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Death.
“No!” I shouted, and I leaped forward.
I shifted in mid-air so that I was faster and jumped up, going for my dad’s throat. He slammed the amulet into my chest, and it buried in my skin. I let out a yelp and fell to the floor. Power riddled my body, rocking through me, my fox unable to handle the power that was meant to destroy.
Carletta grabbed me and tried to pry the amulet loose.
“I can’t get it out, it’s like it’s welded in there!” she shouted.
My vision started to blur, the power dragging me under, the light of the fire and the crackle and roar of the flames faded into the distance.
I watched as Jameson turned his hands into the claws of a bear, and he transformed into a bipedal monster. He ripped my dad’s head off with the kind of strength only a true alpha could possess.
My dad’s headless body fell to the ground, sputtering blood. His head rolled away.
Jameson spun around, back in his human form.
“Oaklee?!” he demanded, panicked. “What is this thing, get it out!”
I was aware of voices, panicked, shouting at each other to get it out, to do something.
I didn’t pay attention to any of those. All I could see was Jameson’s sky blue eyes when they locked on mine, his fingers when he carefully touched me.
“Oaklee,” he said. “I love you.”
If I were in human form, I would have told him I loved him, too. I whimpered, and the darkness stretched over me like a blanket. I felt cold—so very cold.
And then I felt nothing at all.
24
OAKLEE
When I opened my eyes, the light was bright, and I turned my head.
Where was I?
The bed around me was soft and large, with gray and black sheets and four-square posters reaching up to a square frame.
The walls were charcoal gray. Black leather couches huddled together facing a large window that looked out over an immaculate garden, where the sun poured in from.
One wall was covered in black shelves, filled with books. The other wall had black and white photography prints of a woman I knew and a woman I didn’t.
Carletta and Delaney.
I tried to sit up, but I had no energy. I was drained and fell back onto the pillows.
How had I gotten here? What had happened?
I racked my mind for something to remind me. I vaguely remembered fire, the smell of burning wood acrid in my nose. The crackle of flames, the screams and roars of wars.
My dad, slamming the amulet into my chest.
I lifted my hand and touched my chest, pulling the neckline of my shirt down. An ovel burn mark sat on my skin, red and angry.
The power that had coursed through my body came back in a memory so vivid, I thought it might be happening again, and I cried out.
“Oaklee, hey, it’s okay,” a familiar voice said, and Nadia came to me. Her hair hung down her back in a braid, and her eyes were warm. “You’re okay.”
