heard the Leopard Lord curse behind me, then a giant leopard landed beside me and started to keep pace.
“I didn't mean that I wanted you to run off alone!” my warlord's voice came from the mouth of the leopard. “You're my valorian now; I must protect you!”
“Yeah? Well, it was the other way around, wasn't it?” I snapped and pulled my sword. Had he said valorian?
The Leopard Lord let out a rumbling roar. I cringed and shut up.
“You will not leave my side, Captain,” he growled. “Do you fucking understand me?”
“Yeah. Fine,” I grumbled.
Then we found the battle.
It was fierce and thick, with Farungals swarming over fallen soldiers who screamed and writhed as a sickly green light burned away their clothes and sank into their bodies. As horrendous as it was, I knew it was a blessing when monster claws tore out their throats. The pain of those spells was excruciating. If the Leopard Lord hadn't . . . but no, I couldn't think about that now. I swung my sword as the Leopard beside me pounced.
Freezing Farungal blood sprayed from black throats and glistening intestines spilled from scaled bellies. The night was lit by burning tents. Chitters, shouts, and screams bombarded my ears. Everything was so loud, my ears as sensitive as a newborn baby's. Oh, and my fucking skin was still glowing! Bare-chested as I was, it turned me into a fucking lighthouse. I wanted to cover my head with my hands and hide, but my fellow soldiers were dying around me. I wouldn't stop, not even when the Farungal noticed me and realized what my glowing skin meant.
“Kill the Valorian!” one of the monsters shouted.
The Leopard Lord roared, his body becoming a blur of shadows in the sickly green firelight. The Farungal who had shouted the command went down first. Another monster turned toward me, barbed tail lifted, but that shout had rallied our soldiers as well. Cries of “We have a valorian!” and “The Goddess is with us!” echoed around me. Soldiers ran to my side to help me battle back the swarm of Farungal coming my way, the beacon of my skin turning me into the focus of the battle.
“Stalana!” I raised my sword and shouted Luca's battle cry.
The humans around me echoed it.
Hey, if I was going to rally them, I was going to do it with style.
The Leopard Lord pounced and landed before me, roaring loud enough to set the world to trembling. I stepped up beside him and, together, we fought back the Horde. Around us, the Leopard Army formed an impenetrable wall to drive the Farungal backward, out of our camp. The monsters fell beneath leopard claws and human swords, the sound of snarls and battle cries stopping their chittering at last. Finally, the Farungal turned tail and ran.
We gave chase. We fought them all the way back to their boats, some of our soldiers even waded into the water to pull our enemies out of their rowboats and drown them in the Bellor Sea. When it was finally over, I stood on the beach beside the Leopard Lord, staring at the Farungal ships in the distance as they pulled anchor and headed back to Alantri. The soldiers around us cheered and roared, the sound echoing down the shore and throughout the night. Then I turned, my skin winking out at last, and started running for camp. It was still burning.
I made it six steps before I passed out.
Chapter Three
While I was unconscious, they figured out that only fire could quench the Farungal spells. A cunning magic indeed. Literally fighting fire with fire would never occur to most people, but faeries know all about magic and when the other elements failed to work, they gave Fire a try. It burned the green fire out, turning the flames orange, and then we were able to quench the normal fire with water. I say “we” because I woke up in the middle of it, sprawled on a huge bed in the Leopard Lord's tent, with the warlord sitting beside me, back in his Sidhe form and dressed in a fresh change of clothing. I had come awake instantly, my mind still focused on the fires. With a single-mindedness ingrained in me by training, I jumped off the bed and ran from the room, startling the Leopard Lord and General Liese, who stood nearby. My warlord had chased me around the camp until he realized that I was trying to find something to do—fires