Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay,” he promised me, lifting the gun to fire.
More vargrs had come through the rift and one hit him in the back, and the two of them went rolling away, only the barrel of the shotgun, wedged between the jaws of the wolf, keeping Lorne from having his face ripped off.
Barely able to lift myself up, I shoved my hands into the earth.
Save my love, I said.
And you, the land answered.
Like fingers lifting from the ground, both Lorne and the vargr were covered in soil and then sucked down into the earth. In seconds Lorne was pushed up, left heaving for breath, his shotgun beside him, with no sign of the vargr.
Sever the roots. They are poison, I said.
The roots will do you no harm, the land answered.
As predicted, the land saw no reason to fear that which the queen had sown so long ago. She was magic like me, had probably sung to the earth as she pressed the seeds deep inside. I couldn’t convince Corvus something was dangerous if it perceived it as benign.
Lorne fell down beside me, loading the gun, turning it on Threun, but in the next instant Gaeidhel was there, her long hands turned to talons on his throat, cutting off his air.
My head fell back as I called on my power, on all that was left.
Lorne was wrenched from her hand, she was thrown back as if punched, and he was heaving for breath.
“Oh, baby,” he moaned, moving to me, taking my face in his hands, and when his skin touched mine, I realized I was freezing. I wanted him to wrap me in his arms and hold me tight. “You have to wait for me from now on. Next time, you don’t go without me.”
Next time. I loved that. Always hopeful, Lorne. “I promise,” I whispered as he pulled me to him, hand in my hair, so gentle with me, tucking my head under his chin for a moment, both of us seeing the crumpled piece of metal the shotgun now was.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, kissing my temple. “Don’t leave me. Don’t ever leave me.”
The jolt of power was a surprise.
When he clutched me against him, I felt the warmth surround me.
Oh…I had no idea.
Much like earth magic, our joining had bound us together, was alive between us, living and breathing, and because of that, Lorne became part of me, part of the magical, sacred loop that flowed out of me and into him and then right back again. There was an unbroken circle, and because of that, now some of my power lived in him continually, a reserve I could tap into because he was something I never imagined he would be—my mate.
I lifted my hands and pushed. Through the wards, through my connection to the land, through the joining with Lorne, I shoved everything at the knights, and they were flung off their feet, high into the air, lost to sight before they were yanked down like magnets to steel and sucked into the ground. Gaeidhel was caught in a funnel of wind that smashed her against the monstrous roots of whatever she’d planted long ago. I watched as she coughed up blood.
“Enough!” Threun bellowed, and Lorne and I were thrown back, twisting and bouncing as though falling down a steep hill, rolling over, until we both hit the roots I’d lifted from the ground earlier.
I’d heard the cracking as I rolled, knew things were broken, and felt it deep inside, that I was more than simply hurt. Struggling to sit up, worried I was too damaged to fight on, I watched as more vargrs came through the rift, ten at least, more knights, and then the worst—Threun took Gaeidhel’s hand and she instantly healed, standing again, tall and strong. He lifted his sword then, high in the air.
“I claim this land in the name of Threun the blood bringer. It is mine and shall die like all else in my path.”
He was going to bury the broadsword to the hilt in the ground, and I lifted, barely, knowing I’d reached my end, but needing to protect Corvus with all that was left, all that I knew I could give. And my last would save Lorne as well because the land knew what he was to me.
My left arm was fractured, useless to me, so I shoved my right hand into the earth.
Take me, I begged.
I needed the land to use me to heal itself, to stay strong, to not fall to Threun. I was prepared to die, to be drawn down into the earth. As a guardian I always had to be ready to trade my life for the land, as so many of my line had. That was the great secret of the bond, that it was forged from the blood and bones of my ancestors.