Might have been something to the virgin bit, though,Aria cut in.
Think that was supposed to be an attraction to virgins, not being one,Lucas pointed out.
Smart ass,Nikolai ground out.
His mindvoice was so strained it was barely audible. Lucas didn’t need to ask how it was going because he sensed Nikolai’s quiet desperation. He swallowed and glanced at the doorway, where the sounds of fighting had grown louder.
As Lucas slowly pushed his way into the ring of Bellatis around the foot of the dais, he pulled the knife with his other hand. Many others were doing the same, their focus on the door.
Galeran’s eyes were closed and his fingernails dug into the armchair’s leather padding. Every so often, he uttered a low growling sound. The runes on his wrists glowed red-hot. His long, gray hair drifted around him, caught up in the expended energy. As Lucas scanned him, a bead of sweat dripped from his brow.
Then the ground beneath them trembled.
Lucas, he’s breaking through. I’m going to have to fight him.
That was all kinds of bad.
Shards. We’re coming, Lucas.Aria’s mindvoice reflected her determination. Get into position. When we hit the guards at the door, I’ll help you from there.
You can’t fight your own battle, and mine too,he objected.
Just watch me. And I’m not alone. Got some damned big Dragons with me.
Lucas sensed her admiration, and his gut twisted. He could never be a warrior. This was the best he could do.
The Bellatis at the door tensed, and suddenly the doorway exploded with huge bodies swinging glowing tail spikes. Tyrez, Razir—there were at least six huge Dragon shifters attacking the Bellatis. And darting through them, a red-gold blur of motion, was Aria.
She was so captivating that Lucas froze for a moment, admiring the way she leaped and dodged and spun. But the ground heaved again, and ceiling pieces crashed to the floor.
On the throne, Galeran grunted in satisfaction. The Bellatis around him shifted, forming a wall between him and the fighting at the doorway, but leaving gaps, now, toward the back of the dais.
“Hold them off,” Galeran commanded. “I’ve almost got him.” The shaking intensified, and more hunks of rock broke free.
The Bellatis looked at each other, but they raised their horn spikes. Lucas insinuated himself into the gap. One of those closest glanced at him, but assumed he was part of the defensive wall and moved aside to give him space.
It left Lucas standing to one side, two steps down, and a little behind Galeran. He looked at Galeran’s arm and saw the rune blazing against the skin.
And suddenly, Aria was there in his mind. Not just in his mind, but in his body. Her hand tightened on the horn spike, testing its weight. Her mind envisioned the leap over the two steps and the long step to the throne, and just how much force it would take to bring it down over that rune, to slice it open, to destroy it...
The ground heaved so hard that Lucas staggered.
Now, do it now!Nikolai, screaming through the link, just as with a tremendous crack, the ceiling fractured, and tons of rock came hurtling down on them.
Several Bellatis were crushed instantly, but the rock deflected around Galeran as though he’d erected a shield. The Dragons fighting at the doorway ducked back into the hall. Lucas caught a glimpse of Tyrez dragging Aria.
Her body was there, but her mind was inside his. Like he was living a dream. Lucas ducked nimbly around a Bellati, and spun full circle. He pushed another away with his body, before leaping the two steps, and taking the stride to the throne...
It gave Lucas a clear shot at the arm.
At the last second, Galeran raised his gaze to Lucas, and his eyes widened. Just as Aria took Lucas’s weapon in a graceful, controlled arc, and brought it down with everything they had to give.
It sliced through the rune. Through the muscle. And took the arm clean off midway along the bone.
Galeran screamed, and raw, unfocused power surged through the link as the rune’s hold was shattered.
Lucas’s world dissolved into chaos. Bellatis lunged toward him, their expressions murderous, horn spikes swinging as they recognized the traitor in their midst.
Aria saved him, forging through the link to seize control. His body parried and swung both the horn and his knife as though he’d been doing it all his life, moving like a dancer, leaping and spinning his way through the astonished soldiers.
