Half Wylde | Book 1

Forty Nine: With You Or Not At All

Asher stepped through the doorway, a nasty expression on his face. His eyes were wild with fury and he let out a low growl as he took another step toward us.

"You," he seethed. "And Thainalan the Ravager. This is an act of war."

"The act of war was when you tortured a fae of the Autumn court!" Thain roared, starting to grow into the beast I saw him as on the training field. "Wren, run."

Thain shoved me behind him into the bottom of the lift, but the shelf lifting Schula was still at the top, not yet lowered down again for the next passenger.

"You will not escape me!" Asher roared. "Not a second time."

I took in a sharp breath as Asher came at us at a frightening speed. But Thain met him in the middle of the room, claws out and eyes blazing silver as the two hulking fae crashed together with a terrible sound.

The butcher block table that had been between them was in splinters and thrown to the side, narrowly missing a cart holding an elaborately decorated cake. I bit my lower lip, watching them fight and waiting for the shelf to slowly make its way back down.

What was the right move? If I stayed to fight would I just be in Thain's way?

If I went to be with Schula, I knew I could get her away from the danger and back to Mila's cabin. But would Thain need help?

I cringed as a splatter of blood, I couldn't tell who it belonged to, dashed across the floor. I bit the inside of my cheek to hold back the scream that was building in my lungs.

The shelf hit my shoulder with a dull thud and I whipped my head around in the shaft to see it was ready for me to climb on. I was turning my body to sit on it, when the clatter of new arrivals stopped me.

My eyes flickered over my shoulder to the doorway where two more fae had arrived. Both were dressed in brown fighting leathers and bore the Winter crest on their shoulders. One of them held a sword, and the other a bow. The bowyer raised her arrow and aimed for the scuffle that Asher and Thain were in.

"No!" The word ripped from my throat before I recognized it came from me. I gripped either side of the entrance to the lift and flung myself out, toward the new fae.

The unexpected sound of a snarl came from my lips as I closed the distance between me and the surprised fae in the doorway. I gave them little chance to react as my hands flew in front of my body and I let out all the rage I had toward the Winter court in the form of a stream of fire.

Protect Schula. Protect Thain.

That was all that would run through my head as I released my fury on them.

Unlike anything I had created before, this was white hot. White fire. The heat from it suffocated the room, I just hoped it wasn't affecting Thain. The bright flames licked at the warriors as they tried to jump away. Still, I know I burned the bowyer's arm, and it satisfied me that she could no longer draw an arrow.

Now in the open, I searched for a weapon to defend myself with. I reached for the nearest knife, a long serrated bread knife, and lifted it between me and either of the fae that might recover and attack.

No sooner was my blade in the air then the room was blown apart. A gust of wind like no other ripped through, scattering food and tools in it's anger. The wind smelled of sweet maple and I knew it was Thain who had done it.

I toppled to the ground and slid out the doorway, but so had the two fighters as well as Asher. We all landed practically on top of each other under the gale's wrath.

I would have preferred the chance to recover from being blown into the other fae, but what I got was an elbow to the ribs as Asher clawed his way out of the pile to rush at Thain again. Thain, for his end of it, was wiping a large gash on his forehead to clear his vision of the dripping blood. He roared and crashed once again into Asher as the blue and grey blurs merged and fought.