She looked up as I raised my sword. The third wolf leaped, its violent intentions clear, and my heart caught in my throat.
“No!” I screamed. It couldn’t end like this. I wouldn’t let it.
Ryllae was so close that I could see the red glow on her skin—but the wolf was closer. Turning, I brought my sword down in an arc. The beast snarled, twisting in the air as it avoided my blade. Ryllae’s crimson aura pulsed, and I could see the doubt in her eyes.
She didn’t think she was strong enough.
I knew she was.
“Princess!” I yelled over the roar of battle. “Use everything you have!”
At the sound of my voice, the two wolves who had been snarling at Ryllae turned. Those red, glowing eyes met mine, and they charged. Now, the three wolves were all set on me. But at least they weren’t focusing on my Ryllae. Adjusting my grip on the sword, I cut the first one down. The second leaped towards me, snarling viciously. Those sharpened canines ripped through my tunic, and the wolf clamped down on my arm.
I roared as searing pain ran through my body. Still, the wolf did not let go. Stumbling back, I shook my arm as white appeared in my vision. I fought to keep my sword in my hand, even as my fingers numbed.
Ryllae screamed my name. I trembled as the pain grew worse. The wolf was going to rip off my arm.
“No!” she cried out.
A blinding flash of red erupted from the Death Elf. It flooded out of her, coating the entire forest in a deadly crimson glow. The pain on my arm disappeared, and I gasped, falling to my knees. My torn skin knit itself together until there was nothing but a smooth pink line where the cut had been.
Silence fell. A thick, red mist blanketed the area.
The entire forest seemed to hold its breath as the strange crimson fog cleared. Little by little, it slipped into the earth. As it did, my eyes widened. My fingers released the sword, and the weapon fell to the wayside. My legs shook as I stood, moving toward Ryllae.
She looked at me, a tremor running through her. “The wolf was going to kill you,” she whispered.
I glanced down at my arm. My tunic was torn to shreds and covered in blood. “Yes,” I replied.
“You were going to die,” she murmured. “I couldn’t let that happen.”
“You healed me.” I stated the obvious. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Ryllae reached out, her hand running down my cheek. “Neither did I.”
The others were behind us, but they were keeping their distance.
“She killed them all,” Xander whispered.
“Every last one,” Maiela said. “I didn’t See this.”
Neither did I. Aileana said something to Kysha, but I didn’t pay them any attention.
Everything I had was focused on Ryllae. My Death Elf stood with her back against the same tree, her eyes wide as they searched mine. “I… I did this.”
It wasn’t a question, but I heard the uncertainty in her voice. Even now that Ryllae had killed all the wolves, she was still unsure of the strength within her.
A surge of anger rose in me, bringing my blood to a boil. If her father wasn’t already dead, I would kill him for the way he made this incredible female doubt herself.
“You did this, Princess.” Taking her hand in mine, I gently pulled her away from the tree. “This was all you.”
The entire pack of wolves was dead. More than dead. They were destroyed, their auras ripped from the land, that utter wrongness was gone. It had no place here, anywhere. I’d seen destruction of this magnitude once before.
When Aileana’s earth magic first flooded out of her to protect Xander, she had turned a dozen Winged Soldiers into trees.
But that manifestation of power was very different from this.
Where the wolves had been, now there was nothing but skeletons. They should have been horrifying to look at, but instead, there was a strange beauty to the macabre display on this moonlit trail. Violet roses so dark they were almost black grew around the bones, shrouding the skeletons in what had become their ultimate resting place.