Page 26 of Shadow Caster
My gaze flicked to the left where a feyblood couple was blocked from wandering off into the forest by one of the cadets. The feyblood looked familiar, and then I caught sight of his profile. Oberon. Figured.
He was squaring off with the cadet now, getting irate.
Lloyd pulled out of my grip, but I stepped into his path.
“You’re supposed to keep us here, aren’t you?” I peered up at his stern face. “Is there something out there?” My pulse kicked up as the scenario suddenly made sense. “Lloyd, for fucksake answer me. Is there something out there?”
He took a sharp breath through his nose. “Just stay put, and everything will be fine. We have it covered. Everyone is either right here or back at the Academy.”
My breath was coming shallow. “No. No, they’re not.”
His eyes widened. “Minnie’s not back at the Academy, is she?”
I shook my head slowly.
And then a female scream cut across the grove.
Nine
Minnie was in danger.
Nothing else mattered.
There was no stopping me as I blurred past Lloyd and into the forest.
Another scream.
Over fallen tree trunks, and through tangled branches.
Two figures came into view. Back to back with a silvery orb surrounding them.
I skidded to a halt, kicking up dirt.
Harper’s feyblood protection was shielding them from something. But what? I scanned the clearing for the threat.
“Indie, watch out!” Minnie warned.
Something flesh-colored and huge slammed into me from the side, taking me down. My breath whooshed out of my lungs, and a crack was followed by darkness and stars.
Shit.
Do not pass out.
Adrenaline surged through my limbs as my nightblood power took over, and my arms shot up to ward off the beast. Red eyes burned into me from either side of a wide snout with bumpy ridges running up it. A fomorian hound. I’d seen pictures, but how the heck was it here?
Jaws snapped in my face, drool splashed my cheek. My head began to tingle, and my vision blurred.
What the fuck, what the—I bunched my muscles and put everything into the release of tension, throwing the creature off. It slid across the earth, and then snapped its head back toward me and charged again. I braced, ready for impact, but the monster never made it to me. It was met by a mass of muscle and power dressed in black and blue.
Archer Hyde’s six-foot-six frame of muscle grappled with the hound, forcing it back, forcing it away from me. The hound resisted, but Archer locked down. Unmoving, unyielding.
His bionic leg. It was giving him the upper hand. I raked my gaze down his powerful back, over his taut buttocks, and skimmed his legs. The material of the cargo pants was too baggy to make out which leg was the real one and which was the mech one.
“My sword!” he called out over his shoulder.
It was strapped to his back. He couldn’t get to it, not without releasing the hound.
I broke into a run toward him at the same time as Lloyd exploded into the clearing along with two other cadets. They cut across me and made a beeline for Archer and the hound. There was a loud snapping sound.
