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A shadow fell over us… The gargoyle dove at us, and I cringed. “Stop!” Faye yelled as she flicked her hand toward the creature. It landed with a thump, frozen in place, glaring at me, as if any moment it would charge and rip me apart. Of course she’d have control over it. The text I’d read said only the witch who brought it to life had power over it, so it would listen to her command.
“Oh, Elliana, you wasted no time escaping again, I see, but your tower is no longer yours. I have a wonderful basement with a prison cell that you can call home from now on.” She shook her head, rubbing her chin. “And I was being kind by giving you a chance to enjoy life, but I was wrong. You threw it back it into my face. Now you can live like a rat on scraps and in filth.”
White Venom studied me as if I were an insect, his gaze ravaging my body, and a shiver jolted through me.
“I’ve served my time, twenty times over. I don’t want to fight you, but I will.” I stared at my tangled hair weapons, then back at my captors.
The white-haired fuckhead snorted, his nose scrunching. “Don’t kid yourself.” He glanced down at Faye. “Get her out of here and locked up somewhere she can’t escape. You promised me she’d never get out!” He growled and marched away, his shoulders curled forward. I chanced a glance toward the woods and found no sign of Reed or Kahlo.
Faye’s jawline clenched. Behind her, Gage drew himself up on hands and knees. “You’re welcome that I didn’t leave him behind to die. I preferred for you to see his last moments.” Faye kicked Gage in the ribs, and he crumbled into a ball, groaning in pain, spitting blood.
“Leave him alone,” I cried out, my grief surging with every expelled breath. Tears bubbled at the edges of my eyes.
But I couldn’t fall apart. Not now. So I swallowed the boulder in my throat and released brave words. “Why do you let the lion belittle you?”
Her face warped. Okay, maybe not a great question. “You know nothing about us, or how he treats me, the tender words he’s said into my ears, what he’s sacrificed for me.”
I huffed. “Like making others suffer for his strength?”
Her eyes narrowed, and her mouth twisted into a crooked line. “He sacrificed his life to save mine when I was poisoned. He gave me his life energy, so I restored him in a way by feeding him the life source from other shifters. A bull shifter lasted him a week, while the scorpion mere days before he got weak, but over time his mane fell out. So when I found you with your father, you were the perfect solution with your long hair. The energy he takes from your hair keeps him alive and helped return his mane. As long as it kept growing and remained unharmed, you’d be a constant life source for him to draw from.” She stared at him over her shoulder, and for the first time, a tenderness filled her voice. “I would do anything for him.”
Anger surged through me as Gage shook, bleeding into the ground, and my insides ached to witness his struggle. “And I’d do anything for the men I adore, but what you’re doing is fucked up. Kidnapping shifters for him to get revenge. You took away years from me, so isn’t that enough?”
“Everyone lives with injustice in this world. My Leon was assaulted as a child, mistreated…. So is it wrong to get payback?” She stepped toward Gage and clenched his hair in her fist once again, wrenching his head back.
My heart clenched. Blood trickled down Gage’s cheek and chest. He trembled, but behind his eyes, an inferno bubbled.
“Tell me, child,” said Faye, “if I was to slit your lover’s throat now, would you not crave revenge?”
Hatred raced through me. I’d lived with it for years, yearned for retribution. But Faye’s question struck a chord with me. Deep inside, I’d longed for them to suffer for taking my only family away, for stealing my life, and now they threatened my men. So was I any different from Leon or Faye? The tug-o-war inside me ripped me into fragments because I’d always considered myself a victim. But all this shit had stemmed from someone else believing they’d been attacked without justification. My eyes pricked, thinking of what losing my dad had done to me. How my life would end if I now lost the three shifters who’d shown me how to open my heart again.
“I will spend the rest of my life hunting you down.” I looked away and studied Gage, and then Leon, who glared at us from a distance. “You and that monster let anger control you when all my father did was steal a golden wig from you. That wasn’t worth his life or mine.” I wiped my cheeks dry. “It wasn’t enough to justify you destroying my future, but you’re now ruining families for greed and power. That’s no longer revenge for a past mistake.” I lowered my voice. “He’s become a psychotic madman who thinks he’s above others. He’s taking fucking slaves. No one has right to do that.” Curling my hands, hatred flowed through me, burning an inferno in my chest.
Movement came from my peripheral vision—Kahlo in tiger form and Reed burst out of the woods and sprinted up behind Leon. My mouth opened to distract Faye when a dozen animals charged toward us from the woodland across the ruins. My stomach dropped, and a chill iced my veins.
The lioness—Reed’s sister—panthers, and other creatures charged. Eagle-Man flew overhead and dropped two more men to the ground, already shifting. The bird squawked and dove mid-shift toward Kahlo and Gage. My pulse was a frenzy as panic gripped me.
Leon roared at the attack, and Faye turned to face him, her body tense.
Without thought, my hair jutted outward, slamming into Faye’s back and arms, twisting around her neck, covering her mouth. Her eyes morphed into round orbs in surprise.
Gage grasped her hand and dragged her to the ground alongside him, hands to her neck, choking her. But the eagle shifter swooped down and snatched him by the waist before hurling him across the field.
Terror bled through me, and I darted after him.
But the gargoyle hissed at my back. My heart skipped a beat, and I turned. It rushed me, its wings spreading outward like a great shadow taking over my world. And my knees weakened beneath me. Death was coming.
