The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,96
the ley line, and Dylan had volunteered himself. Andrea must have handed him a Fae talisman, since something Fae had to be used to open the gate. Strong Shifters—Ronan, Spike, Liam, Ellison—surrounded Dylan to protect him from whatever waited for them on the other side.
Dylan’s task was more dangerous than that of any other Shifter today, and by the tension in his shoulders, he was fully aware. But there was no other way. They had to find Tiger and stop the threat before it fully manifested.
It spoke much of Dylan that he did not command another Shifter to do this. Glory hovered near the edge of the trees, her gray wolf’s eyes riveted on him. She’d be next to him, Ben knew, but Dylan had likely ordered her to stay back.
Dylan moved the piece of silver in his hand to the place where the gate should be.
“Knock knock,” Ben heard Sean mutter. “Anyone home?”
A high-pitched whine sprang to life, growing louder and more piercing by the second. Shifters, with their superior hearing, cringed and snarled, shaking heads and trying not to flee from the noise. Dylan held his ground but snapped at the Shifters around him to get back.
Once the whine passed beyond human hearing range, but not Shifters’, the ripple of magic that had swallowed Tiger blasted from the point, enveloping all Shifters, including the Guardians and Zander, within it.
They slowed, and stopped, suspended in mid-leap, shake, or howl. Silence dropped like a switch had been thrown.
Ben, Rhianne, and the goblin family, in the rear, backpedaled from the ripples, which ceased a foot away from them.
Carly and friends cried out from the porch, as did other mates and cubs who’d been watching from a safe distance. Rhianne added her eagle’s screech to their screams.
Ben’s heart pounded as he scanned the circle. The Shifters faded with each pulse of the ripple, as though thick glass layered itself over them.
“Son of a bitch,” Darren muttered.
The ripples parted. Out of them strode a tall man, his long red hair glowing like fire, a circlet of silver on his head.
“Daughter.” His voice boomed across the green. He walked past the unmoving, dimming Shifters, ignoring them utterly. He halted a few yards from where Ben held Rhianne, the goblins hovering behind them.
“That word tastes foul in my mouth,” Ivor de Erkkonen sneered. “I’ve known your secret for some time now, Rhianne. You will come with me at once, or all of these creatures …” He waved disdainfully at the Shifters. “They will die. So will the goblin.” He fixed eyes blacker than night on the eagle.
“Choose.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Rhianne launched herself skyward, the shriek of her eagle rending the air as rage boiled inside her.
How dare Ivor threaten her mate? How dare he threaten all the friends she’d made in her stay here, and all their mates and cubs. How dare he terrorize and threaten her mother.
She brought a word of power to mind. Could she use it in this form, when she couldn’t speak?
As Ben might say, worth a shot.
Rhianne felt the force of the word welling up inside her. When the piercing cry came out of her mouth she realized that the syllables of it didn’t matter. It was the intent, the will, that contained the magic.
The power flew straight at Ivor, who watched it speed toward him without concern.
This word had shriveled the snakes Ivor had sent, rendering them ash. Ivor, on the other hand, calmly batted it aside with a word of his own.
The wave of power split and crashed into the thick, suspended ripples of nothing. Bits of the magic that contained the Shifters splintered off, and the magic of the words died.
Rhianne blinked. She’d known Ivor was strong, but he’d countered her without breaking a sweat.
A cold smile spread over Ivor’s face, and he shouted another word of power back to her.
Rhianne rent the air with her wings, flying frantically out of the way. The light from Ivor’s magic flashed past her, singeing the tips of her feathers. Rhianne lost her balance but thrust out her wings, catching the wind to soar high. The power the word unleashed struck a large rock that was instantly pulverized.
Rhianne looked down as she flew, her eagle vision sharply focusing on one thing at a time. Ivor, gloating. Ben, roaring his fury, charging him. And a hoch alfar who stepped out of the rift that led to Faerie, an arrow knocked to his bow.