“Why would the dire wolves want your murderous, human-eating varga females?” Jessie asks.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, witch,” he snaps, chest rumbling on the edge of a growl. “Not everything is as black and white as you think. Not everything can be separated into good and bad.”
“So you don’t eat humans?” Jessie challenges.
His jaw tenses.
“Yeah, you see, in my world, that makes you the bad guys.”
Vax sneers, lip curling to reveal even white teeth. “Think what you want. We don’t have the female dire wolves, and if our females weren’t taken by your dire wolves, it’s obvious someone else is involved. Someone who has both our wolves, and we need to—”
Howls tear the air, urgent and loud.
Vax’s gaze tracks to the window and his expression freezes. “Fire…”
Cora.
It has to be.
CORA
The fire was spreading fast, drawing the varga to the fence. I used the huts for cover, shrinking into the shadows every time a varga ran past. Some were in wolf form, some ran as human. They seemed so…normal. Mothers ushered their children to safety, men yelled at their women to get inside. I almost felt bad. But they were hunters, predators who feasted on human flesh, and they had my friends and the dire wolf females.
A varga ran past and paused to clutch his belly. He looked up at the sky and let out a moan. I followed his gaze to see the clouds sliding back to reveal a bright round moon.
“No,” he whimpered. “Not again.”
What the fuck? The moon had been merely a sliver a few minutes ago.
Another varga ran into him, shoving him forward, then stopping to steady him. “No time, Bastian. Fire must be stopped first.”
They ran off, and I circled the hut and crouched behind a barrel that smelled like fish. The hut Sloane and The Elites were in was up ahead, and the varga guarding it were gone.
This was my chance. I needed to let them know the coast was clear, and with their magic active again, we could totally fight off the one varga who was inside with them.
Taking a deep breath, I ran toward the hut.
SLOANE
A prickle rushes over my skin, so subtle I almost don’t feel it, but the widening of Jessie’s eyes and Poppy’s soft gasp tell me I’m not imagining it.
The null circle has been broken. Our magic is back on.
Vax is staring out the window, though, and I note how the world outside is suddenly bathed in silver.
“You have to run,” he says, his voice thicker and hoarser than a moment ago. “Get out of here and run.”
“What’s happening?”
He turns to me, his arctic eyes too bright in his face, his jaw elongating. “The moon is about to fill and there will be nothing but hunger. Go.”
“Jessie, rift now!” Poppy yells.
Jessie’s hands are moving in the air, desperately trying to open a rift.
Vax backs away, doubling over, arms wrapping around his abdomen. “It comes early. Too early.”
His face is bubbling, changing, his bones cracking as he morphs. He makes a lunge for the door, but it’s as if some unseen force pulls him back to face us, and when his eyes latch onto me, there is no longer any humanity in them, just bestial hunger.
“Jessie!” Poppy screams.
The air crackles and pops, and the room is filled with silvery light. Vax roars and leaps toward me just as a figure barrels into the room, golden hair and cornflower-blue eyes.
Cora!
She slams into me, sweeping me off my feet and propelling me backward toward the silvery light of the rift. I throw out my arms and grab hold of Poppy’s cuff and Jessie’s arm, and then the world is rushing away.
My stomach knots, bile rushing up my throat, and for a moment Cora’s arms are no longer around me, and Poppy’s cuff and Jessie’s arm melt away.
And then I hit the ground with my back, and a weight lands on top of me.
Cora’s sweet vanilla scent fills my nostrils.
“Fuck!” Jessie sits up beside me.
Poppy groans.
I slide my fingers into Cora’s hair as she lifts her head to grin at me, but her grin turns into a wince of pain.
“What is it?” I sit up, bringing her with me, and she cries out, sharp and surprised.
“My back,” she hisses through gritted teeth.
Jessie shuffles into a crouch and brushes Cora’s hair over her shoulder to study her back. Her mouth parts in shock and her brow furrows in a frown I like to call her nice-knowing-you frown.
“What is it?” Cora asks, but her jaw is tight, her eyes bright.
She knows what Jessie is about to say, and Poppy’s sharp exhalation confirms it.
My gut clenches. Don’t. Don’t say it.
Jessie sits back on her haunches. “Vax caught her with his claws. Deep enough to draw blood.”
My heart sinks.
She’s been scratched.
Cora is infected.
Chapter Thirty-Three Cora
We were back at the cabin, everyone gathered in the lounge as I got a once-over.
“I feel fine. I’m fine, seriously.” Yep, no one was listening to me.
I sat on the sofa, bent forward, clutching my T-shirt to my chest, as Pippa, one of the Grimswood medics, examined the wound on my back. She’d sliced my shirt off to examine the varga claw marks. Her gloved fingers were cool against my skin as she gently prodded the torn flesh.
Tor crouched in front of me, his steel-gray eyes fixed on my face, his hands bracketing my thighs.
The guys had found us in the forest minutes after we fell through the rift, and Tor had insisted on carrying me home.
He hadn’t left my side since. Jasper stood by the kitchen, arms crossed, face an unreadable mask, but the tick in his jaw told me he was pissed.
Leif stood beside the malevolent spirit, his hands clenched to fists. Rune was stationed at the front door like a sentry, and Sloane was perched stiffly on the window seat, her electric-blues
