Novak Raven (Harper's Mountains #4)(65)

She was hit from behind, and another raven clashed with her front, holding onto her with nails dug deep into her flesh. Avery ducked the sharp beak as she flapped desperately under the new weight. Her wing was injured, though, and she wasn’t as strong as Weston. She was going down hard. In a desperate move, she Changed to her human form right before she struck the earth. She slammed into the ground, and the air was shoved forcefully from her lungs. She was too close to the bonfire, and heat flared up her legs as she thrashed and grasped for the ravens. There were too many now, but she could see him coming—Benjamin. He was naked and streaked with dirt and blood. His eye was swollen closed, and it looked as if he was crying rivers of crimson, but hate flashed across his entire face. When the ravens lifted from their attack on her body, she could see Benjamin was holding an ax in his hand. Avery tried to force her body to move, to scramble away, but the wind was still knocked out of her, and her body was frozen in fear.

Three more long deliberate strides, and Benjamin lifted the ax gracefully over his head, an evil smile on his face, the fire illuminating his ruined eye. This was it, the end, and it would hurt so bad to die this way. Avery drew her hands over her face and flinched as the ax began its arch toward her.

And then Weston was there, human, his great weight covering her body protectively. He cupped her head tightly against his shoulder, shielding her.

A sick thunk sounded, and Weston’s body jerked.

“No!” Avery screamed, tears burning her eyes.

After a horrifying second of silence, Weston eased up, his eyes wide with shock. He jerked his gaze over his shoulder, and Avery could see it, too. The ax wasn’t buried in the man she loved. It was hanging limply from Benjamin’s hand, and he was looking down at his chest in shock. The handle of a knife was lodged against his sternum.

Benjamin sank to his knees, and above, the battle song of the ravens wrenched up in volume.

Weston looked behind Avery toward the woods, flickering in an orange bonfire glow. Avery followed his glance, grasping his tensed arms desperately.

A man stood there with blazing green eyes and dark hair. In his hand was another blade, ready to be thrown. He stood to his full, imposing height and bared his teeth. His face looked like a predator’s, twisted and wild. In a booming voice, he said, “You won’t be layin’ another hand on my boy.”

A woman stood behind him, long, dark hair streaked with silver and waving down her shoulders, her eyes the pitch black of a raven. Avery recognized her from the picture she had. Aviana Novak. And that meant the man—the wild one who’d just saved Weston from an ax blade—was none other than…

The man opened his mouth and yelled as an enormous silver grizzly bear ripped out of his skin. His bellow tapered to a roar that shook the woods.

Beaston.

Above, the ravens’ battle song turned panicked and disjointed.

Beaston and Aviana weren’t alone. Harper melted out of the woods flanked by Lexi. Then another bear answered Beaston’s call, and another. Alana’s dark-furred bear followed Wyatt’s and Aaron’s out of the tree line, and a massive snowy owl stretched its wings against the wind and landed on a branch above Beaston.

“Move,” Weston said low.

The instant he grabbed her arm, she gasped at the pain. His eyes flashed wide when he laid eyes on the glass sticking out of her shoulder. Look away.”

After she squeezed her eyes tightly closed, he pulled the glass from her in a quick jerk. The pain drew a sharp yelp from her lips, and then he was pulling her up, pulling her away from where Benjamin had fallen to the side, his one eye staring vacantly at her. It was still filled with hate, even in death. Caden was walking closer, flanked by the rest of the council, but Weston picked her up like she weighed nothing and strode toward the Bloodrunners.

Avery stared in horror over his shoulder at the council coming for them.

Rage-filled eyes on Aviana, Caden screamed, “Kill them all!” to the ravens above.

But something moved just beyond the trees, and Weston skidded to a stop, his heart pounding hard against her shoulder. “Holy shit,” he murmured.

Avery twisted in his arms. In the shadows of the trees, barely lit by the bonfire, behind Beaston, Aviana, and the Bloodrunners, something massive and serpentine moved through the woods. A low rumble filled the forest, and a huge eye opened, the elongated pupil constricting as it focused on Caden. The eye was the color of gold fire, and the scales of the monster dragon were as dark as night.

Terrified, Avery whispered, “Is it Kane?”

“No,” Weston murmured. “That’s Rowan of the Gray Backs.”

The gray-scaled dragon pushed up on massive legs until her back blocked out the moon. Her long neck unfurled, and she lifted her enormous head into the air. Long, arched horns extended from face, and her back was covered in razor sharp spikes. A few terrifying clicks sounded, and she bellowed a roar, blowing a stream of fire and lava into the air.

The circling ravens scattered like ashes in the wind.

“That’s as much warning as you’ll get,” Harper shouted at Caden, fury tainting every word. “Come another step closer, and you’ll get a war you aren’t prepared for.” She planted her feet near Aviana and Beaston and leveled her glowing gaze on the leader of Raven’s Hollow. “You’ve done enough.” She gestured to the limp ravens scattered across the clearing around the bonfire. “You’ve caused great loss to your people in the name of vengeance. Save what remains of The Hollow and let us go in peace.”