Binding Ties The Sentinel Wars - Shannon K. Butcher Page 0,115
His body was still going, despite the pain of his wounds. But it wasn’t going to last much longer. It was simply a matter of numbers.
Fatigue weighed down on him. Even using the trick of pulling power from the earth, his cells were starting to rebel. His reflexes were slowing, his muscles burning. Every slice his sword made was doing less than the last. As the sheer mass of demons pressed him, his only choice was to take a strategic step back now and then to avoid taking damage. Each step gained his enemies ground toward the cavern that was only a few feet behind him.
And once he was in there, he was dead. No amount of fancy sword work was going to keep them from attacking him from all sides.
Another attack shoved him back a step. He could hear the echo of steel on steel bouncing off the cavern walls behind him.
One slippery little fucker slipped past his guard and popped up at his back. There was nothing Joseph could do to stop the impending blow—not without giving another three demons his back.
That move would kill him for sure.
So he braced himself for the blow, searching for a single second’s opening to turn and deal with the demon at his rear flank.
A feral growl sounded behind him. Then a demon let out a hissing scream of pain as it died—a familiar sound now, after the dozens he’d killed so far.
Got him, came Lyka’s satisfied tone in his head.
He caught a flashing image of a demon’s limp body being shaken in the teeth of her tiger form before she tossed it aside.
A flash of movement warned him a second too late that an attack was coming. His sword was already engaged with another, blocking it from reaching his flesh. He tried to avoid it by taking another step back, but it was too late. There was nowhere he could go to stop the blow.
He felt Lyka’s alarm, felt her siphon off a huge surge of his power.
A pale, shimmering light appeared in front of him as she erected a shield wall. The momentum from combat rocked him back on his heels. He lost his balance and fell back into the cavern opening.
Something was wrong. His body wasn’t responding right. He looked down to see what was the matter.
Protruding from his chest were four inches of rusted steel—the tip of one of the demon’s swords. It had been severed by the shield, which left the blunt end glowing orange where it had been sheared.
Lyka was beside him in an instant. She looked down at him with the eyes of a tiger, but he saw fear glowing in those golden depths.
Don’t move, she told him, panic filtering through with her words. The sword is near your heart.
Was it? He couldn’t tell. He couldn’t feel anything but a faint flutter in his chest and a chill racing through his lifemark.
That was probably a bad sign.
“You need to leave,” he said. “My power won’t be available to you for much longer. Once it fades, you’ll be trapped in here with all the demons behind your shield.”
Your power isn’t going to fade unless you die, and I won’t let that happen. Her tone was confident, but the feeling of panic scampering through her proved it a lie.
His heart fluttered again, only this time it felt like a fist being shoved through his chest. He clamped his lips around a scream of pain and was left panting by the time it passed. “Go, kitten. Please. Before it’s too late.”
I will, but you’re going with me.
The feeling of rock-solid resolve coming out of her was the last thing he felt right before his heart fluttered, stuttered and then stopped.
Chapter 46
Joseph wasn’t breathing.
Panic engulfed Lyka, making her shake so hard, she was kicking up dust under her paws.
She didn’t know what to do to save his life, but she knew she had to.
She loved him. She couldn’t let him go. Not before she at least had the chance to tell him how she felt.
She’d been an idiot not to see it before. It had been huddled there, cowering inside her, afraid to make itself known. He wasn’t her kind. He wasn’t what she’d wanted for herself.
None of that mattered. Love didn’t care about artificial boundaries. It laughed at the plans of Slayers and Theronai alike. Love did whatever the fuck it wanted, and turned the lives of everyone it touched upside down.