Read Online Pursuit: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 4) by J.A. Cipriano - Free Book Online

several dozen Royal Guards crested the hill. He swallowed, his adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he cast one last wistful glance at the gate and took off running across the dunes. Joshua running away? That didn’t seem like him.
    The Royal Guards either didn’t see him or were unconcerned with his flight because none of them gave chase. Which seemed a little odd unless… well Masataka and Joshua were sort of on friendly terms. Were they ordered not to hurt him?
    The lead guard reached the gate, and as he extended his hand toward it, a mass of black tentacles exploded from beneath his sleeve, hitting the gate with a sound like a cannon. The gate exploded into light, throwing blue and red sparks into the air as it warped, twisting inside on itself like a soda can stuck in a vacuum.
    The Vajra’s tentacles turned bright white, glowing so brightly that it was like staring at the sun. That’s pretty much when the man’s clothing began to burn away, flaking away like bits of burning paper. He turned toward the others and beckoned for them to help.
    More guards seized the gate, their Vajras linking together in a sort of mesh-net that swallowed the whole of the gate. So… they were going to use their Vajras to absorb all the magical defenses? I didn’t know what kind of power was in that gate, or if the creatures were even strong enough to do that, but I had a sneaking suspicion I didn’t want to find out.
    “Um… Miss?” I called back down the hall. “The Dioscuri are trying to eat your gate. I think you should come have a look.”
    She pushed past me, knocking me to the side with a sweep of her arm as she bent down to stare out the peephole. I hadn’t even heard her come up.
    “That was sort of rude,” I groaned as I rubbed my arm from where she had pushed me aside. It already looked like it was starting to bruise. Swell.
    “Your friend is persistent,” she said, turning to look at me. “What do you want to do?” I must have given her a dumb look because she huffed and continued. “Do you want to stay here or to go?”
    “If they are here, they will just keep coming until there’s no way your magic can stop them,” I replied. “I don’t think staying here is an option.”
    “I didn’t ask for your justifications. I can walk out there right now and slaughter the lot of them. If they send a million more men, I can kill them all. I can kill all who come looking for you,” she said with a shrug. “You are safe with me.”
    I stopped, just stopped. I looked at her and knew she was telling the truth, but for some reason instead of reassuring me, it unsettled me. It meant only one thing. More people were going to die because of me. Letting her kill people so that I could hide was a whole new level of yellowbellied. I wasn’t at that level, at least not yet.
    “I don’t want you to hurt people because of me, either,” I said, reaching down and running my hands over the hilts of Shirajirashii. Their weight reassured me even though I knew I couldn’t use their magic on the Royal Guards.
    “So what do you want me to do?” she asked, and I could see the smile on her face starting to slip. In a second she would be in full blown scowl mode.
    “I think I should leave and face my fight. Running won’t change anything,” I said. B esides, it’s about time I put on my big girl pants and put a stop to this before even more people get hurt. “Besides,” I added, “While I like the bed, it isn’t really my thing.” I smirked, trying to make light of the situation. She merely glanced from me to the bed and shrugged.
    “The cat likes it fine,” she said, stepping to the side and opening the door. “Be gone with you then.”
    The moment I stepped out of the door was like stepping into a thousand degree inferno. The air licked the sweat from my skin and chapped my lips. Huge arcs of blue energy burst from the gate and cascaded around the fence in sheets. So many Vajras were latched onto it, that I