It wasn’t often that I heard such steel and fire in Ven’s voice, but she spoke with total authority. The way she was standing, elevated above us, the high wind and the canopies buffeting her clothing and hair, almost made her seem like a beautiful Valkyrie. A war goddess. As much as I didn’t want her here, I was in total awe.
“You think your ragtag group of zoo animals can defeat me?” Katarina spat.
“No,” Ven answered, her voice icily calm. “Iknowwe can.”
With that, my love raised her arms high above her head, her palms flat, and the throne behind Katarina came alive, parts of it extending to grab at the witch like it was trying to tear her limb from limb.
Not missing a beat, Ven vaulted over the balcony railing. I shouted in shock once more, wondering what the hell she could be thinking, when a branch broke through the floor, rapidly rising up and extending giant leaves that caught my love and gently deposited her on her feet.
Since when could she dothat?
“Leo!” She ran to me. The golems moved to attack, but she flicked her hand, and the moss between their rocks rapidly expanded until they fell to the floor as a random collection of stone. I dropped down to the floor, too, and that was honestlythe only thing that stopped my chin from dropping down to my chest. I had seen the incredibly impressive and powerful things Ven could do when we were fighting Frederick, but this was on an entirely different level. Did she come into her own because she now knew what she was? Was it because she’d found out Frederick had been responsible for the death of her mother? Or was it...
Was it because of me?
“Ven, what are you doing here?” I gasped as she caught me in her arms, clinging to me tightly. “I was doing this for you!”
“We don’t need you to sacrifice yourself. Look around you! You may have lost faith, but I know we are strong enough to take her on. So, get on your feet andfightfor your family! We can’t do this without you.”
She spoke with such authority. Normally, my alpha side would bristle against something like that, but I was completely touched. Honored. More shifters were pouring in—far more than had been in our ragtag, merry band. All week, everyone had been reaching out to allies, but I thought I had left early enough that they had no chance of assembling. Clearly, I was wrong, because there were nearly a hundred shifters in the room, and they were all dialed in to fight the witch and whatever she conjured up.
“Look, Leo. We’re all united because of you. So, lead us to victory, do you hear me? Because I’m not living the rest of my life without you.”
Well, it looked like a change of plans was in order.
45
VANESSA
It was a knockout, drag-out, ultimate fight between shifters, the world’s most powerful witch, and little ol’ me. We didn’t have the best chance, but when Leo pulled out of my arms and stood to his full height, shoulders squared, I truly believed we would win.
Because we had something Katarina would never have.
Unity.
“You heard her, Katarina. This is your last chance. Stand down or die,” Leo said in that booming voice of his that never failed to give me goosebumps. Did I have an authority kink? Potentially. Something to explore later. Because we were most definitely going to have a later. I was certain of that.
“You think your ragtag pack of mongrels can bring me down? The gods chose me and blessed me with their power. You are nothing to me. You may as well be ants!”
“I guess that answers that question.”
Leo shifted, launching himself forward in a blur of steam, and fur, and teeth. He didn’t make it all the way to the witch. None of us expected him to. If there was one thing I had learned about fighting magical people it was that you had to wear themout enough until they were distracted, then take advantage of that distraction as quickly as possible. It was a game of attrition, with one side having unchecked power and the other side having impressive healing capabilities. It really was the epitome of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.
Except for me.
I was the spanner in the works, and I fully intended to use my skills to the maximum of my ability.
Starting with trying to bind the witch with vines.
I called forth the longest, thorniest vines wrapped around the outer branches of the tree and sent them all toward the witch’s back. They were thick, green, luscious things, full of a malevolent energy that went far beyond the plants I’d interacted with before. I figured it was a side effect of the strange pocket area we’d followed Leo into, but I still braced myself to make sure they didn’t contaminate me.
As lively and virulent as those vines were, they withered and crumbled as soon as they got within a foot of Katarina.
Her gaze flicked to me. Shit, I didn’t have the same element of surprise I had with her sons. None of them had known I was a dryad. Frederick had been the only one who’d come even close to realizing it. But Katarina knew. She’d told me what I was.
“Let’s get you out of the way, shall we?” she hissed, raising both of her hands.
I ran for it. I wanted to fight, but I would have to evade whenever I could. As she went to throw a spell at me, three different wolves charged her, all leaping for her limbs. She released the blast before she could get her aim, and I managed to dive safely behind a marble statue of… Actually, I had no idea what it was. It was one of those abstract art pieces people with too much money put in their too-large sitting rooms to show off to guests who also had too much money.
