"To crush you."
Alia casually rolled her shoulders, power crackling around her fingers in coils of deep red light. "Everything else here… the soldiers, the deaths, the chaos… all just bait. To draw you out."
Emerald's jaw tightened. "Then you have what you wanted."
She launched forward.
The first exchange was fast and brutal. Emerald's blade sliced through the air, but Alia twisted sideways and then sent a burst of force that caught Emerald in the ribs. The impact threw her backward three steps.
Around them, the battle was still going on in full force: shouts and clashing metal echoing across Kieran's territory.
But somehow, with each clash and retreat, they somehow moved further away from the center of the conflict.
Emerald vaguely realized that the noises were getting softer and the buildings were becoming fewer as they moved toward the outer part of the pack's territory. A small part of her mind registered this.
