by Maia Dylan
Ariana nodded slowly, then turned her head to look at Casey. “You got any idea what our move is going to be?”
Casey shot her sister a wry grin. “Haven’t got a damn clue! But knowing how awesome-sauce we all are, it will be epic!”
* * * *
Three hours later, and Olwen was once more traveling on the back of her bear, and she thought she was doing pretty damn well! She hadn’t fallen off at all in the last hour, and now that she could no longer actually feel her thighs, the pain had passed. The forest had been quiet, and they had yet to encounter any Uruheim. Olwen was pretty certain that had nothing to do with Argon deciding to simply let it go.
Olwen leaned down to speak closer to Rohan’s ear, not wanting to alert anyone who may be within earshot of them. “It is not sitting right with me that we haven’t run into, like, a dozen Uruheim fighter squads by now.” Rohan slowed to a stop, and Olwen slid from his back to stand at his shoulder. “With you and me together—and I have no doubt that she knows we are together—with only one possible destination, perhaps she has sent them on ahead and they are all standing between us and the portal.”
A shimmer of magic and a sudden shift of the air, then Rohan was standing in all his naked male glory beside her. “Perhaps, but I don’t think so.”
Olwen sighed. “Yeah, me neither. It’s simply not in my sister’s genes to wait. She would have sent her entire legion after you as soon as she found out you had escaped. I figure it was her that either Turned you, or the shifter Aeron had Turn her Turned you at the same time. Was it recent?” After all the emotion and craziness of the past day and a half, Olwen hadn’t asked how Rohan had been Turned.
Rohan shook his head, gripped her hand, and led her over to a fallen tree, leaning back against it and pulling her to sit beside him. “No, it wasn’t recent at all. It was during the early days of my delightful stay with Argon. I guess she figured I needed a little help in the longevity stakes. Despite the fact that she is completely insane and covets something that is no longer mine to give, I think losing me was not something she was prepared to risk.”
Olwen frowned as she thought about that for a moment. “I’m not sure about that, my love. I think Argon is more in hate with me than she is in love with you, if that makes sense. Aeron was the only one in this realm that could have brought a sentient being across the veil without using the portal. I think he brought the shifter here to change you as an experiment before he risked changing Argon. This tells us that Argon was planning his little mate-change for Liam and Neve much earlier than I had thought.”
Before the two of them could continue their discussion, an Uruheim fighter stepped out of the forest right in front of them. He wore the traditional steel chest plates, leather arm guards, and loose black pants. He held the curved battle sword of their kind at his side, and the bow they trained with from childhood strapped across his back. Olwen knew that the higher ranked the fighter, the more notches they wore carved into the steel chest plates that they wore. This one had so many notches they formed a pattern across both shoulders.
What made this race such formidable fighters was not simply their larger-than-average size or the fact that began to learn battle techniques from a young age, but the radical way they adhered to hierarchy. The fact that her mentally unstable and jealous-as-all-hell sister was the queen of this race was not something that worked in Olwen’s favor.
“I have come for two things,” the fighter said in a voice devoid of any emotion and completely calm, exactly what Olwen would expect from such a senior member of a battle squadron. “My queen would like her pet back”—Olwen felt Rohan tense beside her and she squeezed his hand in comfort—“and the head of the traitorous bitch who thinks to take from my most gracious Mistress.”
Olwen stared into the eyes of the man before her, hoping to find a sliver of some type of emotion that might mirror humanity, but saw nothing. “You must be one of the most decorated fighters in your majesty’s armies.” Olwen made sure to pitch her voice a little higher, smiling gently in a non-threatening way. “You managed to walk up to a goddess and the Captain of her guard without either of them noticing. That in itself is impressive, but when you add into that the fact that one of them should have been able to scent you, it becomes all the more so.”
She figured there was no harm in sweet-talking the man a little to see if that would get them anywhere. Judging by the complete lack or reaction, it didn’t work.
