Free Elementally Priceless by Shannon Mayer Page A

for the wall we were on. Built like a tank on legs, the Minotaur was classic in design, curved horns and everything. With his head lowered and his powerful shoulders hunched, I knew exactly what he was going to do.
    “Rylee, time to run as fast as you can.”
    She glanced down, paled, and then we were running. The problem was, the tops of the walls were polished and slippery as snot on yogurt.
    With a yelp, Rylee slipped and fell to the opposite side of the wall from the Minotaur. He didn’t slow for a second, just rammed his head into the barrier below me, bellowing his rage as I lost my balance too. Unfortunately, I ended up on his side of the wall.
    I hit the dirt and rolled, coming to my feet but staying in a crouch. I beckoned the earth up and it obliged, wrapping itself around the Minotaur’s cloven feet, sucking him down to his hips. Flailing and roaring, he reached for me.
    “That’s a good boy. Now. Stay.” I put my hand out slapping him on the nose, a grin stretching my lips. Much easier than I’d thought.
    “Lark, you okay?” Rylee called from the other side.
    “Yeah. Are you?”
    “Please tell me there was only one Minotaur.” The sound of another roar and the clatter of hooves reached my ears.
    Oh, holy hellfire. “Back up!” I scrambled, tapping into the earth and literally shoved the wall away between us. The marble broke and shattered, spraying shards all over the place. A few hit me and I saw one hit Rylee, but that wasn’t what I was worried about. I leapt through the hole in the wall to see three more Minotaurs charging.
    “Time to go.” I grabbed Rylee’s non-sword arm and swung her up onto the top of the wall. Red flew up and circled above us.
    “Lark, you coming?”
    “Nope. Rylee, get the kid. I’ll distract these yahoos. Red, stay with her.”
    The ‘yahoos’ didn’t like me calling them names, apparently. Bellowing, shaking the ground as they ran and throwing spit and snot left and right as their heads swung, I had one advantage.
    They were dumb as a pile of rocks.
    A split second before they reached me, I stepped to the side through the hole in the wall and they went rushing and skidding past me.
    I glanced up. Rylee was gone, Red was gone.
    And I had work to do. Cracking my knuckles I reached out to again tap into the earth. If this Shadow Walker thought he could take out me  and  Rylee, he was about to be royally surprised.
    A smile slid over my face as I let my abilities pour upward, first time in twenty years, not holding back but instead racing through me, multiplying in strength with each heartbeat.
    “Yeah, this is going to be good.”

Chapter 10

    Rylee
    THE TOP OF  the wall was slick and though I wanted to run faster, I didn’t have someone to throw me back up if I fell to my ass again.
    “Red, can you see how far to the center?”
    “Another fifty yards.” He circled close to me, never straying far. Which was good; I liked him and didn’t want him to end up like the fox, eaten by darkness. But that meant I wasn’t really paying attention and when I jumped over the next short gap, I missed the other side completely. My fingers grazed the top of the wall, slipping off in a split second.
    “Shit!” I fell, hitting the ground hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Rolling to my side, I fought to catch my breath, finally sucking in a gulp of air and dirt. Coughing, I stood and looked around. Same fucking walls, same height. No Minotaurs. Maybe I’d luck out and avoid… nope. The sound of hooves pounding toward me changed my mind.
    I wasn’t going to luck out on this. Locking onto Jonathan’s threads, I ran in his directions, hoping like hell I was able to reach him with no backtracking shit.
    “Run faster, Tracker,” Red called down. I turned on the juice, going as fast as I could as I skidded around corners with a sword gripped in one hand and a monster breathing down my neck.
    Good times, good times.
    I took a sharp, hairpin turn to the right and