Yet they didn’t hate me as they eyed me curiously while coming forward to let Ruby unchain them.Once freed, many of them sprinted away, but some remained to join those who had created a barrier around me.
Ivan had brought them all here to uncover my identity, but they didn’t blame me.Instead, they were determined to protect me.
Warmth spread through my chest, and so did pride and a sense of belonging.Ivan and the aristocrats had tried to take everything from us, but they couldn’t steal our self-respect and resilience.
They couldn’t steal who we were, deep inside, where it mattered.
The presence of the women and the knowledge they relied on me to get them through this helped me wrangle back some control over my power.Like pulling a fishing hook through lily pads, it resisted along the way, but I eventually secured it again.
The light continued to surround me.I remained hovering above the earth, yet I didn’t feel out of control.
It no longer ruled me;Iruledit.
No, that wasn’t right.We weren’t separate entities; the lightning was a deep-rooted, core part ofme.
To keep myself hidden from those who’d seek to control me, I’d bottled it up for so long that I’d worried about what it could do when I started using it.I didn’t have to fear that anymore becauseIwas the one who controlled it.
It was powerful and lethal.It.Was.Me.
The women gathered in an ever-growing circle as they wielded rocks and stole weapons from the fallen guards who came too close to us.Shifting air currents told me some of them had created a wall of wind to protect us.
I almost yelled at them to run and save themselves, but I was fighting with Ryker to bring a sense of hope to our broken land, and that hope was why they stayed.Ivan had brought them here because of me, and I was the one who could help set them free fromallthe tyranny.
I was also pretty sure they’d put the pieces of Ryker and me together.He wouldn’t have killed the king for nothing, and I wouldn’t have exposed myself.Some may have heard the rumors of our relationship, and others would assume.
They’d fight for love and hope.They’dreallyfight for two lightning bearers who stood with them.We’d wanted a rebellion and were recruiting members.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Ellery
Moreand more women remained to help.Small tornadoes formed before them; they moved through the crowd, sucking up three guards who’d emerged from the chaos.
When the funnels flung the guards away, they vanished into the crowd.I couldn’t see exactly what happened as women swarmed them, but blood flew.
More tornadoes materialized as any guard who could control the wind used them to defend themselves.The small funnels cleared pathways on the field.
I knocked the archers back again as Ryker disappeared into a valley.When he reemerged again, he was close enough that I saw the determination etching his handsome features.Blood stained his dark brown hair; his eyes had turned completely black, except for the lightning firing through them.
I ached to hold him as his presence energized my ability.I shifted my gaze to the parapets as archers rose again.
With another flash from my fingertips, I knocked them back before searching the fray for more of those who sought to destroy us.All the riders had fled, perished, or blended in with the crowd.
A few thousand feet to my right, women poured into the Revenant Woods, while others continued to surge over the hills toward us.Below us, some of them had run past the fallen stage, around the lake, and toward the woods there.
It was time to go before the nobles and their armies could recover.Too many of the women remained in chains, and the pounding of more horses’ hooves filled the air.
I twisted to look behind me.I couldn’t see any riders beyond the crest of the hill, but that’s where they were coming from, and they’d be here soon.
“Cannons!”someone shouted.
The sun glinted off something a second before the tip of a cannon rolled into view.My lightning could deflect some of the balls, but not all of them.Guards’ heads popped into view before they ducked behind the hill again.
The guards shifted the cannons, aiming them downward and into the heart of the crowd.They intended to destroy anyone in the path of those balls.
Before I could gather my lightning to fire at the cannons, more guards raced across the crest of the hill.Sun shone off the metal shields they carried before they plunged the bottoms of them into the ground.
The metal of those shields would draw my lightning away from the cannons.“Bastards!”
