Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter Ninety-FiveMaddox

Chapter Ninety-Five

Maddox

A sword lashed up my side, splitting the skin, and I growled out against the pain before turning to the source, swiping my sword through the neck of the Vasi who stood there before I ever saw her face.

Two more ran up beside her, and I dodged the hand of the left while throwing my forearm up to block the fangs of the right from landing on my throat.

His jaw locked into my skin so deep that his fangs seemed to get stuck for a moment, which gave me time to pull a dagger and swipe it down the neck of the other Vasi, and push him onto the deck of the ship, as I turned to decapitate the Vasi still latched onto me.

I bent down to rip out the heart of the one whose throat I’d slit and then realized that the other Vasi’s head was still hanging onto my arm.

I wrapped a hand into his hair and pried it off of me as I turned about the boat, looking for Evaline.

Last I’d seen her she’d tackled Lauden in the water, and the longer she was down there the more the worry wound through my gut.

“Mads!” I heard Wyott shout behind me and turned to see him fighting four Vasi across the deck from me. His face was contorted into a scowl of concentration, teeth gritted, his face and hair soaked in blood.

I ran behind him, felt that the gash in my side and forearm still hadn’t healed yet, and fought two while he killed the others.

When we’d finished, and their bodies lay at our feet, our chests heaved as we moved to stand back to back.

We looked around, and I knew he was looking for Cora.

“There,” I said pointing to where she stood on one of the rear ships, screaming orders by the look on her face, but it was impossible to hear from here. The rage of war drowned out all else.

We’d cleared most of the Vasi on this ship, and for a moment, there was a break. We pulled our backs from one another and looked ahead.

Looked for Vasier.

I clutched the wound at my side and saw him hold a wound over the back of his shoulder.

Before we’d looked out too far ahead, we jumped in surprise as the sound of boots landed on the ship behind us.

We both turned, raised our weapons up in defense, and watched as Dean stumbled over to us, jumping down from the rear platform.

Only a few minutes ago I’d seen Sage portal him to the back of our formation, so to see him near us now, where we were halfway up the right side of the circle, and to see how torn to shreds he was, I knew he’d just fought several Vasi to make his way up to us.

He came to stand on my other side, bracing a hand on my shoulder to catch himself.

He raised his other hand, blood dripping from it, toward the front of our fleet’s formation, breathing too heavily to speak.

And when Wyott and I followed his finger, we understood why he looked so haggard, why he’d fought so hard to get here so quickly.

Because a few ships into the Vasi formation, was Sage. And Vasier.

It was hard to see from here if she was hurt, but it looked like his hand was wrapped around her throat.

We all took a step, ready to run for them, when Vasier let go of her, and walked past her.

My brows furrowed, a frantic pulse of panic ripping through my chest as I craned my neck to see who he lunged for, terrified it was Evaline.

But even when I saw that it wasn’t my mate, my terror didn’t ease.

It was my father.

The two brothers—the twins—ran for each other. They didn’t pull weapons, only bared their teeth, and collided in a mass of swinging fists and gnashing fangs.

And my father, despite our differences, despite our strain, was my father.

I knew he didn’t want to fight Vasier, that the fear at seeing his brother’s death—or being the one to deliver it—was only overshadowed by the love he had for my mother, for me, for the rest of our family.

Fear shot through me as we all began to move, to run forward, but just as we did, the water erupted.

On the other side of the ship to our right, the water burst open. The sea splashed out in all directions, sending a salty spray over everything around it, and atop a small spout of water, was Evaline.

Chest heaving for breath, eyes wild with battle and looking every bit the Goddess of Bloodshed herself, her eyes landed on mine almost instantly.

I breathed a sigh of relief, that at least she was safe, as her water dumped her on the deck of the ship beside us.

She looked to Dean, who stood between us on my right, and she followed his gaze.

And when she saw my father, my uncle, fighting atop the deck of the Vasi ship, she fell into a run beside us.

I could see Sage dodge the hands of a Vasi, and try to reach forward to interject in the brother’s fight, but before she could, another Vasi pulled her away from them, and launched her a few ships over.

Dean roared beside me, and I turned to him as we ran.

“Go,” I called.

He gave me a look of gratitude, and then cut right, planting a foot on the edge of the ship to launch himself out over the open water of the middle of our fleet’s formation, aimed for the boat she fought on.

We left Evaline behind quickly, even with her added abilities she couldn’t run as fast as we could, and when there were Vasi in the way, we only lowered our shoulders to cut right through them.

But the one nearest Wyott lowered his own, crouched down with his arms braced, and when he and my brother made impact, he pushed back.

And instead of Wyott cutting right through the Vasi, one of the largest I’d ever seen, his shoulders spanning just as thick and wide as Wyott’s, my brother was thrown off, to the side, clear into the open waters at the center of our fleet’s formation.