Page 114 of The Mating Quest

In his hand he held the big knife. One quick move and blood sprayed, the wolf at his throat howling and then lyingstill.

With lethal quickness he turned to the three wolves at his back. Slash went the knife and they went down. The alpha moved swiftly, cutting off all fourheads.

Ilana sheathed her sword and applauded. Ethan stood, bloodied knife in his hand. With a grimace, he wiped the blade on one of the dead wolves and then sheathedit.

“Do you have to do anything else? Burn them or something?” heasked.

“No. Decapitation does it.” She went to him and saw the blood on his throat. “You’rehurt!”

He wiped at the blood. “Nicked. They couldn’t get through to anything vital. My fur is thicker thantheirs.”

“That was some move, wolf.” She grinned. “You fight like agirl.”

His smile echoed her own. “Thanks for the compliment.” Then his expression grew hard. “The fire was a diversion. I’m sure ofit.”

“Mostly likely. Cormac wanted to lure us into a trap.” Seemed likely, yet she felt more than a touch of unease. Why hadn’t moreattacked?

“I don’t know, but there’s more out there.” His nostrils flared. “I can smell them, the stench of rotting flesh and sewergas.”

They advanced deeper into the meadow, wending through the nearby forest and climbing higher. Ilana crouched down and pointed to the ground. “Slime trail. Gettingcloser.”

The trickling stream widened, splashing over rocks and spilling down small waterfalls as the land sloped. Ilana’s breath caught. She knew this area, the Rainbow Valley. Knew how lovely it was in the spring, with the flower fairies flitting about, the sleepy sprites awakening to thedawn.

As they entered the clearing, no flowers bobbed their heads. No sprites or fairies or shygnomes.

Smoke drifted on the wind, billowing in their faces. The pretty green and purple meadow grasses climbing up the mountain were blackened. Ilana’s throat closed with emotion as she came upon the body of a dead sprite. Downed by smoke, most likely. Then she saw several of them on the ground, near the water, as if they’d tried desperately toescape.

They climbed down the trail to another meadow, where a blue lake lapped at a sandy shore. Rocks outlined the shore, along with ferns andbrush.

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “Over there, behind the rocks. I can see their darkauras.”

Ilana withdrew her sword. As they approached, thirty zombies stepped out from behind the covering. Her heartlurched.

This was notgood.

Chapter 30

She’d expected a few zombies.Not a horde. Ethan growled. “I’ll take the ones on the right,” he toldher.

He shifted into his wolf, charging them bravely as they advanced, their high pitched shrieks slicing theair.

Holding Starsong aloft, she followed, her own war cry shrill in the air. Ilana swung as she ran, slicing off heads, but there were too many. Five jumped on her, three on her sword arm, snarling and biting. Ilana stabbed them, but another slammed into her arm, knocking away hersword.

She went down. Ilana dove for her sword, retrieved it. Dirt smeared her face. Ilana spat out a mouthful. Rolling, she swung her weapon at one grinning zombie, its face halftorn.

She sliced off his head, but an enormous ogre zombie lumbered forward, the stench almost making her gag. Towering over her by two feet, he hit her with one fist. Pain exploded in her jaw. Staggering back, she held her swordaloft.

No match for his brute strength, Ilana aimed for his arms. The zombie howled as she sliced one off and then she cut off his right leg. He began hopping around like a cartoon character. Time to finish the job. Starsong sailed through the air, cutting off his head. Black blood spurted over her. Wincing, sheturned.

The power is inside you.Ilana looked at the other zombies charging toward her. Drust had empowered the sword with his coldfiremagick.

Ilana pointed the sword at the invading zombies. Blue light sizzled from the tip, zigging and zagging in an arc. The energy slammed into the zombies, who toppled over and shrieked and then laystill.

Not good enough. They could still resurrect. She cut off their heads and then grimacing, sheathed Starsong. Where wasEthan?

She wiped dirt and blood from herface.

Palms sweaty, her mouth dry, she scanned the area for Ethan. He fought as wolf, and then kept shifting into different animal forms, making the zombies trip and fall. When they lunged for him, he shifted back into Skin and his blade sang through theair.