A Life Debt

Elara's POV

No one in that terrified, scrambling crowd expected me to stay in the saddle. They expected to see my body tossed into the unforgiving dirt, trampled beneath a frenzy of hooves.

Instead, I gripped the thick, coarse mane of the runebound warbeast, locking my thighs like iron vices against its heaving flanks. The animal thrashed beneath me. It was a terrifying storm of untamed magic a