The Frozen Prince (The Beast Charmer #2) - Maxym M. Martineau Page 0,127

something, someone, she cared for was jeopardized…she’d struck first. And Yazmin’s decision to openly attack Charmers who might have threatened her plan? The people she was supposed to love? Protect? That was an egregious wrong I knew we had to right.

As if feeling my conviction, Reine heeded my command and slipped out of existence.

Behind us, Calem let out a gut-wrenching scream. The three of us turned in time to see Noc sink one of his blood blades beneath his collarbone.

He turned away, leaving his blade lodged in Calem. “Don’t attack me anymore.”

Calem’s body strained in anger as he fought against Noc’s blood command. His eyes flashed mercury, and scales raced over his skin, forming and disappearing, as if the beast inside him was fighting against Noc’s compulsion. Fingers twitching, Calem reached after his brother. Talons formed and receded. His body shuddered, but he couldn’t will himself any further. Oz howled and lunged forward, slamming his fist into Noc’s temple so hard I almost saw stars. He stumbled forward and crashed to the ground. Blood leaked from his ears, but when he turned to look up at Oz, there was nothing but pure murder in his eyes.

“Go.” I shoved Kost. “Go!”

He was gone in an instant, barely reaching the clearing in time to counter Noc’s blood blade with a glittering black rapier. A moment later and that disastrous red blade would’ve found its home in Oz’s heart.

A familiar swell of static energy brewed around Gaige and me. Bringing my gaze back to the Vrees, my heart dropped to the floor. Lola had evaporated most of the mist, but there were still two threads snaking from the beast’s frame—one pooling directly before Lola and the other encircling Yazmin.

“No!”

My terror-filled warning wasn’t fast enough.

Two things happened at once. Reine appeared and lunged toward Yazmin. And Lola took a small but significant step forward. And then the lightning god himself must have manifested, because a rain of bolts showered from the ceiling, right where the mist had formed. Reine crashed into a wall of electricity and let out a heart-wrenching yowl that ended in a soft gurgle as she staggered to the ground. Her chest rose and fell in erratic patterns, and her jaw cracked open wide. Wild eyes darted without focus.

Agony ripped through me. Channeling my power, I wrenched open the beast realm door and sent her back to safety. The realm would provide, but there was no way of knowing if I’d sent her back in time. If her heart had already stopped for good.

My gaze snapped back to Lola. Her gleaming red scales had lost their luster, but they’d insulated her enough to keep her heart beating. Knees buckled to the earth, she wheezed in a heap and shuddered beneath the Vrees.

Yazmin’s laugh was more horrifying than the Vrees’s stare. “Nice try, Leena.”

Behind me, a guttural cry escaped from Oz. I whipped my head around for a moment to find him crumpled on the floor, and Noc locked in battle with a wounded Kost. Calem’s form still trembled, but he’d moved an inch. Somehow. His feral stare was locked on his brothers.

Calem. Oz. Kost. My beasts. The threats were too much. I snapped my attention back to Lola, and willed the door to the beast realm to remain open. “Lola, go back. Now!” Concern and pain and fear cleaved through me. But Lola refused to budge. She swiveled her head in my direction, eyes soft and fiery at the same time, and a soft call rattled from the back of her throat.

She would stay and fight. For me.

“No!” I’d already jeopardized Reine. If something were to happen to Lola too, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Hadn’t I promised Onyx that I would protect my beasts, all beasts, with everything I had? If I let Lola fall here, I’d be going back on my word.

I’d no longer be worthy. In his eyes, in all my beasts’ eyes, in my eyes.

Mist surged from beneath the Vrees’s feet and curled around Lola. This time, he would succeed. He’d blanketed her with enough fog to suffocate her, and she extended her neck so she could still meet my tear-streaked gaze. After a moment, she looked past me to her son. Jax had taken several steps forward, desperate wails echoing through the room. Lola responded with a soft groan that sounded too much like a goodbye.

The Vrees hesitated. Only for a fraction, but I caught it. A minute wince at the obvious display