Isaac nodded, the old need to protect rising sharp in his chest.“Always.”
And then, through the curtain of fire, a figure stepped into view.A man waving his arms as if he were conducting the blaze, and the fire obeyed.Isaac’s heart stuttered, a chill running down his spine as their gazes locked.Hatred and a wild, unsettling madness burned in the man’s eyes, and Isaac shivered under the weight of it.“Isaac!”Nolan shouted, snapping him back.Then, with the same fierce edge he used on every call, Nolan roared their creed—words he’d said since academy days.“No one dies on our watch!”
The phrase cut through Isaac’s fear like steel, anchoring him.The two brothers surged forward, running toward the building.Heat and smoke clawed at them, glass bursting outward as the fire raged, but they didn’t hesitate.Side by side they plunged into the flames, their world narrowing to screams, smoke, and the oath they carried between them.
Chapter Two
1813
The battlefield stank of blood and ash, and the glow of spellfire lit the night like a thousand torches.Saffron walked at the center of her mates, Ryan and Alaric, their hands brushing hers, though their fists were clenched in fury.Ahead, the Council gathered in a half-circle, Matthew at their front, his dark eyes alight with triumph.He knew what he was about to do, and so did she.
Ryan’s voice was low, seething.“You expect me to stand here and let him bind us all?He killed Liam and Jacob.Now Libby lies cold.And we’re meant to watch him take everything else, too?”
Alaric’s jaw was tight, his body trembling with the wolf he could not unleash.“Say the word, Saffron, and we tear him apart.”
Her heart ached at their fury.At their grief.She wanted nothing more than to hurl herself at Matthew, to sink her blade into his black heart.But she had seen this moment in her visions.The only way forward was not through rage, but sacrifice.
“Listen to me,” she whispered, desperate for them to hear her above the chanting that had already begun.“We knew this was coming.His curse will rip through the shifters, it will kill those who already run with their animals.But if I weave myself into it, if I lace his spell with mine, the line will not end.The latents will live.The blood will carry on until this curse is broken in another time.”
Ryan turned to her, eyes molten with anguish.“At what cost?”
Her throat burned.“At ours.But, if you can live with that, ending all shifters and knowing that there will never be another one of your kind to walk this earth for all eternity, then speak now, and I will be the first one to stick my knife into that bastard’s heart.”
Saffie sobbed once when she saw the answer in their eyes.They blazed with the pain and anguish of knowing what was to come.None of them could live if that was the price.
The words shattered them.Ryan’s hands shook as he reached for her, and Alaric swore, the sound torn from deep in his chest.But still they held her between them, their foreheads pressed to hers, three breaths mingling as if this moment might bind them forever.
“Promise me,” Alaric rasped, “that this pain will mean something.That the future you speak of is real.”
Saffron closed her eyes, forcing herself not to weep.“It is.Libby and Liam and Jacob will find each other again.When they do, the curse will unravel, and shifters will rise.But only if I do this.”
Matthew raised his arms, power spilling from his fingers like smoke.The Council’s voices grew louder, the spell swelling toward its peak, their chant rolling like thunder.
“Blood to ash, and ash to stone,
Wolves shall fall and stand alone.
