Page 86 of Rising Reign

“Love you to the ends of the Earth, Birdie,” Puck whispered through my mind.

“I’m with you every step,” Brix vowed.

“Be safe, Kitten. May your blade strike true,” Ender rasped.

“Know your strength,” Locke said.

And, finally, there was Kingston. “You’re our true leader, Little Warrior. We’ll follow you anywhere.”

Emotion clogged my throat as I sent only one message back. “I love you more than I thought possible. We make it through together.”

We ran through the forest in our groupings, charging for the spot Rhys had seen in his mind. I ran beside Brix and King, our footsteps echoing one another’s until the creatures stepped out from behind the trees.

Their robes swirled around them, pale faces almost glowing beneath the hoods, those haunting pure-white eyes tracking all of our movements. Something about those eyes reminded me of when Rhys’s went white when he had a vision. What did that say about what the dark mages could sense in all of us?

I felt it then, the press of one of the mages on my mind, trying to get in. I slammed up my mental shields and bared my teeth at the group.

One dark mage stepped forward, and something about him seemed familiar. “Empath.” He grinned as he raised a ball of smoke. “I can’t wait to taste your power.”

And then chaos erupted.

50

WREN

The mages were everywhere. Far more than we’d ever faced before, and they just kept coming, spilling out from around trees and across our borders.

Arrows whizzed through the air, and I knew Ender and Franco were on it. Mage after mage fell, but it didn’t stop the rest of them.

“Prepare yourself, Little Empath,” the familiar mage whispered in a tone that had ice filling my veins. “You’re strong, but you’re no match for me.”

“You said that the last time,” I snarled as I pulled my sword from its sheath.

The mage simply grinned, but it was as if he had no teeth at all. His smile was an absence of light and life. The chill running through me intensified.

You can do this. I chanted the words over and over in my mind as battle reigned around me. Brix and Kingston each fought three different dark mages, and I could see our other groupings fighting in the distance.

“There’s no one to protect you now,” the mage cooed. “Come to me willingly, and I’ll make your end painless. I can even make it pleasurable.” He waved his fingers in a come-hither motion with long fingernails the color of smoke.

My back teeth gnashed, and I took up a fighting stance. “I protect myself.”

The dark mage didn’t seem cowed by that. “As you wish. You’ll watch all your beloveds and friends perish, simply because you wouldn’t surrender.”

As if to punctuate the point, a howl of pain sounded to my right as a ball of smoke hit Kingston’s shoulder. He doubled over as pain rocked through him. But Brix swung out with two swords taking two mages’ heads clean off.

Kingston’s body rippled and he transformed on the spot, his wolf howling. I saw the injury closing before my eyes now that he’d shifted, but it would still zap some of his energy. The urge to protect them all was so strong. I wanted to shield them like I had that night at the gym when we were all attacked.

But I couldn’t. There were too many of us, spread too far apart. All I could do was take out as many mages as possible.

A ball of smoke flew my way, and I ducked at the last possible second.

“Your mates make you weak,” the mage snarled.

“No. They make me strong.” I charged forward, my blade at the ready.

The mage blocked my first blow with magic, and I called on my caster half and the creek running mere feet away. Water from the stream rose and spun in the air. Be with me, Mom. I needed her now more than ever.

My caster gifts surged, splitting the arc of water into a dozen ropes. They circled the twelve mages’ necks, cutting off their air supply until my pack mates took them down, one by one. All except the mage in front of me.