His gaze comes to me last.
I’m already pulling my magic back together. It comes faster than it should—fuller, stronger—fed on everything I tore out of Eric. Power surges up my arms, ready to strike again.
Henry steps backward into the portal. The dark edges begin to fold shut.
I lunge and jam both hands into the closing seam. Cold bites into my palms. Dark magic spits against my skin. I dig my fingers in and pull, forcing it open inch by inch.
Josiah stops at my shoulder, grinning into the gap, ready to follow me through.
The double doors explode open behind us. Police flood the landing, their weapons raised, shouting.
I rip my hands back, and the portal collapses, snapping shut.
Henry and Eric are gone.
I tear my own portal open with a sweep of my arm, blue-gold splitting the wall. Josiah flashes to Layla, drops her shield, and hauls her up over his shoulder. She curses and pounds her fists into his back, kicking and snarling, but he just carries her toward the light and grins the whole way.
“Mara!” I drop her shield. “Come, baby. Come now, please!”
She breaks into a run toward me, and the humans open fire. The cracks come fast and loud, muzzle flashes snapping bright off the marble and the high windows. I throw my hand out and catch every round in the air, the bullets stopping dead in a line of blue-gold light and dropping to the floor while she runs straightthrough them and slams into my chest. We go through the portal together. I snap it shut the instant we’re clear and land flat on my back, Mara sprawled on top of me, both of us heaving. The sirens and the gunfire are just gone.
A pair of boots stops in front of my face. I push up onto my elbows, Mara sliding into my lap, and look around at where we landed. We’re back in the Market, in Wintermoon, the cool air carrying the burnt-ash smell off the stalls we torched the other night. I tip my head back. Kade is standing over me with her hands on her hips and her blue eyes flat.
“What the fuck have you gotten yourself into?”
29
Mara
Kade’s still yelling somewhere above us when Aaron pushes himself up to sitting. I’m still sprawled across his lap, my heart slamming and my lion clawing at the inside of me, both of us caught in a panic I can’t get ahead of. He doesn’t even look at Kade. His hands come up and cup my face, his dark eyes raking over me like he’s counting every part of me that could be broken.
“Are you hurt, baby?” His voice is wrecked.
I try to turn my head out of his hold. “I’m fine, Aaron. Could you calm down, please?”
He doesn’t hear a word of it. His hands leave my face and move lower, down my neck and over my shoulders, then along both arms, pressing and checking, frantic.
“Aaron—“
He catches my wrist when I push at him. “I need to make sure you’re okay.”
Behind him Kade paces the Market, her hands flying. “Of all the people you could’ve called on to help you,” she snaps, “you go and call on Jo. Are you stupid or something?”
Aaron doesn’t so much as glance at her. His hands slide down to my belly, his palm flattening there. That’s when something in me eases. My tail lifts off the ground and wraps around his wrist, my tassel coming to rest soft over the back of his hand. It’s my lion telling him that we’re alright, both of us, whatever he’s so afraid he lost. The breath goes out of him all at once. His shoulders drop, and he lets me go.
I push up onto my feet, grab his hand, and haul him up after me. He comes off the ground and pulls me straight into his chest, both arms locking around me, holding me so tight I can feel his heart going.
“Aaron,” I murmur into him.
“I can’t keep doing this to you.” His mouth is in my hair. “Putting you in danger. You and our cub are far too important to me for that.”
Kade’s voice cuts off mid-rant. Her head tips back, her nostrils flaring. Her bright blue eyes swing to me, brows pulling together. “Wait.” She sniffs again. “You’re pregnant?”
I wrench myself out of Aaron’s arms. “No. Not yet.” I cut a glare up at him. “He’s being ridiculous. It’s too soon.”
Kade’s mouth curves into a smirk, and she looks away from us, off toward the other two.
Josiah’s grinning at Layla, wide and wicked, and Layla looks like she’s about to put him in the ground.
