Page 101

Ryker

We were almost on the guards when they issued their first shout of warning. One of the men behind the carriage had spotted us.

I’d hoped to get closer to the contingent before they saw us, but we were near enough that we could succeed in overtaking them. The money chests, strapped to the top of the carriage, were a testament to how far we’d come already and a gleaming temptation that was impossible to avoid.

When the shout rang out, the guards riding drew back on their reins, halting their horses. Because of the narrow, twisty road, it was impossible to see anyone beyond those two guards as a bend in the road blocked the rest of them.

The guards twisted on their horses to see what had caused the cry of alarm. As they did so, Luna sprinted out of her hiding place; before they even realized she was there, she sliced through the reins of the first horse.

Moving with amazing speed and grace, she cut through the reins of the second horse as that guard started shouting. By the time he pulled his sword free, she’d disappeared behind the carriage.

While Luna had gone for the guards in front of the carriage, Callan ran for the horses being ridden by the guards behind the vehicle. Fast and deft, the siblings worked in harmony as Callan sliced the reins of the guards following the carriage.

The guards in the back freed their swords far faster than the ones in the front, but as the first swung at Callan, the musician shoved his shoulder into the horse’s neck. The abrupt motion startled the animal, causing it to reel back in a panic.

Thrown off by the horse’s abrupt motion, and unable to control his mount, the guard scrambled to stay in the saddle as the animal tried to spin in the narrow roadway.

It movements were hindered by the horse beside it, but fueled by the panic of its mate, the second horse started backing up but it had nowhere to go.

We’d chosen this section of road because of how confined it was, and how difficult it would be for the guards to maneuver in such a small space. Thankfully, that was proving to be true as the guards shouted at the animals to stop. Their yells were only making things worse.

Because the road was so confined by the hills on each side of it, when the first horse finally succeeded in spinning, its head hit the second one’s and knocked it to the side. Its eyes rolled as it tried to flee, but there was nowhere for it to go as guards and carriages blocked the road behind it.

The shouts increased as the guards became trapped within the small confines. The men driving the carriage worked to calm the horses pulling the conveyance as the panic of the other animals fueled their natural flight instinct.

The carriage horses tossed their heads while surging forward and back as they sought to flee. They weren’t having any success.

While all this was going on, we continued to descend on the carriage. We were only fifteen feet away, and I could already feel the trunks full of money in my hands, when the door opened. An archer stood in the doorway with his bow raised and an arrow nocked.

* * *

Ryker

“Look out!” I shouted as I lunged to the side, wrapped my arms around Ellery, and pulled her to the ground.

Twisting to the side, I cradled her protectively while my shoulder and back took the brunt of the impact. When we hit the ground, her breath burst out of her as we hit the grass and bounced down the hill toward the road.

An arrow kissed my ear as it whistled past me when we came to a stop near the bottom of the hill. Keeping Ellery pinned beneath me, I ignored her grumbled complaints, wiggling, and an elbow to the ribs as I sheltered her body with mine.

“Ryker—”

“Stay still,” I told her.

Four archers had emerged from the carriage with their bows raised and their arrows nocked. Four guards with swords followed them out the door.

This was something we hadn’t anticipated while making our plan for this robbery. I should have considered the possibility my father would hide guards in some, if not all , of the vehicles.

Fuck!

I’d felt confident about how my father would handle this, and he’d been just as confident that he knew exactly how I would. It was rare when I underestimated anyone, let alone that asshole, but I’d greatly misjudged this.

I’d expected my father to be so greedy he’d only fill the vehicles with chests full of money meant for him . I hadn’t foreseen him taking up precious space with guards.

“Shit,” I hissed.

While the riders at the front and back of the carriage were still trying to control their mounts—and failing miserably—these eight guards, the one driving the carriage, and the guard with the driver were in control.

Luna darted out from her hiding place; she dashed between the steeds pulling the carriage before vanishing again.

Once she was gone, the horses attached to the vehicle lunged forward again, but this time the driver had no lines to control them. The wheels and springs creaked as the animals dragged the carriage forward a few steps before coming to a stop behind the horses blocking their way.

With the lines cut, the driver couldn’t stop the horse’s frantic movements. The animals tried to spin, but the straps binding their harnesses to the carriage shafts remained in place and kept the animals bound to the contraption.

The horse’s nostrils flared, their hooves tore up the ground, and the driver jumped from the carriage as one of the shafts snapped. The driver hit the ground and rolled toward the guards who’d emerged from the vehicle. The second man on the carriage leapt off the other side and vanished.

The horse closest to us surged forward, dragging broken wood and severed lines with it. The other horse tried to bolt in the opposite direction, but it was still too entangled with the contraption to break free.

Bows twanged and arrows whistled through the air. I tensed as my body braced for impact. Lately, I’d become a pincushion for the deadly projectiles, and I’d prefer not to have any more of them invading my body.

