Page 45 of Mated to the Alien Warlord

"Traitors," I yelled and crossed swords with one of Grobhan's males.

Suddenly I heard somebody scream my name and my blood froze. That voice! Impossible.

"Vandor!"

I blocked a blow aimed at my head and turned toward the voice. The warrior used my distraction and tried to spear me with his sword again. Cursing, I parried and brought my blade down, hitting him so hard against his head that he fell off his horse.

"Vandor!"

"Dani! No!" another woman screamed.

My head swiveled to find the source, and then I saw them. A kallini was running down a small hill, long blonde hair trailing her like a wimple and my heart stuttered. That couldn't be. It couldn't.

Another kallini was yelling at her, calling her Dani, and imploring her to stay put, but the kallini was rushing down the hill as if all the demons of dubnos were after her.

I kicked Mordakay forward even though I didn't believe for a moment that the kallini was Damaris. Damaris was safe at Wyrkymburg. She had to be. Anything else was unthinkable.

But the trailing blonde hair…

Movement to her right caught my attention, and my heart stopped. Fionbyr!

He was still too far away for me to see his expression, but he raised his sword high into the air and spurred his horse on, ready to run the kallini through.

Nyck!

No matter how hard my brain tried to convince me that the kallini wasn't Damaris, my heart already knew, just like I knew that Fionbyr would take her head off.

I kicked Mordakay harder, and the horse ran like it had never run before. Jumping over the body of a fallen warrior, the stallion seemed to have wings, as if he, too, had recognized the only kallini who had ever advocated for him.

Now I could see Fionbyr's expression, and it was as hard and determined, as he was as intent on killing her as I was to prevent that from happening.

I arched the tip of my sword through the air, gripped the hilt even harder.

"Vandor!" Damaris screamed my name and this time my brain recognized her voice and resigned itself to what my heart already knew. My czira was in mortal danger. Fully focused on me, she didn't see Fionbyr coming for her.

"Damaris, get down!" I screamed.

Damaris faltered and, somehow, Fionbyr must have caught her attention because she paled and her eyes widened.

"Get down!" I screamed again.

Fionbyr was almost upon her now. His sword was raised as she threw herself to the ground like I had ordered. With soul-crushing force, Mordakay rammed into Fionbyr's horse and viciously bit down on the other horse's neck while my sword caught Fionbyr's as it arched down to take my czira's life.

Sparks flew through the air from the impact of our blades. Fionbyr's horse screamed in pain and threw its head back to bite at Mordakay. Through it all, Fionbyr and I remained in the saddle, solely focused on our hate for each other.

He was a good swordsmale, but I was better, and driven by the immense desire to end his life to answer for all the atrocities he had wrought.

Again and again our swords hit. The horses were now back under our control, still snarling at each other, but following our instructions.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Damaris scrambling away and pushed any thought of why she was here from my mind. First Fionbyr would die, then I would get my answers.

Undilutedrelieffloodedmewhen I finally laid eyes on Vandor proudly riding Mordakay and fighting off Fionbyr's warriors as well as yelling at the khazar's troops to stand back and not harm the civilians. I had never been prouder of him than right there, standing up for the people who couldn't defend themselves, even if they belonged to the enemy's camp.

"Vandor!" I cried, ripping the ridiculous headscarf off my hair, hoping the blonde tresses would catch his attention.

"What are you doing?" Lynette yelled.

"Dani! Stop!" she yelled even louder when my feet began to take me down the hill, straight for the man I loved, unmindful of the dangers surrounding me.

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