Peri took the momentary reprieve from an enemy attacking her to look around the battlefield. She pushed the wet hair that had escaped her high ponytail out of her face. Lightning cast from elemental sprites lit up the sky, and she saw the carnage around her. It wasn’t only water on the ground forming puddles. There were little streams of blood running across the dirt collecting in small pools. The dirt bore black scorches where lightning had struck it, and piles of ashes that were formerly vampires littered the turf. She also smelled burning, but she couldn’t see anything on fire.
Peri looked over to where the elemental sprites were standing. They were doing their thing—wind pushing back any foe that tried to get near them. And every time a fae threw magic at them, one of the sprites shot up a wall of ice to block it.
“Damn,” Peri muttered. She’d forgotten how formidable the sprites could be.
Her eyes caught sight of Vasile. Side by side with Fane, they battled two large warlocks. Peri saw a couple more warlocks coming up behind the male wolves, and she started their way. But before she took more than a few steps, Cypher, king of the warlocks, was there. He took out the two sneaking up behind Vasile and Fane with one swipe of his huge sword. His eyes met Peri’s, and he gave her a nod. He was making it clear he was keeping an eye on the Romanian alpha and his son. Not that Vasile needed it, but there was no such thing as too many allies.
Movement from the corner of Peri’s eye made her turn to see a female vampire running toward her, teeth bared. It was attractive. Not. Peri held up her hand and shot a bolt of light at her, stopping the vamp in her tracks. Peri let out a breath as she realized they were winning. There were definitely more piles of ashes on the ground than vampires still standing. As soon as the thought filled her mind, she knew she should have ripped it back.
Suddenly there was a loud buzzing noise, like hundreds of locusts swarming in a small area.
“What the…” Peri heard Riven, who was only a few feet away, say and then he added, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Peri looked up and saw what had caused her fae comrade to grumble. Coming toward them, flying through the air like angry Tinkerbells, were the pixie warriors … or at least the ones that could fly. They might be small, but pixies were no joke. Just like any supernatural race, they were supernatural for a reason; they had powers humans did not possess.
Peri glanced at the elemental sprites. “Light up the sky!” she yelled at them and pointed. One of the sprites looked where Peri was indicating. The sprite nudged the woman next to her and motioned up. A moment later, more lightning arced through the air. Peri saw Ainsel, king of the pixies, take to the air and join with his warriors. She was glad he was helping, but it would make it challenging for the sprites to not hit any of Ainsel’s people.
Pixies began to fall, but when they realized what was happening, they began bobbing and weaving through the air like drunk bumblebees.
A bolt of fire soared through the air, and Peri turned to see Cypher forming another ball of fire in his hand. She knew the warlocks could wield the elements, though it wasn’t something they did often because they believed strongly in fighting a fair fight. A battle of swords. Cypher was smart. He knew that sometimes you fought dirty. Especially when a legion of pixies was about to rain down hell on you.
Other warriors of Cypher’s warlock army began to do the same, but even with their fire, some of the pixies made it down low enough to use their magic. Peri lifted her hands and began to speak in her language. She caused the air around them to be charged with more static electricity. She had to be careful because too much, and she would cause the lightning the sprites were shooting to become a threat to everyone, not just their enemy.
Riven must have realized what she was doing because she saw the male warrior take up arms beside her. “I will keep the enemy from you. You focus so you don’t kill us all.”
Peri laughed. “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”