Page 82 of Beauty

I send out a flame from my fingertips, catching the nearestguard’s tunic. The guard steps away from Duffy, trying to put out the flames.

But Duffy’s too close to the others. He’s wielding his axe,proving that he took his training seriously. He catches one guard squarely inthe chest, but he doesn’t have the strength of a larger man. The axe strikes,but it clangs and bounces back off, sending Duffy to his ass in the dirt.

I’m about to send fire to the guard standing above Duffywhen a terrible pain catches me on the bicep. Blood flows down my left arm,soaking my tunic.

Duffy rolls, balling up his small body and narrowly missingthe sword that descends toward his neck. He somersaults his way to me and kicksout, catching the guard nearest him in the knees.

But now we’re surrounded, and I can’t feel my left hand. Myright sparks, a blast of fire, but my control is shot and my eyes are stillaffected by the sunlight. It peeks through the eddy cloud, causing pockets ofblindness.

I can see vague shadows circling us.

“That fucker is using magic. Didn’t you know we kill witcheshere, son?” a hoarse voice asks.

“He burned me. Don’t touch him. He has some sort of spell onhim.”

“Aim for his heart. He might have a spell, but he ain’t gotno armor.”

Duffy is at my side, but the gnome lost his axe. The sunpasses again, and my sight comes back. I rather wished it didn’t, since now Ican see the men who will kill me. Even the ones I managed to burn are back ontheir feet.

“Let’s have some fun with them, boys. What do you say?” amuscular guard offers.

“Now would be the time for you to start up with thefireballs, Shim,” Duffy suggests. “I think a little flame-roasted guard woulddo us some good.”

I hold out my only usable arm, and the shot goes wild,sending an arc of flame straight to the house across from us. The roof goes uplike tinder, scorching across the straw and catching both houses beside it.

Fuck all. There are Fae in those houses. I hear a faintscreaming and wonder how many innocents I hurt.

The guards look up and then turn back, settling on theirtarget. Me.

And then there’s a low growl and a wolf pounces. Delicateand graceful and ruthless. The wolf leaps on the guard who was about to chargeand has her teeth around his sword arm. Hoarse shouts fill the air. I grabDuffy, prepared to run, when the guard next to me suddenly groans and looksdown at the long knife in his chest. Whoever threw that fucker doesn’t haveDuffy’s strength problems.

“Get down!” a feminine voice shouts.

I sink to the ground, covering my brother as two arrowsspeed over.

When I look up, all four guards are dead and we were saved bya bunch of women.

Bronwyn walks through the smoke, her face a mask ofwillpower. She’s a fucking gorgeous warrior goddess, and despite the pain in myarm and the panic in my gut, my cock gets hard at the very sight of her.

“Put those fires out, Shim.” Gillian walks from thedoorstep, bow in hand.

Bronwyn pulls her knife free of the guard’s armor, wipingthe blood off on her pants. She looks down at me, her eyes softening a bit.“Please, Shim. If you can put that fire out, I would be grateful.”

The fire winks out as though she has more control over mypower than I do.

Bronwyn holds out a hand. “Now let’s go use that power ofyours on someone who deserves it. What do you say? Do you want to help me killa hag?”

Gillian is at my side, her hand on my arm. “I don’t know ifhe’s going to be doing much of anything for a while. That arm is bad. He’s losta lot of blood.”

“I’ll be fine.” I struggle to get up. My twin is starting toget into trouble. I can feel it. I can’t let Lach down or Bron. She came backwhen it made more sense for her to run. Perhaps she only came back to save hervillage, but it doesn’t matter. She’s here, and I’m not about to let a thinglike massive blood loss stop me from helping her. I try to get to my feet.

Kaja shifts, her body forming into her two-legged state.Gillian takes a step back.

“She’s fine, Gilly,” Bron says in a stiff-sounding voice.“She’s Dante’s consort.”

“Damn me, she’s naked.” Duffy stares. My brother isn’t oneto let near death interrupt his deep appreciation of the female form.

Kaja looks down at my arm. “I am Dante’s consort so I happento know that anytime Dante is injured, he feeds. Consort blood heals. CousinBronwyn, if you want your husband in this fight, you’ll have to sacrifice alittle blood.”