“Ryker!” I shouted over the crackling pop of our lightning and the strong gust of wind roaring down the hall toward us. “The duke!”
The wind hit me, throwing me back and briefly pinning me to the wall as it whipped my hair around me and buffeted my body. A few guards stood together, moving their hands as they directed their powers at us.
Prying my hand off the wall as the next gust pushed Ryker back, I lifted my fingers, gathered some air, and threw it at them. My weather collided with theirs, tearing the wind away from us and spinning it back toward them.
One of the soldiers yelped and tried to dodge to the side, but none of them were fast enough as my wind tossed them to the ground. Ryker followed it with multiple tendrils of lightning that destroyed the wind bearers and some of those closest to them.
Ryker’s nostrils flared when he spotted the man he loathed. The amsirah protecting the duke swallowed him again.
“Gaius,” Ryker growled.
More lightning flew from his fingers; it struck down a group of guards but didn’t make it to Gaius and the duke. Some of the soldiers moved back, shuffling toward the doorway as they kept their swords at the ready.
They hoped to escape with the duke, but I was sure he had other plans for them. Veni confirmed it with his next words.
“Do whatever it takes to capture her!” the duke bellowed. “Kill him if necessary!”
His order breathed new life into the fighters and fresh terror into my heart. Before, they’d been afraid to incur his wrath and held back a little while facing our lightning. Now, they’d do whatever they could to take down Ryker and capture me.
With panic fueling my lightning, it flew from my fingertips. I struck down many of the guards, determined to hold them back as the door behind us opened a little before being shoved shut again.
Ryker destroyed those near him, but there were so many, and the duke and Gaius were escaping. “NO!” I screamed.
Unable to stop it, power surged through me as I pulled on my connection to Ryker to gain strength. I didn’t weaken him as I did so, but his lightning raced through me and filled my soul with his strength and love.
Power crackled over my skin as I threw out my palm. A massive beam of lightning erupted from my hand; it carved through the hallway, cutting down all those in its path. As it raced toward Gaius, I twisted my hand, pulling some of the energy back into me as I twirled my fingers around.
The beam of energy transformed into a lasso that encircled his waist, ripped him off his feet, and spun him toward us. That awful smirk was gone as his mouth hung ajar, his eyes widened, and smoke streamed from where the lightning encircled his waist, but I didn’t put enough electricity into it to kill him.
“Ellery,” Ryker breathed.
I didn’t look at him as I remained focused on what I was doing while he struck out at the guards trying to kill us. With a jerk of my hand, I whipped the lightning back toward me, and Gaius came with it.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Ellery
I unleashed my lightning rope when he was a few feet away. He landed on his ass and bounced across the floor toward us. His sword toppled from his hand and skittered on the ground, stopping a few feet away from us.
Burns marred his clothes and blackened the skin around his middle. He tried to scramble back on his hands and knees, but the soldiers blocked his retreat. When one of them stepped on his hand, he yelped and jerked it forward.
I took out the enemy behind him, and when their sword fell next to Gaius, he grasped it and staggered to his feet. With his face red and a bellow tearing from his throat, he ran at Ryker and me. Spittle flew from his mouth as madness consumed him.
Ryker flung a bolt of lightning into his chest, throwing him back. The impact of his body knocked some of the soldiers back, but the bolt wasn’t enough to kill him. When Gaius hit the ground, his fingers twitched as smoke streamed from the scorch mark on his chest.
He was the mouse, and we were the cats playing with our toy. It wasn’t right, but we’d been the mice for far too long.
We worked to keep the other combatants at bay, but one of them broke through, and a blade arced toward Ryker’s head. Before it could slice through him, he turned to the side to avoid its deadly blow; it crashed into the wall behind us as Gaius staggered to his feet.
He stumbled toward his sword and snatched it from the ground. Instead of coming to help his fellow guards, he swayed back and forth, bouncing off the others as he tried to get back toward the duke.
Ryker clasped the soldier’s blade and fired lightning into it. The man holding it screamed. Flames danced across the man’s fingertips; when they went out, bones poked through his badly burnt hands.
He howled in horror as he twisted his burnt limbs toward him. Then he turned and ran, but the others wouldn’t let him through. When he bounced off me, I hit him with a blast of wind that sent him crashing into the others.
Gaius made it twenty feet before I twisted my hand to release more lightning. It sliced across the distance before carving across his ass, creating a smiley face.
Gaius yelped, and his hands flew back to the smoke spiraling from his burning pants. Falling to his knees, he slapped out the flames.
