Page 12 of Lera of Lunos
7
Tye
The ground rumbled beneath Tye, the earthquake violent enough to knock him on his back. By the time he rolled to his feet, his mouth gritty with hot sand, the world had changed.
Where the sands of the arena had stretched across flat land, now a grand fissure cracked the field in two. The lips of the new canyon rose higher than Tye’s head, the lacerated earth showing its rocky entrails. And in the middle of it all, bisected by the new abyss, stood a shimmering wall that encircled his Lilac Girl and Viper.
“Leralynn,” Tye shouted, filling the arena with his bellow.
No answer. Not even a distant whimper.
Coal was already there, staring up at the wall, punching it hard enough to break bone. Tye sprinted toward him as fast as he could in the loose sand. When he arrived, Coal turned blazing blue eyes on him and shook his head. Impenetrable.
With a growl, Tye launched himself at the closest of Viper’s blue-clad quint mates, grasping the male’s tunic to lift him into the air. “What the hell is that?” Tye demanded, throwing the male into the silver wall so hard that he heard the sound of skull striking metal.
“Static shield,” the male answered quickly from the ground, holding up his palms. His eyes were wide, his face pale against his pitch-black hair, the smell of fear flowing from him in waves. “We used a ward to tie up all our magics into a shield. We just wanted to separate you. The earthquake isn’t our doing.”
Lera.
Ice gripped Tye’s chest. The lass had held four cords of magic, panicked, and lost her grip on them. And the one thing he could have done to help increase her control—coupling—he’d selfishly refused.
All because he had fallen in love, soul and all, and wanted as much in return. Tye wanted tomate, and in longing for that unattainable bond, he’d put the lass in danger.
A dull roaring filled his ears as he stared at the shimmering wall. Lera was in there. Alone. Perhaps hurt. Certainly scared. Raising his hand, Tye encircled the male’s neck with a collar of flames, holding it so close to the bastard’s skin that it would burn him at the slightest of motions. “Take your shield down.Now.”
“Tye,” River called from across the split in the earth, his voice cutting through Tye’s haze, too calm and steady for reality. River held a panting warrior by one arm. “Let him go. The shield is static—they can’t take it down. It will hold for... How long is the ward for?” River snapped the last words at the male in his grip.
“An hour.” The male swallowed. “Our quint had no chance to beat you. We knew it, you knew it. Viper just wanted to show the council that we tried. Lure the girl away, separate you. Make you twiddle your thumbs for an hour. No one was to get hurt.”
Tye let the collar tighten, scorching the male’s skin. The smell of burnt flesh rose into the air, together with a bit-back scream. “Now someoneishurt.” Tye’s harsh voice sounded foreign even to his own ears. “So call a surrender and end this now.”
“Can’t.” The male held still despite the pain, sweat running down his temples and into his eyes. “We don’t have a surrender left. If we try, the runes will kill us.”
“Let him go.” Coal grabbed Tye’s wrist, though Tye little remembered the warrior moving toward him.
“Why?”
Coal shifted his weight, placing himself directly before Tye, his blue eyes clear and fierce. In another world, the notion of Coal talking Tye down from violence would have been hilarious. Now, it was just noise.
“Because Viper’s quint played by the rules,” Coal said quietly. “There was no malice. Until now. Until you.”
Rules. A phantom hand squeezed Tye’s soul, digging daggers into his heart. Yes, he’d played by the bloody rules once. Right up until they turned on him. Snapped him in two. Lera, so full of life and goodness—she deserved better than the broken male Tye was. He should have slept with her and been grateful, and then he should have let her go.
Coal’s grip tightened, bending Tye’s wrist so painfully that he dropped to his knees beneath the pressure, making the black-haired male moan in fresh pain. With no change in his stony expression, Coal stared down at him, silently pulling rank. “Stand down, you imbecile, and channel what passes for brains into finding a way over this wall. It is infinitely more efficient if you leave murder to me. I’m better at it.” The last came under Coal’s breath, likely not intended to be said aloud at all.
Tye’s nostrils flared but he released Viper’s quint mate, who scrambled away with a sharp gasp.
Coal nodded and eased the pressure on Tye’s joint, though he didn’t let go completely, as if afraid Tye might attack someone else. Coal was smart that way. “The wall is too smooth to climb,” he said, jerking his chin at the shimmering shield rising fifteen feet into the air behind him. “Could your tiger clear it?”
Tye’s stomach turned. Yes, the tiger could clear the wall—maybe. At least enough to get his paws hooked over the top rim. But Tye couldn’t make the animal choose to do so. Just as Tye could do nothing to stop the tiger from attacking everyone in the arena. Tye had failed the tiger just as he’d failed Lera, trading the needs of the developing bond as a colt for something he’d wanted—the heady thrill of flex—only to end up with nothing at all.
“Tye.” Coal’s eyes flashed with blue ice. “I asked—”
Rolling his wrist to free it of Coal’s hold, Tye spread his chest and snarled at the other male. “I heard you. And no, the tiger can’t make the bloody jump.”
8
Lera
