Page 206 of The Lands Defying
A pad of paws comes closer, and then Runa is there. She leans down and licks the side of my face, eyes intently on me.
“Good job. You showed that fucker.” She growls, snapping her teeth as she looks at the beast. “Are you okay?” I ask, looking at her side and she nuzzles my neck.
I get to my feet with her help and raise my hand, dropping the barrier. I need to go and tell Darius that there was a beast here. That there may be more that have gotten through the barrier.
“Let’s go,” I say to Runa. She leans down, dropping her shoulder and I don’t even hesitate. I get on her back—blood and all, and then we run.
“Everyone safe?”I ask down the link.
“Yeah Rhea, you okay?”
“I’m alive.”
“Is it dead?”Kade asks.“I tried to come back to help after I got Sam to safety but Hudson wouldn’t let me.”
“It’s dead.”
“Are you on your way here?”Kade asks.
“I will be soon,”I tell them, then shut the link down again.
I can hear the sounds of growls and shouting the deeper into the forest we go. Theswooshof blades, the calling of males and then the voice I would know anywhere, reaches me next.
“Hold! Do not let them into Eridian!”
Darius.
We head toward him, needing to tell him what happened. His men fight the rogures, and Gods, there are so many of them.
They know we are here, it’s the only thing running through my mind.
The rogures are like the sea, waves upon waves coming forward as the Elites battle with them, making sure none get through.
But the forest floor is littered with bodies from both parties.
A dark blur is suddenly next to us, flames licking his back.
“Drax,” I whisper, watching as he nuzzles into Runa, his two tails swishing on high alert.
When he smells into her neck and growls, Runa’s ears flatten and she moves closer to him. Almost like she is comforting him.
“Rhea!” My head whips to the side, and then I’m jumping down off of Runa and into Darius’s arms.
“Fuck, where are you bleeding, where are you hurt!” His hands are frantic on me, his magic pooling at my feet in protection.
“I’m okay, just scratches.” I already began healing myself on my way here.
“They are not just scratches!” he fumes, eyes flaring.
“There are beasts here.” He pauses, finally stopping his ministrations and looking me in the eye. “The beasts that were in the Drylands.” I swallow roughly. “They are here.”
And as though summoned by my words, roars are heard and we look up to the tops of the cliffs. Beast after beast look down on us, and then they jump down, landing perfectly at the bottom.
“Fall back!” Darius says, his magic pooling at his feet and then spreading out in the creature’s direction. Then he’s lifting me onto Drax’s back in the next moment. “Go. Get into Eridian,. I’ll put a barrier up so you will have enough time to port out of here. I don’t have a stone on me. Fuck. Why don’t I have a stone on me?”
Because we used all of our resources on getting the injured and my pack back to the cabin.
“You need to come back, we can take them down easier in the forest.”
