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Trumble’s gaze flickered to her, then back to me. “You can have my female, too. I don’t care.”
“Very well.” My voice had gone as cold as the ice on the peaks of Mount Shandinarl, but it was a thin veneer over the inferno raging inside me.
Gwen blinked several times, her expression clouding, and I felt her prodding at my mind as she attempted to figure out what I was doing.
Trumble began edging around the side of the room, never turning his back to me as he made his way toward the front entrance.
I held his gaze with my own, stalking toward him as he reached the only way out. He backed out through the swinging doors and down the three steps to the dirt street below. I followed him, maintaining some distance between us, in case he read my nearness as a threat and hurt Gwen.
I hit the bottom of the stairs just as he reached the middle of the street. Keeping the gun in one hand and aiming it toward me, Trumble wrapped his rocklike hand around the back of Gwen’s neck and shoved her toward me. She stumbled into my arms, and I caught her, then set her to one side, keeping my left arm wrapped around her waist.
Trumble had already begun loping toward the end of the street.
I sank into myself, barely knowing what I was doing, so angry that he would attempt to hurt Gwen, use her against me, that all I knew was I had to stop him from ever doing it again.
A rushing, crackling noise engulfed my senses, the heat of my fury swirling up around me.
“Trumble!” I shouted.
The Rock Beast glanced back over his shoulder. One look at my expression was enough to cause him to push himself faster, to run harder. But I threw out my arm, spreading my fingers wide. “You will die.”
My voice rose, filling the street, bouncing off the buildings in an echo that didn’t die away. Instead, it grew louder and louder, until the wooden structures shook and the ground beneath our feet rumbled.
An invisible wind picked up the dust on the ground between me and Trumble, swirling around him and into his eyes.
Something inside me beat at my senses, thrumming its need to be released, and with a single scream, I let it fly.
It shot toward Trumble, the physical embodiment of my rage. And when it touched him, he exploded into a pillar of fire so hot it burned blue.
I let my rage feed the fire until Trumble’s agonized screams faded, and he crumpled to the ground, nothing remaining of him but a pile of glowing ash.
And still it wasn’t enough to ease the anger I felt. I turned toward Sandy, but Gwen shoved away from me, throwing herself in front of the other human female. “Don’t,” she commanded, her voice as strong as mine had been earlier, if not backed by the same kind of power. “This isn’t her fault. She didn’t ask to be here. She’s only trying to survive. Do not kill her.”
“Get out of my way.”
But Gwen, my beautiful human warrior, stood her ground. “No.”
We stared at each other for a long moment, and finally, I gave in to her demands. “Fine, but we cannot allow her to follow us.”
“Agreed,” Gwen said instantly. “Come with me,” she instructed the other woman.
Sandy followed her obediently, and Gwen led us back into the sheriff’s office.
When she realized what Gwen was about to do, Sandy began begging. “Please, don’t lock me in that cell. No one will ever find me.”
“I’ll send someone back for you,” Gwen promised. “But Kaio’s right. You can't be allowed anywhere near us ever again.”
Gwen turned to me. “Fill one of those water bottles. And if you have any of those food packets, leave them too. I don’t want her to die before we can get someone to come rescue her.”
I followed her instructions, feeling strangely cold and empty inside.
When Sandy had enough provisions to last several days, if necessary, Gwen ushered her into the cage in the corner of the room and turned the giant key in the lock. Then she sat the key on the table still bloody from butchering the fladi lizard and walked away.
Back outside, we made a wide berth around the dead Rock Beast’s smoldering body.
“We should take their supplies,” Gwen said, heading back into the saloon. “I saw their stash behind the bar.”
I stood sentry as she gathered everything the other pair had hidden from us—including two therma-fabric cloaks—impressed by her pragmatism, even in the aftermath of nearly dying.
