The Arotia priest turned, facing out to the thousands who waited on his words.
“Everyone into the town square now. We are bringing out the emergency crystals. Energy for everyone so we have a chance to fight.”
Sapha gasped a few times before scurrying down the side of the building. She fumbled near the bottom, missing the last few rungs and landing on her hands and knees. The hard rock that formed the dry ground bit into her delicate skin, tearing it and spraying free the liquid which lived under her skin. She was the only Drone she knew who had this red flowing in their bodies. It was real pain. Thankfully she wasn’t too hurt and managed to make it to her feet and take off for the cave. She had to stay ahead of the others and she had to either free Marl’s tracker or get him back to the town. They were sure to turn on the trackers for this. It was definitely an emergency.
The Drones were going to war again.
Chapter 2
Abigail
The group that gathered on the grassy area before the beach was large. We were at the wedding slash mating of my best friend, Lucy, and her mate, the wolf-Walker Colton. We were watching Cerberus, a two-headed hellhound, and Lina, a massive, shiny black unicorn – her long sparkling ivory horn tipped with a deadly-looking spike – gallop along the sand toward us.
Yes, you heard me correctly: hellhound and unicorn.
As Lina stepped closer, I was shocked to see a pair of shiny black wings tucked in at her side. I hadn’t noticed them before. Unbelievable. She wasn’t just a unicorn, but some sort of hybrid. Like a Pegasus and unicorn combined.
“I’m almost afraid to ask what the other five sacred Walker animals are going to be,” I heard Lucy murmur. She was next to me, still decked out in her stunning white gown, and tucked under the arm of her equally stunning mate. Colton’s white-blond hair was tousled. He watched the creatures approach us.
“If Cerberus is bonded to me,” I said, “does that mean each of these sacred guides will choose one of the half-Walkers?”
I tilted my head upwards and was captured by the velvety brown of my mate’s eyes. “Yes,” Brace said. “That’s what the legends say.”
As the creatures approached, I felt a draw to step toward them, the same pull that had been there when I found Cerberus in pixie land. I clearly wasn’t the only one. Fury, Talina, Ria and Delane followed me off the grassy area and onto the sand. The half-Walker girls. My heels sunk in but it took no effort to kick the uncomfortable death-traps free. I reached out and linked hands with Fury on the right and Talina on the left. In turn, Ria attached to Talina, and then Delane – our most recent friend from the world of Nephilius – hesitated just briefly before she took Ria’s other hand. The five of us were linked physically, but as we stood waiting for the animals to reach us, unity, strength, and something a little more connected us at a cellular level.
“What’s her name?” I heard Delane whisper. There was a sense of reverence coating her tone. “And what sort of animal is that?” I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard such emotion from the warrior Walker.
“On Earth we called them unicorns, but they don’t usually have wings. She’s a pegacorn,” I said.
“Or a Unisus,” Lucy chimed in.
I laughed. “Probably just easier to stick with unicorn. And her name is Lina.”
Cerberus reached me first, and his two heads bobbed as happiness exuded from him. My hellhound had been alone for so long and now he was reveling in the Walker love around him. Not to mention his fellow animal guides were returning. Lina paused six feet from us. She had large eyes, a shimmery silver color. With an inclination of her head she acknowledged each one of us half-Walkers. I found my own head lowering slightly in return. She was so majestic. The energy that swirled around her was so strong I kept expecting to see visible strands.
Lina, who stood heads taller than all of us girls, stepped forward and stopped right in front of Delane. The Nephilius half-Walker’s eyebrows drew together and her lips parted slightly. She pulled her hand free from Ria, and then with little pause Delane lifted both hands to gently rest them against the long, horse-like nose of Lina. Suddenly the Nephilius half-Walker’s short, silky black hair lifted in whirls around her face and the caramel of her skin darkened as energy flowed between them. Both Delane and Lina’s wings shot out from their bodies, standing many feet about their heads. We all had to jump back or we’d have been clobbered by the massive, razor sharp appendages.
“She’s mine?” Delane choked out. “I can’t … I don’t know what to say.” She turned her head to face me. She hadn’t removed her hands from Lina. I could see the shock in her wide, dark eyes.