He hit the creature like a storm breaking against the rocks, sending it sprawling. His jaws found its neck, snappingbone with a sickening crunch. The hybrid went limp. Dominic lifted his head, muzzle streaked with red, and his gaze found her.
Their eyes locked.
In that heartbeat, everything else fell away.
His chest heaved, the steam of his breath rising between them, his gaze full of fury, of fear. The bond between them sang, a hot, electric current that seared down her spine.
“I can help,” she whispered, though she knew he couldn’t hear her.
She didn’t need to speak it. The words echoed somewhere deep inside the link between them, faint but true.
Dominic’s snarl was immediate, warning, command, plea. His massive form turned, forcing her behind him, his hackles rising as another wave of hybrids came hurtling from the tunnel mouth.
Layla’s hands shook. She could barely feel her fingers. But the sight of the dark cavern, the jagged mouth of the mine, the storm above, all connected in her mind like lightning.
The vision. The white light. The collapse.
Her pulse quickened. Sheknewwhat this was. She knew what she had to do.
“Please,” she murmured, voice cracking, “just trust me.”
Dominic lunged forward, meeting the next creature head-on, but she was already moving.
She dropped to her knees in the snow, her satchel spilling open beside her. Pages whipped in the wind, old parchment, inked runes, fragments of notes scrawled in the cramped handwriting of a desperate woman. She clawed through themuntil her fingers found the tablet, the one scarred with salt burns and soot.
The spell she’d used before. The one that had gone so horribly wrong and trashed her shelves.
Expel the power. Let it flow outward. Let it break what it will.
Her breath came fast and shallow. Her vision blurred. This was dangerous. So dangerous.
She didn’t care. There wasn’t time.
Layla pressed her palms into the snow. The cold bit deep, numbing her fingers. She closed her eyes and began to whisper. The words felt heavy, as though they were being dragged through her veins. Magic stirred beneath her skin, coiling, restless. The air around her thickened, humming with static. The runes on the tablet began to glow, faintly at first, then brighter, a pale gold that mirrored the shimmer under her skin.
Her power answered. Itwantedout.
Her teeth clenched. Her heart raced. She forced herself to think of the mountain, of the way it had loomed over her in her dreams, of the way the light had flared along its spine before it broke apart. She pictured it crumbling, collapsing, sealing the hybrids inside forever.
Energy surged up her arms like fire. Her body trembled violently, her vision swimming white. She screamed, half from effort, half from fear.
The ground beneath her feet cracked. The snow around her rippled like water.
It was working.
Dominic had turned, eyes wild, as the magic burst out of her. The air shimmered around her form, golden and bright against the storm, her hair whipping about her face. He took one step toward her, then another, slower, cautious, unsure whether to stop her or shield her.
Layla pushed harder.
The magic roared through her, tearing down every barrier she’d built, flooding into the earth. She couldfeelit leaving her, pouring through her veins, ripping out through her hands and into the mountain. Her bones vibrated with it. Her lungs seized. Her vision dimmed.
“Come on,” she gasped, “come on—”
A deep rumble answered her.
The ridge above the mine shuddered. Fragments of snow and ice tumbled down, small at first, then larger, the sound building like thunder in her chest. The hybrids faltered, their heads snapping upward. The wolves backed away, eyes wide.
Layla forced the last of her strength into the spell, one final push, but the pain hit like a blade. Her magic rebelled, the energy snapping back inside her with brutal force.
