Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,49

hard enough for them to break. Her power ensured that they were fixing themselves, but they’d be sore for a while, and she would certainly feel it in the morning. If they survived until then.

Layla placed a hand on Tego’s head, the feline’s fur matted with the blood of their enemies. The four of them had held off the mass of attackers so far, but they had all taken hits, and they couldn’t do this all night.

Sir Lamorak took a step forward. “Having fun?” he asked.

“Sure,” Chloe said. “You?”

He threw knives of fire at them. Layla blocked several of them with a metal shield, while Piper and Chloe dived into a nearby apartment to escape. Tego let out a whine as one of the blades hit her in the flank, and Layla dropped her shield and threw herself toward her, recreating the shield to cover them both, but not in time to avoid one of the blades cutting her across her hip. Layla stifled a cry of pain and, placing her hand against the shield of metal, caused it to explode, raining thousands of tiny bits of shrapnel down the hallway toward Sir Lamorak and his people.

Layla checked Tego’s cut. It was deep, but the fire had cauterized the wound almost immediately.

“All that armor, and he hits you in the joints,” Layla said, stroking Tego’s face. “Go check on Chloe and Piper; I’ll deal with Sir Lamorak.”

Tego licked Layla’s face and limped away. She would be okay; she healed quickly. But Layla was now beyond furious.

She sprinted down the hallway toward Sir Lamorak, who laughed as he threw more and more blades of fire and air at her. Layla turned her arm into a shield, and while each one that hit hurt, the anger she felt inside spurred her on. Reaching Sir Lamorak, she collided with him, lifted him off the ground, and pounded him back on the floor with a vengeance.

Sir Lamorak grabbed Layla’s metal arm and unleashed lightning into it, the current traveling through her body. The pain was all-encompassing as she collapsed to her knees. Sir Lamorak stood up as Layla blinked and tried to remember how to make her body work.

He grabbed her by the throat, lifting her from the ground. “This will hurt,” he told her and threw her out of the window.

Layla hit the ground from two floors up, her body still paralyzed from the lightning shock. Thankfully, she hit soft earth, and her body rolled with the impact, but even so, the air was knocked out of her.

Grabbing hold of a wooden bench, she used it to help pull herself back to her feet. Layla looked over at the mass of rioters standing on the sidewalk between her and the empath.

“Judgement,” Layla said, tapping her comm unit, only to discover it was dead. “Shit.” She took it out and tossed it away.

Another blast of lightning from above hit Layla in the back, and she was thrown forward over the bench. She could do nothing but watch as Sir Lamorak landed on the ground and calmly walked over to her.

Layla tried to take control of Sir Lamorak’s armor, but nothing happened.

“I read about you,” Sir Lamorak said with a sneer as he banged his fist against his armor. “Layla Cassidy, who killed a dragon, who slaughtered trolls, blood elves, and giants. Who defeated the Valkyries. And now you crawl at my feet like the pathetic, feeble creature you are.” He looked down at her. “The runes on my armor stop your power from taking control of it. Your friends will die, you will die, and everything you care about will be wiped from the surface of this puny world.”

Layla snarled, kicking her foot into his groin, putting all her anger and hatred of him into it. Sir Lamorak gasped and staggered back, giving Layla time to get to her feet. She tried to shift her metal arm into a blade, but the pain was overwhelming. The lightning magic had done something to disrupt her ability to morph her arm, and until the effects lessened, it was no longer an option available to her.

Sir Lamorak threw more lightning at Layla, but she had already moved. She kicked him in the head, grabbing hold of his wrist as he tried to push her away. She narrowly avoided being hit with more magic as she aimed his hand back toward the crowd of his followers charging toward them, and the magic tore into them like they were