“We have much ground to cover to catch up to the group returning with the other captives.” Olwen’s heart sank at who those captives must be. The fighter turned his gaze to look directly at Rohan. “You are a man. Act like one. If you wish for the death of the whore beside you to be quick and painless, then simply stand down and allow yourself to be shackled.”
The fighter’s gaze shot to his left, and Olwen turned to see a second fighter, with no notches on his chest plate, step out from the forest, looking slightly nervous and carrying a set of metal shackles.
“Or, continue to be the spineless sack of shit who mocks and denies our Queen, hide behind the whore, and we will take you by force.” The fighter gave the slightest hint of a smile, the first show of any emotion since he stepped silently out of the forest before them. “It has been hours since I last felt my blade slice through flesh, so I’m hoping you choose the latter option.”
Rohan stood up from leaning on the trunk of the tree and glared at the fighter, employing the look of the seasoned fighter he was. His eyes seemed to blaze with an icy fire that had many on the battlefields he had fought on turning and running. He had been the youngest man ever to have earned the title Captain of the Guard for a reason. The fighter seemed to frown in confusion.
Rohan stood with his legs shoulder-width apart, his hands held slightly out from his body, and if Olwen weren’t mistaken, his body had swelled slightly, which signaled how close he was to shifting. Despite the fact that he held no weapon and stood there completely naked, the fighter’s narrowed gaze and clenched jaw said that he recognized a trained warrior when he met one.
“You’ve been sent out here to capture me and kill this woman, with a fellow Uruheim fighter who has yet to see real battle. This tells me something very important about you. You were tasked with something important recently, and you failed.”
The fighter snarled at the accusation, but the ruddy color that rose in his cheeks told Olwen that Rohan was right. “You dare to—”
“I sure as hell do dare! The code among warriors is sacred, and I would be willing to bet my life on the fact that they are the same in any realm. If you fail on a mission, you must redeem yourself and do it with someone of lesser rank, usually because what you did dropped you to the same rank.” Rohan cast a sideways look at the younger Uruheim fighter, and Olwen actually heard him whimper. “The boy that stands with you wears no abrasions on his armor, so is new to battle. Whatever the fuck you did wrong, it must have been huge.”
Olwen remained at the ready to leap in if her man needed it but wanted to appear indifferent. “It may have had something to do with your escape, my love. Either way, I am bored with this conversation. Finish them quickly so we can be on our way.”
“As you wish, my goddess.” Despite the fact Rohan addressed her, he never took his eyes from the fighter in front of him.
“Now, I am about to rip you a new hole with which to shit from, and I want to tell you why. It has nothing to do with the fact that you want to return me to that crazy bitch you think is your queen. If you are willing to live a deluded lie then it is not my place to tell you otherwise. It’s not even because you threatened to kill my mate, and let me be really clear on that point. Telling me you were instructed to take her head pretty much signed your death warrant as far as I’m concerned, but I was more than willing to let it be quick. But then you went and called her a whore. Twice. And that made me and my beast really fucking mad. So now? You. Die. Hard.”
Faster than she had ever seen before, and certainly faste
r than she had expected in that moment, Rohan’s bear ripped from him with an almighty roar that shook the forest around them and had the young Uruheim male fainting dead away to the ground. The remaining fighter withdrew his sword and dropped into a battle stance, standing on the balls of his feet, left foot slightly back, sword gripped in both hands and raised to jab or strike.
There was a moment of quiet, which Olwen would later think of as the calm before all hell broke loose in front of her. Then, with a war cry, the Uruheim fighter ran forward and the fight was on. Where Rohan in his bear form had size and strength, the Uruheim fought with speed and agility, moving in fast and low, stabbing and swinging that curved sword with a speed and ability that belied his size and illustrated why he had so many marks on his chest plate. Olwen shouted Rohan’s name with the bear roared in pain as the fighter slid beneath and sliced a deep gash into the underside of the bear, seconds before Rohan swiped with his large claw, sweeping the man away and hard into one of the large trees surrounding them.
