Page 97 of Fate and Flame
The smart ones ran. Perhaps we should have run also.
“You’re beautiful.” Her honeyed voice enraptured Greeve as he stepped forward. “Perhaps I’ll keep you.”
I felt the physical pull to her words. Rhogan dropped his hands to his sides and his sword dragged along the ground as he took several willing steps toward her. I sank my fingers into his feathered wing and yanked him backward. His heavy body was reluctant to submit. “Don’t listen to her,” I barked.
Greeve shook his head and disappeared, the wind carrying him like a cyclone. The creature screamed as black blood poured down her arm. I could feel the thrum of my heart, the sweat pour down my neck, the tension in my muscles as I stood useless, watching as the drac continued to slash at her until she hissed and crouched, still not standing on the ground. Lashing out with her sharpened fingers as he surrounded her, her body jerked each time he made contact.
Rhogan moved in to swing his enormous sword from behind, but he hesitated.
Greeve landed several feet away. His shoulders rising and falling as he tried to catch his breath. Blood poured from his wounds, glistening down his back and dropping to the deep red sand below his feet. He may have been hurting her, but she was definitely doing more damage. With Greeve on the ground, Rhogan stepped in, his sword giving him some distance from her vicious claws.
I ran to Greeve and reached to heal him, but he pulled away.“Let me help you. It’s why I’m here.”
He was reluctant but nodded. I placed my hand on his shredded back and tugged on my magic until it was flowing from me.
But then Rhogan yelled and Greeve whisked away, barely receiving any healing as he moved back in toward the female.
A farmer who stayed behind began shooting arrows at the tharraing. Rhogan was trying to dodge them while still swinging his sword and trying to avoid hitting Greeve, who we couldn’t see at all as he struck the creature. He took an arrow to the shoulder before I could tackle the rancher to the ground.“You’ll kill them both,” I screamed into his ear.
“Fine, as long as she goes with them,” the fae grunted as he tried to shove me off of him.
I drew my arm back and cracked him in the face, his nose shattering as blood poured from his nostrils. I grabbed his shoulders and slammed his head on the ground. I didn’t want to use my power to debilitate the bastard if I didn’t have to. “Do you really think you’re going to kill that thing with an arrow when those two together can’t take her down?”
“Get the fuck off of me.” He breathed through his nose, and blood splattered across my face.
“He’s right, Ullo,” another rancher said as he grabbed his friend and nodded at me. “Best we leave the drac to it.” I moved off of him as the one who spoke up pulled his friend to his feet. “Better get to the others and make sure they’re locked in. Good luck,” he said over his shoulder as the rest of the bystanders backed up. Not all of them left, but they kept their distance, observing.
I turned back to the battle, watching her body twist back and forth. She kept an eye glued to Rhogan while dodging Greeve as he struck her time and time again. Her eyes began to calculate, her smile spreading again as she struck like a snake and snatched him from the air. She slashed and slashed at him until he was bleeding from every surface of his body.
“Save him,” Rhogan yelled as he pounded forward, lifting the sword high above his head to bring it down upon the tharraing.
She dropped the drac and turned just in time to dodge his blow, the weapon landing inches from Greeve’s discarded body. She wanted Greeve. She moved back toward him multiple times, but as Rhogan became the more pressing threat, he drew her backward far enough that I could reach the draconian.
I sank to my knees in the sand and placed my sweaty hands on Greeve. The phantom pain reverberated through my own body, and I had to push it away. The last time I had laid my hands on someone hurt so bad his pain seeped into me was Oleonis, and he died. I closed my eyes and tried to keep my ears open as I immersed myself into the well of magic guiding it through him.
“Hold on,” I ordered his unresponsive body.
I didn’t take the time to numb him from the pain. As my magic moved through him, it was going to burn like hell, but I had to reserve what I could because he would need nearly all of it. Starting from the top and working my way down, I closed the severed blood vessels, nerves, and tendons.
I glanced up to check on Rhogan. One of his wings hung awkwardly behind him, and much like Greeve, he was bleeding profusely. He could barely lift his sword to block blow after blow from the creature that must have clawed her way from hell upon birth. Rhogan fell to one knee, his face utterly defeated. Each of his breaths as labored as the draconian’s were faint. He collapsed to the ground, face first into the burning hot sand as the creature reached for him, lifting him until he hung suspended in the air. This battle was already almost over.
I pulled my hands from Greeve. I couldn’t save him. I couldn’t heal him and do what I knew I needed to do in order to save the rest of the world. I wouldn’t have the magic for both.
“Hey,” I yelled, trying to draw her attention before she could tear Rhogan’s soul from his body. “Take me first.”
Her head snapped sideways, the smile once again spreading across her striking face.“Why should I?” she asked, drawing me in with that siren’s call.
“I am mated. If you sever my soul, you kill both of us.”
Her eyes went wide, and she was before me in an instant.“Two souls for one?” She tilted her head as she watched me.
“And I won’t even fight you,” I answered, hoping she moved a few inches closer.
“No,” Rhogan grumbled from the ground. “Temir.”
“Too late.” The tharraing grabbed my shoulder.
I didn’t hesitate. I laid my hand over her arm and let the dark magic nearly drain me in an instant. The breath shot from my lungs at the immediate void. She didn’t shriek, moan or even blink. One moment she was alive and the next she was dead.
