The Protector (Fire's Edge #4) - Abigail Owen Page 0,97

war and never experienced the horror for themselves. These boys had, in one way or another.

“Until Levi orders you to join the fight, you stay here,” she said. “He is your commander. Do you understand?”

Subdued, determined faces gazed back at her, but gradually they all sat back down.

“Vilsinn?” She tipped her head and glanced at her other boys.

The troll nodded his understanding.

Right. She turned and ran down the twisting system of caves and corridors to the front room.

There, she looked up over the fallen rocks still in place above the bulk of Elijah’s body, blocking most of the way out. All she could see from the outside was a sliver of night sky. The silent, empty sky.

“Report.” Levi’s voice echoed through her head so loud, Lyndi flinched.

Silence.

Lyndi shook her head. Were they talking to him and leaving her out? Silence in response to an order to report was not good. Attor, Mike, and Coahoma were out there. Her mate was out there. William and Marin were still out there.

Images flashed in her head. Horrible scenarios. One of her boys or Levi crushed and bleeding, or burning from the inside, torn apart by talons and teeth. Lying out there in the trees or on the mountainside somewhere. Where she couldn’t be with them. Dying alone.

Be damned if she could just sit here like a useless lump.

She climbed higher, out of the mouth of the cave where she’d be vulnerable, able to be seen. Because this man and these boys were her life. The most precious things to her, and fuck all if she wasn’t going to try.

Not that she had any idea what she was going to do.

She crawled and clawed her way over the rocks, avoiding the parts of her child that had yet to turn to ash. Luckily, she was tiny and managed to squeeze through that small gap. Balancing on an uneven rock, Lyndi looked to the skies. Where’s Levi?

The waiting was maybe even harder than inside. Silence and dark skies surrounded them, ominous and treacherous.

“Fuck.” Levi’s voice hit her like a sledgehammer. “Found them. Marin, William, get down here.”

“Sir.” The response from her boys was like an echo bouncing around in her head.

Lyndi flattened herself against the rock as the wind generated by her boys’ wings buffeted her, threatening to blow her right over the cliff.

What’s wrong? She didn’t dare voice the question or risk distracting them all.

“Attor, Coahoma, and Mike are down here, all three of them are out cold.” As though he’d heard her, Levi’s answer came back for her to hear as well. “Still breathing, but—”

Why leave Mike, Attor and Coahoma alive? If the advantage in a fight was to take out more of the other side before they took you out, why not kill them?

Unless the Alaz team was using the boys…

Lyndi sucked in sharply. “They’re bait,” she yelled, knowing Levi would hear her. So would everyone else.

“I know,” came his ominous reply. “But I won’t—”

Four forms dropped from the sky to the forest floor in formation, coming from each direction. The blast of Levi’s unmistakable roar of challenge echoed off the mountains, followed by the bright glow of a stream of golden fire glowing from between the trees in flashes.

Her mate was in trouble, and her boys were in the thick of it.

An answering roar thundered up from within her and a searing pain lit up the back of her neck and the spot on the back of her hand at the same time. Staring at the flesh between her thumb and forefinger, a design formed, glowing bright white as though she was being branded from the inside out.

Not the symbol of the King of the Red Clan that had been there before. Instead, the symbol of the new King of the Gold Clan appeared in stark, twisted lines.

In one single, glorious, relief-slamming instant, her dragon unfurled inside her, and the bond with her mate clicked in hard. Suddenly, Lyndi could feel Levi. Sort of like her dragon. As though he were both her and not her. Part of her, but separate.

Including being able to sense where he was.

His desperation and determination pulsed down that connection like an electric signal down a telegraph wire. Along with his will came the absolute, unhesitating intention to lay down his own life for her and for any one of their boys.

Lyndi didn’t have time to explore this new part of herself, of them.

Instead, she loosed her irate dragon upon the world, shifting so fast her