There it was again—that darker shadow behind her, massive and formless, briefly visible as it seemed to guide her movements. Delilah tried to focus her clairvoyance on it, but her vision blurred painfully.
"Sam, there's something controlling her!" she shouted.
The witch's face contorted with momentary rage—or was it fear? "Enough games."
She made a slashing motion, and the remaining shadows converged at once. Sam leapt in front of Delilah, taking the full brunt of their attack. His body jerked as shadow-claws tore into him from multiple directions.
"No!" Delilah screamed, her terror manifesting as a pulse of energy that temporarily scattered the shadows.
Sam collapsed to his knees, blood soaking through his shirt in multiple places. His partial transformation receded as his strength waned, leaving him looking painfully human and vulnerable.
The witch descended, orb glowing in her hands. "This is just one piece of a much bigger puzzle, little seer. Too bad your pet wolf won't be around to see what happens next. My master will be pleased. Your little love story has provided exactly the emotional catalyst we needed."
"Who is your master?" Delilah demanded, cradling Sam's head as he slumped against her.
The witch smiled coldly. "You'll meet him soon enough. He's quite the collector of special pairs like yourselves."
For a heartbeat, Delilah saw it clearly—a massive shadow behind the witch, humanoid but wrong somehow, its fingers extending like dark threads into the witch's body. Then it was gone.
The witch vanished in a swirl of purple smoke, taking the orb and her shadow creatures with her. The time-suspension spell broke with an audible pop, sending Zelda, Mac, Ivy, and Rafe stumbling forward.
"Sam!" Mac rushed to them, his face tight with concern.
Zelda was already grabbing potions from her shelves. "Get him on the table. Now!"
Delilah's hands trembled as she stroked Sam's hair, his blood soaking into her clothes. She tried to See his future—something she'd never been able to do for herself but had always been able to do for others.
There was nothing. Just emptiness where his timeline should be.
"Don't you dare," she whispered fiercely. "Don't you dare leave me when I just found you."
10
Darkness. Then pain. Sam's consciousness floated back like a reluctant swimmer breaking the surface of a frozen lake. His body felt wrong—heavy and burning and somehow disconnected.
He tried to move. Mistake. Pain lanced through his chest, sharp enough to make his vision blur.
"Don't even think about it, wolf-boy." Zelda's voice cut through the fog. "Those shadow creatures did quite a number on you."
Sam forced his eyes open. The ceiling above him swam with projected constellations—Zelda's healing room magic at work. The air tasted of rosemary, valerian, and something metallic that might have been his own blood.
A warm pressure against his hand drew his attention. Delilah sat beside him, her head resting on the edge of his cot, fingers intertwined with his. Dark circles shadowed her eyes. She'd clearly been there for hours.
Memory crashed back—the witch, the orb, the shadow creatures tearing into him.
"How long?" His voice came out as a rasp.
Delilah's head snapped up. "Sam! Thank the Goddess." Relief flooded her face, followed immediately by something harder. "Two days. You've been out for two days."
"The orb?—"
"Gone," Zelda interrupted, moving into his field of vision. Her hands glowed faintly green as she checked the bandages wrapped around his torso. "And before you ask, yes, we've been tracking it. No, we haven't found it. And yes, Mac has the entire shifter community on alert."
Sam tried to sit up again, ignoring the protest of torn muscles. "I need to get back out there."
"You need to lie down before you undo all my work," Zelda snapped, pushing him back with surprising strength. Fat Bastard, perched on a nearby shelf, gave a meow that sounded suspiciously like laughter.
"We're losing time," Sam growled. "The witch mentioned a master—someone collecting pairs. There's a larger pattern we're missing."
