Page 291 of The Lands Defying
My heart rate kicks up as I watch those human-like beasts train their eyes on him, on something that is mine.
He’s not going to make it past them.
“Darius, watch out!”
I watch in horror as the beasts go on the attack. They are going to take him off Drax’s back, they are going to hurt him.
My struggle increases, my teeth gnashing together as I try to ignore the pain thrumming through my body.
He’s nearly there, a few feet.
I hold my breath when he reaches them, but he doesn’t collide with them, he doesn’t raise his blade to them.
No.
He moves and crouches upon Drax’s back, one hand in the fur at his neck to keep his balance, and when he’s close enough to the beasts, Drax leaps for one, his jaws open, but that’s not what has me shocked.
When Drax reaches the highest point in his leap, Darius stands to his full height on Drax’s back and then, he jumps. His booted foot lands on the head of one beast, as he jumps to the others, smashing its face as I realize his booted feet are also covered in black.
When the beast starts to tumble back, another beast lunges for Darius, but he jumps, and the claws aimed for him end up embedded in his kin. Darius lands on a roll, instantly getting to his feet again and heading our way, trusting Drax to take care of them.
Shards come from him, a rolling, black mist following in his wake, his usual green eyes shrouded in obsidian.
“You think you are on par with me, boy!” Charles snarls, sending more rogures to Darius as he battles through them.
Darius slices the throat of one rogure, and stabs the other before he puts his palm to the floor. One moment, then two, the mist races forward in a rush, like a wave, before it bursts into flames.
Rogures and beasts screech, that black wave of flames looking so much like Drax’s, crawling up their skin and burning them alive.
Charles growls as he puts his hand in front of him, sending out a blast of power. Darius spins to dodge the attack, running straight for me once again, as he turns wolf and jumps onto a beast.
He’s feral, ripping into the beast and I gasp as claws go into Darius’s side, but I don’t think he even feels it.
I glance behind him as the battle wages on, the snow-covered ground now a sea of red, and I feel sick to my stomach once again.
I close my eyes and try to feel for my power, for anything that can help, but these fucking chains are blocking everything.
“Ahh!” Charles sends more pain shooting through me and I thrash, shaking my head as I feel like my back is about to snap.
“Let her go.” A voice sounds from in front of me, the timbre that of pure darkness, and I peel my eyes open, seeing Darius standing there in human form about twenty feet away, a row of rogures between them as Drax protects his back.
He’s covered in blood, chest heaving, eyes hard and furious. Black flames are at his feet, ready and waiting but not burning him at all.
Elites battle in the background, the villages and the people helping, screams tearing through to us as death litters the ground.
Charles growls in front of me and a rogure turns to look at him, sending the power within. That’s when I notice that their bone-colored eyes have a slight violet tinge to them…
Is that Charles’s magic?
“How sweet,” Charles says, and he moves closer to me, making me tense. “It seems as though you are still bewitched by the Heir’s cunt, Alpha Darius,” he says to Darius.
My Vihnarn takes a step forward, but freezes when Charles floats up to me, placing a blade at my neck.
Charles laughs, jostling the blade, causing me to hiss at the sting. I feel the blood dripping down.
The ground trembles.
“Now calm down,” Charles’s slimy voice tells Darius. “It is but a scratch, but it can be much more.”
