Page 202 of The Lands Defying
A sound reaches my ears and I tilt my head.
It can’t be.
No.
I know that sound.
That howl.
Darius and I both turn and see the bone-colored eyes glowing in the distance. There are so many of them, like drops of pearls hanging from the dead branches, and I gasp.
“But how?” I say to Darius as he hauls me back to him. “How did they get here and no one noticed?” Elites were guardingfurther into The Deadlands, we would have been notified unless. “They’re dead.”
“Fuck, we need to get to Eridian, now.” He pulls the port stone out. “To me.”
As soon as the Elites are near, two things happen.
One, the Elites trip over themselves to get to us, and two…
The rogures run, and they run right for us.
We land at the edge of Eridian, rushing forward as their haunting howls follow us.
“There are still injured people here Darius, we need to get them moved,” I say as we run through the protection crystals at the lilk trees.
“I know, I’ll gather my men to attack and defend, can you move them?”
“On it.” I say, and then I’m grabbed into strong arms.
“Be fucking careful. I need you to be safe, so just focus on getting the injured out of here.”
“I can help!” I protest.
“I know you can, little wolf,” he says more softly. “But I don’t think I can help anyone if you are near. I would walk past anything to get to you. My men dying, the rogures destroying, it won’t matter if you need me. We both know Charles sent them, he knows we are here.”
I know this.
My heart stutters, and I reach up and rub my nose with his. “For me, you can try, vallier. I cannot just stay back while they come into my home, Dar.”
He looks off to the side and then gives me a hard kiss. “Hit hard and fast, and stay with someone if you need to, okay? Vow it Rhea,” he growls, body tense.
“I vow it.” With one last, lingering look, we split up.
“Josh, rogures are upon us, gather everyone to fight, and then we need to start moving the injured to my cabin to port them somewhere safe.”
“Fuck .Where are they coming from?”he replies.
“The Deadlands.”
Fifty Nine
Rhea
“Come on,” I say to the Elite, who has half a leg missing from the attack on the keep. “Hold on to me and we can get you there.”
I wipe the sweat from my brow and hold the male up as best as I can. It’s times like this that I wish we had enough port stones for everyone, but we just don’t have that many in our supplies, and we can’t risk going back to the keep right now with it being mostly destroyed.
“Shit,” the male grunts, and then he falls forward, taking me down with him.
