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“Here goes nothing,” Mare whispered, from where she stood next to North.
Both women knew their mates were going to be pissed that they were there but had gone anyway. If it got too dangerous, they knew how to slip away from the battle. And besides, they knew how to fight.
An awful sound echoed through the air around us, and then the massive octopus-creature landed.
Or I suppose, itfell.
Its motions were rough and uncoordinated, its limbs flailing. It didn’t take out any trees as it went, thanks to their insane size, but it broke branches and knocked a few fae from their perches on the way down. They were all ready for it, and easily caught to the air or jumped to a steadier seat without being hit by the tentacles.
“Go,” I whispered to the bears, as I tapped into the magic.
The monster was still screaming, and the way its arms moved told me it wasn’t here to make friends.
Priel and Ervo flew through portals, and I called for my mate, too.
“I need you, Terisander.”
Like a vengeful god, he crashed through the portal and swept me into his arms, squeezing me tightly to his chest as he took in what was happening.
The bears were tearing into the screaming creature, but it was throwing them around. Throwing fae around, too. The fae tapped into their magic to stop themselves from getting hurt—and they were protecting the bears, too.
“I need you safe,” my mate growled at me.
“I have to stay close.”
Without further ado, he hauled me onto his back and shifted.
A moment later, he’d deposited me on a thick tree branch, high enough up that I was secure and could see most of the monster.
And holy shit, that thing was intense.
Each of its tentacles was as long as a family of klynnas—and all four of the klynnas we had there were taking on a tentacle of their own. But their fire wasn’t cutting it, and they were getting injured.
Fae flames weren’t getting through the thick, scaled armor on the tentacles either—nor were their claws, or teeth, or anything else.
But the bears were tearing into it without a damn problem. It was like their teeth and claws were created for it—made stronger, and thicker, of something else entirely than the rest of us. They’d already destroyed two tentacles, and were working on a third.
If the fae and klynnas would move, they’d have more space to wreck the beast.
“Tell the fae and klynnas to retreat,”I urged Teris.
He snarled at me—clearly not a fan of the idea.
I sent him a mental image of what I could see.
The bears destroying the creature, and the fae and klynnas getting in the way.
“The goddess knew what she was doing,”I told him.“Make everyone else retreat.”
Though I knew how much he despised the idea of it, he launched into a nearby tree and shifted forms, and then yelled the command.
There was a long moment where no one obeyed.
But then a moment later, his brothers took up the order, yelling, “Pull back,” and “Into the trees!”
When the unseelie council followed suit, the branches filled with fae, and soon enough, everyone was seeing what I saw.
The bears surrounded the beast, slowly.
