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Several shifters backed away, but it was still a long way to the low-lying door, and there were a lot more of them than us.
Nikkos walked behind us, snarling at shifters as they closed in around us. Magic flooded into my chest, thrumming like a drum.
The crowd up ahead parted, and Helena and her two frightening grandsons blocked the exit. Even more terrifying were the dozens of glowing eyes peering into the tavern’s low windows.
Ember and Aurora wrapped their arms around my waist, trembling against me.
“Do we go to a safe place?” Aurora asked me.
“Not yet,” I answered. “I’ll tell you.” I thought about asking Aurora to teleport all of us out of here, but I didn’t know if she could transport that many people. She’d only ever teleported her sister and me.
Leaning on her cane, Helena focused on me. “You’re leaving already?” She flashed a tight smile.
Don’t show them fear,Blaze projected to me.
“Yes,” I said, turning up my chin. “We must get an early start if we’re to make it to my mates’ estate by evening.”
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Blaze added, then his eyes hardened. “Now please let us pass.”
Helena and her goons didn’t budge as the other wolves closed in around us. It felt as if the shifters had sucked the last of the air out of the room as I struggled to draw breath.
Helena banged her cane on the floor, focusing on me with that one good eye. “It was our pleasure to house and feed Finnian and Asher’s children.” Her mouth flattened into a grim line. “Their safety is of utmost importance to us.”
“It’s ours as well,” Blaze said, and Nikkos and I agreed.
Do not show fear. Do not show fear.
“Tell us something, Shirina Avias,” Helena continued, her scowl deepening.
I swallowed back a lump of panic. “Yes?”
“We thought your sister died two years ago.” She gave me an accusatory look. “This morning rumors reached us that a white witch has been spotted in Cyrene.”
Behind me, a chorus of growls rose up like a wave and several howls echoed outside.
They’ll know if you’re lying,Blaze warned me.
“I’ve heard the same,” I confessed, refusing to avert my gaze, though I feared I’d melt beneath her piercing glare.
Her scowl deepened. “Is it her?”
“I believe so.” I nodded toward my mates. “They saw her. She looks different, but as you probably know, my mother has skin shifting magic.”
“And yet now you take her children to Malvolia’s lands.” Her eyes shifted to two golden, feral slits. “Why?”
It was then I knew these shifters weren’t letting us walk out of this compound with the girls, which meant I’d have to use my siren voice on all of them, the shifters in this tavern and the growing throng gathering outside. My chest and throat felt heavy with magic. I averted my gaze for a heartbeat, long enough for the old wolf to know I was hiding something. “It’s a long story.”
Her lips pinched and her nostrils flared. “One we’d be interested in hearing.”
“My parents used a mind spinner to erase my sister’s memories,” I confessed, the words tripping off my tongue like they were racing for the exit. “They lied to me and told me she’d been killed by a bear.”
Helena frowned. “That was the story we’d heard, that she’d been mauled by a bear.”
“When I found out my parents were going to change our memories, too, I escaped with my nieces.” I swallowed back bile as the wall of shifters closed tighter around us, looking like creatures of nightmares with their long maws extended. “That’s when I found my fated mates.”
Blaze and Nikkos pushed the wolves back with their smoke, but I knew they wouldn’t be able to hold them back forever.
Helena arched a thin, white brow. “And now you go to Delfi?”
