Chapter 31

"Oh my God, Tor, put me down. I'm going to hurl if you keep bouncing me around like this." Kiki's voice was a high-pitched whine, but I didn't want to set her down until I knew she'd be safe. Dahlia would never forgive me if Kiki was harmed.

It had taken longer than I'd hoped to sprint through the woods. By the time the castle came into view, the villagers had already breached the gates, and the sounds of battle met my ears.

Fuck.

So much for meeting Dahlia in her room. I could only hope the others had gotten to her and would keep her safe. I was needed down here.

There was just one problem. I couldn't exactly fight with a one-hundred-and-something-pound spitfire on my shoulder. Before we fully cleared the treeline and gave up our position, I dropped her.

She let out a garbled cry as she righted herself, pushing her hair out of her face as she grumbled, "Not exactly what I meant, but I'll take it."

"There's a tower about a hundred feet in that direction. I want you to run as fast as you can and secure yourself inside. The key is hidden in the third brick from the keyhole. Lock it behind you and don't come out until I give the all-clear. Do you understand me?"

She blinked up at me, her expression a little dazed. "Yes, Viking daddy."

I shuddered, remembering the doll calling me daddy. "Never call me that again."

"I can't promise you that. Words just fall out of my mouth sometimes. Shocking, I know, but your girl has no filter. If I thinks it, I speaks it."

Taking her by the shoulders, I gave her a little shake. "Focus, Kiki. Your life may depend on it. Now run!"

I pushed her as gently as I could manage in the direction I'd indicated, but she stumbled like I'd shoved her.

"Use your inside hands," she grunted, rubbing at her shoulder, before picking up her bag where I'd dropped it. "Hey, Tor?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't die, okay? Dahlia needs you."

"I don't intend to."

"Good," she said, giving me a forced smile before trotting off.

A scream tore through the air from the direction of the fray, and I saw Sorcha Blackthorne striding into a group of three villagers, tearing hearts from chests and heads from bodies even as they slashed at her with silver blades. Her skin opened and she bled freely, but she didn't stop. As soon as she reached the next man, her eyes glowed a blinding amber, and she whispered something that was impossible for me to hear.

The man immediately took the dagger he'd intended for her and plunged it into his own eye. He was dead before she stood up.

With long, powerful strides, I ate up the distance so I could join my fellow residents. This was my fault, after all, and I never shied away from a conflict. For the first time, I willingly let my beast take over when human lives were at stake. My body swelled as the fury of their attack seeped into my bones. My mate wasn't here. She wasn't in direct danger, but they'd kill her if they found her. I would kill them first.

The second one of the villagers laid eyes on me, his mouth dropped in horror and he turned to flee. "It's him! It's the be?—"

He never finished his sentence. My clawed hand slid through skin and muscle like butter as I tore through his back, grasped his spine, and tugged.

He died instantly.

Pity. I wouldn't have minded at least a gurgle from him.

It was much the same with the next human to face off with me. And the one after him. I quickly lost count of the bodies I left in my wake, pausing in my slaughter only long enough to scan the battleground and track what my allies were doing.

Across the grounds, Oz and Bru faced off with enemies of their own. The mind reader grasped a woman by the face, her mouth open on a scream, while Bru used his magic to hurl folks out of his way and bind them to various objects to keep them there.

"Tor!" Sorcha shouted, just in time for me to turn and catch a shovel to the face.

"Got him," the man snarled, but I simply spat out a mouthful of blood and some teeth before turning on him and slashing his belly wide open.

He gasped, his hands going to his gut as though he could hold it all in. It took seconds for him to collapse and bleed out. My favorite part was when his leg twitched and his bladder released.

I reached up and wiped the blood out of my eyes before turning to see a terrifying ginger blur leap into the air with a screech before landing on a man's head and plunging two curved blades into his shoulders. It was Joffrey, his eyes wild, a hat I'd never before seen on him identifying him as a redcap.

"So that's what you are. Go figure."

Just as I was about to dismiss the man and go in search of my next victim, I spied the arrow a heartbeat before it slammed into him. Joffrey dropped to his knees, blood gurgling from his mouth as he tried in vain to tug the arrow free.

"Iron?" he choked out. "They've killed me."

Even as he was dying, he lashed out with his blade, cutting a man down at the knees before falling to the ground lifeless.

Joff was hardly a friend, barely an acquaintance, but he was on our side, and his death sent me into a blinding rage.

I had just finished snapping a man's neck when I finally saw her. My moonlight-haired beauty. She and her other mates had arrived.

Her voice rang through my mind, a scream of my name before pressure in my side indicated my distraction had gotten the better of me. I looked down to see a spear sticking out of me, but luckily it hadn't hit anything vital. With a roar, I snapped the end off and pulled the rest clean through. I would heal. And the person who launched it at me would pay with their life.

Using the handle of the spear, I tossed it at my attacker like a javelin, sending it through their eye socket with enough force they were thrown to the floor.

"My eye! My eye!"

Stalking over to him, I leaned down, not stopping until he could feel my breath on his face. "It's not your eye you should be worried about."

He opened his mouth to speak, already dying due to the spear in his brain, but I simply raised my foot and slammed it down on his throat, crushing his windpipe and killing him.

Ensuring I was safe for the moment, I finally allowed myself another glance in the direction I knew Dahlia to be. Thanks to the tattoo, I could sense her at the periphery, almost like an orbiting planet. She was busy talking to Hades, who was using his shadows to deal with those foolish enough to come near him. Hook was nowhere to be seen, and Kai...

The dragon shifter was looking straight at me, an unspoken message aimed my way. Then, with a slight nod, he released his own inner monster and took to the sky with a mighty roar I couldn't help but echo.

We would win the day.

We had to.

But even as I made the vow, I realized that despite the bodies littering the ground, they kept coming. We were horribly outnumbered.