This time, Elise pushed herself so hard she lost all color in her face.
Holly feared she was going to faint. She pushed a bag of kisses toward Elise, who removed one hand from her ankle to take one.
It did little good.
Holly wondered how Elise was going to pull off a raw shift in this state.
When the light subsided, Elise’s ankle looked perfectly fine. No bruising. No swelling. “Help me up,” she commanded.
Holly offered her arm. Elise put so much weight on her, Holly feared she wouldn’t be able to stand.
“By the Gods, you’re weak. I thought you’ve been training this whole time.”
“It’s only been a few weeks,” Holly said defensively. “You’re being quite rude for someone who’s dependent on my goodwill.”
“Sorry,” Elise muttered. “I get kind of mean when I’m stressed.”
“Kind of?”
“I’ve had a hard life, okay? Now is not the time to work on my personality flaws and poor coping mechanisms.”
The pair staggered to their feet.
Elise slowly tested her ankle. “Not great.” She frowned. “But it’ll get me there.”
“Us. It’ll get us there. Or were you planning on slipping away again?”
“Relax, would you? I’m not leaving you behind. You’re the only one who has a real shot at getting through to Trevor.”
“Exactly.” Holly nodded, slyly checking her trust pendent to make sure it was still blue. “What’s the next step.”
Elise gingerly picked up the crystal vial. “Bottoms up.” Without hesitation, she downed the contents of the vial in one fell swoop. She winced hard, sputtering and gagging.
“Please tell me you didn’t poison yourself.”
“Jury’s out,” Elise groaned.
She sunk to her knees, shuddering. She cried out in pain, winding her hands into her hair.
“Elise!” Holly cried. It was going to take a lot more than juice and cookies to fix this.
Elise’s body began to change. Fur sprouted. Her bones cracked and popped as they rearranged themselves. Her face elongated into a terrible snout filled with razor-sharp teeth.
Elise, now fully a bear, rose up on her hind legs. She quickly lost her balance, falling backward onto the coffee table. The wood splintered under her weight, sending shrapnel everywhere.
Holly brought her hands up to protect her face as shards of wood sliced her bare arms. Elise squirmed until she was on all fours again. She fixed Holly in her pale gaze and let out a roar loud enough to shake the windows.
“Okay! Be patient,” Holly snapped. “Let me get my bow.” She dashed out to the deck only to find the bow missing from its usual spot. One of her shifters must’ve taken it.
Elise stood in the living room, stomping and growling.
“What is it, girl? Did Tommy fall down a well?” Holly muttered under her breath as she hurried back into the house.
Elise stuck her nose into a pile of fabric and grunted.
Peering closer, Holly realized Elise’s leather belt was buried beneath the fabric scraps. She reached for it, smiling when she saw the daggers still in place.
Elise bobbed her head and snorted.
“Glad to know I won’t have to fight anyone barehanded,” Holly said.
Elise lowered her massive body to give Holly a chance to climb on. Once Holly was secure, Elise turned toward the deck.
“Don’t you dare!” Holly cried, but it was too late.
Elise took off at a hard gallop, throwing her body against the floor-to-ceiling windows. Glass rained down like a hailstorm. Holly buried her face to avoid the shards. Elise cleared the deck in two bounds before launching herself over the railing. They landed hard on the forest floor, but Elise didn’t stop.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Holly gasped. “Are you trying to get us killed?”
Elise roared in response as she pushed herself harder. Holly took big fistfuls of fur to hold herself into place.
Maiden, if you were ever going to give me some advice, now would be the time.
There was no answer.
Maiden? Please, I need your help. One of the firstborns is at risk.
Again, nothing.
A terrible sense of dread sunk into Holly’s gut as she realized she was on her own.
The forest rushed by in a blur of green, brown, and gray. Once, Holly thought she saw a flash of red between the trees, but thought she imagined it.
No, she hadn’t.
She saw a bolt of red again and a third time.
Something rushed up alongside Elise.
Holly caught a glint of gold and a white, feral smile.
Edwina.
“What are you doing here?” Holly shouted.
Edwina appeared beside her, shrouded in black mist.
Holly spotted two other patches of mist, presumably belonging to the other coven sisters.
“Something is happening beyond the veil. We’re going to investigate. What are you doing?”
“The Silver Spruce shifters are going to the silver mines to confront the dark shifters,” Holly explained in a rush. “They don’t realize how outnumbered they are. We’re going to help.”
“Friend of yours?” Edwina looked down her nose at Elise’s bear form.
Elise snarled and tried to push ahead, but she was no match for the magic mist carrying Edwina.
“Will you help us?” Holly asked. “The Golden Oak shifters might get spooked if they see witches in our numbers.”
“I’m always up for scaring the pants off those power-hungry bastards,” Edwina sneered. “We’ll go ahead. See you there.” She disappeared into her mist cloud and shot forward through the trees.
“That takes some of the pressure off,” Holly muttered.
“By the way,” Susanna appeared in her own cloud of black mist, “that dress is really ugly.”
She vanished before Holly had a chance to say anything, not that she could think of anything to say. She glanced at her gown. Or what was left of it. The molten gold skirt had been torn to shreds. With each
