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“Hellhounds. Beasts. Not alive, but not dead. Legend says they’re the only thing that can cross dimensions since The Shadow King’s realm was sealed shut.” Rev swallows hard and shakes her head, making her large earrings patter against her cheek. “I guess the legend was right.”

“They want me?” I ask as Mack joins us, looking around as if he’s hoping to find a parachute or a getaway helicopter.

“Ragnor gave The King your name. He wants you dead so he can rise.” Mack’s jaw twitches. “We knew he would come for you.” He shakes his head and yells, “Damn it! We should have kept you safe.”

“I ran away,” I tell him. “It’s not your fault.”

“Who cares whose fault it is?” Rev says, eyes widening as she stares at the door to the stairwell. “What matters right now is how the hell we’re going to get off this roof.”

I look down over my shoulder. On the street below, I count ten baying hellhounds. Their jaws snap and their eyes flash as they stare up at me, willing me to jump or to fall into their waiting mouths.

Punching the screen of her cellphone, Rev lifts it to her ear, checks it’s ringing them thrusts it at Mack. “Luther,” he barks, “we need help. Hellhounds at Rev’s. They’ve come for Nova.”

I hear Luther say, “We’re coming,” then the line goes dead.

Mack nods at me. “It’s okay. They’re on their way.”

But Rev replies, “Great, and what exactly will they do when they get here? ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t remember any lessons at the Academy on how to beat these things, do you?” She meets his eyes. “Seriously, Mack, do you? Do you know how to fight them?”

Mack shudders. His shoulders start to move. Undulating, stretching, snapping into strange angles. “I don’t,” he says, “but Snow might.”

He ticks his head from side to side, lets out a deep vibrating roar, and then his clothes rip from his body as he turns into his other self. Seeing Snow’s large, white frame towering above me, a momentary calm settles in my stomach. It’ll be okay. Snow’s here. It’ll be okay.

Huffing, Snow stomps toward the door and plants his feet firmly on the ground. He looks at me and Rev, growls something at us, then turns back to stare at the door.

Looking around the rooftop, I grab Rev’s hand. “We need to hide. Snow will fight them off, but we need to hide.”

Rev points to a row of three large chimneys on our left. We run to them and crouch down. We have just managed to hide ourselves from view when the door gives way and the hounds stampede onto the roof.

Almost falling over one another, they fill the space between the door and Snow. They seem not to notice or care that a huge white bear is ready to take them on. They just come for him. They pounce, all at once, teeth and claws slashing at his fur.

Snow groans loudly and fights the first two off, shaking them to the ground and hitting them hard with the back of his paw. The third one lunges for his shoulder, but Snow’s teeth sink into its neck, and he hurls it away. He can do this. He can fight them, I tell myself, still gripping Rev’s hand in mine.

For perhaps an entire minute, Snow manages to stay in control of the battle. But then he releases a heartbreaking yowl and a deep red stain appears on his furry white shoulder. Another on his flank. Another on his side. There are too many of them, too many teeth and claws, and he can’t fight them all. I try to move, but Rev keeps hold of my hand. I look at her and force a wave of heat into my palm.

Flinching, Rev drops my fingers. I stand up and pull my arm back, a ball of fire dancing in my grasp. I have exposed myself, but I don’t care. The Shadow King took one of my mates, he will not take another.

Roaring at the top of my lungs, I hurl my fire bomb at the hound on Snow’s shoulder. It yelps and tumbles to the ground.

I send more. Another, and another, and another. When they’re scattered on the floor, I turn the fireballs into a ring of flames, encircling Snow.

He drops to the ground and rolls onto his side, panting hard, blood soaking his fur in large ugly patches all over his body.

When the hounds rally, they turn away from the fire and position themselves in a line. They are snarling, staring at me, and gnashing their teeth when Rev pushes a rush of air in their direction. It is so strong that they are flung back into the wall opposite us. They yelp, but right themselves quickly.

“Your affinity is air?” I ask. “Like Mack?”

Rev nods, stretching out her arms and looking up at the sky. Dark storm clouds move quickly across it. The air around us begins to swirl. I pull fire into my palms again and stand stock still beside Rev. Confidence flickers in my gut. We can do this. We can fight them. I fought Eve. How much harder can it be to defeat a pack of wild dogs?

But even as the thought crosses my mind, it darkens.

The hounds are howling again. There is the sound of claws against concrete in the stairwell. I glance behind us into the street. “The others,” I breathe. “They’re coming.”

As Rev pulls back her arms, ready to hurl a tornado at our attackers, I cast a protective wall of flames in front of us. The hounds stop howling. More appear from on the roof; there must be at least twenty of them now.

For a moment, they stare at us with their yellow eyes then one of them breaks ranks. It charges forward, straight through the fire, and doesn’t even flinch as my heat singes its skin. It goes for Rev first and has its teeth around her wrist before she can stop it.

She screams as blood drips down her arm. When the beast lets go, her hand is barely attached to her body anymore. She falls back, cradling her arm against her. She sinks to the ground, leaning against the wall. “Nova, run,” she mutters. Then, louder, “Nova, RUN !”