AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded. “Agreed.”
His head twitched in a short nod as well.
“Move out,” Dex ordered.
We ran for the city.
I’d had nightmares nicer than this.
No matter where we went, buildings were burning, and smoke poured from windows and doors, while harpies dove and slashed at anyone they could reach. The humans who lived here were trying to evade them, frantic to reach people still screaming within their homes, but the flames and monsters stopped them every time.
But whenever we reached a new blaze, Lars was there. Niko too. While my blond giant flung out his arms at the flames, making the fires fall back and vanish like snuffed out candles, Niko was right behind him. He sent thick roots erupting from beneath the cobblestones to climb the crumbling walls, keeping them from collapsing completely once the flames were gone. Over and over, Ozias and Casimir lunged into the fray, slashing and stabbing any harpies they could find. Ruhl swept around Byron like a vortex of smoke, guarding the scholar while he murmured spells over the nuggets of ore in his hands and then flung them at the dying harpies.
The Voidborn thrashed, burning up in flares of light that burst out everywhere the nuggets of ore fell.
Everywhere we went, the human guards seemed torn on whether to attack. But Dex and Clay ignored them, racing into the houses and returning shortly with injured people from within, and soon, the leaders among the guards were shouting orders for their subordinates to help my men.
It gave me hope. Maybe the humans wouldn’t automatically attack us when this was over. Maybe my men being forced to reveal their powers hadn’t destroyed any chance of keeping Lord Thomas as an ally.
A screech came from above.
“Gwyneira!” Niko shouted.
A harpy crashed through the wall at my side, its chest impaled by an arrow. Bringing the wall down with it, the creature careened toward me, claws flailing as it fell.
There was no time to run.
My body instinctively flashed into shadow, and I whipped to the side, whirling out of the path of the monster and the falling stones.
With a sickening sound, the harpy slammed into the cobblestone road and didn’t move again.
Reaching the sidewalk, I shifted back. My pulse raced. My eyes darted around, seeking another threat, another ballistic monster, anything.
Standing at the street corner, Lord Thomas stared at me.
My hope faltered. Accepting the giants was one thing, but what I’d just done…
A desperate cry tore my focus away from him. It sounded like it came from a burning house farther down the road.
And it sounded like a child.
I ran.
“Gwyneira!” Lars shouted behind me.
I kept going. Fire poured from the windows of the one-story house, and snapped and snarled from holes it had chewed into the roof. But when I reached the doorway, the flames suddenly fell back, and I threw a glance over my shoulder to see Lars staring after me in shock, one arm outstretched.
I nodded my thanks and started inside. On the far end of the room, two little boys were yanking frantically on a fallen ceiling beam. A woman lay beneath it, unconscious and pinned by the heavy wood. More beams crisscrossed the space, creating an unstable barricade, while tiles from the roof were suspended precariously overhead. Based on the charred rubble all around, it was clear the three of them had been trapped in the only spot in the room that hadn’t been engulfed in flames only a moment ago.
But they’d had no way out.
I smiled, trying to look friendly and nonthreatening. “Hi.” Carefully, I picked my way between the fallen beams. “I’m here to help.”
A screech came from overhead, and the little boys gasped.
“It’s all right.” I kept myself from looking upward. “Just stay focused on me, okay?”
The boys trembled. They were like mirror images of each another, with short-cropped dark hair, round faces, and wide brown eyes. The boy on the left was taller by a few inches than his sibling, and he held himself like a child trying with all his might to appear unafraid. Their clothes were made of rough fabric but neatly stitched, though now soot smudged them both.
