“Shut up, both of you!” Glaring at me, he grabs my arms and shoves me aside. “Especiallyyou, fanger banger.”
A harsh hiss echoes behind us, but I ignore it and hold my ground. “You aren’t taking another step.” His eyes flash as he tries to walk around me, but I push back against his weight and hold him at bay. My muscles tense, but my blood flows freely, warming my body and making me sweat.
“What thefuck,” Graham chokes, pushing harder. “When did you get so—damn—strong?” He pants as he puts his back into it, digging his heels in and grunting from exertion.
The moment he falters, I shove hard. He topples backward and falls onto the glass figurines, shattering them beneath his weight. With a yelp of pain, he rolls onto the stairs, leaving blood and shards of broken glass behind.
“You fucking bitch!” Lunging at me, he tackles my legs and sends us sprawling onto the main platform. The deity’s unseeing emerald eyes watch over us as we wrestle on the smooth stone, his blood coating the floor as he pushes the shards of glass—no,ice—deeper into his flesh. Adrenaline keeps him moving, the growl rumbling through his chest inciting my own wolf to come out and play.
I sink my fangs into his arm, and he punches the back of my head. I tear my claws through his side, and he slams his elbow into my ribs. Shot for shot, we brawl, both of us coming up bloody. But to my amazement, both of our wounds heal—mine faster than his, even.
Callum’s blood.
I feel it coursing through me, making me stronger. Damn, that’s a fucking miracle drug. I grin from the rush of adrenaline, the bloom of heat in my chest, the sharpness of my senses.
Until Graham stumbles into the diamond figurine—a miniature version of the unknown deity, I realize, now that I’m up close—and sends it crashing to the ground. It skids across the stones, the sharp scrape of its winged tips making us both flinch. We stand in complete silence, my heart pounding as we wait for something to happen.
A curse. A spell. A trap.
Any number of things could manifest, and I’m not fucking ready for any of them. I draw a breath and taste the frigid air before ice crystals form in front of my face, the temperature rapidly declining. It stings my eyes and sears my skin, leaving me choking as I run for the edge of the platform and launch off its side.
Graham wheezes and clutches his throat, his eyes bulging as he stumbles after me. Shit. I left him behind. Reaching up, I call out to him. “Take my hand!” Unlike before, he listens, holding out his hand for me to take.
I grab him, expecting to feel the warmth of flesh and finding only frozen skin instead. I hold on as crystals form at his fingertips and crawl up his hand, then his wrist, quickly climbing until he shrieks in panic. I pull on his hand, and two of his fingers snap off in my palm. The crystals spread onto my skin until I drop his flesh and pull my hand back, hissing as it burns down to the bone.
Graham’s body fights the only way it knows how, starting a shift that he won’t be able to complete. A scream catches in his throat as he freezes mid-shift, yellow eyes wide, snout half-formed, fangs bared, one hand stuck as a mass of torn flesh and cracked bone while the other hovers in midair in front of me, completely human...with only three fingers remaining.
The two that broke off lay shattered at his feet.
His body tilts as its weight settles unevenly.
I reach for him and grab an arm, but it snaps at the shoulder, and the rest of him tumbles onto the stones, cracking through the middle as he lands. Body parts splinter off and skid down the stairs. I watch in horror as his neck snaps, sending his head tumbling to the soft grass in front of the shrine, where it promptly defrosts.
A scream rends the air.
I drop his dismembered arm and swallow bile rising to the back of my throat. Callum is hovering a few feet behind me, his voice gentle as he beckons me closer. I follow numbly while our teammate continues screaming. “Did that really happen?”
Wiping a streak of blood off my chin—mine or Graham’s, I’m not sure—Callum nods solemnly. “His heart is no longer beating.”
We watch as the crystal statue levitates back into place at the foot of its deity and what’s left of Graham’s body on the platform melts into water, quickly evaporating as though he never existed. The blood lingering on the stones seeps through the cracks, leaving no trace of our brawl behind.
I stare at the deity’s glowing marble eyes, unable to look away. “Which god is that?” And is Graham’s death the god’s doing, or is it our professor’s? My head swims as Callum leads us back to the front of the shrine, where our teammate sits in tears.
Graham’s head is the only proof that he was ever here, and even that is quickly swallowed by the earth as it sinks beneath the surface. It’s like he never existed.
“I thought the w-wards were in place,” the girl mumbles, her voice shaking. “We aren’t supposed to die!” She rubs the slash on her chest absentmindedly, but it’s already healed. All that remains is a pale scar that will disappear within a few hours.
“The gods hold power here.” Callum frowns at the shrine. “Apparently.”
“But Aesir placed those figurines.” I gesture toward what few dozen remain, the ones that weren’t smashed beneath Graham’s weight. “Why would he trespass on sacred ground?”
“Because he’s fucked in the head!” The female shifter stands abruptly. “He said he’d be impressed if we killed each other. Well, guess what?” She turns on me and bares her teeth. “You fucking did it, wild bitch! Congrats!”
I flinch. “This isn’tmyfault!”
“That statue would never have fallen over if you two hadn’t gotten into a fight about it!”
“We wouldn’t have fought about it if Graham hadn’t been an idiot!”
