Holly felt terrible. With everything happening around her, it seemed silly to feel guilty over a destroyed dress, but it didn’t belong to her. She didn’t like damaging things that weren’t hers to damage.
The sounds of battle rang out through the forest. They were getting close.
Holly gasped in horror as they passed the shredded body of a fallen shifter. The closer they came to the silver mines, the more bodies they passed. They were going too fast for Holly to get a proper look at any of their faces. She prayed that none of them belonged to her shifters.
Was that why the Maiden had gone silent? Had the firstborn destined to father Holly’s child die? Was this all for naught?
A massive reddish-brown bear crashed through the tree line and fell in line alongside them. Holly recognized Garret, who roared in shock and rage as he realized she was charging into battle.
Elise began to falter. Her shoulders started to shrink. The fur Holly grasped in her hands started to thin. The potion was wearing off.
Elise stumbled forward, sending Holly flying over her back. She landed hard on the ground, the wind knocked out of her, but she couldn’t stay down.
Holly scrambled onto her belly to get a better look at Elise, who was halfway between forms.
“Keep going!” Elise cried. “I’ll be all right.”
Holly couldn’t force herself to believe Elise’s words.
The hulking form of Garret appeared at her side. Holly grabbed his fur, using it to haul herself up. Somehow, she managed to swing her leg over Garret’s broad back.
“If you take me back to the house, I’ll never forgive you,” she warned. “Take me to the mines. I’m going to help.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The scene at the silver mines was worse than Holly ever imagined. Bodies littered the ground, both bear and man.
Edwina, Susanna, and Hattie stood near the mouth of the nearest mine, sending blasts of magic into the shafts. Dark shifters hiding within the mines darted out, charred and screaming.
Guns fired. Swords clashed. Arrows soared through the air.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen.
She was too late. Holly had failed to protect Silver Spruce.
She was going to be sick. The air shot out of her lungs as she watched a grizzly bear swipe a man across his face. The man fell. His face flew three feet before landing in the dirt.
She buried her face in Garret’s fur. She felt weak, defeated, and out of her depth in every way. It was all too much. Too much horror. Too much blood. Too much death.
How could she do anything to stop this now that it had already gone so far?
“Garret,” she whispered.
His ears twitched as he strained to hear her over the roar of battle.
“Get the others. We’re going home. I can’t do this.”
Garret stood stone still, pondering.
“Garret, please!” Holly sobbed. “I can’t be here. I can’t do this.”
He might not have moved if it weren’t for the pale-blond bear lunging at him.
At first, Holly thought it was Keller, but the fur color was far too light. Keller looked more golden. She scanned the battlefield for him but couldn’t make him out. The forest was too dense. The night was too heavy.
The form that did catch her eye was one she hadn’t seen for some time. Trevor strode through the trees in human form. He looked relaxed as if he were merely taking a nighttime stroll.
A Silver Spruce shifter charged at him with a mighty cry, ready to cleave him in two with what looked like some kind of ax. Trevor flicked a needle-thin blade, sliding right through the man. He was dead before he hit the ground.
From where she watched, Holly heard a sick hissing sound. The man’s body began to bubble and steam. Trevor’s blade was coated in some kind of poison.
Holly wondered where he had gotten ahold of such a substance. She stole a glance at the witches near the entrance of the mines.
When she turned her gaze back to Trevor, she understood that she couldn’t leave this battlefield. She needed to see this through. If it ended in his death, then so be it. After the cruelty she had just witnessed, she couldn’t imagine Trevor as someone worth saving. Even if he was a firstborn.
Another roar rang through the trees. Holly’s chest felt lighter. She’d recognize that voice anywhere, even if it came from the throat of a bear.
Loch darted through the trees, swift and silent as a shadow. He positioned himself behind Trevor, who hadn’t even so much as glanced over his shoulder.
Holly bit down onto her bottom lip as Loch closed in on him.
He leaped, his claws out and his mouth open. He looked like he was going to tear Trevor to shreds. At the last minute, Trevor stepped to the side. Loch landed beside Trevor, undeterred. He readied himself to lung again, when he suddenly went still.
Holly’s breath hitched in her chest as she realized the all-but-invisible blade of Trevor’s sword was pressed against Loch’s neck.
“So close.” Trevor sighed. “Yet not quite close enough.”
Trevor took something out of his pocket. A pouch of some sort. He took a pinch of vibrant red powder and flung it into Loch’s face.
Loch howled and tried to shake off the powder. Soon, his body began to return to his human form.
Naked, shaking, and with a blade still at his throat, he looked up at Trevor.
“Interesting little invention, isn’t it?” Trevor purred. “I spent years making it. I can force any shifter to revert to their weaker form with the tiniest pinch. Of course, it burns like hell, too. That’s just for fun.”
“You’re going to burn,” Loch hissed. “You’re going to burn in
