“You led more hunters to us,”Lucy snarls behind me.
“No!” I squeak. God, why do the Madsens have to be here? This is hard enough already!
Lucy bristles until she looks twice her size. She leaps off the boulder—and before my eyes, her fur becomes tawny and sleek, her body expands, her tail grows longer and thicker…and then a mountain lion lands on the rocks a stride away from me, claws out, fangs bared.
“I swear I didn’t!” I shout, stumbling backward.
But I’m not her target—she bounds past us and toward the Madsens, eating up the distance in a few long strides.
Across the cove, Oaklyn throws the net, and Sophia raises her palms. The net unfurls like a golden parachute, suspended by magic, ready to drop onto the polar bear.
Wyatt spins toward Lucy and snarls, his hackles rising.
“Oaklyn, look out!” Hazel shouts, her voice ringing through the woods.
As Oaklyn and Sophia spin around, the polar bear shrinks into a snowy owl and swoops out of the net’s path, leaving it to fall onto the rocks in a shimmering heap.
The tiniest bit of relief eases through me. The chimeras won’t be caught easily, and that’s my only consolation.
Sophia’s expression twists with fury. She flings out her hand, and the ground beneath Lucy’s paws ruptures, sending chunks of rock flying upward. The mountain lion stumbles, losing momentum—but in a blink, it morphs into a vulture and takes flight.
Natalie grabs my arm. “We can’t let them catch one.”
“I know. But how are we supposed to stop Sophia and Oaklyn when onlyoneof us can do earth magic?”
As Lucy turns in the sky and the dust from the explosion clears, the Madsens spot us. Every gaze locks on Natalie and me. Wyatt snarls, his teeth gleaming in the morning light. Hazel steps back, her face ashen.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Natalie says, raising her hands. The resignation in her voice breaks my heart. Neither of us wants this.
I look at her profile—the determined set of her jaw, the strength in her posture. She’s risked everything to protect me and to love me. And now she’s about to face off with people who want her dead, all because I thought it was the right thing to come here and try to save magic.
My heart pounds harder, as if to remind me of my mortality. The air shifts, growing heavy with magic. My skin tingles with that now-familiar sensation, like standing near a lightning strike.
Oaklyn slashes her dagger, its blade catching the light. A tangle of roots launches at Natalie with the force of a wrecking ball. Wyatt tears after it, ready to sink his fangs into us.
Natalie throws up her hands, and the ground before us erupts. Rocks, sand, and chunks of earth form a barrier, blocking the root ball with a thunderous crash.
“Katie, run!” she shouts, her voice strained.
I step closer to her instead, my fists clenched. “I’m not leaving you!”
Of everything I’m unsure about, all the doubts and questions, this is the one thing I know for sure—I will never abandon her.
Through gaps in our crumbling barrier, Sophia summons the net back before spinning to face us. Her eyes are cool and calculating, like we’re an obstacle to be removed.
“Shit. Sophia—” I barely get the words out when the air crackles, and Sophia thrusts her free hand toward us. Stones tear out of the ground, firing like bullets.
“Get down!” Natalie shouts, jumping in front of me as her shield shatters. Her body absorbs most of the impact, but some stones still slam into my shoulders and legs, making me cry out as pain explodes everywhere.
Natalie grunts and staggers backward, bumping into me, and I grab her to stop her from falling.
“Hold this,” Sophia barks at Hazel, who hesitates for a heartbeat before darting forward to take the net.
The golden threads shimmer in her small hands—the same hands that held mine through every crisis of my teenage years until now. I step around Natalie, an unconscious urge to move closer to Hazel. If I could just reach her…
Natalie throws her arm across my chest to push me back, breathing hard. “Stay—here.”
My eyes prickle, but I swallow down the emotion and step back, needing to focus.
