Page 99 of The Storm of the Empire

Our mental connection made us a more complete team than even training could have given us. Every movement she made was given to me a second before she made it.

When the guards were all on the ground, boots thundered down the corridor behind us.

“Move!” I said, and we reached the stairs climbing as fast as we could.

We burst through the door and into the temple, causing priests to turn and stare.

“Come on.” She grabbed my arm and took off at a run across the temple towards the door.

Two priests in the doorway held up their hands in surrender as she charged, sword in hand. They looked terrified, but a sick feeling hit me in the gut, and I knew something was amiss.

“Don’t just let them go!” came Octavian’s harsh command from the stairway.

As Hazel approached the temple doors to either take the priests on or blow right past them, another came from the side, wielding a giant candle stick and doing Octavian’s bidding.

“Hazel!” I screamed, warning her.

She spun without breaking stride and ran her sword straight through him.

I skidded to a stop, mouth agape at the way she’d just cut him down. I almost had to adjust myself. She was too hot for words.

“Really?” She rolled her eyes.

“Really. Would you rather I not enjoy your murderous rage?”I had no shame.

“Males.”

The other two priests scattered, clearly not wanting to be caught at the end of her blade, and we both cleared the doors and ran down the steps in seconds with the sounds of more fae now in close pursuit.

Hazel tossed me her sword as we ran and immediately began to shift, shredding through her clothes because there was no time left.

“Jump on!”she called into my mind as she kept moving, and like it was a rehearsed move, I came alongside her and jumped on her back, tucking her sword into my belt as we launched into the sky.

I slumped forward, breathing hard, barely keeping a hold of her.

“Are you okay?”she asked even as she hauled us into the sky with her powerful wings.

“Not really,”I deadpan.“I’m hard as fuck, and these leathers don’t have enough give for what you do to me. Do you know how hard it is to run like that?”

“How can you think of sex at a time like this?” she growled into my mind. Her rage and ability to be in my thoughts did nothing to ease my raging libido.

“How can I think of anything else? The way you fight is about the sexiest thing I've ever seen.”

“Well, can you focus for a minute? We will have Octavian on our arses if we don’t get clear. I need your magic.”

“What are you going to do?”I asked, looking over my shoulder to see if there was a dragon in pursuit. I didn’t see one, just the temple getting smaller at our backs.

“I can’t outfly him for long if he follows, but —if there’s a storm—I will have the advantage.”

“The storms passed for today.”I replied, never having thought I’d say that with any regret, but it might have helped us. “How are we going to find one?”

Maybe she knew something I didn’t.

“Thats why I need your magic, I’m going to summon one.”

“You’re—what?”I choked.“Won’t that kill me? Disrupt my magic?”

“No, we’ve melded. We share magic now, which means mine won’t hurt you.”

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