We moved like shadows across the bridge leading to the property, the crushed gravel crunching beneath our boots. Mist curled low around our feet. Creatures scurried by in the distant trees surrounding us, and thick wind whistled through their branches.
Milo stayed behind, as he said he would, but the rest of the Ashen Order was armored up and ready to go, along with more than a dozen older refugees who had volunteered to help.
Everett and two other Illusionists were a few steps ahead of the rest of us, using their magic to conceal the entire group as we neared the mansion. To anyone looking, they would see straight through us and to the forest beyond.
We all wanted to believe it would be simple. Get to the Hollow to find where the weapons were being hidden, rescue the remaining prisoners, set the explosive charm, get out.
But we were dressed for battle, and I feared that was the only way this would end.
Nox glanced at me, his eyes holding a question. When Inodded, he looked over at Tessa and Kieran, then the others, meeting each of their stares with a quick nod of confirmation. Then he pointed two fingers at Everett.
According to plan, our ranks began to spread. Kieran led a small group west toward the stables that hid one entrance to the Hollow, while Tessa and her group went south. The rest of us kept straight toward the front of the mansion, prepared to fend off any defenses that may be in place.
Everett, Nox, and I stepped forward. The second my boot landed in the hard grass, I felt it.
A spell. It skittered across my skin, tightening in my chest and making the hair on the back of my neck rise. I jerked toward Nox, whose jaw was clenched.
“My illusion,” Everett said beside me. “It’s down.”
“Well, I guess he knew we were coming,” I muttered.
We all tensed, the air suddenly shifting around us. My breath quickened as the shadows cast by the towering mansion became more sinister. They crawled across the ground like spindly fingers reaching for us. Wind rustled my hair, howling in the distant trees.
“Nox, what should we—” I cut myself off with a sharp gasp.
Something struck.
But it wasn’t someone attacking. It was frominsidemy leathers. Like something invisible was clawing at my skin beneath my shirt.
I quickly ripped the sleeve up my right arm, my stomach crashing to my feet when I realized what it was.
“It’s him,” I breathed out, watching in horror as, once again, words were carved into the sensitive skin of my inner arm. Nox yanked me toward him. Fury radiated from him in waves, and my shadows sprang to my fingertips in response.
Blood beaded and pooled around two crimson words.
Look up
My head snapped up. It wasn’tshadowsfrom the mansion that were inching closer.
There was a flash of glowing eyes, claws of steel catching moonlight, and then three of them dropped from the rooftop.
Shifters.
Before I could blink, they attacked.
68
Devora
Clawed feet hit the courtyard with aboom, and the entire world trembled. I sucked in a breath when they came into view—black-and-red veined and inhuman, like someone had warped them.
The first had the head of a wolf while his massive upper body was still in his human form, with clumps of fur scattered across his bare chest. His pants were torn at the legs where his feet had shifted into enormous paws. When he opened his mouth, his jaw came unhinged, opening wider than possible and exposing lines of serrated teeth. Thick black veins pulsed around his black eyes.
These weren’t like any Shifters I’d seen before.
The second one made me stumble backward. She was a serpent Shifter, with slick green scales covering her entire body and whip-like coils in the place of arms. Even her long hair took the form of snakes, each strand ending in a head with a forked tongue and sharp fangs. Her waist morphed into the body of a tiger. Muscled legs crouched before flying into the air, straight at Everett.
She sent him crashing through a stone statue in the courtyard with a sickeningcrack. The wolf Shifter blurred, moving faster than my eyes could track, and struck Nox to my right. The third…
