She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but Lach and Shim were there. It had been easy to walk away before, but now she couldn’t, not when she wasn’t sure they were safe. Niall lay in the dirt, his chest moving, but his eyes closed. She couldn’t help him. Not if she wanted to help Lach and Shim.
She kept her mental shields in place. It was becoming an easier thing to do. She had to keep them up. If they knew she was coming, they would stop her from fighting and from the sounds ahead, every fighter was needed.
Kaja shifted again. Bron nodded down at her and ran for the village, her heart in her throat.
Chaos reigned. She turned down the street that would lead her to the square. The eddy cloud hung over the square making it a damn fine bet that the worst of the fighting would happen there.
Bron stopped as the door to one of the shops flew open and screaming rang through the empty street. She watched as two guards started hauling a young woman out of her home. The woman wasn’t going quietly. She screamed her husband’s name and tried to fight, but the guards had her firmly in hand.
Bron had been to her wedding. It had been over a year ago, held right in the square. She and Gillian had walked with the bride through the very street where she was being dragged. Litha was a sweet woman who had just borne a daughter to her husband. They made candles and sold them at market. She was being hauled down the street, her face streaked with tears and her legs dragging. Her blonde hair hung in her face.
Kaja’s tail thumped and her graceful face was turned up as though waiting for the command. Kaja was acknowledging that Bron had more at stake. Bron was so deeply grateful to her cousin. “Go.”
Kaja jumped the first guard from behind, her predatory grace and speed on full display. The guard didn’t stand a chance. He let loose a strangled scream before Kaja bit into his neck. There was a loud cracking sound.
The second guard turned and hoisted his sword to bring it down on the wolf’s back. Bron reared back and saw her target. Her peripheral vision fled, so the whole world narrowed to one point on the guard’s vulnerable neck. The rest of him was covered with thick armor, but he still had to move and there was a nice white patch of skin, just the size for a blade to bury itself in.
She let the knife fly, sending the power of her throw through her whole body as the man in the wine-making district had taught her.
Her aim proved true. Just before the guard could start his sword’s descent toward Kaja, the knife found purchase. The sword fell from his hands and the guard’s body hit the ground.
Litha looked up, her eyes wide with fear. “Isolde?”
It was time to begin to reclaim herself. Niall was right about one thing. She could be a figurehead. It just wasn’t all she intended to be. “That’s the name I gave you, Litha, but it is not my own. I have kept a secret from you.”
Litha stared for a moment and then got to one knee. “Princess Bronwyn. You’re the one they’re looking for. The guards came into my home and beat my husband. They mentioned the Princess Bronwyn, and that they’re rounding up anyone who could possibly be you. I fear they intend to slaughter us all in the hopes that one of us will be you. Just last night as you were in your cell, Gillian told us the secret. We were ready to attack the guard to free you when the dark man came. The necromancer killed them all. Will he save us now? Where is he?”
Bron took a long breath. At least she wouldn’t have to prove who she was to the villagers. It seemed Gillian had convinced them.
“She is right. Those guards intend to kill everyone who could possibly be you.” Kaja stood over her victim, heedless to her nude state. “They won’t settle for the ones who look like you as you could easily change your appearance.”
Litha screamed and ran, hiding behind Bronwyn, though she had four inches and twenty pounds on Bron. Litha was a muscular woman, but the scream that had come from her throat was pure girl. “It was a wolf! Kill it, Your Highness. It must be the hag the guards spoke of.”
The hag was here? How many? The rumor was Torin had three in his employ, but one was off plane seeking her brothers. If the hags were here, then they would be the ones in charge. “She isn’t a hag, Litha. She’s my cousin. She’s an ally.”
Kaja grinned as though the very act of being called family brought her enormous pleasure. “I am Kaja. I am a wolf sometimes and always a woman.”
Then Litha’s husband staggered out, a frying pan in his hand. The candlemaker had been badly beaten, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to stop. He would have fought until the guards killed him. Litha cried and ran to him. He fell into her arms.
“Get your husband inside, Litha. Tell everyone you see to hide. We will take care of this.” She would. One way or another. She wouldn’t allow the women of her village to be rounded up and slaughtered.
Litha nodded, tears in her eyes as she helped her husband up. “Thank you, Your Highness, but we will fight. You are our hope. Now that we have hope again, we will not give up.”
Bron had to take a deep breath. This was what Niall had wanted of her, but he’d wanted a china doll to put on banners and keep protected. That wasn’t who Bronwyn Finn was anymore. Goddess, she wasn’t Bronwyn Finn. She was Bronwyn McIver.
A small crowd had gathered, lending aid to Litha and her husband. Bron heard them talking about her. Calling her princess and wishing her luck. Promising to follow her.
“Do not worry,” Litha said to the crowd. “Our princess will save us as she has saved me. Gather what weapons you have. We will follow Princess Bronwyn and her shanimal!”
Kaja growled before changing.
Bronwyn got the message. It was time to join this fight for real.
Chapter Fourteen
Shim pounded on the door, cursing the fucking sunlight that was keeping him inside.
What in all the planes had happened? He felt stronger than he could ever remember feeling, and yet something as completely and utterly harmless as fucking beams of light were keeping him out of the fight.
And damn it all, he really wanted to fight.
“Where did Gilly go?” Duffy asked, his small body struggling under the weight of that sword.
“Upstairs, though if she’s become like her charge, she’s probably tied the sheets together and run.” None of the women in his life seemed to want to allow him to protect them. And he couldn’t blame them since he was stuck in this damn house.
There was a loud boom. The sound of a sonic weapon being discharged.
Shim could feel his brother’s adrenaline. It pumped through his own veins.
“They’re fighting. I thought they were doing a recon.” Duffy rushed to the door and out into the street. “Can’t see anything.”
Of course he couldn’t. Duffy was barely four feet tall. Shim was six and a half, but he couldn’t see a damn thing since he was blinded by sunlight now.
Gillian hurried down the stairs, holding her skirt in one hand. She rushed into the room and toward a small closet.
“Gilly, you told Roan you would stay here.” The thought of his sister out in the battle while he was stuck here rankled.
Gillian looked up, her dark eyes narrowed. “I’ll lie to Roan all I like. As it happens, I think I’m likely best served here.” Her arm disappeared into the closet and when it came back, Gillian was holding a bow and quiver of arrows. “Reymon likes to hunt. He’s quite good, and he’s been teaching both me and Bron. The upstairs window has a very good view. If anyone tries to sneak up the back street, I can take them out.” She stopped in front of him. “Don’t take it too badly, Shim. You’re half vampire. I’m not even a true heir.”