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SHANE
The next day,I made all the necessary arrangements. I asked Lavinia to call on Thea and Almae, and for Killian to have some vampires come too. I sent a message to Ironfang and told them to meet us in five days. By then, everyone should be here and the full moon would be long gone. Hopefully, Lavinia, Thea, and Almae would be able to break through the barrier.
We had also found an abandoned farm a few miles south. Killian bought a shit ton of chains and we would use that during the full moon.
By the moon, how I hated this.
I wanted to see Raika but decided not to go. It was getting riskier to come in and out of the pack lands, and we were close to attacking. It was best if I stayed back for these next five days. Soon, she and the others would be free and I wouldn’t have to sneak in to see her anymore.
However, the next day, I was restless. I knew it was because the full moon would start tomorrow and it was already affecting me.
I was also alone. Killian and Lavinia had gone to check if everything was set up at the farmhouse, and then they would bring us dinner.
I paced in my room at the inn. It reminded me of how restless Killian was when Lavinia had been taken by our enemies—I knew how he felt and I wanted to go back in time and stop myself from all the times I had told him everything would be all right.
I didn’t want things to be all right soon.
I wanted it to be all right now.
Caution be damned. I had to see Raika, even if it was from a distance. Even if I remained among the trees at the property’s edge and saw her through the house’s back windows.
When the sun began setting, I armed myself with Lavinia’s invisibility potion, shifted into my wolf, and ran to my pack lands. Once I was close to the barrier, I stopped long enough to drink the potion and then continued running.
I weaved through the trees in the forest and raced to the house.
I frowned when I got closer—it was dark and there were no demons. I focused on my hearing, but there was nothing. No movement, no breathing, no sounds coming from inside the house.
Where could Raika and Minsi be?
My next guess was the library, though at this time of the evening? Weren’t they usually at the house by now?
Trying not to jump to conclusions, I made my way to the library. After all, where were two bookworms the happiest? But as I approached the center of town, the atmosphere changed. Demons stood close by or patrolled the streets, making it more difficult for me to sneak closer—but not impossible.
One of the houses on Main Street had an outer staircase that led to the rooftop. I used it to go up, and from there, I jumped from roof to roof, careful with my landing and any loose tiles. I got closer and closer to the library.
At the last building, where a clothing shop had been before, I halted, my eyes on the scene below.
Several of the streetlamps around the main square were turned on, illuminating the dozens of demons stationed around the place.
Across the street, Conri was seated at the diner’s outdoor patio, eating his dinner as if he was watching a Broadway show.
In the main square, Lorie and Keeva stood at one corner, throwing spells at the ground, where they had broken a stone bench. In fact, the benches in all four corners had been broken and a dark circular mark stained the ground where they had been.
A memory clicked into place.
“The moon is an important factor for wolf shifters,” my father had said when he told me about the crystals. “It’s also important to the witches. But you know what else is important to them? Cardinal points.”
North, south, east, and west.
Lorie and Keeva had found the crystals in each corner of the square, which were exact cardinal points. But they hadn’t been lucky to think about that. No, they relied on magic. I remembered Lorie’s gift was sensing magical items. Shit. Though, apparently, they couldn’t get to them.
That was troublesome, but it wasn’t the worst part.
No. The worst part was right in the center of the stage. Raika, lying on the ground, her hair spilled to the side, her body limp, and a dark witch’s circle around her.
Pure red-hot fury filled my veins.
I jumped off the rooftop before I could even think about it.
