As I stumble unsteadily to my feet, the smoke curls and parts ahead of me. A young witch appears like a ghost from the clouds, small and pale and entirely too young to be here killing people. She has her hands raised as magic pulses at her fingertips, but there’s fear in her eyes as our gazes meet.
Jesus. I don’t want to kill a fucking child. These people are more depraved than I ever could have imagined.
But I don’t have to make that life or death decision. Not this time, anyway. Instead, I hear another call rising over the mayhem. More doors slamming, more baying, more shifters joining the fight.
The North Pack and West Pack have come to play.
I grin as the noise intensifies through the smoke. The other two packs have been lying in wait, giving the East Pack a head start and lulling the witches into complacency.
They figured this would be an easy fight, so we let them think they were right. We lured them into the heart of the village where they’ll be easier to corral.
And now maybe the tides will turn.
The witch in front of me startles and darts away, vanishing back into the safety of the smoke. The way it parts and swirls around her tells me it’s a magical spell, one the witches have set up to protect themselves as they attack. If I can find the witch keeping the smoke barrier up, I can destroy them and give my fellow shifters an opening.
I try to shift to wolf form again, and relief floods me as I find that whatever spell forced me to turn human has faded. Once I’m back on four paws, I take off into the smoke, my sights set on finding the culprit.
I pass through the shadowy magic, figures appearing and disappearing from my vision as I move quickly. The wolves clearly have the upper hand now—we outnumber the witches. I find three on one, four on one, witches dead, witches bleeding out on the ground. They’re no match for the combined strength of the three packs, not even with their dark magic.
I leap over a dead wolf, then cringe as I hear someone else yelp nearby. Outnumbered, but still dangerous. Fucking witches, I think grimly.
Narrowly dodging another blast of magic, I duck behind the corner of a house and calculate my plan. Whoever’s controlling the smoke would need to be on the outside of it looking in, so that they can control where it goes and how it affects the coven as they fight.
Is it that bitch Cleo?
Part of me hopes it is. I want to be the one to take her out. My paws pound against the dirt as I head toward the outskirts of the village, determined to kill any witch I see along the way.
Magic bursts around me in earnest now, illuminating the smoke like lightning thrashing through storm clouds. As I run, my nails clicking on the hard-packed road below the din of battle, the blasts seem closer and closer. I duck and weave, cringing away from bursts of light. One blow lands near my paws, and I leap away as the ground erupts from the force of the spell.
My heart hammers in my chest. Fucking hell. Someone’s got a bead on me.
I put on a burst of speed and take up a zig zag pattern.
I’m passing through a crowd of fighters when a huge burst of magic billows toward me. I don’t have time to react, and I immediately think of the way the earth exploded beneath that last spell. I’m fucked.
But before the blast can hit me, a ball of black smoke hurtles over my head and meets the magic head on. A thunderous explosion rocks the village as the two magics meet and destroy each other. I glance over my shoulder to see Sable standing in the middle of someone’s yard, her arms and head both held high. Her eyes are wide, and smoke billows out from her as if it’s seeping from her skin.
Our gazes meet, and my heart clenches as I see both the terror and the strength in her.
She shouldn’t have to do this. She doesn’t have enough training, either as a witch or a wolf, to face this kind of threat.
But she’s doing it anyway.
Her movements are jerky and uncoordinated, her attack nowhere near as smoothly controlled as Gwen’s was when we fought against her. In fact, I’m not sure Sable is using sigils at all. Still, black smoke is pouring out of her, and she guides it as much as she can, hurling it outward with broad movements of her hands.
I don’t know how long she can last. How long any of us can last. I need to find the source of all of this—Cleo—and fucking end her.
I make a move to turn away, but I’m stopped short by a blast of power as it streaks by my snout. It’s not meant for me, or it would’ve taken me down before I had a chance to breathe.
No, it barrels right past me, on a collision course for my girl.
The world seems to stop, time slowing down so each millisecond lasts an eternity.
Sable is caught in a battle with another witch, magic swirling and crackling between them. Her dueling partner is strong, and it’s taking all of Sable’s concentration. She doesn’t see the new threat coming toward her.
I can’t scream her name, so I howl—louder than I’ve ever howled before, with more anguish and desperation in the sound than I ever thought possible.
Sable’s head whips around, her blue eyes wide. She’s got a barrier up against the other witch as magic barrages her. She can’t do anything.
I race for her.
I’ll take the fucking blow.
I’d die for her any day.
But I’m not close enough. I won’t
