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Zeke’s panicked cry ripped me from my self-deprecating thoughts. I spun around to find several masked figures in their alternate forms fighting with Ash and Ezra. Three advanced on Zeke while he stood as a shield between them and Raelynn.

From where I stood, I could see what they were doing, and I knew Zeke was too close to the action to realize the trap they were forcing him into.

The three in front of him weren’t trying to reach Raelynn. They were keeping his attention as they corralled him and Raelynn toward the open car door behind them.

I rushed down the driveway toward them, shifting mid-run, but I was too late.

One of them lunged, forcing Zeke to shift his attention, while another moved to flank him, separating him from Raelynn.

My stomach tightened.

He didn’t see it, and I wouldn’t make it in time.

“Zeke!”

Too late.

Raelynn screamed when hands reached through the open car door and grabbed her from behind, dragging her into the waiting vehicle. When Zeke turned and reached for her, the two behind him moved at once. One caught his arm while another slammed into him from behind.

Zeke disappeared into the car with her.

Fuck no. Not him too.

“Ezra!” I barked.

Ezra spun around at my shout just as the car took off. Before he could chase after it, a burly guy twice his size slammed into him from the side and drove him to the ground.

I knew he wouldn’t call on his shadows on the palace grounds with so many guests nearby, though it would have made things so much easier if he did. Ezra was a force to be reckoned with, but his shadows elevated him to a terrifying degree.

When Ezra snapped the guy’s neck and staggered to his feet, one of the masked men fighting Ash broke away and intercepted him before he could chase after the car speeding down the driveway.

Something glinted in his hand before he drove it into Ezra’s neck.

Ezra stumbled, shaking his head as if trying to dislodge something.

The guy turned his focus back on Ash, ignoring Ezra entirely, confident in whatever he’d done to him.

When Ezra hit the ground, Ash turned, only to receive the same jab to his neck.

The way they both hit the ground and the guy now turned his attention to me made it clear he wasn’t trying to kill us, only dispatch us with tranquilizers.

I didn’t have time to waste on him, not with the car getting farther away.

The only reason it hadn’t disappeared entirely was that it had stopped to let another asshole out to join the fight.

An asshole who now tried to take a swing at me.

I ducked beneath the swing and cut between him and another guy who tried to stop me, forcing both of them between me and the guy with the darts.

I hadn’t missed my wings since losing them, unlike the others, but in this moment, I’d have given anything to fly.

The car screeched to a halt at the end of the driveway, and someone got out of the front, circling to the back and throwing the door open.

A Shyrlivi who hadn’t transformed stumbled out, cursing. Even from here, I could see blood running down their arm from the hand covering their face.

I saw a flash of Raelynn through the open door. She was kicking and screaming at another asshole inside who hadn’t transformed.

Good.