I howled again, promising I was close, then sprang into the battle to help, colliding with the Nymph closest to him and taking the monster to the ground. I slashed my claws so hard across its face that I saw bone. The beast died on my next strike, ash exploding out around my feet as I turned back, finding a Nymph with its probes pressed to Cal’s chest who was lying still on his back, his eyes shut, his lips pale.
I howled my desperate fear as I ran towards him, seeing absolute murderous red as I collided with the Nymph before it could get its probes into Cal’s chest, biting down on its whole head until a vile crunch sounded and my victim burst to ash.
The final Nymph turned tail and ran, but I didn’t let it go, charging it down with its friends’ blood on my lips and my teeth bared for the kill.
I sprang into the air, landing on its back and knocking it to the ground with a heavy crash. I shifted back into my Fae form, unleashing my gauntlets on the back of its head as I punched and punched with all the fury of a man’s soul who’d been ripped from his body. And if Cal was dead, then it might as well have been.
The Nymph died with a pained wail and I fell into the mud, shoving myself up, covered in filth and blood and grime. I ran back to my friend, wiping the ash from my eyes as I dropped down beside him, ripping his shirt open and placing my hands to his chest as Xavier swooped overhead with a furious whinny, slamming his horn into the chest of another Nymph as it ran at us, killing it with a fatal blow and dropping glitter over us as he passed by.
Healing magic swept out of me as my magic connected to Caleb’s and I released a groan of complete relief at knowing he was still with me.
“Cal, come back. Wake up,” I croaked, offering him wave after wave of healing magic and feeling a head injury healing over as his eyes flickered and opened.
“I knew it’d be you,” he said, his voice dry as a sideways smile hooked up his lips. “It’s always you.” Then his eyes widened in fear as they moved to look over my shoulder and he grabbed hold of me, rolling us over so he was on top of me and a gasp got stuck in my throat as I saw Lionel Acrux bearing down upon us in the sky, his jade green scales glinting as fire bloomed from his open jaws, aimed directly at us.
A dome of thick soil shot up around us, turning to stone just before the blast collided with it and Caleb gritted his teeth as he fought to hold it in place. I pressed a hand to his arm, offering him my magic and his barrier came down in an instant, a moan of pleasure leaving me as our power washed together and I tasted the strength of him on my tongue.
The stone turned to an impenetrable metal, flashing silver with the power of our combined earth Elements as we kept Lionel’s fire from touching us and a few of Caleb’s golden curls fell forward to brush against my forehead, our breaths shared within the same small space as we fought to protect each other.
An angry roar carried from beyond our barrier and the two of us laughed headily.
“Let’s tunnel out and let him waste his power trying to get in here,” Caleb suggested and I grinned, nodding my agreement. But neither of us moved and suddenly the space felt so small and his body weighing me down was making it harder for me to breathe.
“Cal,” I whispered. “I’ve been meaning to tell you-I mean, Darcy thinks I should. And Orion too actually, and Tory now I mention it. And anyway, well now might not be the best time, but-”
The dome was suddenly ripped off of us and Lionel appeared with his claws wrapped around it, a Dragon’s grin on his scaly face as he found us exposed beneath it. Caleb threw one of his twin daggers with a yell of rage and it lodged in Lionel’s cheek, making him roar in anger as he stumbled back, swiping at his face to dislodge it.
“We gotta get underground!” I grabbed hold of Caleb’s shirt and made the earth drop away beneath us, burying us from sight and the soil heated around us as Lionel’s flames tried to follow.
But we sank deeper and deeper until the two of us were carving out a tunnel, on our feet and running hard and fast to try and get some distance between us and that psycho lizard.
“We need to lead him away from the rebels,” I said urgently and Caleb nodded, a look passing between us that said we definitely might die today, but both of us started tunnelling upwards at the same time, knowing neither of us were never going to just hide away underground.
“You’re the best Fae I know, Cal,” I told him earnestly. “And I fucking love you with all my heart.”
“I’m gonna make you repeat that once we get out of this, Seth,” he said, giving me one of his cocky grins, but it fell away as we closed in on the surface, and he gave me an intense look. “But just in case, I want you to know that I wouldn’t pick anyone else in this world to die beside. You’re my ride or die, you know that? I fucking love Darius and Max, but you and me? We’ve got something special that I can’t even explain sometimes.”