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As if in a dream, a blurred fuzzy image comes to me, but there is no mistaking Lucianna in bonds tied to a cavern wall and Isala presiding over the room filled with wolves who look hungry enough to attack. “We have to get in there, now,” I tell Angel, feeling the urgency of the situation pulsing through my veins, my heart racing with fear for one of my own.
Visions that until now I didn’t fully believe were real, are clearly now my destiny.
Raven holds me back with a hand to my arm. “Let Rupius and me do our thing. The masters and others will be able to battle the shifters while we sneak in and get Lucianna and the others to safety. Only if this works though,” she says, waving the large wand in front of her.
She begins to chant in a low voice. The words at times distinct, while others are not clear at all. Then she looks to the sky.
With this wand, the sky will storm
Every soul changed will soon return
Back to their intended and natural form…
Her chanting begins low and guttural again in a language that I cannot discern. She reaches for the sky with her wand and arcs it high above her head, cascading the skies with lightning rods of silver, gold, and purple. It begins to rain golden flecks of bright light as the sparkling rods make their way through thesky to the cavern far above, at the same time flocks of screeching birds dive toward the basin of the mountain.
“Let’s go,” Raven says, holding our hands. It’s not clear to me if this time Angel has transported us or if Raven has done some other source of magic that makes us move through the night like the vampires. We enter darkness and then reach the inner dwelling of the cavern seemingly without travel at all.
Lucianna has gotten herself free and is going sword to sword, battling a wild eyed Isala. I step over the shifters on the ground, some with eyes open and others not, but all clearly impacted by whatever Raven has done.
“Those on the floor must have been cursed by a witch. If not, they wouldn’t have been affected and would still be attacking us,” Raven cries, drawing her own blade in one hand although still wielding her wand in the other as snarling wolves come at us from all directions.
More shifters leap into the cavern coming at us from every direction, coming in through large cracks in the mountain side. A yellow eyed wolf with a large black patch leaps into the air, leaving me no choice but to run him through with my dagger. If he wasn’t working on his own and not the witch’s spell, he would be laying on the ground, dazed and confused like his brothers.
No, it’s clear this one knows exactly what he’s doing and who he wanted to kill. A traitor to Sheba and to the vampires alike. I heave the blade of my sword from his chest, leaving him to bleed out on the floor, spinning just in time to see another wolf lunge directly at me, but not quick enough to ready my sword.
His teeth tear into the flesh of my arm, sending white hot molten pain coursing through my body. He shouldn’t have assumed I was down for the count, though, because I still have one good arm and a whole lot of steel hanging on my chest and belt.
I pull one of my daggers from its holster, sinking it deep into one of his eyes. He howls and foams at the mouth, writhing on the floor, but he’s made his bed and now he can lay in it.
The entire cavern is filled with wolves, humans and masters all paired off battling in the fight of their lives. I scan the fierce crowd for Lucianna, finding her pushed against the back wall by three wolves with Isala flaunting the point of her sword at the woman who will someday be our queen.
I will myself to the other side of the room, sending a dagger into the back of a shifter’s neck, causing another to turn and attack. He should have looked before he leaped, though, because my long sword was out and ready to send him straight to hell before he even turned around. I drive the heavy blade through his traitorous heart, this time pulling it out quickly, my strength and resolve growing stronger every minute.
The last shifter eyes me and then Isala. “Take care of her, you stupid asshole!” Isala shrieks. The wolf turns and puts his head down, his right foot pawing the ground while his back heel rocks in preparation to spring. “You would actually die for the same bitch who treats you with such disrespect?” I ask.
His eyes narrow. “When we rule the underground…”
I cut him off. “You won’t rule anything because even if Isala wins this fight, you won’t be her equal; you’ll be nothing but a yes man, doing her dirty work and getting none of the respect of the past.”
He eyes me, warily, trying to determine if my conversation is a ruse, but he needn’t worry now. It’s already worked. It’s given Lucianna just the time she needed to catch her breath from the vicious wound on her shoulder.I can take her out if you choose Lucianna.
She shakes her head.No, she is mine to resolve, Tansia. Watch out for the wolf behind you.
The dagger leaves my hand, arcing into the air, the minute his feet leave the ground, burying itself deep into his throat, while I spin using the long sword to sever the head of the wolf leaping toward me from behind.
Lucianna goes blade to blade with Isala, while I scan the cavern to ensure no more wolves are coming to make it an unfair fight. Calabrea has freed Master Trentino, and he is in a battle of his own with a wolf on the other side of the cavern, each thrusting and jabbing, steps forward and then steps back, neither seemingly gaining ground until I see exactly what Calabrea is doing.
When he gets the shifty bastard to step back, three more in his pack join him, but by that time, it’s far too late for them. Calabrea spins, wielding the longsword steady and true, slicing off the head of one, while the others step back from the fray, only to drop from the steep and jagged side of the cliff.
The rest of the shifters race for the large crevices in the mountainside, knowing full well they’re not about to win this fight. I watch Lucianna, as does her mate and everyone else in this room, knowing full well just how difficult of a fight emotionally this must be for our future queen. But she is formidable without a weapon and even more so with her blade. She’s worn her opponent down, the weariness clear in Isala’s stance and inability to adequately hold her sword.
Lucianna finally pins her to the wall…
Everyone in the room holds their breath because we’ve all either seen it or heard the rumors of her disappearing right before her sister’s very eyes before. “Who’s the witch helping you?” Lucianna asks, the steel tip of her blade pointed directly at her sister’s heart.
Isala lowers her blade, admitting defeat with the gesture, but still standing tall and proud in her long green dress. “Don’t make me repeat myself,” Lucianna says.
Isala’s purple eyes flash, and she begins to laugh. No one moves or makes a sound, except for Raven. Raven walks past me and stands next to Lucianna.
