Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) by Shannon Mayer Read Free Book Online Page B

be executed or banished.”
    She looked up at me. “Or maybe both.”
    I grimaced. “Maybe both.”
    “And you have a plan, right?” Her one eyebrow flicked upward as if she knew the truth. I had no plan. I had no idea that this scenario was even a possibility. She rolled her eyes. “No plan. Really?”
    I shrugged. “Let me think. All your nagging is doing is distracting me.”
    She let out a hiss, but there was no real heat to it. We’d been together long enough that we both knew there was nothing behind the sound.
    The problem was, my plan came to me as the sound of heavy thumping feet clattered down the stone steps.
    “Peta, hide and follow us up after.”
    She ducked under the bed without argument, and crouched in the shadows of the small cot. I turned away from her and faced the cell door. The Enders approached in a line, three abreast. Dreg, Elk, and Blossom. The two men had stony faces, but Blossom’s skin was red and blotchy as if she’d been crying. She wouldn’t look at me, but she still did her job for this protocol, which was to step to the side of the cell door and hold it open wide with one hand, while she kept her short sword out in the other.
    She had heart, Blossom did, I would give her that.
    Dreg and Elk stepped into the cell and moved to either side of me, their weapons out and pointed. Elk was on my left, sword leveled at me, and Dreg had a crossbow held at the ready, his finger on the trigger.
    I didn’t move, just sat on the edge of my cot, waiting for them to say something. If I so much as twitched, I had no doubt Dreg would let loose the crossbow bolt on me. And while elementals are tough as steel, a crossbow bolt to the head would be the end of my story.
    “Ash, you are to be brought before our king. Will you do so peacefully?” Dreg asked.
    I looked up at him but otherwise kept still. “And if I do? What is to be my sentence?”
    Blossom let a sob escape her before she pulled her emotions back under control and she spoke through her tears. “Banishment, cut off from the mother goddess, then immediate execution.”
    Dreg shot her a dirty look, taking his eyes off me, breaking protocol. This was my shot. I grabbed the tip of the crossbow and jerked it forward, pointing it at Elk as Dreg belatedly scrambled to stop me. The weapon went off and the bolt slammed into Elk’s left shoulder. He dropped his sword, his fingers going slack.
    “Take him down!” Elk roared as he fought to pull the bolt out of his joint.
    Peta shot out from under the bed, shifting as she came clear of the cot. She leapt at Elk and did to him what he’d asked of Dreg. She tackled him to the floor, snarling and slashing with her wicked sharp claws and teeth.
    I fought with the big man, wrestling him to the ground as Peta drove Elk to the floor. I grabbed the sides of Dreg’s head and slammed it onto the stone floor three times. His eyes rolled back and I let him go. I scooped up his crossbow and looked across to where Peta lay on Elk, her mouth on his neck. A soft growling rumble coursed out of her.
    Elk’s eyes were wide, terrified—being in the jaws of death, seeing her breathe in your last breath as you died would be no small thing.
    “Peta, let him go, his death is not warranted. Not today.” She didn’t move and I put a hand on her back. “Peta. They are following orders. Not all are as strong as Lark and able to defy the rules.”
    She dropped him, all but spitting him out, and stepped sideways away from him. “You’re lucky Ash spoke for you, I was hungry.”
    Elk passed out, more likely from fear than anything else. I pushed him with a foot to make sure he wasn’t faking.
    “He’s out, his heart slowed,” Peta said.
    A sword swept toward me, and I spun, just dodging it. Blossom, tears running down her face, whipped her short sword toward my middle. I jumped back, stumbled on Dreg and went to one knee.
    Blossom reversed her swing mid-arc, showing her skill with the weapon as she drove it