AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They were fierce-looking with wild hair, and a battle fervor equal to his Guardsmen. They wore lots of leather, heavy boots, chains and spikes.
Ian wasn’t fooled by their crude appearance, however. Their increased power because of the Invictus bond made them dangerous.
Red battle shields accompanied the Invictus, a counterpart to the Guardsmen’s shields that now vibrated in a blue wave of energy in front of him.
“Hold steady,” he shouted.
His troops obeyed.
He wanted the Invictus to break ranks first. By nature, the bond also created chaos and wraith-pairs were easier to defeat one-on-one.
Ian’s blood tattoos were lit up and even at a distance he felt Regan’s power flowing toward him, focused on him. What would it be like if he bonded with her?
Ian tracked a powerful wraith who never took her gaze off him. She moved steadily closer to his position, though remaining high in the air. No doubt she was planning to dive-bomb.
When the wraith was directly above him, she flipped in the air, head down, her palms lighting up a dark red. At the same time, the Invictus charged forward.
The moment had come.
“Attack at will,” he shouted.
Almost as one, his Guardsmen launched.
He released his shield, more than ready to engage mano-a-mano. He arched his neck, lifted his glowing palms as the woman fired then let his battle energy fly. The resulting clash of frequencies sent explosions of blue and red sparks into the air.
This one had power.
When her gaze flipped for a split-second to his right, by long habit, Ian levitated backward in a quick dart of movement. Her shifter mate’s axe struck the granite where Ian had been standing, the sound reverberating down the gorge.
The pair moved toward him with one mind. The wraith opened her mouth, exposing sharp, yellow fangs then let loose with an ear-shattering shriek. But he was used to the sound so he ignored her, focusing instead on building up the power in his hands.
His battle energy flowed once more down both arms, his blood tattoos pulsing. The wraith, streaking back and forth through the air, was firing hers up again, which meant he could expect her bonded shifter to come at him.
The shifter’s eyes were bloodshot, his skin ruddy, and his long, black hair hung in filthy strands to his waist. His nostrils worked like bellows as he sprouted wolf fur down his bare chest.
Ian felt a surge of power from his blood tattoos. He shot forward faster than he ever had before, swiped the axe from the shifter’s hands and used the blunt end to smash into the back of his head.
The man went sprawling, landing face down on the granite and sliding almost to the edge of the gorge cliff.
His mate shrieked, faltering in the air, then landing hard on her side. She shook her head and rose unsteadily to her feet. A series of dull shrieks followed as she went to her mate and flopped down beside him.
They shared their power and when either was badly wounded, the other couldn’t keep going.
He moved off to the side to keep an eye on the pair he’d just wounded as well as the battle.
But as he analyzed the battlefield, at first, he didn’t understand what he was looking at since there was so little movement. The Guard that had served to protect himself and Regan, stood over several either dead or incapacitated wraith-pairs.
Otherwise, the field looked empty though there had to be a hundred tents directly in front of them, leading up to the fortress.
A few more of his Guardsmen had come in from their positions both east and west of his and were now moving from tent to tent as well.
When his squad leaders started checking in with the same disturbing reports, of encountering only a handful of easily dispatched wraith-pairs, Ian’s heart sank.
Where the hell was Margetta’s army? Was it possible she’d actually been able to move thousands of her troops within the last few minutes?
Instinctively, Ian knew the Ancient Fae didn’t have that kind of power. She would have required at least twenty, maybe thirty minutes to relocate an army of this size. Yet, once the spell dissipated, she would have only had a couple of minutes to get the job done and that was impossible.
Which meant only one thing.
