Page 86 of Forging Bonds: Part One

I brace myself for impact. Willing my swords to disappear so I don’t stab myself when I land. I’m going to try to roll, but going at this speed it’s not going to be fucking easy, and it is a pretty pointless thing to try. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t even try, but my magic is there. I can feel it. It has given me extra speed and strength, and I’m hoping that somehow that’s going to translate into this situation, and I’m going to be able to absorb the impact in some way.

My hope doesn’t take away the fear though.

As the ground rushes up to meet me, I can’t help it; fear floods me, and I brace myself for pain and squeeze my eyes shut.

I hit something, but the pain doesn’t come. Instead, an intense feeling of safety comes over me, my heart beating with the complete opposite of the fear that was just flooding my system.

I know that feeling.

My eyes pop open, and I look up at an absolutely furious Coen; his back is to his team, and I’m cradled in his arms. His eyes are studying my face, looking over me to see if I’m hurt in any way. His nostrils flare slightly as a murderous glint enters his eye, and I know without a doubt in my mind that he’s scented the blood from the slice on my back.

“I’ve got you, Love,” he says so incredibly quietly that I only know what he’s saying because I’m staring so intently at his mouth and can read his lips.

He reluctantly puts me down. I don’t want him to put me down, it’s been so fucking long since I’ve been in his arms, and I miss him so fucking much. I don’t know what he sees in my expression, but his eyes fill with anguish, and he starts to lift his arms as if he’s going to wrap me in them again before he drops them. His hands clenching tightly at his side.

I know that he’s stopped himself because of the cunt, and anger burns through me. He smirks, clearly seeing how angry it makes me and his eyes beg me to help him. Before I can say anything to him, before I can reassure him that I will do absolutely everything in my power to find out how Kylen is controlling him and that I’m on it and I’ve got him, before I can say any of that, Kylen yells furiously, making Coen turn around immediately although the hatred that flares to life in his eyes sends a shiver down my spine.

Coen is truly terrifying, and I would hate to be on his bad side. Under normal circumstances, he is stronger than he should be, and even with his dragon locked down like he is, Coen is still absolutely formidable.

I move with him, turning to face Kylen as well. I need to watch how they interact so that I can find out how Kylen is controlling Coen. Unfortunately, that means that my only real chance to do that is during our tasks for the Choosing, and since he’s decided that I am the one who is going to be doing the tasks, that means that I’m going to have to get really good at multitasking.

We are still being attacked though, and I make sure that I keep one eye on the creature who seems to be gearing up for another attack. I am not going to have long to watch this interaction before I need to fight off the creature again and figure out my next plan of attack.

“Coen, get back here now,” he orders. I watch them both closely, and Kylen’s hand subconsciously moves to the chain around his neck as he adds with a dark menace to his voice, “Remember your place.”

Coen growls, his eyes darting to the necklace.

Okay, so that’s the thing I need to get my hands on and destroy. Thank you very much. I have absolutely no doubt that I’m right. They both interacted with it in some way, while Kylen was threatening Coen. It’s at least a start. I’m good at taking things that don’t belong to me, and I am pretty confident that I can get my hands on that necklace without alerting Kylen to the fact that it’s gone.

Well, he won’t notice straight away, at least. Hopefully, by the time that he does notice, it will be too late; Coen will be free, and judging from the hatred in Coen’s eyes, I guess that Kylen will be in a lot of pain.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Neith

“Get back in line,” Kylen hisses and Coen reluctantly moves. His whole body is tense, and I fucking hate it.

A battle cry from the creature pulls my attention away from the cunt I want to kill, but not before I realize that if Coen hadn’t caught me, I would have landed on some incredibly sharp-looking rocks that were hidden just below the surface of the sand and must have been exposed with my fight with the creature.

If I had landed on those rocks, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would have died.

He saved my life.

Again.

I physically shake myself, I don’t have the time to think about this right now. There’s a giant and very pissed-off creature heading straight for me. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the Draconian Team rush to move out of the way. Coen’s movements are heavy, but he’s still following them. I have a feeling that the help that he just gave me was the only help that he’s going to be able to give. The creature moves incredibly fast, faster than it was moving before, and I spin on my heel as I scramble to move out of the way quickly enough.

Its fist hits the ground just behind me, sending a shock wave through the ground and causing me to stumble and fall. I end up rolling ass over tit before I somehow finally stop, looking back at the creature who is approaching me quickly. The reverberations from his pounding feet make the ground move and shake, and as I scramble to get up, I get knocked down again.

Shit.

Suddenly I find Betty in my hands, I don’t know why. She’s a gun. She won’t be able to kill something supernatural, and I have no idea what bullets she’s got in her at the moment. I think they’re just ordinary ones. The creature is closing in, the ground is shaking more, and I know that I’m absolutely screwed. I’m not going to be able to move quickly enough to get out of the way. My only option is Betty, I have just got to hope that by some miracle she will hit something on him before he disintegrates, and it will distract him enough that I can at least get up and maybe even climb him to stab that third fucking eye.

I push back with my feet, my back scraping against the hot sand, and I ignore the pain it causes in the cut on my back as I scramble further away. I take aim. Betty vibrates slightly in my hand, and I smile.

My smile widens as I decide to take the shot at his third eye.

“Come on Betty girl, we’ve fucking got this,” I say, my smile still firmly in place as I pull the trigger.

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