Lexi rested her hand against the wall and rose. “And we should go to them now.”
The shadows shifted again, and she could hear Cole’s teeth grinding together, but he held his hand out to her. She slid her fingers into his.
He didn’t like her pushing herself, but he was her fiancé. More importantly, he was her partner, and they would work together throughout all of this.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
They steppedout of the portal to Verdan and into a world of chaos, death, and destruction raining down on the village of Gramarye. Screams rebounded around them; the fires streaming into the air consumed the teepee-like structures the witches resided in.
“No!” Kaylia gasped.
A screaming witch sprinted by them. The fire consuming her hair and clothes enveloped her as smoke streamed behind her. Kaylia jumped on her; she pulled the woman down as a thunderous boom reverberated through the air, and the earth heaved like ocean waves rolled beneath the dirt.
Smoke choked the air, and the fire crackled as it devoured the trees and homes. One of the trees gave way and crashed to the earth with a thunderous boom that sent more flames leaping high as sparks erupted into the air.
Cole grasped Lexi’s arm and spun her toward the portal as lycans armed with spears and bows emerged from between the fires. One of them plunged a spear into a fleeing witch. Lifting her off the ground, he laughed as she flailed while sliding further down the wooden shaft.
“Get in the portal!” Cole shouted at Lexi.
He pushed her toward the open portal as a lycan charged through the fray toward them. Spinning to plant his body in front of hers, Cole grasped the spear’s tip as the lycan plunged it toward his heart.
Jerking the weapon up, Cole bent the spear’s tip over until it snapped. The lycan’s momentum carried the beast of a man toward him as Cole yanked the broken shaft free from his grip.
As the lycan came toward him, he also transformed. His jaw extended, and lethal claws erupted from his fingertips.
“Colburn,” it sneered in a voice more animal than man as it crashed into him.
Cole plunged the spear’s broken end into the thick muscle covering the man’s abdomen. Cole released what was left of the useless weapon and seized the man’s shoulders as the lycan lashed out with his claws.
A searing pain lanced down Cole’s side; warm blood trickled down his skin and plastered his tunic to him as the lycan sliced him open to reveal his ribs. Cole snarled as the lycan’s teeth snapped in his face.
He sank his extended claws into the fur now tickling his palms as he spun with the lycan and smashed the wolf off a tree. The creature released a howl as its spine broke and the tree cracked in half.
“Motherfucker,” Cole spat in the wolf’s face.
Swinging the lycan back again, Cole retracted his claws and sent the beast flying. As it soared, its paws waved in the air before it crashed into a burning teepee.
Shoulders heaving, Cole spun back toward the portal to discover Lexi hadn’t gone through it but was fighting off a lycan. Her sword flashed in the firelight as the lycan darted to her right.
Stepping to the side, Lexi brought her sword down across his arm. The lycan yelped as blood spurted from him. Grasping his arm, the lycan lifted its head and howled as its jaws started to extend into a snout.
“Shit!” Cole hissed.
He sprinted back toward Lexi. Before the lycan could attack again, Cole wrapped his arms around her and spun her toward the open portal. “Go back!” he shouted at her. “Go!”
But as he was telling her to leave, more lycans descended on them and cut off her path to the portal. When one of the lycans ran for the portal, Cole shut it down before he could go through.
If the lycan got into the prison, it could get out again, and the Lord would learn where they were. Not having an easy exit open in this burning realm was a danger to Lexi, but they couldn’t let the Lord’s men loose in the prison. They would lose everything they’d managed to rebuild if they did.
Cole lowered his shoulder and ran into the first lycan racing at him while he drew the shadows closer. The shadows rose from the ground to form a wall between Lexi and the lycan woman lunging at her.
When the woman plunged into the shadows, they swarmed around her like a colony of pissed-off bees. The lycan screamed while the shadows ripped at her hair and clothes and stripped the flesh from her bones.
“Cole, no!” Lexi screamed.
But her terror for him meant nothing; what mattered was her survival. The power of the shadows swelled inside him until they spilled out to attack their enemies.
And with their release came a rush of relief and power. They were free, and they werefeasting. Cole smirked at the next lycan as the shadows left only his bones behind.
