Page 39 of Pawns of Fate

Rose and Ava just managed to climb on top of the boulder when the first goblins caught up to them. Rose kicked one away as it grabbed her foot.

Only five of the nasty critters surrounded their boulder, but Rose could tell from all the noises that more of them lurked in the rocky landscape.

The five chittered to each other and shrieked when Ava brandished her knife at them.

One pulled at its own pointy, long ears.

Another gnashed its dagger-like teeth. All of them tried to scrabble up the sides of the boulder with their disgusting yellow claws.

One of them ran off, presumably to communicate with the other goblins that were too shy to come closer.

The other four watched it go. Rose summoned all her courage and took the opportunity to snatch one up and stab it in the neck.

She tossed the grotesque little corpse at the feet of its comrades, causing them to go silent for a moment .

Then, every rock or shrub surrounding them erupted with goblin shrieks.

Rose and Ava covered their ears until the noise subsided. When they looked down from their perch, only the dead goblin remained.

“I think you scared them, Rose! You’re so brave! I never would have grabbed one.

“That was nothing compared to how we dealt with them at the orphanage. They would go after our food stores. We called guarding the pantries goblin duty.” Rose chuckled.

“It was my least favorite job, but I used to bludgeon them to death with a broom.” She eyed the little corpse at the bottom of the boulder, making sure it was well and truly dead.

Rose remembered a dinner in Onanish where Ava had bragged about killing goblins at her parents’ restaurant. “I thought you’d helped exterminate them with your parents?” she asked.

“Oh, that was a lie I told to put York in his place. There are no goblins in the Imperial City!”

And in spite of the looming darkness, the girls laughed together.

LYLA

Lyla ran a mental inventory of her mana reserves as she raced through the spindly pines and brush that made up the high desert. She had enough for a handful of strength and speed spells. It would have to be enough. She had to protect Ava and Rose.

She actuated the communication spell. If Syzman used the scrolls properly, they could get to Ava and Rose in time. She could buy them that much with her skills; she’d already managed to distract the werewolves and lead them away from her friends.

“Syzman.”

“Lyla!” He opened his mind to hers so enthusiastically, she felt the pull physically. Damn it. She did not have time to think about the implications of that.

“Syzman, listen. I don’t have much mana. Ava and Rose are a few miles south of the border village.”

“Where are you?” Leave it to Syzman to ask the wrong question.

“It doesn’t matter where I am,” she replied.

“It matters to me.” His words twisted Lyla’s heart in all the wrong directions.

“Get to Ava and Rose. He is after Rose; you were right.” A hulking, humanoid figure with the head of a canine crept into the corner of her vision. She was out of time.

“Where are you?”

Syzman wasn’t going to let it go. If she told him the truth, he’d come after her instead of protecting the women she’d come to think of as friends.

“Get to Ava and Rose.”

Lyla cut off the spell as the first werewolf slashed at her with its claws.

ROSE

Night fell, and their stalemate with the goblins went on for what felt like hours.

None of the little monsters would come within ten feet of Rose and Ava’s boulder.

They still skittered around, though, noisy as hell.

Rose was sure she and Ave would be stuck on this rock till daylight.

Goblins hated the sun; it burned their eyes.

If they could just make it till sunrise, she and Ava could run to the village.

Rose struggled to keep her eyes open until she realized their surroundings had gone quiet. Deathly quiet.

Rose grabbed Ava’s hand. Only one thing out here could shut the goblins up like that.

“Do we run?” Ava whispered back.

“I don’t know.”

“Lyla’s probably dead,” Ava choked back tears.

Rose’s heart leapt into her throat. “We can’t afford to think about that now,” she whispered, voice ragged.

A low, canine growl came at them. Rose guessed the werewolf was twenty feet away.

“I want to run,” she whispered.

Ava nodded. Both girls knew it didn’t make a difference if they hid or ran. The creature could smell them either way. They quietly slipped off the side of the boulder opposite the growl.

But when they turned around, they screamed.

The hulking monster was in front of them.

Bipedal, with a human torso but canine legs and a wolf’s head, easily seven feet tall, the werewolf was more terrifying than the troll.

Rose shuddered. Blood covered its snout. She desperately hoped it wasn’t Lyla’s.

The girls ran, narrowly avoiding the wolf’s lunge. It was toying with them, Rose realized, allowing them to escape. As they fled, pushing their feet harder than ever, the wolf would close the gap, swipe at their heels, and slink back a short way, still following them. It was enjoying the hunt.

Rose let out one sob of desperation, then continued running, holding hands with Ava. At least she would die in the company of a friend, though her heart saddened when she thought about Ava dying, too.

They reached a cliff. Had the werewolf herded them here? In the dark, she couldn’t tell how far down the edge reached, but she could faintly hear running water. Should they take their chances and jump?

She and Ava held each other and let out a few cries as the wolf, savoring the despair of its victims, drew closer. Rose closed her eyes.

A claw scraped her skin. Teeth would follow soon, she knew. They would rip her throat out and tear her flesh to shreds .

But before the werewolf could reach her, Rose heard the crack of thunder. A lightning spell struck the monster. The smell of charred fur filled her nose.

York Sharp, brandishing a longsword, threw himself in between them and the now gravely injured werewolf.

The beast lunged. York’s longsword caught it, stabbing it through the heart. But he didn’t stop all of the wolf’s momentum. The creature still fell onto Rose, pushing her to the absolute edge of the cliff.

Rose tried desperately to hold her precarious balance. She heard Ava scream and saw the fear in York’s eyes as he reached for her a second too late. Rose flung her hands out, desperately trying to grab onto something, anything. But the rocks gave way, and she toppled over the edge.

For just a moment, all Rose could hear was the wind rushing past her ears.

Again, she closed her eyes to avoid looking death in the face.

Just when she expected to meet the ground’s terrible embrace, she found herself floating, suspended and motionless.

The familiar feeling of nausea in reaction to magic invaded her stomach.

The spell released quickly. She dropped into firm arms and slid against cold metal armor.

The cool sensation felt pleasant against her overheated skin.

“Rose! Rose!” a panicked male voice called out frantically. A gloved hand cupped her face.

Her eyes snapped open. Two blue orbs stared back at her.

“Nicholas!” Rose cried, overwhelmed with the joy of their reunion.