The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,98
neared him. Not a word of power, but a bellow of rage. He drew a slender sword that glowed with magic.
Next to him, Walther le Idiot shot arrows rapidly at Ben. Each glanced off Ben’s hard body. Moron.
You can shoot at an ancient tree or a rock all you want. We don’t care.
Ben yelled his own war cry and slammed himself into Ivor. Ivor, a seasoned warrior, kept to his feet, spun from Ben, and struck him with his sword. The magic in it cut and bruised Ben’s hide, and damn it, that hurt.
Ben bashed at Ivor with his fists, a boxer fighting a swordsman. He’d have laughed any other time.
Ivor had grown larger. He now matched Ben in height, wielding his sword in expert strokes. Ben would have to break the sticker before he could take Ivor down.
Walther had given up trying to help Ivor with Ben and started shooting at the other three goblins. Darren and Cyril laughed, and from the corner of his eye, Ben saw the two catching arrows and breaking them. Millie caught them too but set them neatly aside. Walther was probably about to pee his pants.
Rhianne, with the cry of her wild eagle, soared toward them. She passed overhead, ducking within the ring of trees, and plunged her talons toward Ivor.
Walther swung around, rapidly fitting his bow with another arrow, and Rhianne had to swerve out of his way.
Ivor slapped the bow down. “Leave her alive.”
Walther dropped the bow, but a cunning look crossed his face. He reached up and abruptly grabbed at Rhianne, trying to catch her bodily.
He got scratched with talons for his troubles. Walther stumbled back with a curse, blood on his arms, then he snatched up his bow to beat her away from him.
“Keep them off me,” Ivor yelled at him.
Walther wiped away the streaming blood and resumed shooting arrows at the other goblins as Ben went for Ivor.
“Enough!” Ivor grew still taller, the might of the Tuil Erdannan flowing from him.
He roared another word of power, and Ben’s entire body suddenly burst into flame.
Rhianne shrieked. She hurled herself between Ivor and Ben, the impact knocking Ben aside. Ivor reached for her, but Rhianne repulsed him with her talons and flapped hard skyward.
Ben had no choice but to get the hell away from the trees, drop to the ground, and roll around like a fool. He let his body shrink back to his human form—less surface area to burn.
His tough skin had deflected the fire so that when he rolled in the damp dirt, he came away with only a few minor singes. They stung like hell though.
“Asshole,” Ben snarled as he gained his feet. “You trying to take me out a millimeter at a time?”
That could be exactly what Ivor wanted to do, Ben realized. Ivor couldn’t strike down the tough goblin, but he could dismantle him a chink here and a chink there.
Rhianne circled high above, her cries full of anger and anguish. The goblins were busy dodging arrows from the maniacal hoch alfar. Ivor had returned to the circle of trees. Ben needed to get back there and stop whatever evil Ivor was planning.
Thunder rumbled.
Chime.
The clear tone of Lady Aisling’s crystal vibrated the air.
“Shit.” Ben started to reach for his pocket and remembered he wasn’t wearing any clothes. He called them back from the ether, the sudden feel of denim and cotton heavy on his skin.
Chime!
Ben dug the crystal from his pocket, where it still resided. “Lady A.?” he yelled.
“Yes, it is I. Where is my daughter?”
Ben gazed up at the speck in the sky that was Rhianne. “I’d say about a thousand feet up. Maybe fifteen hundred. Hard to tell. Are you okay?”
“I am well, now that my unlamented husband has departed. I managed to throw him out, with the help of my staff.”
“Good. We were about to charge in and rescue you.”
“Which would have been quite futile. Ivor can easily obliterate you. He is keeping Rhianne alive on purpose.”
“Yeah, I figured. He wants to use her to create more Tuil Erdannan Shifters.”
“He does, indeed.” Lady Aisling’s sigh came over the crystal. “I thought by not explaining her origins, I was keeping her safe. She never showed any signs of the Shifter in her, and I believed Ivor remained ignorant. But it seems I was wrong.”
“What happened to Rhianne’s real father?”
“Happened?” Lady Aisling’s tone turned perplexed. “Nothing happened to him. He’s alive and well, in France. We meet from time to time.”