Page 34

They downed another beast, but then motion in the corner of her eye drew Iryana’s attention.

Two of the dakii had hung back while the other beasts tried to flank their group, waiting for Vaneshta’s team to be engaged. And now these two dakii were lunging toward the back of the formation.

“Incoming!” Iryana shouted.

But one of the soldiers must have thought the risk too great.

“Retreat!” Sergeant Soshya yelled at the charges, moving with the other spear holders to keep the beasts from driving through the gap.

If the unforged they were meant to protect retreated, they would just be more exposed with how surrounded their group was by the dakii.

“No,” Levek shouted. “Hold your ground. I’ve got them.”

And perhaps he would have, if any of the other soldiers moved with him to intercept the two dakii charging toward them.

Iryana dropped her forged bow, letting it dissipate as she ran, and forced her three-pronged spear to her hand, ignoring the pain as she raced for Levek.

Edvar was right behind her, firing arrow after arrow from his air-forged bow as Iryana braced her spear next to Levek. The larger dakya tried to leap over her spear, but Iryana threw all her weight into keeping the spear steady, letting the beast rip its softer underbelly across the three blades. Hot black blood sprayed over her.

She could see out of the corner of her eye that Levek stopped the other dakya. Edvar switched to the falchion at his hip to help his brother. Iryana had to trust that they could handle it. She’d have to take on the dakya with three sets of horns atop its snarling head by herself.

Her dakya scrambled back to its feet, baring its obsidian-black fangs as it roared at her. She let training and adrenaline take over. She felt so strong, so capable. Instead of bracing her spear and hoping the dakii would run at it, Iryana charged.

Feet pumping against the ground, she lofted the spear like a javelin and threw it as the beast was moving to come around her. It pierced the dakya’s neck, just far enough to be embedded into the flesh.

The beast roared, but did not drop.

Growling her own frustration, Iryana leaped toward the creature’s gaping maw. It was almost like she could tell what it was going to do, like it was signaling its next move to her. She knew which way its head would turn, how it planned to bite down on her.

She twisted in the air, narrowly avoiding its teeth, and grabbed onto the two biggest horns on that side of its head above her spear.

Her body jerked the dakya’s head to the side as she kicked off the ground, curling her knees into her chest and then slammed her feet down on the crossbar, using her hold against the beast’s horns to shove it further in. All three points of her forged spear drove into the dakya’s neck.

Her body flung backward, hands slipping off the horns. Iryana twisted in the air, landing in a crouch as the dakya collapsed in a pool of black blood behind her. Quickly, she stood.

She sucked in air, staring at the beast’s body and then around her to see that the dakii were all down. They had managed to take down the rest of the pack. She sighed with relief.

Iryana stumbled as she let go of her forgings, pain rippling through her. Gods, was it an unpleasant feeling. Her cousins were too busy glaring at the soldier to notice.

“She shouldn’t have abandoned her position,” Levek seethed.

Edvar, clapping his arm around his brother’s shoulders, added, “Bit of a coward if you ask me.”

Iryana was still fighting the bile rising up her throat, fighting the desire to collapse, but she forced herself to say, “Calling names isn’t going to help.”

“You can’t seriously defend them,” Edvar growled, at least with the sense to keep his voice low.

She was too lightheaded to deal with this right now. “No, it’s—there’s a better way to handle it.”

Her cousins turned as Pyetar marched toward the rest of the group.

“What happened?” he demanded, looking between his soldiers.

“Moving our charges was a risk,” Levek answered before they could, voice more level than she expected. “And they would have had no cover. Soshya just wanted them to move because she didn’t trust I could defend them.”

“You’re just one unforged, that’s not good odds,” Sergeant Soshya snapped back. “Our mission is to defend our charges, not to let them fight off the dakii on their own.”

“And who were you to give that order?” Pyetar demanded.