“Not true,” Ford said as he raced back to us in his lion form.
I halted and he stopped beside me. “If I shift now, it will lay me flat.”
“Get on, I can carry you.” He slid himself under me and scooped me up. I wasn’t sure this was going to be a good idea, but before I could change my mind he bolted forward, jarring the break in my arm. My vision dimmed with the pain, but not enough to miss the rain of arrows that spattered down around us, sending up the earth in big chunks. Iron arrows, barbed and deadly.
They would dig in like nothing else in this crazy world. I leaned forward and squeezed Ford with my legs as I tried to protect my stupid arm.
Lila flew to the side within my vision. “Watch out!” I yelled as an arrow sliced through the air, so close it cut along her side. She yelped and shot forward, just ahead of the onslaught.
Ford galloped along. He’d saved me more than once now, my enforcer, my friend.
Why did he confuse me so? Was it because he reminded me of Maks? And why the fuck was I thinking about it right now?
Easier than thinking about the pain, or what you are going to face when the gorcs catch up to you.
The smarter part of me had something there.
“Is it Flora or Ollianna running the storm?” I asked. As if Ford would know. He didn’t answer with anything but a pained grimace and a grunt. His stride hitched and I felt it all the way through me, just like riding Balder when he took a lame step. I looked back to see an arrow sticking out of his flank, digging in with each stride he took. “Motherfuckers!” I sat up as another volley of arrows shot toward us.
A burst of magic coursed through me, touched on the sapphire and then shot out of my good hand. Ice caught the arrows, weighing them down, dragging them to the earth before they ever reached us.
“Neat trick,” I muttered. But it wouldn’t be enough.
Above us the sky finally broke, rain falling as though someone above bucketed out a sinking ship. There was not even a single raindrop that I could see, just sheets of water as it fell, coating my vision, and thankfully slowing the gorcs behind us.
“They can’t see us!” I yelled.
“And I can’t see our people!” Ford yelled back.
I reached out to my connection to them and locked onto them, letting it guide me and Ford. “To the right. Go!”
Ford didn’t argue as I directed him, and he didn’t slow until we slammed into the back end of Balder.
My horse grunted and jumped forward but didn’t kick out though he cocked a leg.
I fell off Ford’s back. “He’s injured, we need to get the arrow out.”
“No time!” Steve roared. “You’ve brought a fucking horde of gorcs down on us and you think we should listen to you at all? You’re out of your Jinn-loving mind.”
“I did? If you’d listened to me, you motherfucking sheep humper, we wouldn’t have run into you! We were leading them away from where you were supposed to WAIT FOR US!” Oh, it felt good to scream at him, it really did.
And suddenly I understood why I’d not been able to feel him and Darcy through the connection to the pride.
He’d severed it himself. An alpha male could do that, split the pride and take members away if they were strong enough. And rather than let me lead, he’d made our pride weaker by splintering it.
The urge to kill him was so strong, I took a step toward him and lifted my good hand to the sapphire. And just as quickly, I stepped back and dropped my hand, knowing the urge for what it was. “Listen, ass face, how about we survive this shit show, then you and I can have a chat about who is leading here?”
Darcy put a hand on him, her hair and clothes plastered to her, and he blew out a big breath. “She has a point, Steve. This is not the time.”
Her touch seemed to do wonders for his stupidity as he stepped back and gave her a nod. Maybe they weren’t such a bad match after all.
I did a quick head count, noting Benji, Frank, Asuga, Nell, and Kiara. Kiara held little Frankie in her arms, the boy’s head buried against her neck. “Kiara, you keep Frankie with you.”
“They have to come through me first,” she said, her words whipped toward me on the storm, her eyes as fierce as any lioness protecting her young.
“Flora, good job on the storm!” I said as I turned to face the oncoming gorcs. “You think you can turn it up more?”
Flora hurried to my side, fighting the wind that ripped through our group. “Not my storm, Zam.”
If it wasn’t her storm, who the fuck was creating it? Because this was not storm season in the desert, nor was the prickle of magic against my skin any small thing.
