Bella darted between fights, her fox form streaking in and out of danger, nipping at shadows, trying to snake around people’s ankles.
Ardetia moved with eerie grace, her frost-laced hands touching walls and paving stones, laying down thin sheets of ice that made the shadows slip and lose purchase.
Twobble and Skonk had turned the area in front of the tea shop into a goblin-engineered gauntlet. They’d dragged out sacks of salt, jars of fizz, a bucket of what looked suspiciously like glitter, and were hurling them with wild accuracy.
Every time a tendril of darkness tried to get too close to the door, it found itself smacked with dawn fizz, sprayed with salt, and then sparkled into humiliation.
“You shall not pass!” Twobble yelled, throwing an entire baguette at one persistent strip of shadow. “This pastry is charmed!”
“It’s not,” Skonk muttered, but the bread did hit the shadow squarely, so I supposed that counted for something.
Keegan stayed close, his wolf body pressed against my legs, hackles raised. Every time he lunged at a shadow, I felt the pull on his curse, like something had its claws in his spine. He never should have shifted.
“Don’t you dare go for her,” I whispered to him through our strange, interlaced bond. “I mean it. If she grabs you, I will burn down an entire realm, and we don’t have time for that today.”
His golden eyes flashed—fierce, agonized, stubborn. He stayed.
For now.
The priestess lifted one hand.
Above us, the hanging spears of shadow rearranged.
They pulled inward, merging into larger, thicker spikes with less glitter and more precision. The lattice dome condensed, lines tightening, symbols brightening with a vicious clarity. In the center of it all, directly over the square, the shadows twisted into a single, massive bolt.
My mark flared hard enough that my vision stuttered.
“Might want to move!” I called.
People ducked, scattered, instinctively pulling away from the center.
The massive shadow boltdropped.
Not toward them.
Toward me.
Keegan slammed into my side, shoving me out of the way with a growl that shook his whole body. The bolt hit the cobbles where I’d been standing and exploded.
I flew sideways, hit the ground hard, and rolled.
For a second, everything was noise and white static.
When it cleared, my ears rang.
There was a crater in the square where the bolt had struck, and stone had cracked, frost riming the edges. Shadows seeped from it like smoke from a deep pit.
“Maeve!” My mom’s voice cut through the noise. “Are you all right?”
“I’m great,” I croaked, pushing myself up on shaky arms. “Ten out of ten.”
Keegan loomed over me, fur bristling, teeth bared at the priestess. A thin line of blood dripped from his shoulder where a fragment of shadow had nicked him.
I reached up and pressed my hand there.
Warm. Wet. Too red.
“You’re hurt,” I whispered.
