"WAIT!"
The scream tore from Kaelen's throat before the guards could squeeze their triggers.
Reed didn't even have time to blink. One second he was asleep, wrapped in a warm cocoon of fur and Paladin-smell; the next, he was staring down the barrel of a heavy repeating crossbow, and Kaelen was scrambling over him like a desperate spider.
She threw herself between Reed and the Authority kill-squad.
She didn't reach for her sword. She didn't reach for her armor. She simply spread her arms wide, using her own body, clad only in a damp, wrinkled linen tunic as a human shield.
"Hold fire!" Kaelen commanded, her voice cracking with panic. "That is a direct order! Stand down!"
The four guards hesitated. Their fingers twitched on the triggers. They were trained to kill monsters, but aiming a loaded weapon at a High Inquisitor, even one who looked like she'd just rolled out of a frat party, was a violation of every protocol in the book.
