I had a four-hour drive ahead of me, even breaking all the speed laws in existence. I only hoped I wasn’t too late.
“Yo, how’d it go?” Ez answered, his tone relaxed and very much alive.
“Scent hounds!” I shouted down the line. “Kol has scent hounds.”
“Fuck!” The curse was followed by the sound of my cousin gathering weapons in the background. “How far out are you?”
“Too far,” I growled. “But I don’t know how much of a head start they have.” I slammed my palm against the dash. Again. And again. I couldn’t lose her. I wouldnotlose her. “Protect her until I get there, Ez. Promise me.”
“Nothing will touch her. You have my word, cuz.”
Scent hounds were some of the only creatures able to track their prey through wards. Nothing kept them away except a recall order, and Kol wouldn’t give one of those. The hounds were rare, bred sparingly to control who had access to them, and their use was supposed to be tightly leashed by the tribunal. Needing a unanimous vote to release them for a hunt. I’d bet every ounce of my power that the djinn had an unsanctioned breeding pair.
By the time I arrived, my hands were cramped from clutching the steering wheel, and I was half crazy with rage and fear. Ez met me outside, sweat drenching his shirt and breathing more ragged than I’d ever seen him. My warning gave him enough time to lay more wards to keep the hounds from reaching the condo. Those, combined with the traps already laid out, were enough to delay them.
He held them off in the woods, away from any casualties or nosy neighbors, but the strain it took to fuel those wards was wearing on him. Much longer, and the hounds would have broken through and started on the ones around Eryn. Theyneeded to be put down. I nodded, and wordlessly, we traveled up the path along the cliffs and toward the trees.
The cloying weight of the hound’s magick threatened to burn the back of my nose, and I breathed through my mouth.
“How many are there?” I asked, keeping my head on a swivel as we reached the shadows of the deep woods.
“Two that my wards could sense,” Ezra replied and pointed.
Off to the right, staring at us from the other side of an invisible line, were the two scent hounds. Their dark fur was matted and wild, accenting their bulk. More than double the size of a normal wolf, their innate psychic magick was so strong it had a physical manifestation around them, appearing similar to my shadows.
Eyes an unnatural red, and fangs I had to double take to believe, I gripped my dagger and cast a sideways glance at my cousin. He was on the last of his reserves. If we were going to make a move, we had to do it now before he was drained.
“Drop the wards,” I ordered.
He knew what came next. We didn’t have to strategize, didn’t have to speak. Falling into a routine as old as we were, Ez dropped the wards and coated the ground with a layer of ice. Just as I suspected, the hounds reacted like a stretched rubber band the second they were free. They lunged forward, claws slipping and grasping for any purchase they could get.
A low band of shadows knocked them off their paws, tail over head, and one landed in front of me, by the grace of the gods. I swung down with my dagger before it could recover, the steel sinking into its eye with little resistance. The hound gave a dying cry, twitched, and lay still.
“Kai!” Ezra called for help.
He stood trapped, unable to lift his arms or cast his magick. Held under the power of the hound, he was a sitting duck. I threw out my shadows, blocking the connection and providingcover until I could reach him. The hound growled. It knew we were still there, but it couldn’t get a lock on us.
“You made eye contact with it, didn’t you?” I asked him and clasped his shoulder so he knew where I was.
“Shut up,” he grumbled. “You try avoiding two glowing red eyes in the dark. They literally ask to be looked at.”
The hound's physic powers only worked if they caught your eye. They ensnared you, making escape impossible, and your death very slow and painful. A beat of silence was the only signal I needed to know Ez was ready. One breath, and I dropped the shadows. My cousin flung a disk of ice with freakish accuracy, slicing through the thick neck of the final hound. The massive head fell one way while the body went the other, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Until the entire left side of my body felt like it was dipped in acid. My shout of pain echoed over the bodies of the hounds and my cousin’s distraught face. We were wrong. There weren’t two hounds, but three, and the last one had snuck up behind us. Its claws shredded half my body easier than a knife through tissue paper, and I felt my life’s blood gush from the wounds at a speed I knew I couldn’t survive.
Ezra leaped over my falling body with a battle cry, revenge burning hot in his eyes. I tried to hold on to consciousness, but it was asking too much of my body. The lack of sleep and loss of blood was a deadly combination, one that finally caught up with me. My last thoughts were of Eryn and a desperate plea for her to survive despite my utter failure in protecting her like I promised.
twenty-three
Eryn
I clutched at my chest, feeling it burn from the inside out. All along one side, from shoulder to hip, I was on fire. Absolute agony raced down my nerves, worse than being stabbed. Worse than the poison that tried to take my life with its deadly burn. I looked down, but there was no visible damage. It wasn’tmywound.
Was this how it felt for Kaiden when I was hurt? He was usually so good at blocking his side of the bond. The fact that I felt his pain, thismuchpain, meant something was horribly wrong. I climbed out of bed with a spinning head and shaking legs. The surges of power I still felt out there rattled me. I was surprised the earth didn’t shake from the force of it.
I checked on my net and followed the twinges to the cliffside deep in the forest. I was familiar with the icy feel of Ezra’s power, and I’d recognize Kaiden’s anywhere, even as depleted as it was. They surrounded a dwindling pocket of darkness that lashedout at them with desperate strikes. It faded as the witches pulled their power back within themselves.
Pacing the living room, I mentally tracked them on their journey back and kept an eye out for any surprises within my range. Kaiden’s life force flickered like a sputtering candle. I reached out, hoping to protect it, strengthen it somehow, but it was no use. I sensed the second he lost consciousness, and the terror that gripped me was surprising.
