but the third is much smaller, half the size of the two with him. But, more than those three, what holds my attention is what I see with them.

A human.

I freeze. My breath shudders out. The battle noise dulls for just a second. A human? Here? Who the hell is that? Why is he with them? He’s not in chains or bound, he looks like… an ally?

Something about him tugs at my memory, a flicker of recognition buried deep. I should know who that is. The four of them watch the battle and look like they’re issuing orders as they watch the battle unfold.

There’s no time to dwell on it. The fight isn’t over. I grit my teeth and press forward, Zamis at my side.

The Order’s forces surge, pressing toward our line and forcing us back step by step. The clash of lochaber blades rings out, a brutal, ancient sound that cuts through the hiss of blaster fire.

A warrior charges me, his scaled face twisted in a snarl, lochaber raised for a downward strike. I duck, rolling to the side, and fireas I move. The energy blast slams into his chest, throwing him backward.

Zamis is a blur beside me, his blade arcing through the air, clashing with another Order warrior. He moves with deadly precision, his wings flaring with each strike, his tail a counterbalance as he pivots and attacks.

“Fall back to the rocks!” Nyanna’s voice rings out over the chaos.

I dart toward the nearest cluster of jagged stone, sliding behind cover as more shots streak past. The ground beside me erupts in a burst of sand and molten rock.

“We can’t hold this position much longer,” Dan says, crouched behind the same boulder, his face streaked with sweat and dust. “They keep coming.”

I risk another glance toward the back of the Order’s lines. The human is still there, flanked by the three Zmaj. He’s too far for me to make out his face clearly, but the unease in my gut deepens.

“Who the hell is that?” I mutter, half to myself.

Dan follows my gaze, then shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter right now. We need a way to turn this around.”

Zamis drops down beside us, blood splattered across his arm. My heart skips. I lean closer, then see that it’s not his own. His golden eyes flick toward me, then to Dan.

“There is nowhere else to go. We hold or we die,” Zamis says.

A blast slams into the rock near my head, sending shards flying. I duck instinctively, my heart hammering. He’s right. No one is coming to save us. We have to find another way. Then I see it.

The ridge above the battlefield, jagged and precarious, but lined with loose boulders. A natural trap. If we can lure the Order’s forces beneath it…

“We can hold,” I say, breathless with realization. “But not here.”

Zamis follows my gaze, then nods once. Understanding passes between us, unspoken.

“Nyanna!” I shout over the fray. “Get everyone back inside!”

“Fall back! Retreat!” Nyanna shouts the order without hesitation.

The shift in our retreat isn’t lost on the Order. They push harder, sensing weakness. I fire wildly as I move, covering the others. Zamis stays close, his blade flashing in deadly arcs, cutting down any who get too close.

Zamis and I fall to the rear of the retreat, dropping behind a boulder close to the entrance, from which cover I lay down suppressing fire. Nyanna is on the other side with her Zmaj at her side. The four of us cover the retreat.

“You too,” I tell Nyanna.

“No, we’ll cover you,” she argues.

I shake my head. Despite the chaos of battle, the rushing adrenaline igniting every nerve, the world becomes calm.

“No,” I say, smiling. “You can’t stay there. They need you. Let me do this. I owe them this much.”

Nyanna opens her mouth to protest but then she snaps her mouth shut. Her eyes glisten brightly. She wants to protest, I see it. Feel it. But instead in a moment of pure understanding shegives me a sharp nod of her head, says something to her Zmaj mate, then the two of them retreat.

The door to the bunker clanks shut with a finality that echoes out of the crevasse. The Order forces are closing in as I look at Zamis.

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