Free Regret (Lady of Toryn Trilogy) by Charity Santiago

soldiers
falling into its depths.
    “Drake lost resist,” Ashlyn said to him, feeling dizzy from all the circles her
horse was turning. Her father was slumped in her arms, unconscious.
    “What?” Shock registered on the
swordsman’s face, and he followed Ashlyn’s gaze to Drake, who was on top of a
screaming Toryn ninja, tearing at the other man with his teeth. Kou was nowhere
to be seen.
    “We’ve got to get it back to
him,” Ashlyn pleaded, and almost before she’d finished her sentence, Skye was
rushing forward. Ashlyn’s infuriatingly spastic horse followed after him, the
sudden movement throwing Ashlyn off balance and forcing her to grab at its mane
as she struggled to keep both herself and her father upright.
    It seemed like things were moving
in slow-motion as Ashlyn felt herself falling to one side, losing grip on the
saddle as her horse darted and leaped around fallen soldiers in terror. When it
became obvious that she wasn’t going to be able to recover her seat, Ashlyn
clutched her father to her chest and kicked her opposite foot out of the
stirrup, turning so that Lord Li fell on top of her.
    The impact knocked the wind out
of her, and she found herself skidding in fresh, moist dirt before coming up to
rest against the body of a soldier. Ashlyn struggled to sit up, still keeping
an arm around her dad’s waist, and watched as her horse galloped off into the
woods. Crap, she mouthed as her lungs
screamed for air. Trying not to panic, she glanced down at her dad and saw the resist stane, still threaded on its
cord, lying in the dirt next to his head.
    She grabbed it and struggled to
stand up. Her father was still too heavy to lift, so she rolled him off her as
gently as she could. She had to get back on a horse somehow. Could she even
find a horse? Her eyes came to rest on Drake’s horse, standing quietly exactly
where Drake had left him as battle raged around the poor animal. Ashlyn gritted
her teeth and shoved the resist stane
into her pocket, then grabbed her dad’s arms and tried to drag him. First
things first…she had to get her dad back on a horse…then she could help Drake.
    Something slammed into her from
the side, knocking her to the ground and rolling her over twice, and Ashlyn
gasped in pain as her shoulder hit a rock. She brought up an elbow, striking
her attacker in the nose. He snarled and rolled off, and Ashlyn scrambled up, yanking
her sword off her back.
    Drake stood in front of her,
furious and growling and very un- Drake-like.
    “I have resist,” Ashlyn said unsteadily. “Let me put it back on you,
Drake.”
    Drake lunged at her, and she
flipped backwards, kicking him in the chin on her first flip and landing in a
sideways crouch on the second, ready to leap aside at any second.
    Behind Drake, Ashlyn saw Skye
grabbing her father, lifting Lord Li into the saddle. Please go, Ashlyn willed him silently. Please take him and go. But Skye barely managed to prop the
unconscious Toryn on top of the horse before another ninja attacked him.
    Drake leaped at her again, and
this time Ashlyn sidestepped and spun in a leg sweep. Drake jumped over it and
snatched the front of her tunic, dragging her forward. Ashlyn swung her sword
down, slicing across his knuckles. Rather than yanking away from him, she
advanced, swinging with the sword, driving him back furiously with a series of
blows that were blocked by his glove. Ashlyn had never fought Drake before and had
never wanted to. Despite his preference for long-range weapons, his vampiric
strength made him a formidable opponent in hand-to-hand combat. She didn’t want
to give him a chance to hurt her.
    At last she retreated, fists
raised, her legs trembling and angrier than she could remember being in a long
time. “Find the will, you moron!” she snapped. “Vampirism doesn’t control you
any more than the resist stane does.
Fight it!”
    Her words fell on deaf ears, and
the vampire lunged a third time. This time Ashlyn fell backwards