Sedovin was there dancing in the midst of a group of Forestborn, breaking them in half with strength that his lackadaisical manner had never given her the impression he actually had. “Sticks and stones, baby doll.” He actually winked at her and went back to laughing maniacally as he pressed against the Forestborn, who fell in front of him and his mate like a field of wheat beneath an avalanche.
As Nick saw Osvald in the far distance fighting against a large contingent of Ironborn, he began to understand. His rage finally boiled to the forefront as he watched the fight for the barest moment, peace held intact around him as Ironborn and Forestborn gathered together, beginning to realize what was happening.
Nick was limping, but he couldn’t feel any pain in his leg at the moment. “I want both their heads on spikes outside my front door. Furred or skinned makes no difference to me.” His command set every Ironborn around him in motion toward the Earthborn, and he himself made to square off against Sedovin, but the other Stoneborn got in the way, and he had his hands more than full, as did Lea and William beside him.
Lea was interested in going after the Stoneborn as well, and she shifted quickly, shredding her clothes as she burst out of the trees and barriers straight into the fight. The Stoneborn might have had an advantage in their human forms with their strength, but if she could get through their rocks, then she knew they couldn’t fight her teeth and her speed while she was in her wolf.
She barely dodged a stone to grab one by the leg, and she bit down as hard as she could, splintering its leg instantly as she bashed it against its own stone, which shattered upon its master’s impact. She shifted quickly, and the fighter’s own blood dripped from her human mouth as she held out her hand, which became a magnet for any metal in the vicinity. A shield of scrap metal came flying toward her, and in mere seconds it had shifted into a wicked knife that she used to behead the wolf, only to leave his neck gushing as she moved on to the next.
Nick always fought as a human, because he was stronger and faster that way. The metal around him and the very houses they were fighting among became weapons in his hands. The ground itself might have been working for the Earthborn and the Stoneborn, but the entire compound was ringed with iron, and every house had some kind of fixture he could bring down as a spear through some enemy’s throat. The fight quickly turned into a meat grinder of iron and mud and stone and blood.
He saw Sir William finally make his way to Osvald, and the ancient knight squared off in patchwork plate armor against the Earthborn Alpha. They were nearly equals in every way, in age and power, and the two almost looked respectful as they rushed at each other across the churning battleground. Lea was ripping apart the Stoneborn, and Nick rushed in to assist her, but in the chaos, his thoughts were screaming out for Zara, without answer.
Several of the Stoneborn and Earthborn were falling at their feet, but so were their own. Lea tore down another, but it seemed that for every enemy they killed, another of their own would go down. It wasn’t until she was again looking for Sedovin that she realized the fight was slowly moving inward, toward the portion of the compound that had remained the heart of the Ironborn.
They were being pushed toward their homes, their children, the defenseless.
“Nick!!” She screamed as she ran up to him, covered in mud and blood. “They’re moving us in. They want to get to everyone else. We’ve got to break through or else they’re going to destroy our future in there.”
He blocked another attack from a young-looking Stoneborn who hadn’t realized what he was swinging at, then he cut the young man down with one of his blades jabbed into the base of his spine, leaving him a twitching mass of limbs on the ground. They were momentarily pulled back from the combat itself, and he pulled back even further to talk to her, though his eyes were darting around. “Raise Veronica and Reston if they haven’t already rallied. Find Candra and get her to Veronica. They’ll know what to do. Run.”
She looked around quickly, trying to find a way through. “What about Zara? I can’t find her anywhere.” There had been some kind of unspoken bond between her and Zara ever since they’d both been brutalized and survived the ordeal at the hands of the Council guard.
“Hopefully she’s with Candra. She can feel what’s going on out here. If you find Katrell or Dion, tell them to find her and guard her. You go get the other Alphas. Now.”
Lea found a break in the battle and shifted again before darting through, barely making it as the ground shook beneath her by a mixture of Earthborn and Stoneborn power. She was able to find Veronica and Reston on the other side of the compound, but it seemed like an entirely different world there, since it was peaceful with only a few shivers in the ground here or there from the war happening on the other side.
She ran in the streets, shifting back and forth, telling people to stay in their homes, and for all the remaining fighters to rally. Once Veronica and Reston had ordered their own to get to the fight, she was able to circle back
