The woman didn’t even sound out of breath. She was fucking toying with them, dragging it out. It was as if she wanted Caelan there when she struck the final blow.
“Caelan made it sound as if Zyros was fond of Hidden Falls. She cares for these people. How is she going to feel about this slaughter?” Rayne continued, while analyzing her movements. There had to be an opening, a weakness.
Safa laughed wildly, the sound cutting across his nerve endings and making him wince. “She ordered me to destroy Hidden Falls. No survivors. She’s tolerated these traitors for long enough.”
“No!” Eno roared. He lunged at her, but she was ready for it. She spun out of the way on another crazy laugh, her claws coming down hard on Eno’s right arm. Eno cried out as she cut through muscles and tendons, possibly even digging deep enough to hit bone. The warrior’s blade slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a loud metallic clatter.
Rayne launched forward, beating Safa back with his staff as Eno tumbled to the ground. He was torn inside. Part of him demanded he turn and heal Eno, stop the bleeding. But he knew if he slowed his attack for even a heartbeat, Safa would kill him and his lover. The only thing he could think to do was keep fighting. He had to kill her. Protect his lover. Protect his mate.
Safa cackled. “Poor little book man. If you don’t help him now, he’s going to bleed to death…assuming the poison doesn’t kill him first.”
Clenching his teeth, Rayne shoved down the swell of panic. Eno. Eno. He had to keep Eno safe. But he wasn’t a fighter. How was he supposed to beat her?
“Rayne! Eno!”
Rayne’s heart lurched in his chest. That was Drayce.
“Here! We’re here! Safa’s here!” Eno called out, but his voice was already growing rough and weak. Rayne wasn’t sure if either Drayce or Caelan would be able to hear him. Yet, he couldn’t spare the breath to shout too. Safa had launched a new, furious attack that had Rayne backpedaling as he barely dodged each and every slash. There was no more playing. She was trying to kill him before help arrived.
He retreated a step, and his foot caught on what was likely a dead body. Off-balance, he fell onto his ass in a pool of cooling blood. He managed to bring his spear up to protect him from the next strike.
“Stop!” Caelan bellowed and to his shock, Safa froze.
In the blink of an eye, she leaped away from Rayne, her smirk growing. Rayne glanced over to find Caelan and Drayce standing near the entrance to the square. Caelan had his sword in hand, and there seemed to be a faint white glow emanating from him, but it was nothing compared to the look of rage that twisted his features.
“I was just playing with them until you got here,” she taunted. “No one is dead…yet. Don’t think the bodyguard has long, though. Poor thing.”
“Kill her, Cael!” Rayne snarled. “I have to save Eno.”
Rayne shoved up and raced over to Eno while Caelan launched himself at Safa in a white blur. Drayce and Rayne reached Eno at the same time, and they both helped him to sit up with his back to the stone well. Eno was already deathly pale while his right side was drenched in blood. Poison had created a black spiderweb along his arm, disappearing into his shirt. Rayne could only guess that the woman’s claws were tipped with it, which allowed malicious additive to easily sneak into Eno’s bloodstream.
“Protect us in case she calls for help,” Rayne barked at Drayce while he turned his full attention to Eno.
“Got it.”
Rayne was vaguely aware of Drayce standing and taking up a position near them. The clashes of steel and claws, the growls and scrapes of feet across dirt dulled in his ears until he nearly blocked them out completely. He lifted his gaze to Eno’s brown eyes to find them unfocused and glazed with pain.
“Rayne?” Eno whispered.
Very carefully, Rayne took Eno’s injured arm in both of his hands. “I’ve got you, my love. I will never let you go.”
Digging deep, he spooled together every ounce of power he’d acquired from the Goddess of Life and pushed it into his lover. The first thing he did was to close up the worst of the wounds to stop the bleeding. Eno’s heart was already struggling to pump what little blood he had left through his body. He wanted to fix the torn muscles and tendons in his sword arm, but it had to wait. The poison was racing through his body and attacking his organs. He emptied his mind of the panic and set to work, pulling at the poison and erasing it from Eno’s body, but it was like a thorny weed. Every time he cleared an area, he had to also repair the damage done to the organ, slowing him down. It was quicksand and he was sinking faster.