Page 39 of A Tempest of Monsters
“Why don’t you return for your husband and son?” I suggested. “We can wait here.”
“I can’t; not today. It was difficult to find the opportunity to bringtheseamsirah to you. I couldn’t return and do it again, but next time I’ll bring them. Next time, we’re staying.”
When I rested my hand on her arm, she flinched a little. “We’re looking forward to it.”
Her eyes returned to the trees before she shifted her attention to the amsirah who’d come with her. “Where’s Ellery?”
“She’s out with a hunting party. She’ll be sad she missed you.”
A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth before falling away. “Tell her I say hi.”
“I will.”
“I should go now.”
The amsirah all glanced at each other before they huddled closer together. I frowned as I studied them; few new arrivals were excited about living in the Revenant Woods, but none were as scared as this group.
My father had either traumatized them, or something wasn’t right. I studied the woods, but they remained subdued. Maybe I was imagining it, and they were just traumatized by my father’s draconian rule.
Tucker stepped closer to whisper. “Does something seem off to you?”
The hair on my nape rose. I wasn’t imagining things if Tucker had sensed it too. “Something seems very off,” I said to him. “Val?—”
Before I could get any more words out, she opened a portal and turned toward me. Her tear-filled eyes locked on mine as she whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Tears spilled down her cheek, and my hand went to my sword as dozens upon dozens of guards sprinted from the portal with their weapons raised.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Ryker
“Holy shit!”Tucker blurted as he drew his sword.
I released my sword, lifted my hands, and fired lightning at the guards. Val shrieked and scampered toward where the other amsirah sat huddled on the rocks with their arms around each other.
I didn’t have time for her betrayal to fully register as more and more guards funneled out of the portal.
Cryton bellowed as he flew at the guards. With murderous excitement, he stabbed and slashed at the invaders, but he couldn’t stem this flow. Even with my lightning, I couldn’t hold them back as they poured out of the opening to surround us.
Digging into myself, I called forth more energy than ever before and tapped into the pieces of Ellery’s power that remained within me. When our powers combined, they made us both stronger and bound us in a way I’d never known existed.
With all the rage I’d suppressed for centuries, I threw up my hands and unleashed a tidal wave of lightning from my fingers.It crackled across the air before smashing into the ten closest guards and throwing them into others.
As the dead soldiers bowled over some of their friends, more guards swarmed out of the portal. Most of the ten amsirah who’d come with me fell beneath the rampage.
Callan and Tucker continued to fend off some of the guards with their blades, but there were too many of them, and they wouldn’t last much longer. We didn’t have time to open a portal; if I stopped releasing lightning for even a few seconds, they’d be on me before the others could flee.
Even if we had the time to open a portal and flee into it, we’d never get through in time to avoid having a lot of these guards following us to our next destination. The clash of steel, the sizzle of lightning, and the screams of the injured or dying reverberated through the woods.
Cryton viciously hacked at the guards, but there were too many for him to inflict much damage. When I unleashed another wave of lightning, Callan cried out as he fell beneath the onslaught of men.
Only Tucker and I remained standing as the other amsirah with us had already fallen. Guards swarmed over Callan, and Tucker moved closer to me. I couldn’t tell if they’d killed Callan or not, but his shouts abruptly ended.
I hoped the minstrel was still alive, but I couldn’t think about him now. If we were going to be of any help to him, we had to escape this.
Kneeling, I ducked a blade that would have sliced my chest open and slammed my hand off the earth. Thunder exploded over the day with a concussive boom that sent a cloud of black birds screeching into the sky.
From somewhere deeper in the forest, an animal shrieked as the ground fractured apart and the crevice I’d created racedtoward the portal. Unable to evade the chasm in time, guards screamed as they tumbled into oblivion.
