As my shout echoes around us, Temple and Ace dart forward, their teeth sinking into my sisters’ palms deeply enough to draw blood.
Malia’s deep-brown eyes flash to me, a scream on her lips as she shifts, her gorgeous chocolate-colored wolf leaping forward, shaking out her fur.
Taniya’s harpy shrieks, slamming her power back into me, fighting my will. “No,” she cries, her wings shooting wide behind her. “I can’t leave my mate.”
My heart breaks. She was forced to leave Dastian behind in Vegas. This illusion has given her the life she always wanted: acceptance, love, a home. It kills me to know that I’m tearing her away from all of that, but this illusion isn’t real—the real thing is waiting for her back on Earth. And I’m determined she’ll have it all one day.
“Shift!” I command her again, my growls becoming louder. I throw myself forward, my palms landing on her shoulders while Temple continues to bite her hand. “Youwillshift!”
Taniya’s scream fades to a whimper. She shakes her head, but her wings snap tightly against her sides and her body morphs into her amber wolf, leaping clear of Temple into the narrowing space beside Malia.
Malia’s wolf is also whimpering now. I don’t know their thoughts, but I feel their pain. Their sorrow. Both of my sisters are hurting and it’s my fault.
I brought them into this shit. Into this damn world.
I have to save them now.
Shifting fully into my wolf form, I race behind them, gathering them up while Temple and Ace flank them.
I send a mental command to them.Door. Now!
I need to get them out of here in one piece. Then I can deal with the emotional fallout.
As we race across the room, the walls start to meet behind us and we only just make it through the opening before the walls slam into each other, closing off the room we left behind.
Skidding across the entry room, we slide toward the wide, violet door.
It doesn’t open at our approach, and I bash myself against it, a second ahead of the others, letting my nightmare power wash around my body. My power is dangerously close to affecting Malia and Taniya, but I don’t have much choice as I throw myself at the wooden surface again, using every force at my disposal to make it open.
Partially shifting back into my human form, I scream, “Let us out! You have no right to keep us here!”
I throw myself at it again, but the door still doesn’t open.
Before I can lose myself to panic, Malia’s wolf presses into my side. Her deep-brown eyes meet mine before she shifts into her human form—which only increases my panic, since the prison might drag her back into the illusion now.
She drops to her knees, gripping her stomach. Her voice is strained, a harsh whisper filled with pain. “I don’t understand what’s happening, but your father’s here. At least a part of his soul is here. His blood is our only chance to escape.”
With a groan of pain, she slaps her bleeding hand against the door, Ace’s bite mark painfully visible across her palm.
On my other side, Taniya cries out as she shifts back into her human form, also slapping her bleeding hand against the wooden surface.
My confusion clears. My father’s voice told me that his blood lives in my sisters. But it lives far more strongly in me.
I want to ask all the questions, but right now, I have to trust in what my sisters are trying to tell me.
Raking the claws of my left hand over my right fingertips, I drag my bleeding fingers across the door, just like the death bond symbol Malia kept dragging through the royal rune.
A force grabs me, pulling me forward, and I don’t have time to gasp before the door flies open.
I pitch forward and land on the floor outside the room. Malia and Taniya tumble with me. Temple and Ace are only a split second behind them. My demon wolves don’t stop, gripping my sisters’ arms and dragging them forward.
With moans of pain, they shift back into their wolf forms, and I recognize it as a protective action now. Their wolves will dull their human emotions of grief and pain as they transition from their beautiful illusionary life back to the harsh reality of these prison walls.
I scramble to my feet, remaining in my human form.
With a quick glance to ensure Malia and Taniya are both with me, I leap toward the beam of light, sensing its energy ready to move.
Before I touch down, a strong wind shoves me away from it, lifting me off my feet and tumbling me against the prison’s wall. Recovering, I try again, taking another step toward the beam, but I’m shoved to the side again.