Throwing up my hand, I unleashed a wave of lightning that sizzled through the air. The bolts of electricity split apart to deflect the arrows as Scarlet, Tucker, and Fletcher army crawled across the grass toward us.

Ellery lifted her head when more lightning lanced out of the sky; it struck the earth with such force that it flung chunks of dirt and grass upward. The horses, still attached to the carriage, screamed as they reeled back to escape the deadly bolts, but I hadn’t aimed at them.

The guards on the hills shouted as they threw themselves away from the bolts, but some of their brethren weren’t so lucky.

Smoke streamed from their eyes as the lightning pinned them to the spot, burning them from the inside out until it relinquished its electrifying hold.

Their charred bodies crumpled to the ground.

Ellery’s fingers entwined with mine as movement to my right caught my attention. Blocked by the horses and riders trapped in this section of road, the other guards had spread across the land as they came over the hills toward us.

* * *

Ryker

Wrapping my arm around her, I pinned Ellery against my chest and rolled with her. As we did so, our lightning entwined until it swelled to the point of bursting.

It erupted from us in a torrent of destruction that peppered the hillside, slammed into some of the guards, and sent more scrambling backward. When someone nearby grunted, the sound drew my attention to the guards still near the carriage.

They fired more arrows at us as I released another wave of lightning. I destroyed some of the archers while the others scrambled for cover.

I couldn’t keep my attention on them as we had to keep the guards pouring over the hills at bay. Mine and Ellery’s lightning surged higher, faster, and harder as it built within us.

The intensity of our powers feeding off each other reminded me of the extreme reaction I experienced while standing so close to the Heart of Stone. We’d been in that underworld town, littered with the ashes of the dead, and all I’d wanted was to fuck her until we were too exhausted to move.

That stone had awakened something inside me, and I felt it again now. Except now, I wasn’t consumed with passion. I was driven by my desire to protect her while I also relished the feeling of how much stronger we were together.

Within this buildup of lightning, I felt all those times when we couldn’t stop touching and fucking. That soul-deep connection that drew us together surged out in a rush of lightning that would destroy any who dared threaten her.

The lightning intensified as it sliced across the sky, hammered the earth, and erupted from our joined hands in a steady stream of blinding white, lethal energy that decimated our enemies. A white glow encompassed us in a warm ball of love and power.

“We need to get out of here!” Tucker shouted.

“We can’t leave Callan and Luna!” Scarlet yelled to be heard over the crackle of electricity.

Many of the guards surging over top of the hill fell back as the lightning lashed at them, but behind them, more still came. Twisting, I shifted my attention back to the guards who’d emerged from the carriage.

Most were still hiding, a couple had been struck dead, but one fired another arrow at us. The riders had either scrambled from their terrified mounts or been thrown from them.

The carriage horses must have broken free as the carriage lay in the middle of the road, its broken shafts buried in the sand. The chests remained strapped to the roof.

The horses must have found a way out of their close confines as they were no longer visible. I didn’t know if they’d charged over the hills or somehow broken through the barriers ahead of them, but they were gone.

I searched for Callan and Luna amongst the wreckage but didn’t see them. “Did they open a portal out?” I demanded.

“No,” Tucker said. “At least not that I saw.”

“They wouldn’t just leave here,” Fletcher said. “If they fled, they would have made sure we knew it.”

The guards stopped coming over top of the hill to take up defensive positions as they brought out metal shields. With their bows and arrows in hand, archers ran onto the field to stand behind the shields.

Those metal barriers would draw our lightning away from the guards. My father had planned well for our possible attack on the caravan.

“We need to get to that money,” I said.

“Ryker, we can’t!” Ellery cried.

“It’s why we’re here, and we have a brief window where we can get to it, but we have to move now .”

Still lying on my chest, Ellery twisted to look over her shoulder. She surveyed the scene on the hill before speaking. “We can do it.”

Wiggling in my arms, she sought to break free and I reluctantly released her. I couldn’t always shelter her, and given that she was the strongest amsirah in the realm, trying to keep her caged was like breaking the wings of an eagle. She needed to soar too… even if I hated it.

Ellery rolled away from me as the remaining archer by the carriage fired more arrows. With a flick of my fingers, I sent a bolt of lightning sizzling toward him.

The man’s eyes widened, and he tried to jump aside to avoid it, but he couldn’t escape my wrath. The bolt struck him in the heart, lifted him off his feet, and flung him backward before the arrows he’d fired thudded into the earth only inches from my temple and leg.

“We need to move,” I commanded gruffly. “And we have to find Callan and Luna.”

We couldn’t leave them behind, but I didn’t know what had become of the siblings. Their bodies didn’t litter the ground, but I couldn’t see what was happening on the other side of the carriage.

I glanced back at the guards on the hill as the archers prepared to fire. It was now or never.

“Go!” I shouted.