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Raya and Hunter are behind us, still fighting against the other witches, driving them back from us. They’re outnumbered, but not outmatched.

Cas strikes first. Kian meets him, steel clashing in a blur of motion. They’re fast – too fast for any human eyes – but I see everything. The brutal precision as they fight the only the way two vampires who have known each other for a long time can. That’s what makes it even more unbelievable that Cas has turned on Kian like this.

Their entire vampire story started together. Now it’s going to end together.

Tara takes a step forward, and my hand snakes out to catch her arm.

‘Don’t,’ I say, and I feel Cora inch a little closer to us.

‘He was your friend,’ she whispers, eyes wide, voice tight. ‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘He was.’

Cas lunges again, and Kian knocks him back with enough force to make Cas’s foot lose traction on the grass. His expression is unreadable. Typical Kian, burying his emotions. He compartmentalises his feelings and moves on pure instinct. I admire that about him.

They circle each other and I can’t look away. When my maker is being threatened, it’s almost as consuming as when my bonded partner is under threat.

‘You could’ve come to me,’ Kian hisses, sounding fierce but appearing deadly calm.

‘I did!’ Cas fires back, eyes flashing. ‘You have these walls around you and you don’t let people in, no matter how many times they turn up and prove themselves to you,’ he snarls, throwing his arm forward, the edge of his dagger narrowly scraping past Kian’s neck. ‘Velistra is too powerful, even for you, Kian. You need to step down.’

One second Cas is speaking, the next he’s on the ground, a dagger discarded to the side. Kian stands over him, foot against his chest. The fighting around us slows as every pair of eyes turns in their direction. Velistra stands off to the side, staring down at them, her upper lip twisted into a grimace as she waits, like the rest of us, to see what will happen next.

Quiet settles in the air, thick and tense.

Cas’s hand wraps around Kian’s ankle and twists, and the sound of his bone popping out is like a hammer inside my skull. Kian hisses, recoiling as Cas gets out from under him. His movements are fluid and light as he bounces back to his feet.

The air around him shimmers and my insides twist. I catch the flick of a witch’s hand out of the corner of my eye, her fingers glowing with an eerie, pale light. Cas moves like lightning, his dagger slicing toward Kian’s chest, guided not just by skill but by the magic around him. Kian stumbles back, caught off balance, and for a moment he’s completely exposed.

Cora launches forward, but a wall of fire explodes up between us and them. She cries out as the flames lick her skin, causing deep burns. Kian’s eyes flare as he turns to her, leaving himself further exposed. Hunter crashes against the fire from the other side, snarling. Raya raises her hands to counter, but familiar-looking vines twist around her legs, yanking her back.

The witches are forcing us back and cutting us off. I lunge forward, hitting an invisible barrier that has me flying backward. Vines slither up my arms, biting into my skin and locking me into place. I growl, tugging at the vines, but the harder I pull, the worse their bite is. Blood drips off me onto the ground. I remember these vines from the fight with Sofia. I was hoping to never encounter them again.

Cas drives the dagger forward, and it dips into Kian’s skin as he’s held down by supernatural forces, immobilising him. The sound cuts through the night like a gunshot. The battlefield noise drops to a strange, suspended silence.

Then, an arrow slices through the air, fast and final, barely a blink between release and impact. There’s a dull, solid sound as it hits flesh. A gasp escapes Cas as he jerks back in shock.

Tara stands a few feet behind me, bow still raised, another arrow already in position to fire. Her expression is calm and her hands are steady. She doesn’t even blink as she stares ahead, a look of determination on her face as she fires again. My eyes shoot back to Cas who clutches his chest, gasping for breath. That was the arrow he gave her. Another one whizzes through the air then, and Velistra shrieks as she leaps out of the way, narrowly avoiding the arrow as it skims the top of her head, taking some hair with it.

Kian doesn’t waste the opening. He slams into Cas with raw force, knocking him off his feet. The spell woven around him snaps. Something in the air fizzles out, and the fire wall drops just enough for us to move again, as if the arrow temporarily disarmed Velistra’s magic.

Raya breaks free first, the vines shrivelling under her touch. Hunter moves quickly, taking down the witch closest to him. Magic crackles through the grass, the battle shifting into life again.

Cas hits the ground hard, the arrow still lodged in his chest. Disbelieving, his eyes find Tara.

‘You shot me,’ he says, stunned, like he doesn’t quite understand it.

Tara lowers the bow slowly. Cas attempts to rise, but Kian plants a foot on his chest.

‘Don’t,’ Kian growls, eyes burning. ‘This ends now.’

The witch who helped tries to flee, but Cora catches her mid-run, knocking her flat with a sweep of her arm, pinning her to the ground as she withdraws a blade so quickly, the witch is dead before I can blink.

I make my way toward Tara. She looks at me, and for a second I don’t see the girl from a few weeks ago. She is no longer a confused human fumbling her way through the world with more questions than answers. She is a trained killer. A vampire. And she is mine.

‘You okay?’ I ask.

She nods, gaze flicking to where Kian stands over Cas. Cas is choking on his own blood, still clawing at the arrow, but his fingers are weak. Velistra makes an aggravated sound as she moves toward us, back on her feet now.

‘See you in hell, friend,’ Kian hisses, just as Cas’s head moves, his gaze staring vacantly up at the sky above us.