Reaper looks different through my wolf’s eyes, her body blazing like my demon wolves’ bodies do. Like onyx set on fire, her fur shimmering with waves of energy and her eyes glimmering.
Then my shift completes and the clarity I was feeling rips away from me. Pain explodes through my body, rippling from the thorn in my back all the way through my chest, tearing through my wolf form so badly that my heart seems to stop for a beat before it pounds far too fast.
Suddenly, I feel all of the agony that was numbed before. From my paws to my nose, through my torso and all the way to the end of my tail. Even within my wolf’s black-and-white vision, the parts of her body that I can see glow a sickly pale shade of gray.
I shift back into my human form, finding myself curled up on my side, not knowing when I dropped to the ground, gasping for breath against the ash and debris. My wolf’s whimpers fade, hurting my heart to hear her pain.
Reaper stands over me, her body low and protective as she glares upward.
The screeching grows louder.
“We can’t outrun them,”she says.“There’s nowhere to hide. But this clearing is as good a place to fight them as any. I will protect you as long as I can, Nova.”
I force myself up onto my knees. I’ve never felt so vulnerable or exposed before. I’m wearing a torn-up dress. I’m wounded. I’m being slowly poisoned and… I’m finally forced to admit… I might not make it through this.
If Crone wanted to break me, then she’s achieving her purpose.
All I have now are my claws and my wits and my last few breaths.
I’m sure as fuck going to make them count.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
Sweat drips down my forehead as I rise to my feet, my claws extended, my breathing shallow and fast.
The colony soars in low and fast, a cloud of furry, winged creatures, their sharp teeth and claws glinting.
Reaper doesn’t wait for them to reach us, racing forward, proving that she’s as fast as Blitz when she moves at a rapid blur, leaping upward so quickly that she cuts through the low-flying swarm like a cleave.
She drags three bats down with her while the others split into two jagged groups, shrieking past on either side of me. Without Reaper’s attack, they would have mowed me down. I don’t waste the opportunity, a burst of adrenaline giving me the strength I need to throw myself beneath one of the streams, my hands raking across the bellies of several bats and cutting them down.
The air fills with their shrill shrieks, but their eyes are vacant, their actions coordinated as they turn back.
Once again, Reaper is beside me.“Get down!”
She leaps up in front of me, ripping apart a bat with her jaws before spinning and throwing herself at another. Despite her order, I whirl with her, facing the threats coming at us from the other side, determined to protect her back. While ramming my claws through the neck of a bat that was preparing to cast its acid onto both of us, I tear through the wings of another with my other hand.
It doesn’t seem to matter how hard we fight. There are too many of them.
Droplets of acid hit my shoulder, burning through my dress. Claws rip at my hair. A warm trickle of blood tells me my left ear is cut and bleeding. My other shoulder is burning.
Reaper’s howl of pain strikes through me harder than any agony I’m feeling. I twist back to her in time to see her throw herself in front of me to stop a wash of acid from splashing across my back.
It hits her shoulder and she drops to the ground.
My arms fly upward.
A blast of darkness pours from my fingertips, my nightmare power forming from the last of my energy, ripping out of me in a final attempt to defend us.
The darkness fills the clearing, more oppressive than the night. The bats’ eyes glint within it. Their wings beat more slowly, but if anything, the fearsome dark seems to energize them.
They gather around us in a vicious circle, their mouths open, teeth bared, screeches making my ears ring.
My heart sinks. I guess they feed on nightmares.
A scream of rage rises into my throat, hoping that Crone can hear me through whatever curse she placed on the creatures to make them gather against me. “Fuck you, Crone!”
In response, the bats converge and the seconds are excruciating.