Lila clutched to my good shoulder, her eyes tracking the rolling clouds. “Zam, I think it’s my father. I think he’s here.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, you’ve got to be kidding me!” I shouted. Before I could stop her, she launched off me.
“I’ll lead him away!”
“Lila, no!”
There was nothing I could do but watch as she flew into the boiling storm, the waves of rain and wind whipping her side to side, and then I lost sight of her blue-scaled body.
“Let her go,” Steve snarled. “She’s of no use anyway.”
Ford pushed between me and Steve, still in his lion form, his hip bleeding where the arrow had been pulled. “Let me kill him.”
I growled. “Gorcs first. Steve later.”
I planted my feet facing the direction of the oncoming gorcs. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel the thunder of their feet through the ground as they stampeded toward us. Rain slicked my face as I pulled the flail from my back with my good hand.
Even with Flora and Ollianna, I had no doubt of the outcome of this fight. Thousands of gorcs . . . we’d only be able to hold them off for so long. “Kiara, go, take them and go!” I yelled.
“No, we are a family, we stand together!” she yelled back. Stubborn girl. Yet a flare of true pride rushed through me. Damn it, this was not the time to get emotional.
I turned my face to her. “You take them. We’ll hold the gorcs as long as we can.”
“Then you’ll catch up.” Her eyes locked on mine and I nodded. A lie we both knew was a lie.
“Yes, then we’ll catch up.”
The rain plastered her hair to her face as she stared at me, stronger than I’d ever seen her in a moment that would break most people. I nodded at her to go. She rounded up the younger shifters and that was all I saw as I turned to face the fight of my life.
Gorcs ahead of us, Lila’s asshole father above us. Call me a pessimist if you like, but I didn’t think this would go well.
Not for one bloody damn second.
19
The storm around us whipped up harder, blowing in from our backs, shoving us toward the gorcs as if Lila’s father was trying to push us into danger’s path. That would not surprise me at this point.
“Son of a bitch!” I snarled as I dug my feet in. I’d struggled to tuck my broken arm into my shirt. Darcy saw me and came to my rescue. She pulled her belt off and strapped my arm in a sling, pinning it to me effectively.
There were no words between us. Really, there was nothing left to say. She’d chosen her side, and it was with Steve. The tiny shred of belief that we might at some point revive our friendship was pretty nulled at that point, but that didn’t mean I hated her. And I didn’t think she hated me.
“Good luck,” she said.
Her lips were tight as she stepped back and went to Steve’s other side.
Ollianna was on my left, her face grim. I couldn’t resist it. “Aren’t you glad you came with me?”
She shot me a look that would have curled the hair on anyone else, her words dry as two-day-old toast. “Extremely pleased with my decision. I hope you have some magic dust up your sleeve to at least slow them? No? I didn’t think so.”
Magic dust.
“Holy fucking shit, I do have magic dust!” I jammed the flail onto my back as a roar from a dragon that m
ost assuredly was not Lila boomed across the sky, drowning out the thunder and lightning. I couldn’t help but look up, just in time to see a massive black shadow course through the clouds, undulating, wings spread.
And a tinier version right behind it flying for all she was worth. I gritted my teeth. “Do not die on me, Lila!”
“What are you doing? Get your fucking weapon out!” Steve roared.
Only he was wrong. I needed the dust that the queen of the giants had given me. Magic dust. She’d said it herself.
“Ollianna, can you give me a gust of wind when I open this?” I grabbed the leather pouch and yanked it from my waist.
She looked at me. “I won’t be able to see you in this weather.”
I whistled for Balder and he galloped to me, sliding to a stop in the mud. I mounted up. “Then just start pushing the wind toward them.”
She bobbed her head. “I hope that really is magic dust.”
“You and me both,” I muttered.
I put my heels to Balder’s side and he shot forward, shoulder checking Steve as we passed him, making him spin away from us. “Good boy.” I leaned forward.
