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Daegan called up the Treoir sword he’d used to fight wars when he’d lived in this land free to fly as a dragon. He hacked at the glowing Imortik with sickle-shaped claws reaching for him. This thing would be impossible to kill unless it had taken over a human body or a being of less power than him.
Daegan slashed across, intending to cut off the head, but the damn creature dove and gouged his leg.
He knew better than to try to teleport this time.
Daegan booted the center of its body, knocking the snarling thing away. The burn of venom streaked up his leg.
The Imortik body struck the stunned Luigsech woman, knocking her off her feet. She fell backwards, crashing into a rocking chair. All of that hit the ground hard, but she held onto her sword still sizzling with energy.
Pointing a finger at the Imortik as it tried to get up, Daegan roared as his telekinetic power would not work. He stepped over and ripped the Imortik off her and dropped it on the floor.
She scrambled to her feet.
With a wild look in her eyes, she slashed down, cutting off a head that bounced away.
Her weapon didn’t just smell of majik, it stunk of ancient power.
Another glowing creature raced through the door, catching Daegan distracted. This one looked more troll than human. Could he kill a troll taken over by an Imortik? It slammed into him, knocking Daegan down and clawing at his chest. Daegan beat the pummel of his sword against the creature’s head.
The Imortik jerked hard and tried to reach for its back.
That’s when Daegan realized Luigsech had stabbed her sword through the troll’s back, barely missing Daegan’s privates. That woman would kill him if he didn’t get her to calm down.
“Don’t stab anythin’ I’m fightin’.”
“You ungrateful bastard! I just saved your miserable life.”
His gaze yanked to the doorway. “Close the damn door!”
“Stop yellin’ at me. You brought these things to my house.” Her blue eyes glowed and bulged with wild-eyed panic. She gasped air.
He shoved the Imortik-troll body off his lower half and pushed up with his sword in hand.
Two demons the size of bulls standing upright crashed into each other at the entrance, fighting to get inside.
What had called up demons?
Daegan lunged forward, slashing and driving his sword as he did. One demon barely glowed, but the other one shined yellow bright as the sun. That one lost a hand and spun away screeching. Daegan shoved a boot straight into the chest of the second one, knocking it out of the doorway.
He fought the demon with the sword, unsure if he could use his powers after being stabbed by that Imortik. This demon dodged back and forth, then came at him.
Daegan glanced at the second one holding his wrist, dismissed it then braced for the other demon attacking. He waited until the last second, close enough to smell the demon’s disgusting sulfur odor, but Luigsech’s sword slashed into view. She swung horizontal, cutting the demon in half. She lifted the blade high, looking like a wild Valkyrie holding off an army, then brought it down fast, slashing off the demon’s head.
No one’s head would be safe around her.
The demon turned to orange dust and blew away.
What the hell?
He’d never seen one turn to orange dust.
A snarl alerted him just before the injured demon dove at him. Daegan twisted around, bringing his blade with him.
Tristan yelled in his head in that moment. Caught ... trap ... Cavan is ... Tristan howled painfully.
The demon leaped, landing half on Daegan’s shoulder and clawing his back.
Daegan flipped forward, falling away from the door. He rolled, throwing the demon off as he did. Not stopping, he jumped up, spun around, and brought his blade down across the demon’s neck as it crawled to him.
Luigsech had the right idea with decapitation.
With the head gone, that body also turned into orange dust. Another glowing demon shot out of the dark, claws reaching for his chest. Daegan swung and missed. The creature clawed his shoulder. His energy waned. He had to kill this thing fast. Calling up his dragon, Daegan roared an inhuman sound and battered the demon to the ground, then flipped his sword to strike straight down. Another burst of orange dust and everything finally fell silent.
Heaving breaths, Daegan wiped sweat off his brow.
He drew on his dragon’s healing power. Maybe it would push out new venom the Imortiks had stabbed into him.
Ruadh rumbled and banged inside him, but energy flooded his body.
Garwyli had warned him the rift would open in different parts of the world and the venom inside him would draw in Imortiks.
His leg felt better, but throbbed. Pain burned in his shoulder.
If he didn’t find a way to clean out that venom, it could deplete his powers even more and interfere with getting Tristan back.
Luigsech would help him. To possess such a sword she’d pulled from hiding and draw on its power meant she knew far more than she’d admitted.
She probably knew how to find the grimoire as well and had done an experienced job of lying.
Maybe he had needed Storm’s lie-detecting ability after all.
Pain throbbed with every movement he made, but better that he’d been injured than Luigsech. He could not allow anything to happen to her. She was no human and that sword had come from the time of his father, but she could lose to an Imortik.
Aye, she had to live to help Daegan find Cavan.
He cursed himself for being played. Not again.
If he failed to make her tell him who Cavan was and deliver the grimoire volumes to him, he risked Tristan’s life plus that of the ones back home.
He’d saved her life. Maybe now they could work together once she accepted that she might need him to protect her from dangerous beings.
Aye, this would work.
Turning to the cottage, he started walking then paused. He could not sense her power. “Luigsech?”
No one answered. He rushed forward. The troll body lay still on the floor.
He roared, “Casidhe Luigsech!”
She was gone.
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Please note: This is one big journey. I hope you’ll understand that it’s not possible to tie up the storylines in these books until the very end. The reason I started writing this series close to two years before the first book released was so that I could deliver the books a month apart (as often as possible) to release the entire series within in one year. I did not want to give you cliff hangers with a year between books. I’m a reader too and I enjoy reading an ongoing story as soon as I can just as you do.
Thank you for reading my books and joining me on my writing journey. You are the reason I step into the cave pretty much seven days a week because I love sharing my stories with you.
Dianna