Free The Well of Wyrding (Revenant Wyrd Book 3) by Travis Simmons

and Jovian worked together they felt a wyrded shield slide into place over their heads. Before long Jovian could not hold the wyrd within himself anymore and it exploded out of his burning hands, lighting the forest in a blinding red flash. At the same moment the pink orb Joya had created became unimaginably large, rolling through the clearing and literally knocking gnomes this way and that. The fear and anxiety that Joya was feeling affected the orb in a most topsy-turvy way and it pounced around the trail, squashing gnomes into the ground and knocking some completely off their feet, sending them scattering and flying into the woods.
    Needless to say, they escaped, though they had to kick a few befuddled gnomes out of their way to do so. As they were running off, a new orb floating above Joya’s head, they could hear the curses and rummaging of the gnomes. They figured they had a few more moments left before the gnomes were on them again.
    The consuming presence that seemed to come to Angelica and Jovian’s aid when they needed it most began to slip away. However, Jovian noticed that with each coming of the other mind, the channels between Angelica and himself were forced more and more open. He wondered if soon they would be nothing more than two people controlled by one overbearing mind.
    He wondered if the presence was a blessing after all.
    “What did you do with the orb?” Angelica asked her sister.
    “I didn’t do anything, it just happened!” Joya sounded as bewildered as the rest of them.
    They ran back the way they had been brought by the gnomes for what felt like hours, Maeven in the lead, his sword drawn in case they came across any danger. Jovian, Angelica, and Joya were fast on his heels. They dodged this way and that, ducking under branches and jumping over fallen trees as the fog slid around them. Joya cast her hand forward and the orb obeyed, flying to the front of the group to lead Maeven in his flight through the Sacred Forest.
    In time they stopped in a ring of willows and collapsed, out of breath. There was no indication of the gnomes, but still Jovian fell to the ground, looking in the direction they had just come, wondering where the gnomes were, and why they weren’t giving chase. It couldn’t be that their wyrd had affected them that greatly, could it?
    “Where are they?” Angelica asked.
    “I’m not sure, but I’m counting us lucky that they’re not following us,” Joya said. “Maybe they gave up?”
    “You sound a little too hopeful,” Jovian told her, and stood once more with the help of an ancient, moss-covered willow that Maeven was looking at curiously. “Is something wrong?” Jovian asked him, but the other man shook his head.
    “We lost the horses back there.”
    “I’m sure they’re in good hands,” Jovian said.
    “Can you be sure? We weren’t in very good hands,” Maeven argued.
    “No, but the horses mean nothing to Porillon and they are creatures of the earth, the gnomes will take good care of them … I hope.”
    The wind played through the willow circle lazily, eddying the fog which was much thinner inside the stand of trees.
    “So what now?” Angelica asked. “Do we rest here or move on?”
    Joya watched Maeven studying the trees and frowned, the muscles of her face twitching oddly. “I’m not sure. I think we could use a break, but I don’t know how long the gnomes will hold off.”
    “It doesn’t matter, the gnomes can catch us anywhere, right?” Jovian asked.
    “If it is gnomes you fear, there is no need to worry about them here,” a resonant voice spoke from around them. They turned to see where the man was; only there was no man to find. They noticed, a little bewildered, that the voice had not so much come from the air around them as through the earth. They had heard the voice, but it had been more of a vibration under them than tones on the air.
    “What was that?” Angelica asked, coming to her feet and loosening her mace. They all stared