I had no idea how far out the gorcs were. What I knew was that I needed to run along the front of them with the pouch open. Whatever the magic dust was, I needed it now. Of course, there was a chance that the magic dust was nothing more than a bag of sand, one last fuck-you from the queen of the giants.
My guts clenched with nerves as Balder and I raced out into the unnaturally dark day, the rain pelting us like tiny rocks, the roar of a dragon above, and then the unmistakable stench of gorcs as we drew close.
I smelled them, and then they were there, through the rain, their bodies reeking up the world even after the impromptu shower. Mouths, weapons, and oversized hands reached for us as I entered the first layer of the ranks.
“Fuck!” I turned Balder with my legs only, leaving my hand free. He spun on his haunches and leapt forward, driving his chest into the gorc closest to him, knocking the beast down.
I fumbled with the pouch. One-handed opening, it was a stupid thing not to think about. I grabbed the leather thong with my teeth and held my breath as I yanked it open.
“Now, Ollianna!” I roared the words, praying she could hear me. A massive gust of wind and rain hit my right side, swirling toward the gorcs. I shook the pouch and dust slid out, caught in the wind and embraced the rain drops.
The dust mixed like a spell in a pot, and the rain turned to a sickly green as it spread out among the ranks.
I pushed Balder into a mad gallop that was deadly in this weather, but we had no choice. The edge of the gorcs’ ranks were to my left and they snarled and lunged at us, but we stayed just out of reach.
The dust sparkled green, the color of the queen’s snot, and for a moment, I wondered if the pouch had been her version of her snot rag. But I didn’t have any time to wonder. The wind swept the dust forward and into the rain deep into the gorcs’ numbers.
I kept shaking the pouch and more dust fell and was caught into the weather, and more gorcs were hit with it. But what was it doing? Anything more than changing the color of the water?
As the last drops of the magic dust fell from the leather pouch, I threw it in the face of the gorc closest to me. The gorc snarled and flailed to get it off his face.
You wanna wanna see this magic kitty kitty cat. The queen of the giants’ voice reverberated through my head and I did want to turn and look, but not yet.
I spun Balder to the right, grimaced as he jumped over something, and my broken arm jarred hard, the shattered end of it finally piercing the skin and making me howl.
There was the thud of feet behind me. I looked over my shoulder in time to see the gorc closest to me fall over as if he’d dropped dead. Had he? I slowed Balder and spun him back around to face what had been a horde.
Bodies littered the ground, thick with green sludge. Not one arrow flew toward us.
A whoosh of air drew my eyes skyward. Sure, maybe I’d stopped the gorcs for the moment, but how the fuck were we going to deal with Lila’s father?
I could sense Lila still and she wasn’t hurt . . . she was in fact ecstatic. That couldn’t be right. Not with her father.
On cue, the gorcs on the ground began to moan. And the weather eased off, improving my sight lines.
“Well, if this isn’t a pile of camel shit, Balder, I don’t know what is.” I stared at the gorcs. An easy thousand were laid out on the ground, green froth rolling from their mouths, noses, and eyes, they were covered in the thick slime. But there was another thousand or more behind them, and they were still coming. Slower, yes, but still coming.
A bolt of lightning arced through the sky and danced down along the ranks of the downed gorcs, racing from one body to the next, as if guided by a hand.
Flora, it had to be her.
Yet, when I turned she was already shaking her head.
What surprised me, and shouldn’t have, was that Steve and Darcy were nowhere to be seen. Ford, Ollianna, and Flora were the only ones still standing there waiting to fight.
A whoosh of small wings spun me around despite the pain in my arm that wanted to slow me. “Lila!”
“That bastard Steve is making a run for it,” she snarled as she landed on Balder’s neck.
“Yeah. Your father . . . I don’t understand, did you two make up?” I looked up as the second dragon dropped out of the clouds.
I couldn’t help it as I saw the color of his scales, and the cheeky ass look in his eyes. I whooped with joy. “TRICK!”
He roared in answer to me. “Thought you girls might miss me! Couldn’t let you have all the fun!” His white and silver scales caught the light as the weather dragon swooped down toward the ranks of the gorcs, lightning riding the tips of his wings and leaping off to smash into them, blasting them left and right.
