The Stone Wolf (The Chain Breaker Book 4) by D.K. Holmberg (digital book reader TXT) 📕

land behind her. He brought the sword around, deciding it was better to end this fight—and end her—than to keep dealing with the violence and to keep running the risk that she might overwhelm him. He no longer had the powder Cyran had used on him to suppress magic, so he wasn’t going to be able to stop her otherwise.

She surged energy into a translucent barrier that flowed up from the ground and prevented him from attacking.

Gavin grunted. “Balls.”

He dropped, swinging his leg and twisting the blade to try to carve underneath the barrier she’d formed. But the sword seemed to slip past it, missing completely.

She had enough strength to stop him from getting past her barriers?

Impressive.

He focused on the core reserves one more time. Gavin slammed the blade again, battering at her barrier. Sparks flew where the blade struck, and she turned to him, completely calm and relaxed, as if unmindful of the fact that she was facing off against one of the world’s most terrifying assassins.

His strength continued to fade, much like his speed from the enchantment. He didn’t have much of a chance left. Gavin darted back and grabbed some of the sh’rasn powder from his pocket, hurriedly taking a mouthful of it. Normally it needed to be mixed within liquid, but he didn’t have time for that.

Suddenly, the strength surged within him. He took a deep breath, then jumped forward, driving the sword out from him and using that to power past whatever barrier she might have around her. He screamed as he did so, slamming the sword into her shield, and then felt the barrier start to fade. Whatever she was doing was finally waning, and he felt he could now get past it.

But then his strength faded. He had used too much—far too much—and as he held on to that power and energy, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to last much longer.

He shot back, and strength started to leak in. The sword’s glow flickered, and she looked up at him, her expression unchanged.

“I don’t want to have to kill you, but you’re not giving me much choice,” she said to him. “I really have to have the t’ranth. It’s not safe for you to use it. I’m sorry.”

Sorry?

What was strange to Gavin was that she sounded as if she truly were.

With that, she started toward him, the bands of power she had used before starting to loop once more around him. This time, Gavin knew there would be nothing he could do to escape from it.

He’d already spent every bit of power within him, and she was too strong.

Chapter Eleven

Gavin tried to move, but even as he attempted to escape from her, he found he could not. He focused on the power within him, trying to call for some energy there—to find some power that existed—but he knew that it was gone. If he could get into the sh’rasn powder again, maybe he would be able to draw on enough to help him, but Gavin didn’t think there would be any way for him to do so. He could feel that energy within him fading more rapidly than before, as if she were somehow siphoning it from him.

He realized that he was losing strength more quickly now because he was trying to force even more power out from himself. Gavin was attempting to break free, but he knew he wasn’t going to be able to.

He was stuck.

She would win.

“Tell me how to—”

She didn’t get the chance to finish.

The ground suddenly rumbled. The band of power looping around him surged for just a moment, but then it disappeared. It trembled as it collapsed, that energy sweeping out of him, no longer holding him the same way it had before.

Gavin glanced over. A colossal stone golem lumbered toward him, this one shaped like a giant man.

Mekel.

The door to the gate was closed, but Gavin caught sight of a face looking out from the top of the wall. The enchanters were helping.

Normally, Gavin would’ve said that he didn’t need their help and that he wanted to protect them, but not in this case. He should have gone to them in the first place, but at least they recognized his need.

The ground trembled again, and a stone wolf started forward. This one was enormous, larger than a horse, and it prowled toward the sorcerer. Then another thundering sound came, this one from behind him, and Gavin turned to see what looked like a goat, of all things.

“A goat?” Gavin mouthed to Mekel.

The creatures stalked forward, and the sorcerer sent one of her spiraling power blasts at the stone giant, but it simply caused part of the stone to fragment. The golem continued moving toward her.

“They have more of them,” Gavin said, looking over to her and gripping his sword. He grabbed another mouthful of powder and felt a surge of his core reserves coming back to him. He would only have a little time left with that, but hopefully enough that he could keep her from succeeding. “Just wait. I’m a little surprised he brought out the goat. That one is lethal.”

He looked over to the wolf, thinking that maybe it would be more terrifying, but it just prowled toward her. The sorceress turned in place, sending blast after blast outward, targeting each of the stone golems. But they kept coming at her.

Gavin finally felt the knot of fear unwind within him. It was a strange thing for him to be afraid of anything. That was one thing that Tristan had beaten out of him. He didn’t fear death, so why would he be afraid now?

It was something to consider later, but he knew he didn’t really need to spend too much time thinking about it. Gavin thought that he understood what it was and why he would feel that way. He wasn’t afraid for himself—he feared what would happen to Wrenlow if he failed, what would happen to his friends if Tristan decided