Eli strained to listen to them—as much as he could with his body feeling like it was about to turn into a lump of charred ash. In the back of his mind, heknewhe had to pay attention. That whatever they were saying was important. To him. To Farren. To Mara and Caitlin. But the agony twisting every part of him made it hard to string their words into sentences that made sense.
“Must I doeverything?” Glenna muttered and raised her hands. Power glowed between her palms, blue this time, and she started to chant.
No. I can’t take any more…
His whole body shook, the sands under his feet shifting until he thought he’d surely topple over any second.
This is it. This is my end.
A rhythmic thudding sound came from behind him, followed by a loud snarl, and then Farren leapt over him in her wolf form. Fangs glistened as she curled her lips back and howled, taking Monroe down to the ground with momentum alone. Glenna turned her power against Farren, sending the blue tendrils of power snaking around the wolf’s body.
Farren whimpered in pain, and the magic coiled and collected just below her throat. Eli blinked hard. With Monroe moaning from a meter away, his magic was fading, and Eli thought he’d be able to move in another few seconds.
The spot where the magic gathered glowed brighter until it was almost blinding. Farren growled a warning and reared up on two legs.
Blue flames arced towards Glenna and Monroe, and the man prone on the ground screamed. Glenna countered the magic with more of her own. Sparks danced along the sand, and Eli had a passing thought that they might be beautiful if the utter agony weren’t so fresh in his mind.
His legs gave out, and he fell to his hands and knees. Farren was advancing on Glenna now, and the woman spared her partner a quick glance, then screamed, “You will die, wolf. That bauble can’t protect you forever.”
No.He couldn’t let Farren die for him. Not when he’d been the one to put her in danger in the first place. Eli dug his fingers into the sand, taking the strength he needed, and the rocks next to him started to crack and crumble. The land shook, so violently, he worried it would bring down the buildings just a few meters away, but then Glenna cried out in pain, and Farren snarled.
He couldn’t believe what was right in front of him. The sand had split, opening up a crevasse between Farren and Glenna, and swallowing Monroe’s body.
“You will pay for that! Both of you!” Glenna cried and directed her magic directly at the gaping maw. Sand burst into the air like someone had set off a bomb, and Farren leapt in front of Eli, shielding him with her massive body.
It was over in under a minute. The shaking stopped. Glenna was gone, and Farren was pressed against him. Her wolf took a shuddering breath, and Eli wrapped his arms around her torso. Blood coated his palm. “Fuck. You’re hurt.”
She shook her head, and her yip was definitely a denial. The next sound, though, that was possessive and very much the bark of an alpha wolf. She pushed at him with her front paws until he released her, then grabbed his wrist in her mouth and tugged him towards the stairs. She wasn’t hurting him, not biting down hard enough to break the skin, but she was definitelynotinterested in him going anywhere other than where she had in mind.
“I’ll follow, I promise,” he said. His voice was hoarse, and all he wanted was to sleep for a bloody month. Well, that and to get as far from Doolin as he could.
Releasing him, she padded faster, and he struggled to keep up until she stopped at his car. “I…don’t think I can drive.”
She made an exasperated sound and nodded at the door. Confused, he opened it, and she hopped into the back seat, lay down, and closed her eyes. The shift started with her spine, and fuck. He’d never get used to the sound of bones cracking. Or watching her fur recede and her skin turn from dark gray to the smoothest alabaster.
In under a minute, she was naked, curled on the leather, and shuddering. “Get…in the…passenger side,” she managed as she sat up. “I’ll drive.”
She’d drive. He didn’t have to think. Or do anything but sit there and maybe rock back and forth to calm his overloaded senses.
Except when he shut the door, she was still very, very naked. The only thing she wore? The tree of life pendant the old woman had given him. In her human form, the long chain let it dangle practically down to her breasts.
Bloody hell. That’s how she’d done it. Taken Glenna’s power and turned it against the witch. The pendant. When Farren gunned the engine, he realized just how close he’d come to dying—or worse—and passed out.
Chapter Nine
Farren
Great. Eli was unconscious, his black hair plastered to his forehead, and his eyes sunken. Another five minutes and she would have been too late. The practitioners should have been able to take down the both of them easily, but before she’d shifted and left her house, Caitlin had insisted she put on the tree of life pendant.
“Why?” Farren asked. “It’s a bauble. Nothing more. If it had power, it would have been able to help us with that damned book.”
“Trust me. I have a feelin’ about this. I’ll explain more later.” Caitlin eyeballed the chain. “Shift first. In case it doesn’t fit.”
Once Farren sat in front of Caitlin as her wolf, the air elemental knelt next to her and clasped the chain around her neck. “Now go find him. If he really is earth, we need to make sure the Thirteen never get to him.”
Well, it was feckin’ obvious he was an elemental. When she’d pressed herself against him on the beach, the earthquake had almost knocked both of them off their feet. And that’s when she’d felt it. Sensed it.Knownit.
Whether or not he’d known about his powers…that was still to be determined. If she found out he’d lied to her, there’d be hell to pay. But Eli wasn’t just some random elemental. He’d been sent to Farren for a reason, and she’d figured out exactly what it was.
