Finally, the other high mages and I came ashore, bringing with us the lower level mages from Mageville, who’d been trained, and even many who hadn’t. That had been the biggest surprise to me, although in retrospect it probably shouldn’t have. The lower level mages had been oppressed for generations by the high mages. This was their chance to change the paradigm of power.
Over the course of mere minutes, our force slipped out of the numerous boats, canoes, floating pallets, and all of the other things we’d gathered to get our thousand-plus people across the water. The selkies even swam with shifters or mages on their backs. It was truly a joint effort to get to this moment. The mages and I slinked into the woods behind the shifters. The massive number of us filled the beach, so many that when I closed my eyes, it sounded like the trees were breathing.
No longer enemies, as shifters and mages combined to make one massive force,togetherwe’d take back our land. I hoped our victory would bring unity to our people, peace that would be remembered for generations.
The first shrill scream from the hawk king echoed into the night and then another.
This was it.
‘I love you,’Rage spoke into my mind.
‘I love you too. Don’t get killed,’I reminded him. ‘Hamster king.’
‘You neither,’he said.
We moved. All of us, as one, pushed through the trees with battle cries, howls and roars on our lips. We poured forth like a deadly wave of vengeance.
When I’d first been summoned to leave my life in Montana and come to Alpha Island, I’d hated the idea. I hadn’t wanted to be here, a place that symbolized the banishment of my pack and my family. This place had protected my enemies, and every day in school had been a reminder of the hierarchy of power—and the cruelty of petty jealousy. But now…
This wasShifterIsland, a haven for all shifters who wanted to partake of the Island’s magic. And High Mage Island would become the same. I couldn’t imagine wanting to call any other place home.
Tonight, we’d not only fight forourfuture but also for the future of our families.
No one would take this island from us. Not while I was still breathing.
Magic flared under my skin as we broke into the open courtyard between Alpha Castle and Alpha Academy. Well over fifty blood mages were running in circles, covering their faces with their arms as the hawks attacked. The faint scent of the acrid powder Jakko had made still hung in the air. He’d given each person with magic a blossom that would render the powder harmless to us.
Good ol’ Jakko.
I spotted the hawk king by his beautiful rust and black coloring. A blood mage’s eyeball hung from his beak.
Go team.
My anxiety evaporated, and I grinned as magic flared within me.
“Fire!” I shouted the command, and a millisecond later, Rage, Justice, Mallory, and Xavier, the brown-haired high mage of fire, thrust their hands out toward the chaotic crowd of blood mages, and twenty-foot blowtorches erupted from their palms. The screams of the blood mages intensified as the four fire users made a square around the mages, blocking them in by the very flames that would kill them.
Putting my fingers between my lips, I whistled loudly—a call to my team. Time to get over to High Mage Island before they had too much time to prepare.
Half of each pack, as well as half of the mages, broke away from the group and raced for the library as we moved into our respective teams. As much as Rage and I didn’t want to separate, each team needed a strong leader, and we were the only two leaders of different races who could still communicate telepathically with each other. So the A-team would stay with Rage and battle on Shifter Island, and Team B—for badass—would follow me to fight on High Mage Island. We’d agreed to leave the portal door open so when Rage and his team had eradicated the threat here, he could meet us on the high mage side.
As I burst from the hall into the library, a blood mage leapt out from behind the desk where Mrs. Edi used to sit. The bloodsucker wore his black hair slicked back, and tattoos danced across his face. His eyes dilated as more people poured into the room behind me. He lunged forward, extending his arms as if to grab my neck.
Not today, Vamp.
I slid to his right and grabbed the shoulder of his black robe, bringing my knee up and ramming it into his crotch. He grunted, doubling over. Then, I pulled the blade from my thigh holster and dragged it across his neck.
Blood sprayed into the air, and he fell to his knees.
We’d learned one critical thing from the selkie king regarding our foe. A blood mage could be killed only by draining them of blood, starving them until their life force ran out—which could be years, decades, or maybe centuries—or beheading them. Since I didn’t have a spare hundred years on my hands, I was going with one of the other two options.
“I’ve got him!” Reyna called from behind me.
Holding his throat with wide, panicked eyes as the crimson life pulsed out of him, he watched as Reyna swung her samurai sword in an arc, the blade singing, and with a wet thwack, separated his head from his neck. It bounced off the floor, his body slumped forward, and his blood spilled out in a bright red puddle beneath him.
Gross.
“Open the portal,” Reyna urged me. “We’re waiting on one of you high mages.”
