I pressed the tip of my blade against his throat to keep him down as I realized that they were not as intimidating as I remembered. Of course, I hadn’t learned to fight until after I fled from the Rowan Wood, so males could always overpower me physically while my power was repressed. But despite their penchant for cruelty, dryads ultimately were creatures of leisure and not warriors. The exception, of course, were the Tiarnaí and their warbands who had to train extensively to fend off their rivals. But the average male had little need for physical prowess, which meant that even my skills were superior to theirs.
Which only enraged me more because howdarethese snivelling little cockroaches bind my natural strength and then call me theirlesser?
“Who sent you?” I demanded, and he scoffed at me.
“I do not answer toyou!” he spat.
I was moving over him before I had thought about it, kneeing him in the groin and then squatting above him with my blade fully across his throat.
“Who?” I demanded with all my pent-up rage.
I gave him a moment to recover after my knee left him gasping, but eventually he was sneering at me again.
“Who do you think? Your husband wants you back!” he taunted, the words rocking through me and leaving me absolutely wrecked.
He saw the blow he had dealt me and reached for my sword handle to push it away from him, but I sliced open his throat in a daze. My heart was still thundering in my ears as his hot blood sprayed into my face in a long spurt before I could get away from his thrashing body.
It felt like I was under water, disjointed and dazed with the roar of a crowd vibrating through the ground beneath my stumbling feet. They screamed for my blood and pain. They screamed for my subjugation.
I will not allow them to do that to you.
“Ornella!”
The shout roused me, and I blinked away the fog and the memories, looking up to see Ciaran was defending my position from the three remaining fighters. It was not very difficult for him, so he was glancing at me in concern.
“Are you alright?” he asked as I looked around for the leader who seemed to have slunk away somewhere.
I shook off my distraction and quickly picked up the sword that I’d dropped so I could stand at his side again. “Sorry! I am fine,” I began to reassure him.
The ground shuddered so hard beneath us that several mudbrick buildings partly crumbled, and we had to brace. Chunks of balconies and pillars hit the ground around us, and I heard the faraway screams of terrified civilians.
We all turned to see that the leader had grown a tree in the middle of the courtyard with flailing branches that slammed into the buildings around it. He was clearly a lot more powerful than the others.
The tree leaned toward us with the groaning of wood, and we barely managed to duck and jump through the tangle of swiping limbs. One of the male dryads was not so lucky, however, and was heaved into the wall so hard that he blasted right through the bricks.
“Fuck!” Ciaran cursed, and I turned to look up at him in astonishment.
“Ciaran! You said it—”
“Watch out!” he shouted and shoved my head down as another branch lashed out at us. Another of our assailants was pitched into the air and then was hit with another branch that sent him flying over the buildings.
“Move!” I urged Ciaran, grabbing his arm to pull him with me toward the edge of the courtyard. I knew it would be unwise to hide in the buildings, since the tree could knock them down, but we needed to get out of the open.
We had just reached the wall when I heard the beating of wings and looked up to see a griffin city guard appear from over the buildings.
“Everyone stand down!” he shouted before he stopped, hovering in the air with eyes wide in horror as he took in the tree and the destruction.
Vines suddenly whipped out from the highest boughs. The guard screamed as they crushed his wings before he was slammed to the ground in a heap of golden armour.
“We need to set it on fire!” Ciaran hissed resentfully, clearly loathing the loss of his magic.
No sooner had he said it, several flaming arrows were launched into the trunk of the tree, causing it to straighten with a hollow groan. The limbs began writhing in such a flurry that it became impossible to dodge all of them.
“Ciaran!” I screamed when he was abruptly struck and thrown against the wall ten feet away. I immediately took a step in his direction when something moved suddenly in the corner of my eye. I barely skidded to a halt in time to avoid being sliced in half when the blond leader appeared and began swinging at me wildly.
“You stupid whore! You think you can defy Laisren?” he snarled, his strikes coming so fast that I could hardly keep up to block all of them. “You will be returned to him if I have to bring you back inpieces.”
He was much more talented with his sword, so I knew he was no lackey. He was one of Laisren’s key enforcers, although he must have been promoted after I fled because I had never met him before.
