Angry screams. Shouts. Pure chaos.
It’s only a second, but the relief I feel is instantly destroyed as I focus on the fight around me.
On my left, a line of men and women run toward us, all of them shouting. They’re dressed in shorts and T-shirts, but, like the first time I was here, I don’t underestimate the eagle shifters’ ferocity. Their casual clothing only serves to show off their muscled arms and legs, their extreme agility.
Gianna—Dastian’s beta—runs ahead of them. She’s tall, her body honed to perfection. Her brown hair is streaked with golden highlights and her dark skin sparkles where it’s dusted with the ochre from the dirt around us.
Her group runs straight past me and to my right, and my heart thuds hard as I follow their path to the danger they’re racing toward.
Adriel is struggling to hold on to Jareth to my right. My father is like a bull, shouting and ramming himself into the rock wall, thudding so hard that the rock shifts and hairline cracks appear in it.
My wolves surround them both, snarling and growling, while Malia kneels in the dirt nearby. She’s bleeding from a wound in her head and Ruby is supporting her to help her stay upright.
Angelus Lux lies abandoned in the dirt beside her, its pieces still together but no longer glowing.
The light around Malia’s hands flares, sputters, and dies. It sputters again while she screams with frustration. Then fear. “Adriel! I can’t call my magic!”
I’m suddenly aware of many more eagle shifters racing around us and many flying overhead. My wolves were invisible the last time they were here. In fact, they were always invisible on Earth—except when it was safe for them to show themselves.
Now it seems that the eagles aren’t sure who’s friend or foe. They circle around my wolves, although Gianna shouts my name, indicating that she remembers me.
Appearing behind Malia, Taniya shifts into her harpy form, taking to the air—but haphazardly, her energy clearly depleted. Like Roman and me, her skin is blistered, her blonde hair lank, and her harpy’s feathers are lackluster.
“Dastian!” she screams, her voice raspy and broken. “We need you!”
She sways through the air toward Athella’s cabin, but my attention is quickly drawn back to my father.
Jareth knocks his elbow into Adriel’s face, dislodging him.
The enormous angel thumps into the rock wall with a shout. Releasing his wings, he launches himself into the air, flying back at Jareth.
At the same time, my wolves leap at Jareth’s torso and legs. Blitz flies at Jareth’s neck, Temple goes for his left shoulder, Luca dives at his right thigh, and Ace leaps for his right arm.
Jareth snatches Blitz out of the air before the wolf can reach him, flinging the wolf to the side, where he lands with a yelp. Then Jareth bats at Temple as if she’s nothing more than a fly, knocking her off his left shoulder. Luca manages to take a chunk out of Jareth’s thigh before letting go, leaping clear of Jareth’s next flying fist.
But Ace—my ferocious wolf—knocks Jareth back a step as he latches on to Jareth’s dislocated shoulder, making the demon roar with pain. Ace doesn’t let go quickly, yelping when Jareth punches him in the ribs, but he manages to land on his feet.
Momentarily freed from both the wolves and Adriel, my father takes his chance to run. He plows through the line of eagle shifters, swiping two from his path, knocking them into the rock walls on either side before they can fight back.
Instead of trying to escape down the clear path along the canyon, he veers toward Roman and me, with a grin on his wicked face.
He promised he would tear out my heart.
I only make it up to my knees, refusing to move from Roman’s side, placing myself between him and my father.
I have no hope of fighting Jareth. There’s only one person who can stop him now.
“Mom!” My scream is barely more than a croaky, dry whisper, as if I haven’t drunk water for days.
Fuck, maybe I haven’t.Who knows what the angels were feeding us? Demons may be experts at deception, but angels are masters of illusion.
Jareth thuds toward me, raising his leathery, red fist, ready to swing it.
I have no doubt he’ll take my head off with his black claws.
I exhale, watching him approach, knowing I have nothing left.
“Jareth?” A quiet voice breaks through my fear—Mom’s voice—no louder than a whisper, but she may as well have shouted.
