“Damn it, Ronin. Where are you?”
The guard who’d spotted him rushed toward them, which meant he’d have to plunk Lina down somewhere in order to fight him off, and no doubt he’d alerted other guards, too. Add that together, and it amounted to a whole shit-load of stuff they didn’t have time to deal with.
His heart racing with fear for the woman in his arms, he circled around, setting his sights toward the sky. He almost breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the flapping of wings off in the distance to the right of the advancing guard, but then he caught his first good sight of the wings. Yellow and scaly instead of white and downy.
“Fuck!” It was an ishtari demon. One of Belpheg’s guards set to stop him. Which meant he was up shit creek without a paddle.
Dagan tensed, preparing to set Lina down so he could fight off the two guards that were almost upon him, when something swooped down from behind and lifted him up into the air. He yelped and almost dropped Lina, but readjusted his grip at the last moment.
“You okay?” Ronin’s voice sounded out from right behind him.
“Shit, bro!” Willing his heart to slow its fierce, staccato pounding, he glanced back to see the outline of his brother’s face in the night sky. “You scared the ever-living piss outta me!”
“Sorry,” Ronin said. “Got caught in the fray when the ishtari started fighting the mercenaries we hired.”
Dagan glanced behind them. Though the ishtari followed, Ronin’s speed was much faster.
“He’s a fair distance away now,” Dagan said.
“Good.” Ronin’s gaze went momentarily to Lina, and his mouth tightened. “She okay?”
Dagan couldn’t blame him for asking. Even though the three of them soared through the sky, she hadn’t regained a bit of conscious. With her head and hands hanging limply, she could very well be dead.
“Drugged,” he said simply.
When they’d traveled more than halfway across the lake, Dagan tensed. “What about the shield?”
“After Keegan tore the first hole in the shield, he flew around tearing more holes on each side.”
Would be helpful if they could actually see the holes.
As they neared the rear of the property, Dagan found himself holding his breath. If Ronin missed the tear in the invisible shield, they’d go bouncing back into the ishtari’s arms like a ping-pong ball.
To his surprise, they flew through with no more than a slight jostle when one of Ronin’s wings caught on what must have been an edge.
“How’d you know exactly where it was?” Dagan called back to Ronin.
“I was with Keegan when he did it.”
Dagan whistled. “Great memory.”
“Nah, mostly a good guess.”
What?
Not knowing how to respond to that particular bit of information, Dagan glanced behind them once again. “Shit. The ishtari followed us through the hole.”
“Damn,” Ronin muttered.
He weaved to the left, and within a matter of moments, they came upon Keegan and the three rayamaras he’d hired. The rayamaras’ leathery, bat-like wings flexed and flapped as they helped Keegan fight off the ishtari. They were outnumbered four to six—seven now that the other ishtari joined in their scuffle—but Dagan had the utmost faith in his eldest brother. Thanks to Keegan’s bloodline on his mother’s side, he had the strong, majestic wings of a dragon-shifter, and his movements were swift and sure as he blocked punches and handed out a few of his own to the two ishtari who’d ganged up on him. Not only that, but every time one of the ishtari tried to hit back, a fierce and sudden wind would blow him away.
Dagan smiled at the sight. Taeg couldn’t fly, but it looked like he’d found a way to help Keegan out anyway. Had to admire his creativity and his ability to morph into air form. Came in awful handy sometimes.
Keegan glanced their way and noted Ronin had hold of both Dagan and Lina. “We’ve got this. Go!”
After ensuring the ishtari who’d followed them was now occupied, Ronin soared away, keeping low to the forest to disguise their tracks. He expertly wove through the thick trees, moving with a speed that made Dagan nauseous. He wasn’t going to complain, though. His main objective was to get the hell out of here, as soon as possible. The fact that Lina was still unconscious disturbed him more than he’d care to admit.
“Almost there,” Ronin said, as if he understood Dagan’s concern, or more likely felt the same way himself.
Minutes later, Ronin flew even lower, rustling through the trees until a lone figure came into view.
Maya.
She paced through the hidden clearing in their direction, impatience written all over her face. He didn’t envy Taeg the fight he must’ve had getting her to stay put. Maya wasn’t the type to idly stand by while others placed themselves in harm’s way.