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Well, three. Eoghan remained about three yards away from the sheer drop.

Rion pulled his lips back, revealing those razor sharp fangs, and the male she’d slept beside these past two weeks vanished. A cold warrior stood beside her now, his lethal gaze trained on her best friend.

A bad idea. This had been a stupid and ridiculously bad idea. Arianna’s worried gaze traveled toward Ellie. Her sister’s brow had knotted.

Then Talon stepped forward.

One step and the world exploded.

Chapter Six

Arianna

One minute, her mate’s hand was in hers. The next it was gone.

Rion and Talon’s snarls sliced through the air raising the hairs at the back of her neck. Then their bodies and magic collided exploding in a hurricane of swirling debris, snow, and ice.

The force of the impact shook the earth and Arianna’s stomach dropped, dread sweeping through her when the two males clashed again and again and again.

No.

No, no, no, no, no, no . . .

Their bodies danced around one another in a whirlwind of flying fists and pounding magic, both grappling for dominance over the other.

A twist, then Rion’s fist slammed into Talon’s jaw. He dodged, pivoted, then an icy shard skimmed Rion’s cheek. She saw the flash of anger in his gaze. The rage as his magic rose in answer, slamming down on her friend only for Talon to skid to the side, barely avoiding the deadly blow.

The scent of their blood wafted toward her, sending Arianna’s panic over the edge. She sprang forward, ready to intervene, but Ellie grabbed her arms, pulling her back.

“Let go,” she demanded, the dread turned to nausea when Rion wrenched Talon’s arm behind his back. Talon flipped out of the movement, ice spreading in his wake. He drew a knife from his boot and threw it only for Rion to catch it and send it sailing right back.

Talon dodged and the blade buried itself in the ground, left forgotten as he surged forward again.

“There’s nothing you can do,” Ellie said, gritting her teeth as she, too, watched the pair. The females backed away as icy shrapnel flew too close, landing mere inches from their forms.

“We have to do something.” Arianna couldn’t bear to watch them tear one another apart. Not over her. Her heart jolted again. No, this wasn’t just about her. These two had been fighting on the front lines far longer. Talon had spent his teen years learning everything about The Demon. The way he fought, his magic, his patterns.

Sand whipped up like a viper from the ground and locked around Talon’s leg, wrenching him to his knees. It swirled in a familiar spiraled pattern and her mind flashed back to Lan and his comrades. Their severed limbs. The blood.

Talon screamed in fury, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, and the sand burst away from Talon’s leg in frozen shards.

Talon launched from the ground and clamped his hand around Rion’s wrist. Ice ran up Rion’s arm and terror shot through her as she remembered the arm she’d turned into nothing more than a shriveled husk on the battlefield. Talon had that kind of power. One touch and—the ice exploded away and Rion’s elbow slammed into the side of Talon’s face.

Her friend fell, then righted himself and the pair crashed into one another again.

Arianna pulled against her sister’s iron grip, but then Eoghan was there, pulling them both back. “We need to move,” he said, but she wouldn’t leave them. She couldn’t.

A pulse shot through her body as she screamed their names, pleading with Rion down the bond, but her words hit a wall, as if he’d shut her out entirely.

It didn’t matter what she said. What anyone said. These were two warriors on the battlefield again, locked in a fight to the death. One lethal storm pitted against another.

Water rose from the river to their right and earth ripped from the ground at the same moment, both magics monstrous before they flew toward one another at unnatural speeds.

Eoghan summoned thick wooden trucks from the ground and wound them around the trio to shield them from the debris that flew in all directions.

They were going to kill one another. Nothing could stop this. Not even Arianna.

Then warriors emerged from the tree line, their weapons drawn and magic ready. Her heart thundered as the warriors watched, their deep-seated hatred trained on her mate as they gauged the best way to assist their commander.