Stunned but not out, the fighter rose to his feet, looked down at the blood that poured through the steel of his chest plate, and snarled. He then resumed his battle stance and ran at Rohan a second time. This time, Rohan did not stand and wait, but stepped into to meet the man, roaring loudly, mouth open and teeth bared. Olwen was standing behind Rohan slightly, so she couldn’t actually see what he did, but a second later, there was a thud and she saw the head of the fighter hit the ground and roll to stop just in front of her.
“Ewww,” Olwen squealed as she leaped away from it and moved to the other side of the small clearing.
There was another shift in air pressure and Rohan was suddenly standing where the bear had just been. His chest heaved as he drew in great breaths of air, and Olwen winced at the slice in his abdomen that bled steadily. Despite being winded, he grinned at her as he swept his sweat-soaked hair from his forehead. “You sounded like a real girl just then.”
Olwen moved in his direction, reaching to inspect the wound on his stomach as soon as she was close enough. “What in the hell does that mean? When have I ever sounded like a fake girl?”
Rohan’s grin broadened and he chuckled, a sound she had not heard in what seemed like forever, and it was now her mission in life to hear it as often as possible.
“That’s not what I meant. You are the strongest, bravest, and most courageous woman I have ever met and am ever likely to meet. You have crossed through realms and lived through an ordeal the likes of which no other woman in any realm would have to endure, and yet me killing a man in front of you makes you squeal?”
Olwen shrugged as she reached of a cloth she had taken from the blanket they had slept beneath the night before and pressed it to the wound on his stomach. “It wasn’t the fact that you killed him that made me squeal. It was seeing his head roll in my direction, then spin in such a way that it looked like he was staring up at me.” Olwen shuddered, making Rohan chuckle again. “That was just horrible. Try to have the head fall away from me the next time you behead one of the radical fuckers, would you?”
Rohan nodded and leaned in for a quick kiss. “Come, my love. Let’s grab what we might use from our one dead and one unconscious fighters here, and then be on our way back to the Uruheim fortress. It would appear you have a rescue to conduct after all!”
Chapter 8
“How far ahead do you think they are?” Olwen posed the question as the two of them walked hand-in-hand through the forest. They had left their stream a couple of hours ago, with her on the back of his bear to make up any lost time. By her calculations, they were less than a half-day’s walk from Uruheim borders. The sun was almost completely set on this day, and that only gave them a couple of days left in this realm before the sun set on winter in the Earth realm, locking them here in the Otherworld forever.
Rohan shrugged and heaved a sigh. “I have no idea, but we can’t be too far away from them. From what you have told me of your Elementals, I would be willing to bet that they are employing any tactic they can to delay their arrival into Uruheim. As soon as Argon gets them into the fortress, it will be near impossible to get them out.”
Olwen had come to that conclusion as well. If they were nearing Uruheim then she, too, believed that her Elementals would be doing something to slow their progress. She was still thinking about what she might do in that situation when Rohan suddenly pulled her down to kneel on the ground. Taking his lead, she huddled as close to the ground as she could and looked where he pointed. In the distance, she could make out pinpoints of light. There were torches and fires burning up ahead.
Rohan leaned slightly in her direction. “We’re going to move to our right and approach from the east. I want you to step where I step and don’t talk. They will have sentries in the forest between us and them, and they will be armed. Our only hope is to remove as many of them as quickly and as quietly as we can, that way we can clear a path for us to get out of there when we need to.”
Nodding, Olwen did as he asked, moving when he moved, and stepping where he stepped, slowly making their way toward the lights. Twice during their cautious walk, Rohan placed her in a hidden nook, signaled for her to remain silent, then moved off into the darkness. The way he was able to melt into the shadows and move without sound was amazing to watch, not to mention hot as hell.
