Spaten tries to keep me down, but something from below shoves me higher, the force of it allowing me to break the surface on a much-needed gasp.
Which is when I see the bedlam occurring in the courtyard.
Catum has yanked out the hearts of almost a dozen Alphas, but he’s wounded and bloody and panting.
And Ailsa is standing behind him with a vial in her hand.
One that saysDrink Me.
My eyes widen inside, my beast instantly trying to swim toward her.No!I want to shout.Ailsa, don’t!
“You want me?” she asks the crowd, a note of steel underlying her tone.
I watch with horror as she tips the contents into the back of her throat. Swallows. And shouts five words that ignite the chase.
“Then come and get me!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
AILSA
A Few Minutes Earlier
“Ailsa,”a voice whispers in the wind, causing my head to whip around as I try to find the owner of that sound.
A pair of lips appears in the space before me, making me yelp.
“Shh,” he hushes, the rest of his face appearing, followed by a head of pink hair. “You need to take the elixir.”
“What?”
His hand appears as he holds it out to me. “Take it. Then tell them to chase you.”
I shake my head. “I don’t?—”
“Look around you,” he demands. “Look at the statues. Really look at them. Then check the water.”
I blink at him as vicious chaos breaks out around me.
Craze stabbed Heart a few minutes ago, but she instantly recovered, making him growl about dark magic spells as she tossed his card right back at him.
The pair of them are fighting a few yards away while Catum whirls in a blur of black and blood, fighting off snarling Alphas.
Alphas Ireallydon’t want to play a game of chase with right now.
“Look,” the pink-haired male says again. “Please, Ailsa. Just…look.”
Swallowing, I glance at the statues—noting the feminine angles and angelic features. Their lips are all rounded as though they’re lost in song.
I glance at the fountain, momentarily distracted by Krolic and the other wolf fighting near the deeper end of the pool. Or what I assume is deep, anyway, since they keep going under.
But as they disappear behind the center fixture, I start to see the reflections that the pink-haired man mentioned.
I frown.
The gentle innocence of the statues disappears the longer I look. They’re expressions are grotesque and agonized instead, as though they’rescreaming,not singing.
I shiver. It’s a horrifying juxtaposition. “I don’t understand.”
