“I told you I was only saying it once.” Ice filled Kole’s voice. “You chose not to move. He continually made lewd comments about my female, and Iwarned youthat she was mine.”
“She’s not yours anymore.” The tall one met Kole’s staredirectly. “You just sealed her fate. We’ll each ride her a dozen times, and when we’re done, we’ll slice through her pretty neck and watch the life drain out of her.”
Magic surged inside me at his violent threat just as a roar from the males filled the Wood. The remaining five shifters exploded into action.
Battle cries emitted from their mouths.
Vengeful expressions coated their faces.
In a blink, they’d circled Kole and lunged at him as one.
The criminals moved in blurred speed, in precise coordinated movements, and my heart shot into my throat.
I called upon my magic, about to take all of them down at once, but I paused.
Moving even faster than the criminals, Kole arced his sword, his grace and precision rendering me into stunned immobility.
Steel met steel as the five males brought their weapons down on Kole, yet Kole’s sword met every move inflicted to kill him, countering their blows just as fast.
Heated magic surged around the warrior, his arms twirling faster, his legs blurring into impossible speeds. Air shot from him in gusts too, knocking back the males just as fast.
I was so completely shocked by how he moved and manipulated his air element that I kept my magic within me. It was just like the fight I’d witnessed last night. Kole’s intrinsic magic swelled, clouding around him in a powerful aura as his body and sword became one.
He dipped. Lunged. Impaled. Danced.
Kole was death on wings, and every slice of his sword and gouge of his hand was like watching a symphony of music come to life.
He moved so fast it was difficult to track him, and it was only my activated sight sensory magic that allowed me to watch him at all. He was that fluid. That swift. And the last thing he needed was me helping him.
Something stirred in my chest. Somethingyearnedas I watched him.
But one thing I was certain of. An ancient and primal power embodied the warrior, as if the gods and goddesses had placed him upon this realm to slay and fight. To do exactly as a warrior should.
I didn’t interfere, even though my Mistvale magic was crackling inside me, just ready to be let loose. But I knew enough, and I’d seen enough to understand that Kole wasn’t an Imperial Warrior for nothing.
And he was truly breathtaking to watch.
He cut down the males, one by one, and even though their shifter origins gave them unnatural strength and speed, they were no match for Kole.
Blood rushed in rivers along the road, and groans filled the air as each male lay dying or dead under Kole’s hand.
When only their leader remained standing, he raised his baton, now scarred and punctured from Kole’s vicious attacks. With one last cry, the shifter swung with everything he had.
But an arc of Kole’s sword had his baton splitting in two.
The force of Kole’s blow had the male pitching off balance. He went down on his knees, and on my next breath, the tip of Kole’s sword sliced clear through his throat.
The male’s eyes went as round as the moons, disbelief and shock filling his last expression, a second before his head and body fell in opposite directions.
Breathing hard, my knees sagged in relief that the fight was over, but then I surveyed the carnage, and my stomach churned.
Death spread out before us like a bloody banquet.
A severed arm.
A gutted belly.
Slitted throats.
