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“Then start walking,Zryn,” her former neighbor said with a sneer.
“No.” The green-eyed man adjusted enough to turn a hard look on him. “I didn’t go out of my way to rescue someone just for any of you to kick them back out into that warzone. Until the danger’s past,everyonestays in here.”
He opened his mouth to protest.
“Do you think you can manage to be civilized for another ten minutes?” The stranger’s tone darkened. “Or do I need to assign her a bodyguard?”
A shiver went up Rochelle’s spine as she very suddenly remembered the feel of his arm around her back, his hand steady at her hip. He didn’t mean himself. He clearly intended to go back out and resume efforts to finish dealing with whatever invasion was going on. But those few seconds were the most protected Rochelle had felt in … as long as she could remember.
The village elder ambled up and rested a hand on his angrier compatriot’s arm. “My apologies for his rudeness, Sentry. Unfortunately, I do agree with his sentiment that it would be too difficult for our community to continue to shelter her after today’s events. But she will come to no harm here, so long as she promises to leave once it is reasonably safe to do so.”
The girl still standing next to Rochelle drew up her shoulders with a sharp intake of breath.
But Rochelle was too busy realizing the way the elder had addressed her green-eyed stranger. Sentry.It … it couldn’t be, though. Right?She knew she was living in the kingdom thatSentry of a New Worldhad been set in, but she’d felt so removed from anything truly connected to the anime itself. Surely she’d misheard. Or it meant something else. For one thing, this man was … well, he was a full-grownman, not a teenage boy.
He was also standing in front of her again. “Tell me your name,” he said, quietly.
She swallowed, searching for her voice and hoping she didn’t stutter. “Rochelle.”
He smiled and his eyes gleamed in the slanted beams of sunlight drifting in through the windows. “Rochelle, I am Aric Vardanyan, Sentry of Yafae. I apologize that I can’t safely order them to allow you to remain in Corast, but I will be happy to transport you wherever else in Yafae you might desire to go. When this is done.” He gestured aside, toward the brunette who had moved on to a new patient. “While I’m gone, if you need something, Mitzi will see to it that the message is passed along.”
She stared at him, not sure what to say. His name, his title, and even the brunette’s name reverberated through her head as though someone had screamed them into her ear with a megaphone.Oh my god…She’d known she had landed in an alternate world. She’d thought she had begun to become accustomed to that. But staring into the eyes of a grown-up version of an anime protagonist was indisputably the most surreal thing she’d ever experienced.
“Think over what you want to do until I return,” Aric said. “I doubt this will take much longer.”
She attempted to respond, attempted to at least thank him. To say something. All that came out was a strained groan before everything went black.
Chapter Three
Aric was still facing the beautiful blonde when her rich, chocolate-brown eyes unexpectedly rolled up in her head and she collapsed. The younger woman who’d argued in her defense gasped and leaped aside, undoubtedly on reflex. He managed to swoop in before Rochelle could hit more than her knees on the unforgiving stone floor.
“I-is she hurt?” the young woman asked.
Aric let his magic settle over his vision for a moment and looked the unconscious blonde over just to be sure. “No,” he said. Nothing serious, anyway. She did have some slight bruising from an earlier impact and a couple of cuts on her feet. They were small, as if she’d stepped on something sharp. He could heal that much without anyone even noticing—and he did, as he lifted her wholly into his arms. “This is exhaustion.”
“Her magic,” the girl’s mother said, stepping closer. “She said she couldn’t use it, but then, when we were attacked before, it burst from her like a whirlwind. It saved us.”
“That’s impossible!” The exclamation came from the same man who’d insisted on throwing her out, the one Aric wanted to punch in the face. “She’s never shown any sign of—”
Aric slid a glare in his direction. “Question me again and I’ll leave you catatonic for a week.”
He snapped his jaw shut and stepped back.
Aric nodded at the women he’d healed earlier, then walked through the room until he found a space where he could set Rochelle. Given the hostility he could feel emanating from so many of the people she’d surely called neighbor just hours before, he disliked the idea of leaving her so vulnerable. But he also had a job to do, which didn’t entail sitting and watching over a woman whose body was in shock. If what the women had said was true, though, then Rochelle didn’t need healing in the standard sense. She needed rest, then a good meal. She’d likely had some sort of psychological barrier between herself and her magic that the emotional situation had broken, and the sudden surge of power had drained too much too fast. Adrenaline would have been all that kept her going after.
“Aric.” The soft voice was Mitzi’s, so he looked over after he’d straightened Rochelle’s arms to a natural position. Mitzi smiled. “Why not ask Viveca to keep an eye on her?”
“That’s a good idea.” He stood. “Could you watch over her for a minute?” When he’d heard word of the attack in Corast, Aric had gathered the usual team of his closest and most trusted friends to lead Corast’s rescue. Mitzi and Viveca were half of that unit, and since Viveca was one of few in the Yafae military skilled in both magic and swordplay, she’d been stationed outside to run interference defending the barrier. Overkill, undoubtedly, and Aric was equally sure she was bored out of her mind.
“Happily. I need to let my magic rest for a minute, anyway,” Mitzi said. He did feel bad about that. She’d been working non-stop on healing the locals since they’d arrived. But such was the fate of a sorcerer who chose to specialize in healing magic.
Aric inclined his head. “Careful you don’t overdo it.” He waited only long enough for her to raise her brows in the expression she’d been giving him for years that told him plainly how much she didn’t need him to hover. Instead of continuing a conversation they would surely have at every battle site, Aric teleported himself outside once more. This time he traveled only so far as the other side of the eastern wall and accompanying barrier.
He spotted Viveca easily. She was rocking side-to-side in a classically restless fashion, her custom-sized longsword sheathed at her hip and her long, fiery red hair piled high on her head in a swinging tail. Her lips were scrunched, eyes faintly narrowed, and she didn’t bother glancing his way when she acknowledged him. “Please tell me it’s done and that’s why I’m so bored.”
“Not quite. But I’m glad it’s been quiet on this end.” Aric glanced around just to be sure, but the nearest person he could see was another member of their technically elite team. His unofficial second-in-command in the field, Cecilia Rey. She would be an arguably better choice for the job he needed, but he couldn’t pull her away from the barrier she was currently maintaining. So he redirected his attention to Viveca and grinned. “I have a job for you.”
She twisted in place to face him, perking so visibly he half expected animal ears to pop from her head despite the fact that she was, of course, entirely human. “Did something fun happen?”
