Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
They hadn’t been told what they’d face. Otherwise up was the first place they’d look.
I hammered down with a wide spell, and Sebastian did the same. One mercenary screamed and another splatted against a tree. Crap. That was supposed to be a low energy version of one of the grisly spells. I’d meant to scratch him to hell, not explode his middle. Hopefully, Cyra hadn’t seen that. She’d take it as a green light to go nuts.
I angled right as a gargoyle team of four flew over me. I picked up the pace to match their speed and covered them with a spell. A jet of yellow shot through the trees, hit my spell, adding to my energy, and then filtered through my connections to the generic magical defenses I applied to the shifters. It was by far the best magical discovery in one of the Ivy House books.
I fired a different altered spell, and a black line slashed across a mercenary’s head. He gave a bloodcurdling scream, his head tore in two, and he fell.
Dang it! I’d greatly reduced that spell, but the result was every bit as dangerous as the original. Clearly, these spells wouldn’t be tamed.
Blasts came fast now. I had to pull up and focus on defense. Tristan caught me and flew me toward the mages. We’d done enough to distract the mercenaries. Their guns wouldn’t be able to bleed through my protective magical defenses on the shifters. Austin knew how to handle them.
The mages had stopped. In a moment I saw them, hands out and at the ready. They weren’t looking up, either. They must not have been able to see the mercenaries through the trees.
I squirmed and Tristan released me again. Sebastian pulled up next to me, and I met his eyes. I gave a slight nod, and his gargoyle transport dropped lower with me to the treetops. I hammered spells as fast as I could, mundane ones that should hurt like hell but not kill, but the tree cover was thick, and I couldn’t see well enough to hit the targets.
I angled my wings, dropping to get a better view, and my wing hit a branch. Pain lanced through my back. A mage looked up and saw me, a look of horror crossing his face, and then fear. He fired a spell at me, shouting something I didn’t understand, and I threw up a shield. My other wing caught in the branches as another spell came in. I tried to clear myself, but my angle stopped me.
I heard a thrum, and large hands grabbed me and yanked me upward. Tristan tucked my wings in and pulled me in close. I knew a moment of abject terror, instantly transported to a time when Nathanial had done the same thing.
“Nooo,” I said, my fear rising.
“Ea-ssy,” Tristan said through a mouth full of fangs. “Eeaa-sy.”
He wrapped his wings around me and dropped, crashing through the leaves and branches. He then spread his wings with a snap. Thunder rolled above us, and lightning crackled. The trees were too dense for many of our team to get in easily. In our haste, we hadn’t thought of this contingent.
I covered us in a defensive layer as spells came in hard. Mages stepped from behind trees long enough to shoot jets of magic at us and then hid again. If they’d been any stronger, I wouldn’t have been able to withstand their fire. As it was, the sheer magnitude of magic in close range was frying my defensive spell.
Tristan landed, hustling us out of the way on foot. Another gargoyle dropped out of the sky. He unfurled his wings, revealing Sebastian, who was firing spells.
I pushed away from Tristan and fired. Tristan and the other gargoyle slipped behind the trees and ran at the closest mages. Roaring, the basajaunak exploded from the trees. One snatched up a mage and then another, bashing them against a tree, while a basandere tossed yet another mage through the canopy like a rag doll.
“Don’t kill!” I shouted, but I was in my gargoyle form and it came out garbled.
Mages took off running. Some panicked and ran in the wrong direction, straight toward the shifters. Others hid in the trees, cowering away from the basajaunak hunting them.
More roars and snarls. I felt Austin drawing near. A mage screamed, and then another, and I saw jets of spells and sensed pain from three different people.
I tried to hurry, but I wasn’t as fast in my gargoyle form. The dense canopy blocked me in, and my wings weren’t strong enough to push through. I doubted any of the gargoyles could push through. We were stuck on the ground.
“Jessie, here,” Sebastian called.
Two mages were firing at him. I added to the protective spell covering him as a mage went flying above my head, slammed into some branches, and fell. A basajaunak was on him immediately, knocking the mage out with a hard punch.