I brace myself and prepare to shift and… I don’t know? Join the fight? Run?
“We’ll be crushed in seconds,” Neris says, voice detached. “It’s been good knowing you, Kass. Life with you was anything but boring.”
I jump nervously from one foot to another, trying to decide what the hell to do. I’m not built for battle. My weapon is my mind. And that’s when I’m not panicking and I can use it properly.
Sin shifts again — back into a wolf — without missing a beat. Back and forth, dragon to wolf to dragon again, faster than anything I’ve ever seen.
“What the hell is he?!” I whisper, wild-eyed.
Sin and Draven tear into each other — claws, fangs, fury. There’s blood everywhere, slick and glistening. Neither giving an inch.
The witch finally shrieks — a sound like nails digging into my skull — and rips open some swirling black hole beside her. She grabs the girl, Sinalyn, and throws her into it like she’s nothing more than trash.
Sin howls, lunging to follow, but Draven tackles him mid-air, dragging him down hard.
I scream when I see it — Sin’s claws sink deep into Draven’s chest, dangerously close to the blackened mark. My breath catches.
The witch snarls and flicks her fingers. Sin is blasted across the hallway, slamming into the stone with a sickening crack.
He’s up again instantly, blood dripping down his side — snarling, feral.
And I run. I run like the flames of hell are licking at my heels.
“Sin!” I scream, stumbling over rubble. “Sin, we have to leave! Now!”
For a heartbeat, he doesn’t seem to hear me. His wolf is out for blood, blinded by fury and heartbreak.
Then — he stutters. His head snaps toward me.
He heard me. Thank the Goddess.
I reach him, grabbing his arm, breathless.
“Sin, we’ll come back for her,” I gasp out. “For both of them. But if we die here, we won’t save anyone. Please.”
His jaw tightens. His whole body vibrates with rage.
I shove the vial of blood into his hand — the one he gave me earlier, just in case.
It’s Draven’s blood. He’s the one who came up with this plan, long before everything went to hell. A last resort if things ever got too bad. If I ever needed to disappear.
Sin’s grip tightens around the vial, his jaw clenching hard enough I hear it crack.
He can wield blood magic. Something no shifter should ever be able to use. I’ve never heard of it. And yet somehow, Sin can. Draven’s blood — pure hellhound, powerful — gives him enough strength to teleport us anywhere in less than a heartbeat.
I glance at the witch. She’s already yanking hard on Draven’s leash, making him stumble, his body jerking like it’s broken.
“Please, Sin,” I whisper, popping the cork and pouring a few drops of blood into his open palm. “Let’s go.”
He looks wrecked. Fury and grief tearing through him in equal measure. But the second the blood touches his skin, his magic stirs — wrapping around us like a storm.
The blood rises, splitting into a thousand tiny droplets. They shimmer in the air around us, spinning faster and faster, a cyclone of shadows.
Sin grabs my hand. I squeeze it hard through my panic.
The hallway vanishes and a second later, we’re crashing into the cold, damp earth of Kunou Forest.
I drop to my knees. Then to my back. Panting. Shaking. Trying to pull air into my dying lungs.
