Kol sprinted around the corner of the house and launched himself in front of Lorelai as a group of soldiers, taking advantage of Lorelai’s momentary distraction, cut themselves loose and attacked.
Why did Ada scream? Lorelai asked, dreading the answer until she saw that Kol didn’t know. As soon as he’d seen that Lorelai was under attack, he’d abandoned his mission in favor of defending her.
So what had scared Ada? The sight of soldiers running toward her husband? Before she could figure out the answer, another wave of attackers rushed onto the property and straight for Lorelai.
Sasha screamed in fury and attacked, colliding with a woman and then whirling midair to dive toward another.
Kol was a blur of motion. He spun into one man and then sent a woman to her knees. Lorelai ducked as a sword fell toward her neck, and then Kol was there, grabbing the sword with his bare hands.
She cried out a warning, but Kol didn’t need it. The heat from the dragon’s fire in his chest had spread throughout his body, and the blade melted as he held it.
Lorelai somersaulted beneath another sword and slammed her hands onto the ground again, desperately calling up more vines, trying hard not to use her magic to hurt those who were only fighting because a mardushka had bespelled them.
No matter how many vines she called forth, however, more soldiers kept coming. And not only soldiers, she realized. Nobility. Upper gentry. Peasants. Even children.
A chill swept over her. She couldn’t defeat them all without injuring them. There were too many, and she didn’t dare use up her strength when she still needed to face Irina. She had to stop fighting and start running.
It was time to flee this cottage.
Let’s go, she said to Kol, but he ignored her in favor of launching himself at a well-dressed man in a silk cravat who was coming at Lorelai with an upraised cane.
These are innocent people, and we can’t defeat them without hurting them. Are you listening to me? Kol!
She felt the change in him before she saw it. The darkening of his mind. The burn of agony that ignited his dragon heart. The cold, precise thoughts of a predator.
He turned toward her, his amber eyes feral.
Run. His voice was guttural and hoarse. Prey.
Don’t let Irina have you. Fight this, Kol. Her heart pounded and magic screamed through her blood as she reached for him. She wasn’t going to lose him. She wasn’t going to lose another person she cared about to Irina. A flicker of awareness crossed his face as she stepped toward him, followed immediately by horrified fear.
And then his thoughts opened wide to her, and it wasn’t his voice anymore. It was Irina’s.
The Eldrian king is mine. Gabril and his family are mine. My guards have them halfway to the castle by now. You have no one left. You’re a little fledgling mardushka, and you are no match for me.
Lorelai lunged for Kol, her hands reaching, but he was gone. Twisting away from her. Running toward the castle. Following the crowd of soldiers who’d already taken Gabril and his family to Irina.
THIRTY-SEVEN
“KOL!” LORELAI YELLED, but it was too late. He was too fast, and she was surrounded by a throng of bespelled people determined to kill her to satisfy their queen.
She threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding a woman who came at her with an ax clutched in one hand and a baby on her hip. Three men old enough to be grandfathers lunged at her from behind, and she flipped forward only to dive into a shoulder roll when a girl who couldn’t be older than twelve ran at her with a shard of metal in her hand.
Gabril and his family would be nearly at the castle by now. Kol’s mind was a cold, dark place that refused to acknowledge her.
And the crowd around her kept doubling in size as more people thronged to the cottage, makeshift weapons in their hands.
Lorelai needed a way out. Fast.
Someone knocked into her, and she rolled forward, coming up on her hands and knees, only to be sent sprawling by a well-aimed boot to her back.
She whirled to avoid a sword, and it plunged into the ground beside her face.
Before she could move, a woman fell on her, and then two more piled on, pinning Lorelai to the ground as they grappled for her neck.
Lorelai shoved her palms against the ground and screamed, “Pros`rashk!”
The grass caved inward, an enormous, mouthlike circle with Lorelai at its center, and then exploded outward like a giant exhaling a gale force wind.
The throng that had been closing in on Lorelai flew backward, crashing into the cottage, the fence, and the trees, and lying dazed.
Lorelai lunged to her feet, cringing at the injuries she saw. Blood. Some broken bones. And already, the crowd that had been on the fringes was climbing over their fallen comrades and coming for her—a solid wall of people in every direction.
She couldn’t afford another huge drain on her magic. Even when working with a willing heart, magic took its toll. She needed her energy for Irina.
Magic couldn’t save her, but she’d spent the last nine years of her life saving herself without ever relying on the power that ran through her blood.