Page 39 of The Witch’s Daughter

The warlock in black nodded at me. “You’re up next. Name?”

“Cerberus,” I said my last name proudly as I took my spot at the mark.

14

Jaxon

“At least stick with us,” I growled after Tisiphone as she stepped up to the wall where the next challenge waited.

“I don’t need you or your coven.” She tightened her hands on the rope. “I can do this myself.”

That’s what she repeated, whispering it as she squeezed her eyes tight and started to climb. Her fear was potent. Sharp and bitter as the scent of it drifted down to me.

End this. My wolf thrashed, trying to tear himself from my skin to save her.

I white-knuckled him as I held back the shift. The wall isn’t that high. I gave us both reassurances. She was a shifter. She’d survive most any injury. She could make it over this obstacle.

Except she shouldn’t have been here at all.

I’d assumed that after last night, she’d be safely enjoying the festival this morning and it’d be one less thing for me to worry about. I’d honestly thought that none of the wolf-witches from our region would want to be a part of this.

Alpha Kera might’ve been the one to enact the treaty with the neighboring human city of Ethica, but all our packs had signed it. As long as they never harmed wolf shifters again, we were at peace. Vincent’s little crusade was more than a dangerous idea. It effectively had us breaking the treaty if we did take up arms against the humans.

I figured that would be the first thing Kera would bring up on her arrival, and it wasn’t far from my mind either. I had an entire pack to protect. But I couldn’t, in good conscience, walk away until I knew more about this Vincent warlock and the threat he posed to us all.

Technically, I wasn’t a part of his army yet. But I was walking a thin line. If only my instincts would let me leave this alone.

“I thought you said she wasn’t going to be here.” Calla stepped into the line beside me with her wolves going to rest and pant in the shade of the wall.

I couldn’t take my eyes off Tisiphone. “She was supposed to stay on the festival side of things until Alpha Kera arrives.”

“You know how she is,” Gentry said, taking his place in line behind Calla and sidestepping a wheezing witch who’d just come from the run. “Trish doesn’t listen to anyone.”

I growled, hating to hear them talk shit. But they weren’t being malicious. Not when it was the truth. As she’d grown, Tisiphone had become a shell of herself. Nervous and soft-spoken, when she’d once been the loudest of our group.

Another thing I’d been powerless to change, though gods knew I tried, and watched slip through my fingers over the years.

“This is good for her,” Calla said. “Maybe she can stop moping around now.”

Don’t speak of her that way. My growl was louder this time, forced through my lips from my beast.

“Apologies, Alpha.” Calla rolled her eyes, turning her head slightly to the side. Just enough to defer dominance, but still show her annoyance.

“She made it.” Amir nudged his brother as the two of them pushed their way through the line to join us.

Ahmad chuckled. “Isn’t she afraid of heights?”

Pride filled my chest as I watched Tisiphone sit on the top of the wall with one leg on either side of the ledge. Memories came unbidden. A flashback of her holding my hand as I helped her into a tree to sit beside me after the leaves parted, revealing my hiding location to the girl who wouldn’t let me sit alone.

“Aren’t you scared?” I’d asked.

Brave little witch had denied it.

But she wasn’t a child anymore.

None of us were.

“She’s got something to prove,” I said, as Tisiphone swung her leg over the edge and disappeared.