Page 221 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
“Don’t worry about me, Pete. Just get out of here. Go!”
Goddess, please go before they kill you!
They needed me alive, but him—they’d end him like an ant underfoot. Especially She-Ba, warrior bitch. Pete understood this better than I did, but his knuckles only whitened. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let them take you.”
“Theywon’t.” I hoped I at leastsoundedconfident. I certainly didn’t feel so, even if I wasn’t pissing myself. “Go.”
“No,” he flat-out refused, his gaze a black threat to anyone who’d dare harm me. A threat She-Ba didn’t take kindly to. She unsheathed one of her blades and, with a feral screech, chucked it at Pete’s heart like a dart.
I screamed, jumping in its way. “No!” Pete roared as I clenched my eyes, concentrated, and erupted.
My wind blasted the dagger back at the beyn, hilt first unfortunately. It hit her square in the boob before she sailed away, a feather in a storm. Her shrewish screams grew fainter the further she soared.
Pete collapsed on his hands and knees, drained to a husk.
I rushed to kneel with him, wanting to hold him, comfort him, but I couldn’t without causing him pain. “Are you okay?” I shuddered, brushing back his hair. Pete moaned in reply, grabbing my hip.
Dando clicked his tongue, something unholy in his voice. “Oh, I see what’s happened here.”
I didn’t like the look he gave me. Or the tone of his snigger as he swaggered toward me. I braced myself, a fortress over Pete, preparing myself for lethal tactics. At any minute, tethers would shoot out at me from all angles. I’d have to wind-whip them away. Tricky to do, yes, but if I stayed on my game, I could do it.
Goddess, now I wish Pete had trained me even harder.
Smirking, Dando observed Pete, who struggled to rise.
That’s when Morus finally reached us, muttering, “Accursed Leprechauns,” from behind me. A small comfort as I faced Dando’s malevolence head on.
Looking nothing like any Leprechaun I’d ever seen (primarily on cereal boxes), he scratched his bushy, orange sideburn. “Forgive me, Pete. We assumed you were sheltering an ally in your hatred for Gentian. But now the question begs—you’ve lost your ordination—we’ve beaten you soundly and now have nay more quarrel with you. You’re free to scurry off to lick your wounds. So, what the devil are you still doing here?”
Pete’s breath quickened. I felt his heated gaze on my back—marking his territory.
I marked my own, holding my ground when Dando swaggered into my bubble. He wouldnotwedge himself between me and Pete.
Dando was about my height, but he may as well have been a ten-foot wild dog as he leaned in, fangs flashing, and sniffed my collarbone.
I recoiled because—how dare he!
“Hm. Do I detect a hint of orange rind?” He took another whiff. “And lichen?”
My nostrils flared in remembrance of that distinct fragrance. In remembrance of Pete’s skin. Pete’s hair. Pete’s clothes. In remembrance of the embrace I’d shared with Pete earlier that day, and the sizzling look he’d given me when we’d pulled apart.
Overjoyed as my face flushed, Dando clasped my shoulder and squeezed. A tangible wealth of fury rose behind me. Pete’s, I knew. Impressive, that his surpassed mine as I jerked out of Dando’s grasp.
The cretin rubbed his fingers together, relishing the feel of my skin. “Pete’s gone dotty for you, hasn’t he, lovey? Can’t say as I blame him. Eyes like that could pierce a feyr’s heart, they could, to say nothing of a man’s. What shade would you call them?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped. Right then, I had no idea what my eyes looked like. Whatever color they were, though, I was sure they expressed my surging unrest.
Why was Dando so interested in Pete’s attraction to me?
Slugs dwelt in Dando’s voice as he mused, “And now I’m asking myself—has the princess gone just as dotty for Pete?”
Before I could react, one of Dando’s cronies had a knife to Pete’s suddenly bobbing throat. The younger one nabbed a snarling Morus by the scruff of his furry neck.
“You’ll leave off the wind and come with us easy, princess.” Dando reveled in my alarm. “If you want Pete here to live.”
For once, I listened to my instincts, acted without thinking, and loosed a cyclone on Pete’s assailants. I swept them and Dando off their buckled clogs, flinging them, blades and all, into the jungle like slops to a pig.
My vision blurred, the willows spinning, but I shook myself and grabbed both Pete and Morus, driving more power from my core. I’d need hurricane-force winds to lift us all together. If only Pete weren’t so dang heavy.
