Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) by Airicka Phoenix, Morgana Phoenix

to get accused of being sympathizers so they shifted forward in a tight cluster. Gideon wanted to laugh. Grown men, afraid of a tiny girl barely coming to their shoulders. Then she lashed out again and he quickly changed his thoughts.
    She was beautiful. Dark hair flew around her as she dodged and weaved like a majestic creature. So graceful, but precise with every attack. She could have dominated them all, had her skirt not caught around her feet and sent her sprawling into the dirt.
    They were on her then, a pack of angry and bloodthirsty beasts. Their hands closed around her arms, her hair and she was dragged to her feet. She growled and tried to lash out, but they had her.
    The dark man moved forward. He blocked Gideon’s view of the girl, but there was no mistaking his actions when he heard the resounding crack of flesh meeting flesh. A thin sliver of red trickled from her bottom lip when he shifted aside again. 
    Gideon’s blood roared. His vision darkened a moment as the entire world howled between his ears. Fury unlike anything he’d ever felt in his life blazed through his veins. His boots ate the space keeping him from her and he was across the clearing in seconds.
    “Who are—?”
    His fist slammed into the mouth of the speaker, snapping his head back as blood flew from the gash in his lip. Gideon went for the others next, barely restraining himself from killing each one of them. Unlike them, he wasn’t a murderer.
    Leaving them in a heap at the girl’s feet, he rounded on the dark man. Anger coursed down his arms to crackle at his bunched fingers. He knew, even before he’d taken the first step that he would kill this one and he would enjoy it.
    “No!” The girl hurried forward and put herself between him and his quarry.
    Gideon growled deep in his throat. “He struck you.”
    She wiped the back of her hand across her bloody mouth. “Yes.” She raised those blue eyes to his face. “Which is why I want him.”
    Breathing hard, he considered it. He considered ignoring her and just beating the devil out of the bastard. But he relented. He stepped back as she turned on the shaken man watching them decide his fate. The others, the men who had been so busy erecting the stand on which to burn yet another innocent soul had yet to move. They stood rooted to their places, frozen in fear as they watched the girl grab their leader by the throat and shove his bony frame backwards.
    “Open the cage!” she commanded. “Open it!”
    A man hurried forward, keys jingling in his hands as he found the right one. The girl inside the pen scrambled out the moment the door was open.
    “Run!” the girl told her. “Get as far away from here as possible.”
    “Thank you!” the girl sobbed before dashing off.
    No one was stupid enough to stop her.
    The dark man was forced into the cage in her place and the door was sealed behind him. She reached into the folds of her skirt and removed a small pouch. From within, she drew out a pinch of sand that glittered in the moonlight. She said something in a tongue Gideon didn’t recognize and blew it into the man’s face. The moment it struck him, he began to scream, long, agonizing wails that tore through the clearing as though he were being mauled by a bear. He clutched at his face, cutting deep gashes that oozed blood. Gideon almost pitied him. Almost.
    The girl turned to the group.
    “Go home to your families,” she ordered in a clear, crisp voice. “Anyone I see out tonight, will join him.”
    No one stayed to argue. The hurried rush of footsteps pounded through the forest as all present dashed back to the safety of their homes.
    Gideon remained. He wasn’t going anywhere. Not without her.
    Studying the dark man as he continued to shriek and rip strips of flesh from his face a moment longer, she picked up her skirt and started into the woods in the opposite direction of the village.
    “Hey!” Gideon hurried after her. “Wait. Who are you?”
    She stopped and faced