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CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ellery

More and more women remained to help. Small tornadoes formed before them; they moved through the crowd, sucking up three guards who’d emerged from the chaos.

When the funnels flung the guards away, they vanished into the crowd. I couldn’t see exactly what happened as women swarmed them, but blood flew.

More tornadoes materialized as any guard who could control the wind used them to defend themselves. The small funnels cleared pathways on the field.

I knocked the archers back again as Ryker disappeared into a valley. When he reemerged again, he was close enough that I saw the determination etching his handsome features. Blood stained his dark brown hair; his eyes had turned completely black, except for the lightning firing through them.

I ached to hold him as his presence energized my ability. I shifted my gaze to the parapets as archers rose again.

With another flash from my fingertips, I knocked them back before searching the fray for more of those who sought to destroy us. All the riders had fled, perished, or blended in with the crowd.

A few thousand feet to my right, women poured into the Revenant Woods, while others continued to surge over the hills toward us. Below us, some of them had run past the fallen stage, around the lake, and toward the woods there.

It was time to go before the nobles and their armies could recover. Too many of the women remained in chains, and the pounding of more horses’ hooves filled the air.

I twisted to look behind me. I couldn’t see any riders beyond the crest of the hill, but that’s where they were coming from, and they’d be here soon.

“Cannons!” someone shouted.

The sun glinted off something a second before the tip of a cannon rolled into view. My lightning could deflect some of the balls, but not all of them. Guards’ heads popped into view before they ducked behind the hill again.

The guards shifted the cannons, aiming them downward and into the heart of the crowd. They intended to destroy anyone in the path of those balls.

Before I could gather my lightning to fire at the cannons, more guards raced across the crest of the hill. Sun shone off the metal shields they carried before they plunged the bottoms of them into the ground.

The metal of those shields would draw my lightning away from the cannons. “Bastards!”

I harnessed my power until the flow of energy lessened beneath my feet, and I drifted back to the ground. Lightning still crackled around me, but I’d successfully brought it back under control.

Despite the horror of our situation, my ability to do so filled me with pride. That feeling was short-lived as Ryker reached the circle of women and archers emerged atop the hill.

The women brought down the tornadoes as a loud boom erupted behind us. The scent of gunpowder filled my nostrils as bowstrings twanged, arrows whistled, and women screamed.

When the cannonball didn’t come anywhere near us, I realized most of the cannons and archers were facing away from me. They had no problem with killing the innocents, but they wouldn’t risk destroying me.

I had no doubt the duke had given that order. He’d brought me to heel before by threatening my mother; he knew my weakness was my heart, and he would exploit it.

Instead of drawing energy from the earth, I funneled my power into it. I was under control but couldn’t douse the glow surrounding me.

That glow made me a perfect target, one they would avoid. They would strive to keep me as pristine as possible for the duke and his cohorts.

Without the light surrounding me, they wouldn’t know where I was. That would help them keep their cannonballs and arrows to themselves.

I had my power almost doused when Ryker clasped my arm. Power blazed between us, and a dazzling white light shot high, exposing our location again.

My breath caught as Ryker’s wild energy fueled mine. All the control I’d managed to wrangle dissipated as electricity struck straight to my heart, sending it into a flutter.

The women surrounding us lifted their hands to shield their eyes and looked away as the light touched the sky. My mouth parted, and my breath was a trapped bird in my lungs.

Ryker’s eyes burned into mine as lightning flashed through his black eyes. He was so beautiful, so powerful, and mine.

His hand constricted on my arm as he drew me closer. When he crushed me against him, the bird burst free. The broken bone in my arm ached when my fingers curled into his shirt as I closed my eyes and savored the solace he brought to me.

Our light faded, drawing back into us and vanishing from the day. The women lifted their heads; the amazement on their features more than matched mine.

“Are you okay?” Ryker asked.

“I’m not the one who’s injured.” It wasn’t entirely true, but he was far worse off than me.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant your power; are you okay with it?”

“I’m great, but we can discuss it later. We have to get out of here.”

“Yes, we do.”

“Will you be okay? You’re wounded.”

“That doesn’t matter. I’m getting you out of here.”