The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,103
earth where he’d been born would help him.
But then Ivor would have her, not to mention Ben, at his mercy.
“Screw you,” she shouted.
Rhianne attacked Ivor, never mind shifting, never mind magic. She simply went at him, punching and kicking, avenging herself, her mother, the caravan of hoch alfar he’d killed because they’d inconvenienced him, the Shifters he’d hurt today.
Ivor struck back. Rhianne dodged and turned, deflecting his blows to serve blows of her own. Take the energy, redirect it to him.
Ben had taught her a new way to think, to feel. He’d taught her so much, especially what it was to truly love.
When Ivor regained his strength he would lay waste to this Shiftertown, perhaps this entire human city, and Ben would be no more. Rhianne would not be able to take Ben through the gate in time, if that would even help him.
What to do? She could punch and kick Ivor to make herself feel better, or she could finish this.
Rhianne leapt into the air, becoming the eagle as she spread her arms. She flew the few yards from the circle to Sean’s Sword of the Guardian still sticking out of the grass.
Rhianne threw off her eagle form, grabbed the sword, and ran with it to the trees. The sword tingled her palm, but it felt right nestled in it, as though she was meant to wield it.
She halted in astonishment. Inside the circle of trees, Ivor battled with a second eagle, who circled and struck with the ease of long practice.
Rhianne nearly dropped to her knees at the realization of who this eagle must be.
She kept to her feet, knowing she couldn’t lose her determination now. She raced to Ivor, who continued battling the second eagle.
Rhianne waited for an opening, then thrust the sword at Ivor’s chest. “This is for my mate,” she yelled.
Ivor caught the blade in a strong hand, redirecting all his magic to keep it from penetrating his body.
The second eagle screeched and dove at his face. Ivor fought him off, but his solid grip on the sword did not move.
Rhianne reached into herself for her Tuil Erdannan magic, searching for something that would infuse the sword with the extra power it needed to finish him. She felt Ivor call up a word of power at the same time. They’d kill each other if they both invoked at this close range, and possibly take out part of Shiftertown.
A hand on hers made her yelp. Rhianne’s breath stopped as she beheld Ben, wan-faced, in his man shape, drag himself to his feet, using the sword in Rhianne’s firm grasp as a hand-hold.
“Let me help you there.” Ben’s whisper was weak, containing the barest trace of his humor. He held up the crystal Lady Aisling had given him for communication, the quartz glittering in the stormy light. “This kinda scares him. Want to find out why?”
Ivor’s eyes widened, his grip tightening in desperation. Ben sent him a ghost of a grin.
The second eagle touched to earth and rose into the body of a human male, his face hard, his red-brown hair flecked with gray. He laid a strong hand over Ben’s and Rhianne’s.
Ben added the crystal, and the three of them sent the Sword of the Guardian straight into Ivor’s chest.
Ivor screamed as the magic of goblin, Shifter, Tuil Erdannan, and the Fae magic of the Sword found his arrogant heart and destroyed him.
Ivor writhed, which only drove the sword deeper, then his body began to smoke.
Ben’s hand on hers kept Rhianne from recoiling and dropping the sword. She held it firmly on the man who’d terrorized her with his arbitrary viciousness, had driven her mother into another man’s arms, who’d destroyed innocents because they annoyed him, and who’d come here to take Rhianne against her will. He’d wanted what Rhianne was so he could expand his own power and feed his ambition, and he’d been willing to kill all the Shifters, including their human mates and their cubs, to do it.
Ivor screamed once more, his skin scorching and crumpling. His clothing was consumed by fire and then his skin and hair, his face last, mouth open in a keening cry.
Rhianne, Ben, and the Shifter stepped back as one as Ivor’s body collapsed into ash, which floated down to the green, the storm’s calming wind stirring the ashes in silence.
The three stared at Ivor’s remains, Rhianne barely aware of the Shifters drifting toward them, or the rain that began to fall.