Page 72 of The Lands Defying
Josh pants at my side, his eyes glancing my way, then looking at Darius and nodding, picking up his speed with Colten, Hudson, and Taylor.
They know Darius won’t let anything happen to me.
“Fuck,” Leo curses, looking behind him as he runs next to Darius. “We need to move faster before they crash down on us.”
“Don’t let up,” Damian says, running ahead of us before changing into his wolf.
Wait.“Josh,”I call down the link, and he tilts his head. “Go wolf, tell the others..”
“And the rest of you,” Darius says to his men as he nods to Leo.
The next moment is a blur of fur and they take off. Thankfully, they are much faster on four paws.
“And you, Dar, go.”
“You really think I would leave you, little wolf.” I feel his magic at my back, like it’s holding on.
No. I don’t think he would.
I look around as more screams fill the air, and a troll gets crushed under a sheet of stone. I wince. What in the Gods caused the lands to do this.
I think back to the dragon. It looked like it came from within a mountain, but I don’t think it caused this earthquake which is now turning into some rocky landslide at our back.
The rock-made houses of the trolls collapse in on themselves through the trembling of the ground, nothing but one with the earth as we keep moving around them, jumping over the rubble of their now destroyed homes. I cough, covering my mouth from the dust the devastation has created, blinking rapidly as it gets in my eyes again.
Trolls continue to be crushed under rock all around us, and I stumble as my heart clenches, slipping over stone, and that hand on my back urges me to keep going or we will be next.
Death surrounds us, cries, screams and rocks crunching and crashing are all that can be heard, along with the heartbeat in my ears. I take a peek behind me, to the rocks tumbling our way and I think we have enough time to get to the end of the valley, we can make it.
A devastating scream comes from up ahead, and my ears hone in on it. My eyes lock onto a female troll picking up rocks with desperate cries, moving them away from what looks like what was once her home.
The noises she’s making are one of pain and heartbreak, and I can hear them so clearly over the screams and shouts of others. I nudge Runa in her direction, demanding she give me more of her strength. I feel my power swelling within, filling me with a need to help her.
I will it to my feet, and then I’m moving, gliding, the fastest I have ever moved. I rush past trolls, avoiding their path as they run toward the cries.
“Rhea!” Darius shouts behind me. “Where are you going, it’s not safe!”
I reach the troll within moments, ignoring the shouts at my back. I can feel Darius’s furious growl in my soul, but I can’t ignore the painful sounds coming from this troll.
“What’s wrong,” I ask her, stepping up to her side. She points towards the rubble with a trembling hand, panic in her wide eyes. I look down, heart hammering within my chest when I can just make out a small hand peeking out. “Fuck.”
I lean down and grab the boulder that’s on top of the body, digging my hands into the stone as best as I can and push. The female troll’s palms land next to mine, trying to help with tears streaming down her dust covered face, but the boulder isn’t moving.
Come on, Come on.
“We need to go, now Rhea!” Darius demands at my back when he reaches me, and I shake my head and grit my teeth, trying to push harder. Trying to get this fucking stone to move. To get to the small body beneath it.
The female troll is openly sobbing now, words and pleas coming from her mouth as she puts everything she has into it. She pulls back and throws her shoulder into the stone. It cuts her, red leaking out of her skin but she doesn’t seem to notice.
“Help me Darius, vallier,” I plead, not looking at him as I grunt and will my power to my hands. It doesn’t listen, does not move from where it’s settled at my feet.
“Rhea, fucking move!” he growls, grabbing hold of my shoulder.
I shrug him off aggressively. “No, help me.”
“I will not risk your life over others!” He grabs my arms next, but I push him on a cry.
“Then help me so we can all get out of here!” I growl, trying to yank on my power, to move it, grab it, fucking shouting at it in my mind to move, but it doesn’t.
