Regret (Lady of Toryn Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF

hardly breathe, but Ashlyn
scrambled to her feet and backed away, noting two things- the army was now
hanging back, looking both terrified and confused, and her shuriken was just a
few feet away.
    The heal stane was still in her armlet, right next to shift, but she didn’t even know if she
could cast regular magic as a cat, and healing broken bones was a dangerous
thing to do, especially on the fly. If one of the broken ends was anywhere near
her heart, and tried to mend itself…she didn’t even want to think about that
possibility.
    Ashlyn breathed shallowly through
her mouth, every inhale/exhale combination a stabbing pain in her chest, and
made a decision. Screw her impending nakedness, magic would be far more useful
against Kou right now than any additional strength that came with the shift spell. She padded sideways,
silently, hackles raised as Kou circled, presumably waiting for the right
moment to attack.
    When he did, she summoned her
strength and leaped over him, paws dancing across the top of his head, dodging
slashing teeth and claws as her injured ribs screamed bloody murder inside her
head. She came down directly on top of the shuriken, and shifted back into
herself, naked as the day she was born but too desperately adrenaline-driven to
care. She scooped up the shuriken, her sword and her knapsack and ran for the
cave entrance as the bear lumbered after her.
    She glanced over her shoulder
just as he was raising a giant paw, prepared to not-so-gently separate her head
from her body. She screamed the spell hoarsely, and the bear snarled and
skidded to a stop, smoke pouring from his suddenly blackened paws. Ashlyn ran
outside, leaves crunching beneath her bare feet, and ducked into a crevice in
the cliff wall as the bear went skidding past. He caught his mistake
immediately and turned, much quicker than she would have expected for such a
large creature. As he charged towards her, Ashlyn hurriedly used the ice stane to create a solid wall across
the crevice’s narrow opening, putting a barrier between her and the bear, and
he smashed into it with a force that shook the cliff wall against her back.
    His second charge splintered the
ice, hairline cracks spiderwebbing out from the point of impact. Ashlyn quickly
froze over it, thickening her makeshift barrier, but Kou kept coming. The third
time he collided with the ice, he left bloody stains against it. Ashlyn
shivered, then nearly cried out from the pain in her chest. If she could keep
the wall up long enough, Kou would probably injure himself to the point where a
few hits from the fire stane might
incapacitate him. But there was no way she could take on the whole army like
this.
    The bear hesitated during the
fourth charge, and turned away, as though he’d been distracted by something.
Ashlyn squinted, trying to see through the translucent barrier, and managed to
make out a blur in black, flashing silver in the sunlight as the horse he was
riding danced beneath him.
    Drake!
    In the next heartbeat, a wall of
flame erupted on the other side of the ice, and her makeshift barrier melted
instantly, splattering on the ground and smacking her with a wave of muddy
water and dead leaves. Ashlyn was immediately drenched, and sputtered, at once
pissed off and grateful for FLD’s sudden appearance.
    Skye stepped in front of the
crevice, hand outstretched. “I…uh,” he said eloquently, diverting his eyes when
he realized her state of undress. He ducked smoothly under the swing of a
katana, his own sword making short work of the other man.
    Her teeth were chattering so hard
she could barely speak. “Sh- sh- your shirt ,”
she managed to get out, shivering violently and wincing every time the tremors
racked her broken ribs.
    The blond swordsman gave her an
exasperated look as he fought off another soldier. The army was obviously much
more willing to fight non-Toryns (or at least people who weren’t claiming to be
the Elder Heir), but it was poor timing for bravery when