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  However, even with the arrival of our allies, we were only just scratching the surface of the rebels who remained. Stone couldn’t freeze everyone, and there were still rebels charging toward us from all the angles Stone’s third eye couldn’t reach, with even more hidden away inside the bunkered buildings. They emerged every couple of minutes in terrifying spurts, charging at us with their mouths open in hideous war cries. Using the bandolier of knives, I took down an entire front row of approaching enemies, each pointed blade plunging through the throats of all those who would’ve sliced off my head without a moment’s thought.

  “Riley, get down!” Navan roared, barreling into me and knocking me to the ground. A bullet pierced the side of the wall I’d been standing in front of, thudding harmlessly into the masonry.

  Jumping up, Navan helped me back to my feet, gesturing at the towers and vantage points that littered the rebel camp. Within the shadows, rebel snipers were hiding, their scopes set on us and our allied forces. There was no way Stone could deal with everyone, though he was doing his best, his focus split between the shield and the battle. I knew it took some concentration to create the shield beam because I’d overheard Stone instructing the others on how to forge it. Sometimes, if threatened, it would appear of its own volition, but if the bearer wanted to create a beam that wasn’t for the purpose of immediate bodily protection, it required mental instruction; a continuous mantra of thought, sent to the nudus, so it could pick up on the emotional vibrations and read them accordingly. Honestly, I didn’t entirely understand how the creatures worked, but there seemed to be a hive mentality among them—once one nudus did something, the others followed. Anyway, they seemed to be doing the right thing at Stone’s silent request.

  The comm device crackled. “This is Warrior Anai calling Warrior Idrax. Someone is trying to steal the Fed ship outside the perimeter! We are standing by to shoot it down.”

  My gaze flicked toward the fuzzy lower section of the perimeter, trying to figure out where the clearing was. The distorted band of invisibility barrier was only about ten feet in height from the ground, but it blocked a clear view of the spot where we’d left the Fed stealth ship. Fortunately, I remembered where I’d entered the last time I’d been here, letting the memory lead me. Determined not to relinquish a single vessel into the hands of the enemy, I sprinted toward the last place we’d left the ship, with Navan racing after me. As soon as I burst through the invisible barrier, I saw the face I’d been dreading to see. Mauve was trying to hack into the side hatch of the Fed ship, her sharp nails digging into the control panel and tearing out wires.

  “You try and grab her from one side; I’ll get her from the other,” Navan whispered to me, before circling around the side of the clearing.

  Removing a knife from my bandolier, I crept toward the ship. It didn’t seem like the fae had noticed us, her attention focused solely on getting into the stealth vessel. There weren’t any rebels running around out here, though I was curious to know how she’d managed to evade Stone’s stare. Perhaps she’d flown too high to be caught in it. However she’d done it, she was here now, and she’d managed to get the hatch open.

  I lunged toward her. Before my hand could grasp at her ankle, her head whipped around, her eyes boring into mine as that cold smile twisted up the corners of her mouth. With a flick of her wrist, she sent me flying backward, and my head hit the ground with a thud. I struggled to my feet in time to see Navan’s sword cartwheeling through the air toward her, but she was ready for the attack this time. Holding up her hand, she froze the blade in place, before sending it hurtling back toward Navan, missing his ear by a matter of inches. It slammed into a tree trunk behind him, the blade wobbling from side to side.

  As Navan took out his pistol and started to fire, I charged back toward Mauve. I’d barely closed on the ship when she flicked her wrist once more. My knees buckled beneath me, and I faceplanted into the dirt. With a high-pitched giggle, she disappeared inside the belly of the vessel, closing the hatch behind her. The invisibility cloak smoothed seamlessly over the doorway. I couldn’t see the ship fly off, but I could hear the engines roaring to life and feel the rush of hot air whip at my face as it soared higher.

  “Stealth ship is approaching us at speed,” Anai said, through the comms. “We’re giving chase.”

  “Don’t pursue it past the shield!” I replied frantically. “If it gets out, let it go. Otherwise, you’ll have no way of getting back through the nudus barrier.”

  “Copy that, Warrior Idrax. Let’s see if our guns can get the thieving bastard.”

  Knowing what Mauve was like, I had a feeling she’d get out of this one. That crazy fae was a menace to the universe, but we had bigger problems to worry about right now—far bigger than a destructive, insane little creature.

  Once Navan had his sword back, we returned to the fray, cutting down all the rebels who sought to stand in our way. They were still pouring out of the bunker and the lab, and every other building that lay scattered about the place, only about half falling under the spell of Stone’s peripheral and central vision. Already, I’d lost track of the number of times someone had tried to take my head off, or I’d heard the whoosh of a bullet zing past my ear. It was a good thing I didn’t scare easily.

