To Defend A Bride (Entangled with the Enduar #3)

Chapter 41

Chapter 41

RA’SA

R A’SALORE, Melisa’s voice fills my mind. Come!

Already shifted and mind hazy, I bolt up. The two girls nestled next to me, and I growl at the furry addition when I find the wolf has joined us.

Then I hear a scream.

Thea wakes up first and starts to cry.

Fuck, I think as I lunge forward and pull them close.

“Shh, it’s all right. I’m here,” I tell them, trying to quiet them as the wolf goes on high alert. She paws at each girl, nudging them with her nose. Red light shines outside the tent.

No. No, no, no.

Melisa. The women. The men.

I haul Thea and Wren out of the tent with me and immediately see burning torches and spears. The air smells of blood.

Melisa! I call out.

I’m here. In the cabin, she responds. Get the girls to me. They’ll be safe inside.

The girls cling to me, and the wolf circles in front of us, protective and alert. We leave behind all the belongings in the tent, and I take off sprinting toward the structure.

“We’re going to your mother,” I say soothingly as the girls hang cling to my neck. “I’m going to leave you with her, and then I’ll get rid of the bad people.”

When I reach the back of the cabin, the screams undercut the goodbye as I set them both down. They cry, but the wolf comes between us. She nuzzles them away from me, away from the fighting, and up to the back door.

“Stay down. I will return,” I promise as someone opens the door, but I run back to the fighting.

Ra’Sa, the girls are here. Are you okay? Melisa asks. An ugly lick of fear paints her voice. It shreds my insides into ribbons.

Just let me take care of this. It will be fine.

People are dying, is her only response.

The words gut me, and I sprint toward the fighting. Even though interrupted, sleep did me good. I can feel it in the quick return of my magic. I feel the feet pound against the ground, the way the giants beat against the rock with more force than the humans.

I count, finding an entire squadron of forty giants racing across the ground. I also feel the fire heat the stone in the ground.

When I burst through the trees and into the light, the ground beneath us is already covered with oil. They mean to burn us, just as we have done to them time and time again in the last week.

Several men run to me, including Nicolás and Felip. Felip has already helped me with several raids, so I give him simple instructions.

“Spread out, don’t allow yourself to be caged in. Stab just as quickly as you dodge.” Then I add, “Ignore the fallen. There will be time to mourn them after—right now is for the surviving.”

Nicolás nods alongside Felip with a sharpened ax.

I draw up a new weapon from the stony earth and lift it high.

I let out a bellow, wishing for a proper battle song.

Memories sing the beats back to me as I jump into the bloodbath. As I hack and slice, men fall, and the closer I get to the cabin where Melisa is hiding with the weapon.

I’m coming soon , I reassure repeatedly, despite the fear I feel flooding through her.

Using my stone bending, I blow back the oil barrels and clear heads off shoulders. It’s all become so awfully normal. With each death, I don’t feel regret or joy. I feel relief that one less threat exists for my people and me.

After the first wave of giants are slaughtered, another pours out of the trees. This time, my men start to fall. Each life slips through my fingers, part shock and part rage. When I look up, I see my mate watching me through the cracks in the door.

Get out of sight! I yell down the bond.

Ra’Sa, behind you!

Three giants come near me, cornering me in a copse of trees. I look up to them and slash just as one of them runs and crashes atop me. He flattens me to the ground, and I gasp as the air is knocked out of me. I can hardly fight back as he drags me by the hair through the snow to the center of the fighting. Around me, there are bodies stacked atop each other and men bound with ropes.

The ground beneath us is wet with snow, oil, and blood.

It’s not a good combination for burning, but the giants don’t care. They look at me with their fury-raged eyes. Multiple sets of hands hold me down as they press spears into my back and bind me with ropes to other men.

It’s an ugly, gruesome sight.

When I try to stand, one of the warriors kicks me in the legs hard enough to fall. My bones crack, and the Fuegorra in my chest bursts into light.

“Fucking cave rat!” one of the giant’s roars and signals to another giant as I writhe and pant through the pain. “Over here! Burn him first! And you get inside that godsdamned shed! There are more hiding in there!”

I start to panic through the agony and throbbing from the Fuegorra’s healing. The slick, chilled oil splashes over me as I thrash against the bindings.

When I look up, I see Melisa’s moved and is now standing outside the doorway.

My heart lurches, and I want to throw myself in front of her, hide her from the men who threaten to kill us all.

Run, I cry through the bond.