Four masked Guardians on foot slammed from the forest. Three of them held flintlocks, while the fourth brandished a saber.
As one aimed his pistol, Tej launched himself at the armed man. He wrenched the Guardian’s arm up just as the man fired his weapon. The bullet went wide, sending a cascade of leaves tumbling to the ground.
Tej drew his own pistol from his baldric. He shot it point blank into the Guardian’s chest. The man crumpled.
Rhys kicked the hand of one of the Guardians so that the assailant’s blade spun away. With his weapon gone, the Guardian’s eyes widened. He struggled when Rhys gripped his throat to hold the attacker in place. Rhys pulled a knife from his belt and rammed it into the Guardian’s neck. There was a spray of blood, and the Guardian fell.
Ezra didn’t give the third assailant the chance to discharge his pistols. He drew his own and shot the Guardian between the eyes. A thud sounded as the Guardian collapsed.
The fourth Guardian lined Ezra up in his pistol’s sights.
Jessica gripped her gun in both hands, aimed, and fired.
Red bloomed across the Guardian’s chest before he stumbled, went to his knees, and then fell forward. His body made almost no sound on the dense, leaf-covered earth.
Four bodies lay on the ground, cooling in the chilly night, but Ezra, Tej, and Rhys didn’t make up the numbers of the dead. For that, she was grateful.
Their heaving breaths sounded loud in the quiet that followed the attack. Jessica, too, drew in ragged breaths. The assault had been quick, wordless.
“Have you ever killed anyone before?” Ezra asked her.
“Wounded many.” She exhaled. “If they perished from their wounds, I’ve no idea. But not…not this.”
As she stared at the man she’d shot, Tej and Rhys dragged the Guardians’ bodies away, hiding them in the darkness.
Ezra went to her, his arms wrapping around her. “You had no choice.”
“I’m not sorry,” she said, and exhaled. “All the same…I need a moment.”
“Unfortunately,” Tej said, returning with Rhys, “we don’t have a moment.”
“There’ll be more,” Rhys said.
She closed her eyes, willing herself to have the strength for a more protracted battle.
“Then, we bring the fight to them,” Ezra answered.
“These were only four out of at least a dozen,” Jessica noted, opening her eyes. “We won’t be able to take them all on.”
“We can’t keep running,” Tej protested.
She drew in all her courage, giving herself the mettle she’d worked so hard to cultivate over the course of her life. She’d lost her parents, her brother had gone away, leaving her alone to fend for herself in a brutal world. And then, she’d forged a path for herself, taking on work that few women were permitted, facing threats and peril without flinching.
“We won’t run,” she said. “There’s something that we can do to even the odds.”
“What do you suggest?” Ezra demanded.
She stared at him levelly. “Transform. Turn yourselves into wolves.”
“Impossible.” Tej stalked to her. “The full moon was last night. Until it’s full again, this—” he spread his hands, indicating his human shape, “—is all we are.”
“It’s within you.” She glanced between Tej, Ezra, and Rhys. “That power, that wildness. You can reach it, harness it.”
“We can’t.” Rhys’s words were flat. “There were times when I was cornered, and I wanted so badly to be able to fight back in my wolf form. But no matter how hard I tried to will it into happening, I stayed just as I was, only a man, not a wolf.”
“The same with me,” Tej said. “I could never compel myself into a wolf. Only with the moon could I change.”
She moved away from Ezra and placed herself between him, Rhys, and Tej. They looked at her, intent and focused.
