I can’t see Ty—but I can hear him.
I can hear him barking out orders. I hear him letting out howls that distract the enemy and direct his own fighters. My people. My pack. They move like the wind. They work in pairs, tearing out throats and bellies, then rolling on to the next.
The vampires are all deadly precision, taking their smoke shifting to even more lethal extremes. Ariel is in the middle of things, moving so fast that it looks like he’s not moving at all.
Yet wherever he casts his gaze, enemies fall.
As long as I can hear Ty’s unmistakable voice, I feel safe.
Orsafer, anyway.
With Ty near, the Kind fighting, and those awfulthingsno longer torturing me, I can think again. The rain keeps coming down, and I turn my attention to the way they’ve bound us.
“Can’t you get out of your ties?” I ask Savi.
“They appear to have enchanted my bindings,” she says coldly. So coldly that I figure she’s been working on them awhile. “Spells do not seem to work.”
I wiggle my hands until I find Winter’s. Then I concentrate and practice my half-shifting again. This time I push the shifting energy into my hands, easing them into claws—and it makes me sweat, it hurts so much—so that I can tear through the ropes they used on her.
It’s another searing agony, but I manage it.
Then I slam myself back into my full human form and am glad that Winter takes a moment to untie her own legs. I need that moment. The silver might not be poisoning me, but it burns all the same. It feels like I swallowed fire.
Winter moves behind me, and when I glance that way I see her working on Savi’s enchanted bindings. I’m still sweating, ready to half-shift again and use my claws if Winter can’t get them off—but I hear both of them let out a breath and I take one too, because they’re both untied now.
I check all around us once again. All of the acolytes and priests are busy fighting, save for a small clump of them off toward the back side of the crater. Vinca is still above us, contorting wildly, though I don’t think she can be the one casting the spell to keep her there.
I nod, and it takes Savi only a quick spell to remove my manacles. I feel the silver fall away like a rush of light all over my body. I feel it inside and out.
The three of us turn toward each other, carefully. We examine each other.
I brush a few worms and something gross-looking I don’t want to identify off Winter’s arm. Savi picks something out of my hair that makes her grimace.
We don’t talk about it.
I hope we never will.
“The three of us must put distance between our bodies,” Savi tells us. “The more distance, the better. The wards I placed on us must have fallen in the cottage, and I suspect what remains is an inability tofindus while we’re together. Not ideal in a battle.”
Winter understands immediately. “Put me in a tunnel. The moment you do, Ariel will find me. My mark will lead him right to me.”
Savi looks at me, and I nod.
“Right,” Savi says. She looks up toward Vinca, then away, and I see a wash of gold move over her skin. “Now, Maddox.”
I jump off the rock.
I shift in midair, hit the ground hard, and run.
I run like every wolf in the world is at my heels and it’s time to prove I’m the queen I should be. I run like I think I can outrun Ty, the swiftest wolf of all.
I run—and I head away from the main part of the battle toward the back of the crater. I’m sure I saw a set of priests in that direction, and every instinct I have is telling me that they’re the ones keeping Vinca high up in the air, twisting and turning and coming much too close to taking form.
A death goddess walking in a body again is the end of everything.
I don’t need anyone who knew Vinca back when to confirm that to me. I feel it like I feel my own blood in my veins, pumping hard and letting me fly across the crater floor like I’m my own damn Harley.
As I run, I see a burst of gold in the sky. In my head, I confirm that Savi has removed Winter, and herself, from that altar. It also looks like she’s taken out most of that dome up above Vinca.