Shortly after he would leave her, there would be the muffled sounds of a scuffle up ahead and then nothing. Moments later, he would return, hardly even breathing heavy. The first time he returned with one of the curved blades the Uruheim favored and handed it to her. The second time he returned, he carried a large bow and a quiver of arrows across his back. Once they had moved closer, they climbed halfway up a sturdy tree to get the lay of the campsite.
Olwen could see that the group were Uruheim fighters, and much larger than she had hoped. The camp they had set up looked to be more luxurious than she had expected. There was a series of tents that were erected in a wide circle, with the largest tent in the center, but the sight that had her heart pounding and her rage threatening to choke her was the sight of her precious Elementals tied to large posts in front of the tent. Their hands had been secured to the top of the posts, and at such a height that they had no chance of being able to rest comfortably.
Liam was on the post closest to the security detail. He slumped completely, his head resting on his chest. There was blood on the left side of his head. His mate, Neve, was secured to the pole furthest from him, and Olwen had no doubt that was a deliberate move to provoke him. Her other three girls were lined up between them, and Olwen was too far away to see if they were injured as well. She was about to ask what their next move should be when a shout sounded in the direction they had come from, and then four Uruheim fighters ran into the compound.
Rohan cursed softly beneath his breath. He leaned forward and spoke directly into her ear. “They must have found the three I killed. This has just gotten a hell of a lot harder.” They watched as the four fighters headed straight for the largest tent and another fighter stepped out. Olwen felt Rohan tense beside her. “Henrick.” Rohan growled the name.
Then another figure exited the tent behind the Uruheim fighter and everything within Olwen turned to ice. Her sister stood listening to the report of the four from the forest, and even from here, Olwen could see the smug smile that formed on her face. Argon knew they were close, and Olwen had a horrible feeling she knew exactly what Argon’s move to get them out in the open would be.
* * * *
Rohan continued to scan the area before them, searching for an opportunity or anything that would give them the opportunity to get out of this alive. He ran through scenario after scenario, looking at every possible permutation of what might happen in the short while. Every single situation he could think of ended in the exact same way, with him or Olwen being hurt or killed, and he was not prepared to risk either. The only way that this ended with them being alive and together was if they were to leave now and not look back.
“No,” Olwen said softly from beside him, and he turned to her. The sad determination that shone in her eyes made him want to scream. “I know what you are thinking, my love, but running is not an option. I could never leave my Elementals and you could never walk away from innocents. Neither of us could live with ourselves if we did.”
Rohan gripped her shoulders and had to fight the urge to shake her. “Damn it, Olwen, at least we would be alive and together. After everything we have been through, every year, month, day, hell, hour that we have been apart, don’t we deserve some happiness? Why the hell can’t we have the opportunity to live our lives?”
A solitary tear slid down Olwen’s soft cheek and he leaned in to kiss it away. Seeing her so upset, tears swimming in her eyes, cut him off at the knees.
“Rohan, those five people down there are here because of me and my family. They have done nothing but sacrifice and fight to save their world and everyone on it, and, in doing so, save me. How can I—how can we—walk away from them? You know as well as I do that Argon would not kill them quickly. They would be forced to suffer, just as I did, and just as you did. That is unacceptable.”
Not knowing how to argue against what she was saying, Rohan simply stared at her. Gods, she is so bloody beautiful. “I cannot lose you again, Olwen. I don’t think I would be able to survive that.”
Olwen reached out and gently cupped her palm against his cheek. Unable to resist the softness of her skin, he rubbed his cheek gently against her and turned to press a kiss against her palm. “There is absolutely no way you could lose me.”
“Olwen!” Argon’s voice rang out from the compound. Rohan’s rage built again, and he had to shut his beast down or risk shifting into his bear at the top of a tree at the sight that greeted them when they turned. Henrick stood behind the Elemental in the middle of the row, his curved blade pressed to her neck.