Better, she thought, better to charge, break the line, and get to the stones.
Then the one that leaped down from a branch above her nearly unseated her, knocking her back as she rammed up an elbow to block it. Moira pitched to the ground. With a cry of rage, Blair smashed back with a fist. She’d nearly jumped down when Cian flew across the path.
He swooped Moira up, all but threw her back on Larkin. “Go!” he shouted. “Go now.”
She charged the line, the flames from her sword cutting a burning path. She could only hope Cian was out of harm’s way as a ball of fire whizzed by her. She felt Larkin vibrate beneath her, and the form of him shift.
Then she was soaring up on the dragon’s back, with his claws raking across the line of vampires, slashing out with his tail as Hoyt and Glenna galloped through the gap.
She could see the stones now. Though clouds covered the moon they glowed like polished silver, shining against the dark. She would have sworn even with the rush of wind, the cries of battle, she heard them singing.
As Hoyt and Glenna flew through them and into the circle, Larkin dived.
She leaped from his back, favoring the leg the vampire had scored. “Get ready,” she ordered.
“Cian—”
She squeezed Moira’s shoulder. “He’ll come. Hoyt?”
He drew out his key; Moira did the same. “We don’t say the words until Cian’s with us.” As with the stones themselves, power seemed to pulse from Hoyt as he took Glenna’s hand. “We don’t say the words until we’re a circle again.”
Blair nodded. Whatever the stones held, whatever Hoyt and Glenna had been born with, the full force of the power came from unity. They’d wait for Cian.
She turned to Larkin. “Nice riding, cowboy. How bad is it?”
He pressed a hand to his bleeding side. “Scratches. You?”
“Same. Clawed up a little. Everybody else?”
“We’ll do.” Glenna was already stanching a gash in Hoyt’s arm.
“He’s coming,” Moira murmured.
“Where?” Hoyt clamped a hand on her arm. “I see nothing.”
“There.” She pointed. “He’s coming.”
He was a blur coming out of the trees, a swirl of black up the rise.
“Wasn’t that entertaining? They’re regrouping, for all the good it will do them.” There was blood on his face, and more running down from a slice in his thigh.
“Come.” Hoyt held out a hand to him. “It’s time.”
“I can’t.” Cian lifted his own hand and pressed it against the air between the stones. “It’s like a wall to me. I am what I am.”
“You can’t stay here,” Hoyt insisted. “They’ll hunt you down. You’ll be alone.”
“I’m not such easy prey. Do what you’re meant to do. I’ll stay to make certain it works.”
“If you stay we all stay.” Larkin stepped to the gap between two stones. “If you fight, we all fight.”
“The sentiment’s appreciated,” Cian told him. “But this is bigger than one of us, and you have somewhere to be.”
“The other portal,” Larkin began.
“If I find it, you can buy me a drink in Geall. Go.” He met Hoyt’s eyes. “What’s meant is meant. So you’ve always believed, and so—in my way—have I. Go. Save worlds.”
“I’ll find a way.” Hoyt reached through the stones to grip Cian’s hand. “I’ll find a way, I swear it to you.”