  “Bash, you okay?” Navan asked, as we jogged toward his brother.

  He nodded, his eyes going wide as he fired over my shoulder, taking out a creeping shifter with a pair of pistols in his fleshy hands. “I am now.”

  I glanced around, assessing the situation. We had ships in the skies, but not all of them could get beneath the dome’s surface without overcrowding each other. Beyond the hazy shimmer of the invisibility dome, I could tell they were struggling to pick out the rebels by heat signature alone. It was an impossible task. No, if we were to stand any chance of giving them a clear line of sight toward the enemy, we needed to take out the dome itself.

  Already, I was starting to see the fallen bodies of lycan and merevin agents, who’d been taken out by the snipers in the buildings nearby. Everything was in chaos, and it was only going to get worse once Stone’s abilities started to slip. He was being defended by a small team of Rexombra, who seemed more or less bulletproof to my human eyes, moving so fast they were little more than blurs. He was in safer hands with them than he was with us, but Stone couldn’t hold the shield and hold back the rebels forever.

  “We need to hunt down Orion and Ezra,” I said, turning toward the bunker entrance. “Stone’s eye is holding for now, but the nudus are sapping him more with every minute that passes. We need to get to Orion and take him out before—”

  Stone crumbled, hitting the deck with a hefty thud that ricocheted across the battlefield like the beat of a war drum. Above his fallen body, the whole shield disappeared in the blink of an eye, the glow of the nudus dimming around Stone’s arms.

  “STONE!” I howled, sprinting for the shipping container and launching myself onto the surface of it, keeping low. Blood poured from his body, and his eyes were flickering weakly—he’d been shot. I tore off part of my uniform and wrapped it around the wound to staunch the flow of blood, but the fabric was already getting soaked.

  Below me, two of the Rexombra tore off in the direction from which the gunshot had been fired, sprinting up the sides of a tower. They swung in on the unaware sniper, throwing him headfirst from his crow’s nest. That was one down, but there were still too many out there.

  As an allied army, we’d managed to kill most of the enemies Stone had frozen, but now there was no way of slowing down the onslaught of those who remained. Soon, we’d be overwhelmed.

  I didn’t understand how the entire nudus shield had fallen. Unless something had happened to the others.

  “This is Commander Mahlo to Captain Idrax.” Her voice crackled urgently through the comms.

  “Go ahead.”

  “We’re experiencing mass failure of the shield. There is nothing we can do,” she explained. “All five forcefield points have bee
n taken out. The shield is down. I repeat, the shield is down.”

  “What’s happened to the shield-bearers?” I asked desperately.

  “The shield is down. I repeat, the shield is down.”

  “What’s happened to the shield-bearers?!” I screamed, but the reply was the same.

  “The shield is down. I repeat, the shield is down.”

  I whipped around as I felt arms encircle me, fearing that someone was trying to attack. With my fists up and ready to fight, I found Navan crouching beside me, his arms reaching out to hold me, while all-out war erupted around us. We’d lost our advantage, and now I was terrified that I’d lost my friends, too. If the five forcefield points had been “taken out,” then that could only mean one thing…

  “How could this happen?” I whispered, my lungs tight with fear.

  There was no way those five points could’ve been taken out all at once. Only the Universal Alliance had known the locations, and only we had known what purpose those locations served. There was only one way that this could’ve happened—someone on Earth, who was already here on the planet, had wanted the shields to break.

  But who? That mystery was even more confusing. I instantly thought about the US president, but he’d sided with the rebels. He’d brokered a deal with Ezra, no doubt under Orion’s rule, so the last thing he would’ve wanted was to have the queens’ armies attacking the planet, threatening everyone below. None of this made any sense. If it wasn’t the US president, and it wasn’t the rebels, and it wasn’t Queen Gianne, then who the hell was it? Who’d snuck in under our noses and shattered our hopes?

  A loud thrum juddered through my body, drawing my eyes back up toward a familiar blue sky. Descending toward my planet, a fleet swarmed. Red and black came first, plunging through the clouds, with the guns of silver and green following after, firing down upon them.

  Queen Gianne was here, and she was headed straight for us.

  Ready for the PENULTIMATE book of Riley and Navan’s story?

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Allies!

  Book 7, Invaders, is the thrilling penultimate book of the series, as we move toward the grand finale in Book 8!

  Invaders releases June 22nd, 2018.

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  I’ll see you back in Vysanthe!