They were flung back with the force of the electricity. The call of the battle sung through my veins and I urged Balder forward, reaching for the flail.
Steve might run from a fight. He might leave others to do battle for him, but that was not me. That was not in my blood.
I screamed as the flail swung true on the first blow, taking a gorc in the head and throwing its body through the air.
Thousands of gorcs . . . I was insane, I had to be. Yet there was no denying the blood lust as it settled over me. “Take the sapphire!” I yelled at Lila. “And give it back after!”
She hesitated and then grabbed the sapphire from around my neck and shot away from me, every gorc she touched freezing where they were, their bodies tumbling to the side to shatter on impact with the ground.
Balder kicked and reared, using teeth and hooves as though he were truly a trained warhorse. We kept an easy twelve-foot circle around us that moved as we dove deeper into the fray.
Insanity, I knew it was the only answer that we were there. Especially as Ford joined us in his lion form, snapping necks and tearing out throats and bellies.
To my other side came Ollianna, her hands lifted as she raised magic from somewhere, bodies blasting away from her as if her hands were full of explosives.
I glanced at her, wondering why her magic worked now. Her eyes caught mine and she looked away, a flash of guilt there. Guilt?
“Fuck, you played me?” I spat the words at her.
“You had to at least try and use your magic,” she said, lifting her chin. “And if mine had ‘worked’ you wouldn’t have even done that.”
I just stared at her. She was right, but that didn’t mean I liked what she’d done.
Because I needed her there. Her and her explosive hands.
The flail hummed in my hand, happily absorbing the blood and whatever magic might have been in each of the gorcs. Ten, fifteen, twenty, I lost count of how many we downed. I only knew at some point Trick landed, let out a massive roar, and the remaining gorcs turned and ran.
My entire body shook as we stood there, heaving. Balder blew a deep snort, his
skin no longer slicked from the rain but from sweat, steam rising off his hide. My broken arm ached to the very center of the bones, but I didn’t care.
“I can’t believe we did it.” Ford limped to Balder’s side, blood running from multiple cuts, his mane saturated with blood.
I looked around us. Trick grinned; Lila swept back, touching the last of the gorcs, freezing them where they were. Ollianna smiled and gave me a nod. “I am very happy to be here, Zamira. You are a warrior goddess, I think.”
I laughed and grimaced at the movement. Now that the adrenaline faded, every ache and pain made itself clearly known to me. “You think the gorcs will be back?”
Trick lifted his head and stared toward the retreating horde. “No, they’ve been soundly trumped, and they have young right now. That was their breeding ground you stumbled onto.”
I frowned. “I thought the Jinn created them?”
“They did,” Ollianna said. “And then nature took over. The Jinn are not strong enough to hold them all. They only meant to create enough to make an army, not a new ecosystem.”
Ford grunted. “Good, I’m glad they are gone. Everyone is safe. And I need to lie down.”
I spun in my saddle in time to see Ford drop where he was, his eyes rolling back in his head.
“Shit!” I jumped from Balder and landed, my broken arm shifting and the bones grinding against one another in a rather unnatural way that pressed farther out of my skin. I bit back the scream as I placed a good hand against the pulse in Ford’s neck, a cold sweat popping out along my face and neck.
His heartbeat was so weak, I could barely find his pulse.
Lila dropped beside me, immediately releasing the sapphire. “You healed Batman’s leg, Zam.”
I pressed my good hand against Ford’s chest. “I know, but I had no idea what I was doing. I just didn’t want to have to put him down!” And I’d not been hurt myself, or exhausted from too much shifting, or . . . sweet goddess, I didn’t think I could do it.
Her jeweled eyes stared up at me. “You can’t let him go without a fight.”
She was right, and it wasn’t that I didn’t want to, it was that I was afraid of the outcome. What if I tried and failed? This wasn’t like Batman, there had been no one to see me then.
Oracle’s Haunt: Desert Cursed Series Book 4 Page 16
