“We’re a pack. We’ll kill them together,” Malia says. Her expression has lost its usual calm, her brow furrowed and her magic flaring.
Ace turns his head to her, a gleam in his eyes. Malia has always balanced Ace’s aggression, but the violence in her speech appears to resonate with him.
Temple also draws her lips back over her teeth, her snarls increasing, and each of my demon wolves switches to an offensive attitude rather than defensive.
On my left, Taniya’s harpy talons are fully descended, but her teeth are sharp like her wolf’s. It’s a rare sight of her two sides combined. “We’ll take them out, one by one if we have to,” she says, her words a little raspy over her extended canines.
I take strength from my sisters’ determination and their faith in me.
“Last chance, Princess,” the blond demon calls, less than ten paces away.
I don’t wait for him to reach us.
As I stride forward, my claws descend in asnap. My demon wolves and my sisters follow my lead, our relentless hours of training ensuring that our moves are perfectly synchronized.
Malia whispers beneath her breath, her complexion lit by her witch magic while her claws cradle an orb of energy that grows larger with every step we take.
At the last moment, she draws her hand back and pitches the spell she was creating—not at the seven soldiers, but at the space behind them.
Her magic washes across the bridge, a thick wall of energy forming and cutting them off from their comrades. We can see through the barrier, but this way, the other demons won’t be able to join in. It’s a fairer fight. For now. Assuming Crone doesn’t get involved. But at the very least, Malia’s magic will buy us some time.
The second that her energy explodes across the bridge, we leap upward. My hand is poised, ready to drive my claws through the blond demon’s heart.
At that same moment, the soldiers each take a knee, dropping to the ground in a flash and driving the butt of their spears into the crystal surface with an electrifyingcrackbefore pointing the blades in our direction.
Too late, I realize that their weapons are more than spears.
CHAPTERTHREE
Blasts of magical energy shoot from each spear, exploding across us like bombs.
My demon wolves fly backward across the crystal bridge, taking the hits on their shoulders, stomachs, or—in Luca’s case—his flank, although the impact is lessened by his position at the back of our group.
The blast hits me square in the chest and knocks me into the ground. My head spins, and I lose my sense of balance, but I regain it just in time to tuck my knees and roll before I crack my head on the crystal surface. Tumbling across the bridge, I groan out the pain in all of my limbs, but I can’t afford to take stock of the damage. My focus flies to my sisters, fear that they’ve been hurt shooting through me.
Taniya slides backward, managing to flip midair and take the momentum of the hit without breaking her bones on impact. Malia is the worst off because she was still regaining her balance after throwing her magical shield into position. She doesn’t roll in time and lands on her shoulder with a sharp cry.
Ahead of us, the soldiers prime their weapons again, cracking the spears against the crystal surface as they stride after us. A blast explodes beside me, missing me by an inch, plucking at the crystal surface. My reflexes fire and I manage to roll out of the path of the next blast.
Above the sound of the cracking weapons, I’m aware of Ace’s growls. He tumbled to a stop beside Malia and stands in front of her like a living shield, his eyes glowing a vicious, deep purple.
A blast flies over his head, so close that it ruffles his fur, but his snarls are for the soldier who hurt Malia.
With a deep rumble, he launches himself at the demon.
The soldier was priming his weapon again, but Ace darts out of the path of the shot, leaps forward, and latches on to the demon’s spear, wrenching it away from him. Ace’s powerful jaws crunch down and the weapon breaks in half with an efficiency that makes the soldier jump back in alarm.
At the far right of the group, the blond demon shouts, “Immobilize the wolves! Don’t let them take your weapons!”
My heart leaps with relief that Temple and Blitz are already following Ace’s lead. Temple uses her size to knock one of the soldiers down, latch on to his weapon, and shatter it between her teeth in a spray of wood and a blast of magical energy that ripples across the air toward us.
Blitz is too fast for two demons, snatching their spears in quick succession. His jaws aren’t as strong as Ace’s, so he tosses the spears to Ace at lightning speed.
My demon wolves are so fast, they’re a blur.
Shouts rise as chaos descends, but the demons are quickly left with no defense other than their physical strength—which I discover they’re highly trained to use when the blond demon storms at me with a barrage of punches.
Luckily, I’m used to fighting big guys like him. So are my sisters.
