The Wind's Call (The Broken Lands #4) - T.A. White Page 0,149
hear that?"
There was scoffing and derisive laughter from the rest.
Eva watched them, one part of her focused on the here and now. The other was far away, spinning across the land, her mind threatening to fracture as thousands of lights illuminated behind her eyelids. Threads upon threads of life, some conscious, some not. Predatory, prey. Peaceful, violent.
It all rushed into her, almost too much to contain.
She gathered the threads of all those pretty lights and sent her need down the line. For one eternal moment in time, she got the sense, if she wanted to, she could force those threads to bow to her will. She could become a monster worse than anything the Broken Lands had seen in centuries.
Then she let them go, her emotions flowing out of her like a water-filled bladder that had been punctured. Her pain, her sorrow, her desperate will to survive. All of them, until she was an empty shell of herself.
It swept out of her like an avalanche, furious and fast, gone almost before she knew it had started.
She sank to the ground next to Caden, summoning the last of her strength to curl protectively over him.
"She can't even stand she's so scared," laughed one of the men.
Pierce’s gaze was suspicious. She might not be able to stand, but there was strength in her glare, heat in her eyes.
She wasn't beaten yet.
Seconds passed where nothing happened.
Insects were the first to answer her call. Their buzzing preceded them as a dark mass descended upon the cenote.
Curses filled the air as the men slapped and beat at their flesh in a mad dance, trying to avoid being eaten one painfully small bite at a time.
Eva watched, she and Caden untouched, as the men lit a torch, waving the fire at the swarm. It did the trick, driving off the majority of the bugs. The rest settled on the branches around them, their multifaceted eyes fixed on the Highlanders.
"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Vincent asked in a hushed whisper.
Pierce’s gaze fell on Eva, suspicion in his face. "What was that?"
Her lips curled.
There was no time for an answer, as birds and all manner of other creatures fell on the men. Prey and predator alike filled the clearing, fighting side-by-side—sworn enemies who set aside the laws of nature as they focused on ripping apart the two-legged interlopers instead of each other.
Rabbits and squirrels scurried next to minks and wolverines. A shiver cat prowled the branches above, dropping onto her unsuspecting victim while a trihorn boar burst through the underbrush to charge at another. Screams filled the air.
The men fought valiantly but were overwhelmed as the animals attacked. Eventually the animals were driven-off, but not before several of her enemy had fallen to their claws.
Only Pierce and a few of his best fighters remained.
"You're doing this," Pierce swore, pointing his sword at her.
"Kill her!" Vincent urged. The Lowlander didn’t look so smug with claw marks oozing blood all over his body.
Pierce cocked his head, greed and plans taking shape. "Not yet. She can be of use to us now that Meredith is dead."
An inferno blazed to life in the depths of Eva's mind. Different than the rest. Powerful. With the force of a thousand suns behind it.
"You should have listened to your friend," Eva whispered.
It was the only warning he got as a shadow descended, the sun eclipsed by massive wings. A Kyren the color of moonlight landed on Pierce, the trajectory of his dive containing a speed and force greater than anything—except perhaps a golden eagle.
The Kyren savaged his victim, tearing him apart in seconds. Vincent and the rest stared dumbly, unaware of two other Kyren as they dropped out of the sky.
The enemy's end was violent and brief. Much quicker than they deserved.
That hint of darkness she’d seen shadowing Pierce, faded. Something told Eva it wasn’t entirely gone, simply hiding for now. A presence brushed against her as it fled, its whisper promising they’d see each other again.
She made a despairing sound at the thought, forcing its sentience away from hers, rejecting its wrongness with all her being.
The white Kyren, the one she'd seen in her dreams after her encounter with the water sprites, raised his head. His coat was marred by streaks of blood. Ribbons of flesh hung from his mouth and his legs and hooves were covered in red.
None of that detracted from his unearthly beauty.
She'd never been so grateful for a sight in her life.