Haru opened his mouth to protest, but I raised a hand to stop him. “What about my, uh, dad? Can he help?”
Haru and Reo shared an uncomfortable look. Reo cleared his throat. “We’ve been trying to reach him, but he’s not answering.”
Great. My dad rose from the dead only to disappear again. Did the recent Akuma attack have anything to do with him not answering? My heart thumped. Shit. Was he okay?
“We’ll keep trying,” Haru said, “but in the meantime, this is our best bet.”
I nodded, shared a tight smile with Brock, and got right to it. Better to rip the Band-Aid off all at once. This gate could be wide open and leaking demons for all I knew. I needed to shift and get over there, stat, to check things out.
One more tail, coming right up.
I pressed my eyes shut, pictured myself as a rusty-colored fox, and let the fun begin. I grunted and groaned as my bones cracked and my flesh stretched in impossible ways. If the pain had decreased, I wasn’t noticing it. Panting and heaving, I tried to curl into myself, but already my body was beyond my control.
When I popped the fifth tail, I grit my teeth and growled ferociously. Then the pain began to subside until, finally, I was entirely a kitsune. I shook my furry head to clear the remnants of pain and bared my teeth.
Time to hunt some sirens.
21Die Bitch. Just Die Already.
‘Smell that?’I asked Brock as we ran in animal form toward the gate. The unmistakable brine scent of salt water permeated the crisp forest air.
‘Either the sirens are already on the property, or that tsunami is hitting sooner than predicted.’He confirmed my thoughts.
My money was on those bitches being on our land. Why couldn’t the sirens be like the mermaids of my childhood dreams? All smiles, pearls, and granting wishes?
“We’ve got your back!” Tianna called out, and I glanced over my shoulder. The fae-witch was running full tilt behind us while Cass rushed beside her on his hoverboard. Haru and Reo were next to them, with a dozen wolves fanned out around them.
We had the craziest little crew, but something about it felt so normal, comfortable, like we’d been family from the start.
‘Tianna says to put up a shield in case the sirens are lying in wait,’my bestie sent through our telepathic bond.
Good idea.
Pulling on my witch magic, I created a bubble of protection around my fox form, just like Tianna had taught me. It had become easier to identify my separate kitsune magic and witch magic within myself, but at the same time, they felt as if they were beginning to coalesce into one more powerful, unified force.
Brock, who’d been running next to me, suddenly stopped, peering down at my paws. His yellow wolf eyes were wide, muzzle open in shock.
Shit. What now?
‘Walk a little,’he told me.
The others stopped and joined Brock’s wolf in staring at me. What? Had I manifested some freaky gift that I couldn’t see, like a unicorn horn? Obliging Brock, I padded forward a few steps.
Tianna gasped. “That’s so cool! Your paws don’t leave prints. You could walk in the snow and be completely untraceable!”
What the actual fuck did she just say?
Looking down, I walked a few more steps. The blades of grass didn’t even bend as my paws passed over them.
“Kitsune gift number five,” Haru commented, awe in his voice.
The power of shifting, purple healing magic, super scent, sensing demons coming out of the gate, and now this. I was starting to lose track. I guess having too many kitsune powers to remember them all was a good problem to have.
‘I like this gift,’Brock told me. ‘It will keep you safe if you need to run and hide.’
I was processing what he’d said, and the many possibilities my new gift opened up, when I heard a whooshing sound like water coming from the direction of the gate. Spinning around, I took off in a sprint, Brock and the rest of our crew right on my heels.
We were still on the part of Brock’s property where the trees were sparse and the land between them clear and open. But we were about to enter the denser portion of the forest, where the trees grew close together, concealing the gate behind them. It was difficult to see beyond the trees, my vision obscured by thick tree trunks and low-growing ferns. Yet for a second, I thought I glimpsed her.
