Page 48 of The Stones for It
My heart thundered as I gave up all pretence and sprinted for them.
Vrath unfurled his wings and set Neiron aside as the other royal shakily copied. One of Neiron’s wings flopped lower than the other, and worry bit at me.
“Lying whore!” a male raged behind me.
Adrenaline spiked my chest, but I was quickly closing in on my mates, and elation buoyed me.
I was going to make it.
Vrath’s eyes darted to my left. A roar burst from his lips.
Golden fur flashed in my periphery.
Something smashed into the side of my face, and the world glitched.
Chapter nineteen
Vrath
Horror gripped me by the throat.
A white-chested royal bouda towered over Kelsea, snarling at her. He’dstruckher.
My beautiful, fierce mortal. My everything.
And he’d knocked her into the dirt like she was some irritating pest to be swatted.
“You dare touch mymate!?” I leapt for the sneering male, summoning my great broadsword with a familiar rush of magic.
Its cold, comforting weight filled my hand in time with my swing.
Shadow metal carved through the male’s scrawny neck with hardly any resistance.
I’d always known the boudas were spineless.
Body and head separated, thudding to the ground beside my groaning mate, a snarl forever mangling the dead royal’s hideous features.
I leapt over the body and rammed my sword through the next shifter, slamming my elbow spike into the eye of a third, trying to sneak up behind me.
Neiron was already at our precious mortal’s side, helping her regain her feet even as he wobbled on his. One of his wings bent at an odd angle. It would be impossible to take off without me setting the bone, despite what he’d told me when I’d untied him.
Blood covered him in a worrying number of patches, but I knew he’d protect our mate with his last breath if he had to.
I didn’t get a chance to grab them and launch us into the air.
A fourth bouda was already on me, capitalising while I was foolishly distracted. I dodged just quick enough for his fangs to snap closed inches from my throat.
I ducked his claws and stabbed through his open jaw before kicking the flailing body off my blade.
Two more royals thundered out between the trees, a male and female with matching snarls. A healthy number of stag shifters followed until the clearing was overrun with enemies. They merged with those already here, their roars and hacking yells echoing as the mass charged me.
They outnumbered us eight to one, but I wouldn’t give up. I had more to fight for now than I’d ever had in the senseless wars that plagued my past.
I swept forward to meet them, drawing the fight away from Kelsea and Neiron. If I was lucky, they’d be able to run while I distracted our foes.
I dropped my broadsword, letting it dissipate into shadows as I called upon my faster, twin blades and immediately lopped off another head as the next bouda reached me.
Three more leapt at once, and I stalled, letting two sail straight into each other’s claws. The third dipped low enough to avoid them and shifted to full hyena in a blur of golden fur and snapping jaws.
