Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (great novels of all time .txt) 📕

Praxis growled nearby. I saw he was upright, but moving slowly. “Get Lora,” I yelled, “Get her back to the others!”

This time, he didn’t argue. He staggered over to the smaller wolf, shifted into his fae form, and picked her up. With Lora thrown over his shoulder, he gave me a hard look, then he turned around again and headed for the ritual circle, slowly, dragging his feet.

I was alone, surrounded by flashing lightning and a sense of utter dread, and danger on all sides. Shadows began to loom over me, coming from somewhere behind me. I turned quickly on the spot, my paws digging into the ground. There, in the trees, were four Wenlow tightly grouped together, their massive, hulking bodies lit momentarily by the steady pulsing of lightning tearing through the sky above them.

And they were all staring at me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

The first of the four beasts roared, then charged. I stiffened up, figuring out my angle of attack—trying to determine my options—but there were too many of them. How was I supposed to kill four of them without help? And even if I killed them, weren’t there many more behind them, lurking in the woods?

The tattoo on the back of my paw lit up, sending ripples of energy surging throughout my body. I thought of my mother as the Wenlow bore down on me; I thought of the moment on the cliff with Toross, and how I’d channeled my magic into a devastating lightning attack. I could feel it now, that charge of power, ready to be released.

Stiffening my back, I aimed my snout at the rampaging Wenlow, opened my mouth, and directed a blast of lighting that tore through the Wenlow like it was made of paper. The beam of light struck the creature in the chest. The light then ripped out of it in all directions, causing the beast to explode like it had just swallowed a grenade.

I stared at the smoldering corpse as what was left of it fell to the ground. Specks of warm, blue blood splattered against my face, a foot went flying into the trees, and an arm landed somewhere nearby with a thud.

“Holy shit…” I said, breathless, my body still vibrating, my mouth tingling.

The other three Wenlow looked confused for a moment, as if they suddenly had a reason to doubt whether to attack me. I backed up a step, trying to call on the magic I had just unleashed, but I couldn’t coax it out of me. Instincts told me my battery had run dry, and that I needed to wait for it to recharge, but I had no idea how long that would take.

Having finally decided, the other Wenlow came charging through the trees, all three of them at once. I was about to pick one to attack, when a series of arrows whizzed past my head and struck one of the creatures in the arm, chest, neck, and head. The monster stumbled, tripped over a fallen tree, and collapsed with a massive crash.

Behind me, at the edge of the tree-line, stood Mira with her recurve bow, resplendent, magnificent; like a warrior. “Don’t be an idiot!” she yelled, “Even you can’t take them all on yourself!”

“There’s only two of them now!”

“Look harder.”

I hopped toward her a few steps before turning around again. She was right, the woods were full of Wenlow now, seemingly arriving on the backs of lightning strikes that were coming down with fury like I’d never seen before. The woods were strobing, alternating between light and dark in rapid, violent flashes.

“Dammit,” I growled, then I turned and headed toward Mira at the edge of the trees. “Fall back to the ritual circle,” I yelled, “They’re coming!”

Unlike the moon children, Mira didn’t need me to tell her something twice. She turned around and started sprinting back toward the ritual circle, which was wreathed in so much light I couldn’t even see the Prince inside of it. I had no idea whether the exorcism was working or not, whether Cillian was standing, or had fallen to his knees; whether alive or dead.

I only had Ashera’s word that she would drive the spirit out of him, but she seemed ready enough to kill him if she had to. I couldn’t think about that. I was coming up on Praxis, who still hadn’t reached the clearing. It didn’t look like he was moving fast enough to make it, either.

“Put her on my back,” I said to him.

“No,” he growled, “I can do it.”

“You’ll be faster in your wolf form!”

“Get away.” He tried to knock me aside with his foot, but lost his balance and fell to his knees, dropping Lora to the ground. She was fully paralyzed, her eyes wide open, her limbs unmoving.

“Get up, Praxis,” I growled at him. “We don’t have time for this.”

“You… you brought them here,” he panted. “Our blood is on your hands.”

“Don’t you see I’m trying to help you? Why do you have to be so fucking stubborn?!”

“I would rather die a warrior’s death than let you help me.”

“Then let me help you,” came Toross’ voice.

He swooped in quickly, picking Praxis up and hoisting him to his feet. The Wenlow were still coming, the large, white monsters trundling through the woods, accompanied by that incessant lightning and rolling thunder. We didn’t have much time for this, but with Praxis back on his feet, we had a chance to make it back to the clearing.

I shifted out of my wolf form, rushed over to Lora, and picked her up in my arms. She was heavy, but I was also supernaturally empowered, so I was able to grab her and start moving toward the clearing, keeping pace with my uncle and with Praxis.

Ahead of us I saw Mira standing next to Melina, Gullie, and Jaleem, who was standing on all four of his feet and looked ready to fight. The paralysis’ hold on him had worn off quickly.