But that golden light shooting all around has alerted the acolytes that all is not well on the sacrificial rock. Some of them start to turn back, and the fight begins to change shape.
I keep running. I can see a gnarled trio of priests in front of me, chanting as they march around what looks like a rune burned into the earth.
I don’t have to know what it means to know it’s not good.
I pick up speed, and when I get closer, I launch.
I leap straight into the air, claws and teeth ready. I take down the first priest, ripping out his throat, and then I throw myself at the next.He tries to fight me but I tear him apart, using his body to climb until I can get to his throat, too.
The last one breaks and starts to run, but I catch him in two quick strides and make short work of him as well.
I realize as I wheel around that whatever wormy bullshit Vinca cursed me with is gone. They settled down when the paste washed away, but I knew they were still there. My full shift cleared them off me. I hope Savi and Winter can do something similar, stuck in their bodies the way they are.
I run back and forth across the rune, tearing it apart and flinging the pieces in different directions. I dig my claws into it. I wreck it, because Savi’s rain is still pouring down, and the last thing I want is some evil rune lurking beneath the water when the crater fills again.
Seems like what’s happening now is an object lesson in letting evil things lie where they shouldn’t.
Only when I’ve destroyed it do I start running back toward that figure I can still see up above the rock in the distance.
The moon is moving over the crater, and she’s calling for me. She’s reminding me what day this is, and that only makes me angrier. I shouldn’t be here. I should be on the hilltop above the den, listening to the drums, getting ready to run with Ty.
I run harder over the crater floor. I make myself run faster. On the screen in my head I can see myself, a blur of speed on the far side of the main fight, zipping across the crater like a comet.
When I get to the rock, I jump. I bound up, rebound off the rock, and yank Vinca right out of the sky.
In the distance I hear a wolf howl of loss and I freeze.
I can’t move again until I hear Ty’s voice joining in the chorus.
There are too many Kind down. Wolves and vampires are lost. This crater is awash in blood.
But the scene Winter shows me makes it clear that our losses are nothing compared to theirs, and that’s what I hold on to. The moonis fully above the crater now and I understand, somewhere deep in my bones, that this is Vinca’s moment. This is why she’s here.
Sure enough, even though I knocked her to the ground—because she’s so fond of sucker-punch tackles—she is laboriously climbing to her feet in the janky, messed-up body that she stole.
“You are a pestilence,” she screeches at me. “You are nothing but a vile little dog—”
I shift as I throw myself toward her for the pure joy of rearing back with one arm, then punching her in the face.
“I don’t want to talk to you,” I tell her as she sprawls out on the ground at my feet. “I want to talk to the girl whose body you took.”
The goddess is flat on the crater floor. She looks up at me, touching her face as if she’s never felt pain before. She looks ...
Horrified. Shaken.
I kick her again, so she can truly experience it. So she can marinate in mortality and the delights of a mortal form.
“Where’s Briar?” I demand.
The goddess shoves Briar’s dark hair back from her face. I see that flicker of static, and I can tell when it’s Briar looking back at me. Her eyes are wide and solemn. The way she holds her face is completely different.
She gazes up at me, looking something like woozy.
“Why are you doing this?” I grit out at her. “And why are you doing itto us? We were friends with you.”
“Were you?” Briar touches her spilt lip and winces. “That’s not how I remember it, Maddox. You thought I was a freak.”
“Look where you are,” I shoot back. “Youarea fucking freak. So what?”
