The shift was slower, sluggish, battling through waves of anguish as my body attempted to heal itself from so many fatal wounds. My limbs elongated, my claws sharpened, and my hornsemerged, all while the battlefield and Scarven’s mansion shrank beneath me.
And then there was her.
Two of Scarven’s men were holding Devora’s limp body down, those black cuffs wrapped tight around her wrists and dark green veins running over creamy skin. She writhed on the ground, her hair billowing around her like a cloud of blood as she screamed.
Ifelther pain. Fates, I remembered that night I’d injected myself with fatesprig, how every single cell in my body burned and wished for death. My dragon flinched away from the memory. When she shrieked again, it cut a gaping wound down my chest, worse than any dagger Scarven could stab me with.
I’d promised to protect her, and I failed. She had done this forme.
I was tired of people I loved paying the price for my life.
When the cloaked figures behind her reached for her again, I dove without thinking. My wings flapped at my side, sending a powerful gust of wind over the field, and I snatched both men in my teeth in one fell swoop.
I clamped my jaws over them, severing their bodies in half, then jerked my head to the side to send the pieces flying into the forest. The bitter taste of their blood made my bloodlust hum with pleasure.
A muffled shout rang out from my feet. I craned my long, snake-like neck back to find two more of Scarven’s lackeys detaining Vera and Everett with the same black cuffs. Another knelt to the ground next to Tessa, whose blood stained the earth red. Her features were ashen, and her head sagged to one side as she clutched her shoulder.
I hadn’t seen many injuries that severe on a Shifter before. I knew we weren’t invincible—there were some wounds that even powerful Shifter blood couldn’t heal.
But she would be fine. Shehadto be fine. I refused to lose anyone else.
A growl rumbled from deep in my throat as Iopened my maw, inches from their assailants’ faces. The scent of piss filled the air as the one reaching for Tessa went slack-jawed in horror, while another thrust Everett at me and raced off in the other direction.
I let him get several yards away. Let him think he hadhope.
Then I lifted one of my legs and brought it on top of his head, crushing him straight into the ground.
I took the one hovering over Tessa and launched him deep into the forest, then ripped the other from my sister. I raised him high to meet my eye level, his small body wrapped inside my talons. He shook with terror, lips moving in a silent plea as if any of his prayers to the Fates or hismastercould save him now.
I tore his head off with my teeth and dropped his decapitated body to the ground in front of Scarven’s feet. My half-brother was clawing at the dirt, his teeth gritted as the fatesprig grew darker in his veins.
I shifted into my human form and quickly looked at Everett. “Help Tessa!” I jerked my head to my third. “Get her to an Alchemist.Now.”
He nodded and helped her to her feet while I turned my attention back to Devora, hurrying toward her in panicked strides.
Her eyes rolled into the back of her head with every spasm, her head jerking and body curving inward. I gathered her in my arms and pressed my face into her hair. “Devora, darling,” I murmured. “What am I going to do with you?”
I held her tight and rocked her through the waves of pain, some of my tension releasing when I saw the dark green veins begin to lighten.
“That was the most thoughtless, irresponsible, impulsive thing you haveeverdone,” I whispered.
Her hands curled around my arm. “I’ll take that as a ‘thank you,’” she said with a groan. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve almost healed, thanks to you.” I pulled her further into my lap, wishing I could burrow her into my very skin. “But never,everdo something like that again.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” she mumbled into me. “You promised me tomorrow. I was holding you to your word.”
My heart squeezed. I leaned back slightly to take her chin in my fingers. “Youare my tomorrow, Devora. And every day after. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you.”
“He was going to kill you,” she said, forehead creasing. “Just like in my dream. I did what I had to do.”
I sighed. “This is what I get for falling in love with the most stubborn woman in the world.”
She winced as she disentangled herself from me, and I helped her slowly rise to her feet. I glanced back to find Scarven on his knees with my sister looming over him, a fiery, winged angel of vengeance holding both of her swords at her sides.
Apprehension coursed through me. She promised not to hurt him, not while he was still bound to Devora. But the look on her face…
“Vera!” I shouted in warning, my voice carrying above the mayhem around us.
