I attempted to use my powers to take control of the creatures’ minds. They were monsters, after all, so I should’ve been able to control them.
I couldn’t. My magic backfired on me as I invaded the minds of thekarkans.I was immediately pushed out.
Droga already had a hold on them. Which meant any attempt I could make to take over their minds was useless.
“Run, Emma!” Bapa moved in front of me to protect me from thekarkans, summoning Unseelie magic to his hands. He used his power to latch on to thekarkannearest him, ripping it apart with his power.
I couldn’t. I was frozen. I hunched over and put my hands over my ears, rocking back and forth.
This couldn’t be happening… not again.
Ethan snarled, lashing out with his teeth and claws. Thekarkanskept their distance, but shook their antlered heads angrily. I knew if they managed to touch me, they’d take me back to Droga. And what could I possibly do to stop them?
I attempted to summon a battle orb, but it fizzled out. Nothing. I could donothing. Even before I’d become a student at Arcanea University, I was stronger than this. Ethan felt my magic struggling and pressed closer to me, daring thekarkansto take a step closer.
“Please work,” I pleaded with my magic, but it didn’t. Despite trying desperately to cast a spell, my magic just wouldn’t come.
I thought for sure they’d set in on us, before the forms of my grandparents planted themselves between the monsters and I. Babcia had joined Bapa, and were keeping a number ofkarkansaway from us with their magic. Their Unseelie power was unbound, picking the demonic deer apart bit by bit every time their magic touched them, leaving black blood spilled all over the area and across tree trunks. I would’ve been impressed if I wasn’t so terrified.
Arthur had transformed, and was battling thekarkanswith all his might. One of the demons latched their sharp teeth into his shoulder. He gave a painful howl just as a secondkarkanjawed his pelt.
Kicking and screaming, Arthur was dragged around the other side of the carriage by twokarkans. I couldn’t see what was happening, but I heard the whining whimpers of a wolf as thekarkanstore into him.
“Ethan, help my brother,” I begged. I dug my hands into his pelt and pulled at his fur. They were killing him, I just knew it.
“My duty is to protect you,” Ethan insisted, but his tone wavered. He danced on his paws, as if he wasn’t sure if he was making the right move.
“Arthur,” Vara breathed. She winced as she shakily stood, and ambled around the carriage to help her mate, one arm wrapped protectively around the children inside her.
“Vara, don’t,” I whimpered, but she still went anyway. She summoned a spell into her hand and shot it out before her as she disappeared behind the other side of the carriage.
There were a few flashes of light, and the noises of spells exploding. Then there was a horrible screaming sound, accompanied by the tearing of flesh. My heart hollowed out as Vara’s cries filled the air.
Thekarkansthreatening us had their heads lopped off by Bapa’s spell. With the threat ebbing, I found the courage to stagger against the carriage, using it to hold me upright as I dragged my feet around to the other side.
My eyes refused to process the scene. I couldn’t comprehend it. My entire mind, body… everything went numb.
Around me, I was aware of Babcia’s magic latching onto the last two karkans. Their forms collapsed against the ground as her Unseelie magic ended their lives. The moonlight came back, banishing the clouds and the night, but it seemed a cruel setting for what was coming next.
Ethan let out a low groan. A choking noise, like the sound of someone drowning, overtook my senses as my eyes fixated on the mangled body on the ground.
Vara was swimming in her own blood. She gasped for air as gore trickled out of her mouth. Chunks of flesh had been ripped out of her, and there were puncture wounds where their hooves had shredded her. All around us were the body parts of the demons. My grandparents had destroyed thekarkans, but Vara was badly wounded…gravelywounded. Her blood poured from her chest, streaming out onto the ground like a fountain.
They’d injured Arthur, too, but not as badly as his mate. He crawled to her and pulled her onto his lap, lip trembling.
“You made it,” he gasped out. “You will survive.”
Somehow, my intuition acknowledged what Arthur refused to accept. Vara had been completely mutilated by those demons. Babcia and Bapa had barely stopped them before they’d torn her limbs off her body, but even then… they were too late to save her. It was only a matter of time, now.
Arthur refused to give up hope. He lifted Vara onto Ethan’s back and said, “Help her.”
She was too weak to cry out in pain. I forced myself onto Ethan’s back behind her, and whispered, “Hurry.”
The next few moments were such a blur. It was as if I wasn’t living this moment in time, but rather, revisiting it from another point in my memory. I couldn’t recall how we’d gotten from that place in the woods to the estate, but we did… somehow. All I could remember from that mile-long run was that I’d steadied Vara on Ethan’s back and urged him to go faster.
Perhaps itwasn’ttoo late. Maybe I was being pessimistic. Miroslava was an amazing doctor. She could fix anything.
I called out for help the moment we approached the porch. People knew there was something wrong right away. I saw Lucien first, who paled at the sight of Vara. He reached out to carry her into the house, and as her lithe weight left Ethan’s back, I noticed his white pelt was soaked red by Vara’s blood. It felt like I’d been wading in a very warm pool as I fell off his back, and he changed back into a man to catch me before I hit the ground.
