For a moment, they crackled away, flames blackening leather and licking at parchment.
Then without warning, a white diamond of light speared into the atmosphere, blindingly bright. If she’d been standing, it would’ve cut her in half. From the ground, it merely seared her eyes.
Pine trees blew sideways; everyone standing and fighting in the backyard flattened.
Consciousness slipped away.
21
The searing light blinded Mateo. The vertigo hit next as he staggered toward the back door. He was fairly sure he had a crossbow bolt somewhere in his shoulder, but that didn’t matter at all.
The only thing working was his nose, and he smelled her blood. The intense scent of deep flowers was corrupted by the bright metallic scent of an injury, and it was driving him insane. He burst out the back door to see debris everywhere and wolves fighting with women.
How had it come to this? The exact thing that they needed to prevent was coming true before his eyes. The war that no one else had ever rekindled was here on his watch, but none of that mattered right now. He staggered across the lawn as spikes nipped him with unexpected bites of pain. That didn’t matter either.
The fire was gone. It was a crater in the ground with a bit of firewood and two books. One was destroyed. The cover was nothing but charred leather. The other looked completely untouched. Was that where the explosion came from?
He changed form as he crawled through the debris to find her body, half covered by a fallen pine branch. For a second, he couldn’t breathe. Nothing would ever be right in his life again, and then she coughed. She was alive.
Blood streamed down her legs. What had they done? She was their own flesh and blood!
He crouched by her. “Cat!”
She moaned.
“Catarina!”
Her head flopped.
“Come on, Patchouli, you can’t leave me here alone. Please.”
“What are you doing to her?”
He spun to see a redheaded woman with a crazed look in her eye almost as tall as he was.
“I’m trying to help.”
“By shaking an unconscious person like a leaf? She could have a head injury. Put her down!”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m her sister.”
Mateo lifted one hand and made a futile gesture of peace, which, considering the carnage behind them, seemed far too late.
The woman dropped beside him and reached out. He cringed and pulled Cat toward him. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m a healer. I’m going to help. I’m hoping to save her life.”
She put her hands on her sister, and it was the greatest act of trust Mateo had ever shown to let her.
She looked up at him in exasperation. “Would you put her down?”
He shook his head. “Sorry. I can’t. My wolf would revolt.”
“Because this isn’t hard enough,” the woman muttered and closed her eyes.
He braced but felt none of the sparks that flowed from Cat when she did magic. He knew it had happened, but he was unaware of how powerful it was until it wasn’t happening anymore, and she was lying in his arms, a limp lump of flesh.