  Love,

  Bella x

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  Read more by Bella Forrest

  HOTBLOODS

  Hotbloods (Book 1)

  Coldbloods (Book 2)

  Renegades (Book 3)

  Venturers (Book 4)

  Traitors (Book 5)

  Allies (Book 6)

  Invaders (Book 7)

  THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK

  (Completed series)

  The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)

  The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)

  The Girl Who Dared to Descend (Book 3)

  The Girl Who Dared to Rise (Book 4)

  The Girl Who Dared to Lead (Book 5)

  The Girl Who Dared to Endure (Book 6)

  The Girl Who Dared to Fight (Book 7)

  THE GENDER GAME

  (Completed series)

  The Gender Game (Book 1)

  The Gender Secret (Book 2)

  The Gender Lie (Book 3)

  The Gender War (Book 4)

  The Gender Fall (Book 5)

  The Gender Plan (Book 6)

  The Gender End (Book 7)

  A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES

  Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story

  A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)

  A Shade of Blood (Book 2)

  A Castle of Sand (Book 3)

  A Shadow of Light (Book 4)

  A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)

  A Gate of Night (Book 6)

  A Break of Day (Book 7)

  Series 2: Rose & Caleb’s story

  A Shade of Novak (Book 8)

  A Bond of Blood (Book 9)

  A Spell of Time (Book 10)

  A Chase of Prey (Book 11)

  A Shade of Doubt (Book 12)

  A Turn of Tides (Book 13)

  A Dawn of Strength (Book 14)

  A Fall of Secrets (Book 15)

  An End of Night (Book 16)

  Series 3: The Shade continues with a new hero…

  A Wind of Change (Book 17)

  A Trail of Echoes (Book 18)

  A Soldier of Shadows (Book 19)

  A Hero of Realms (Book 20)

  A Vial of Life (Book 21)

  A Fork of Paths (Book 22)

  A Flight of Souls (Book 23)

  A Bridge of Stars (Book 24)

  Series 4: A Clan of Novaks

  A Clan of Novaks (Book 25)

  A World of New (Book 26)

  A Web of Lies (Book 27)

  A Touch of Truth (Book 28)

  An Hour of Need (Book 29)

  A Game of Risk (Book 30)

  A Twist of Fates (Book 31)

  A Day of Glory (Book 32)

  Series 5: A Dawn of Guardians

  A Dawn of Guardians (Book 33)

  A Sword of Chance (Book 34)

  A Race of Trials (Book 35)

  A King of Shadow (Book 36)

  An Empire of Stones (Book 37)

  A Power of Old (Book 38)

  A Rip of Realms (Book 39)

  A Throne of Fire (Book 40)

  A Tide of War (Book 41)

  Series 6: A Gift of Three

  A Gift of Three (Book 42)

  A House of Mysteries (Book 43)

  A Tangle of Hearts (Book 44)

  A Meet of Tribes (Book 45)

  A Ride of Peril (Book 46)

  A Passage of Threats (Book 47)

  A Tip of Balance (Book 48)

  A Shield of Glass (Book 49)

  A Clash of Storms (Book 50)

  Series 7: A Call of Vampires

  A Call of Vampires (Book 51)

  A Valley of Darkness (Book 52)

  A Hunt of Fiends (Book 53)

  A Den of Tricks (Book 54)

  A City of Lies (Book 55)

  A League of Exiles (Book 56)

  A Charge of Allies (Book 57)

  A Snare of Vengeance (Book 58)

  A Battle of Souls (Book 59)

  Season 8: A Voyage of Founders

  A Voyage of Founders (Book 60)

  A SHADE OF DRAGON TRILOGY

  A Shade of Dragon 1

  A Shade of Dragon 2

  A Shade of Dragon 3

  A SHADE OF KIEV TRILOGY

  A Shade of Kiev 1

  A Shade of Kiev 2

  A Shade of Kiev 3

  THE SECRET OF SPELLSHADOW MANOR

  (Completed series)

  The Secret of Spellshadow Manor (Book 1)

  The Breaker (Book 2)

  The Chain (Book 3)

  The Keep (Book 4)

  The Test (Book 5)

  The Spell (Book 6)

  BEAUTIFUL MONSTER DUOLOGY

  Beautiful Monster 1

  Beautiful Monster 2

  DETECTIVE ERIN BOND (Adult thriller/mystery)

  Lights, Camera, GONE

  Write, Edit, KILL

  For an updated list of Bella’s books, please visit her website: www.bellaforrest.net

  Join Bella’s VIP email list and she’ll send you an email reminder as soon as her next book is out. Tap here to sign up: www.morebellaforrest.com

    (Series: Hotbloods # 6)