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Chaos erupted around me. A gunshot went off and a fae huntsman hit the leaf strewn ground in a spray of blood and didn't get up. A hand grabbed my wrist and I acted instinctively, lashing out with my talons to sever the delicate hand from its owner's wrist. I found a tall, skinny fae with red hair and glowing red eyes bearing down on me with a scythe, not the least bit perturbed by the loss of his hand.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I dove into a summersault, rolling out of the way just in time to avoid the blade. I was so busy dodging my attacker that I didn't have time to spare for my pride. I just hoped like hell the stronger ones were protecting the weak. Con and Evalyn didn't have a chance on their own.
A ball of mage lightning hit a nearby fae in the gut, and he jerked and jittered with electricity before he collapsed in a pile of charred flesh. I dry-heaved at the scent but managed to grab my knife and plunge it into the lithe fae who was stalking me. He clutched his chest, but I'd managed to hit him right in the heart. He fell to the ground as the glowing light faded from his red eyes.
Feeling sick and overflowing with nervous energy, I yanked my knife out of him and turned to meet the next attack with my fists. No more stabbing if I could help it. I really wasn't cut out for killing people, even when they were trying to kill me.
Probably some gryphon golden-hearted-valor bullshit.
A whistling sound found my sensitive eagle ears right before a jolt of searing pain lit up my right shoulder. I staggered, confused for a moment as I stared down at the arrow shaft sticking out of me.
"Damn it!" Halstad's low growl was followed by a wave of magic that encased me in some sort of bubble.
Growling, I grabbed the arrow shaft and yanked. Which...wow, that was fucking stupid. I howled and went to my knees as the thing refused to budge, sending a fresh wave of pain through my shoulder and a trickle of blood down my chest. Can you blame me? I mean, really. I’d never even seen a fucking arrow like this one up close. It was like something from the middle ages. Fucking backward, medieval clans.
Halstad reached me in a couple of short, angry strides. He crouched down, still holding one hand up to maintain the magical shield around us as he stared into my eyes with his own mismatched orbs. "This is gonna fucking suck," he advised me.
I bared my teeth at him. "Get me out of this damned bubble."
He nodded. "Snap that fletching off, since you've got two hands." Growling, I did as he said, grasping the thick wooden shaft of the arrow and snapping it off, hissing when that caused a fresh wave of pain.
Wrapping his magic-casting arm around my good shoulder to brace me while he kept the hand free for casting, Halstad pulled me against him and used his other hand to forcefully push the fucking arrow all the way through my shoulder.
I screeched into his ear and he grunted but didn't stop. Turning me away, he grabbed the arrowhead at my back and pulled the shaft all the way through. Flinging it aside, he stood and gave me a hand up. "Alright?" Sweat was pouring down his face from the exertion of holding onto the shield.
I gritted my teeth but nodded. Now that there wasn't something embedded in my skin and muscle, the wound would knit back together. "Thanks."
He stared into my eyes for a beat, and I thought he was going to speak. But he just spun, dropping the magic that protected us. "Get everyone close together again. I think the fox and me can put the illusion back in place and hide us a bit longer. I doubt they brought more than one truffle hunter."
I watched as he stalked toward the massive pig-beast, pulling a vial of something off his belt and dumping it into his hands before casting some sort of net-like magic into the air. The big pig-guy struggled and grunted, but was caught. Kai darted in and danced past the truffle hunter's flailing limbs to sink her knife into the base of his skull, severing his spine in one precise, effective movement.
She danced away and went back to protecting Con, slicing at any fae that got near. "To me!" Halstad called out to the others.
They slowly drifted closer to him. Hisashi was farthest away, standing over Oisin's sister in a tornado of wispy white tendrils as he flung fae away like toys. The fae who were on our side were pushing back most of the hunters. I made my way to the fox, having to push through the wind as if I was in a tropical storm.
"Hisashi," I shouted. "Get closer to Halstad. That pig guy is down."
Silver eyes met mine and for a moment he seemed lost. But then he focused and moved, Evalyn sticking close to his side.
Once we were all grouped together again, Hisashi and Halstad managed to weave together another cloaking spell.
Evalyn's fae melted into the sparse trees and twisted shadows like smoke. I was still panting, adrenaline bursting through my veins.
"We have to hurry," Evalyn hissed. "That was just the first wave. The nobles with their mounts and hounds will be here any minute."
We moved through the open spaces in one big, ungainly blob, sticking close, tripping and bumping into each other in the most bumbling parody of stealth I had ever seen as the confused hunters divided their attention between finding us and running down their original prey. Finally, we crested a rise and the monoliths came into clear view, reaching up above the surrounding trees.
There was something eerie and breathtaking about the place. I wasn't a magic user, but I could feel it there, thrumming beneath the ground and in the stones, massive pillars of rock carved by time and ancient people, echoing power, bouncing it around the circle and the bowl of a massive cavern like some sort of stone age satellite dish.
"Move!" Halstad urged, pushing me and making me stumble.
"The central cavern," Evalyn said as she jogged along at my side. "That's where he'll be kept to channel the power. No doubt the bastard has already started to drain Oisin. I can feel the magic in the earth. He’ll just be finishing off a corpse when the public gets here, and no one the wiser."
I glanced at her as she called her fae helpers to her. "You're not going in with us?"
She shook her head, her eyes fierce. "I want to see my brother, but I have more important things to do just now. He'll understand."
I bared my teeth at her. "More important?"
She heaved a sigh. "You wouldn't understand. I know you'll keep him safe, sister." She darted up and pulled me to a stop, pushing up on tiptoes to kiss both of my cheeks. "The Goddess keep you and bless your heart."
Then she was gone in a flurry of honeysuckle-scented breeze and fae stealth, her entire entourage melting away into the smaller standing stones and trees like ghosts. "Well fuck."
"There's mages in there," Halstad commented helpfully with a gesture at the cave. "Let's go get your boy. But tread carefully. Shit's about to get real."