CHAPTER TWO
Ryker
My astonishmentover seeing Ellery half naked on the roof and glowing like the sun almost made me forget the battle. I was too caught up in the spectacle of her hovering over the roof and surrounded by lightning.
The hair on my skin rose as an answering swell of my power surged toward her. It sought to connect with her, but I suppressed it; I couldn’t unleash my lightning here.
In the currents surrounding her, she was amazing andvibrant. And she shouldn’t have to be.
Ellery had protested trying to rescue these prisoners. She was afraid something would go wrong, and she’d been right.
I’d vowed to keep her safe. Now, she’d exposed herself in more ways than one and was vulnerable to those I’d promised to protect her from.
FUCK!
I didn’t have long to wallow in my fury as one of the guards came at me. Screams of agony, confusion, and awe ran through the battlefield as the clang of steel against steel rebounded throughout the green in the center of Nottingshire.
The grass was already slippery from the blood we’d spilled; the blood of those Ellery killed only made it worse as the fight waged on. I ducked the guard who swung his sword at me, caught his arm as it came down, and plunged my sword into his belly and out his back.
The blood spewing from his mouth sprayed my face before I planted my foot in his stomach and shoved him off my blade. The fighting masses swallowed him when he fell back.
I cleaved the head from the next guard, but a lightning bolt took out the third one coming at me. I didn’t look up at Ellery as electricity continued to thrum through the air around me.
“Here!” Tucker shouted. “Here!”
His cry drew my attention to a portal. Someone had opened it near the end of the pillories Ivan had ordered erected earlier in the week; Tucker’s followers were already escaping with some of the freed prisoners.
I glanced back at Ellery, who floated above the roof with lightning embracing every part of her. I was a lightning bearer too, yet I’d never seen anything like what was happening to her.
But, unlike her, I couldn’t control all five weather elements. She possessed a lot of power, and while we’d tapped into some of it, I suspected we hadn’t scratched the surface of what she could do.
She’d been given these gifts for a reason. Now, her retribution for what Ivan and the aristocrats were doing to Tempest was raining down on those helping to repress the realm that forged her.
More lightning crashed into the guards and the land surrounding them. It drove them back as Tucker continued to usher the freed prisoners and his followers through the portal. While he wore a hood, I’d recognize my friend anywhere.
Standing beside the portal, Tucker kept waving for the others to enter as another man, who I was pretty sure was Callan, helped hold off the guards trying to stop them. Lifting my sword, I hacked through the king’s men as lightning flew around me.
A guard screamed as he ran past me with the bottom of his pants on fire and the flames spreading higher. When another guard loomed over Tucker, Ellery sent a bolt straight into his head.
Tucker ducked as body parts and blood splayed around him, but he didn’t enter the portal. “Let’s go!” he bellowed.
I’d lost track of the prisoners I’d been helping in all the chaos, but when I spotted a woman crawling across the ground, I grasped her arm, lifted her off the ground, and dragged her toward the portal. Before we could get there, two guards swarmed out of the chaos and lunged at me.
CHAPTER THREE
Ryker
Sparks flewand metal screeched as I used my blade to deflect their blows. The woman screamed and ducked as a guard hacked at her.
Blood spilled from the slice on her forearm as I deflected one sword before sinking my blade into the chest of the man who’d cut the woman. I pulled my weapon free and spun to bring it down across the guard’s arm, hacking through flesh and bone to leave only pieces of the appendage together.
The man fell back, but more rose to take his place. Gritting my teeth, I adjusted my hold on the woman and hauled her forward again.
I deflected a blow that would have carved into my neck and possibly severed my head. The guard bared his teeth in a malicious grin as he swung at me again; our swords clashed, and with only one free hand, it was difficult to keep him back.
Releasing the woman, I gripped my sword with both hands and held off the man. A lightning bolt flew past him and crashed into the ground only a few feet away.
When the guard’s eyes darted toward the smoking hole in the ground, it was the distraction I needed to place my boot in his stomach and shove him back. Off balance, the man’s arms wheeled as he tried to right himself.
