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“Get out of here,” I tell her.
“Your black eyes look amazing with that lipstick. Call me.” The Mad Mae drops off the side of the roof, still laughing.
How can there be so many Huntresses up here after all those on the ground? Their god’s panic shout must’ve called in the reserves. My thirst for revenge zeroes its Fury magic on Devlyn.
I uncurl my whip, knowing it will lock on her as easily as my rage has. It catches her around the gauntlet on her wrist, and I yank her toward me. My three years of fight training take over. Gone is the little green witch who cowered over her grimoire, searching for an answer. Now, I know. There is no answer in logic. Only in violence. It’s the Fury way.
We trade blow for blow with me knocking her bloody. Each slice of my whip or split of her skin under my punch spikes my rage. She rakes a claw over my skin, and I lose my mind because this was how they ended my sisters, my parents, me. Avoiding the fangs, I slam my fist into her throat. My Fury wrath loves the sound of her wheezing and the scent of blood coming off her.
Another friggin’ roar comes from near the swamp—that damn panic shout, and the roof trembles beneath us. A chunk of the concrete under our feet collapses, and we both tumble into the smoke and flames. Up and down seem the same in the darkness, and I lose my grip on Devlyn. The charm on my neck flies off, and I’ve sweat through the sigils. If I can’t get my bearings soon, I’ll go splat on the skating track below. At least my whip will stay with me.
Stop thinking. Embrace your instinct. My creator’s order in my head comes loud and clear.
I close my eyes, give in to the fall, and let my Fury gifts focus on what needs to be done. Wiping out those who killed my blood family will save my found family, their families, and my mate.
There. I track Devlyn to the roof, following her over the side when she leaps off the six stories as if that will throw me off her trail.
Not a chance.
This ends now.
I chase her and miss the oncoming pulse of magic that sends me spinning, memories of my death and my family’s pain flooding my mind. Hazel running from the monsters in the front yard. Lowell shouting for her to hurry to safety. Mabel screaming for mommy. I’m slick with my own blood, crawling and stumbling from the carnage in the garden into the house. My mother yells for me to get to the grimoire. I can barely see past the red haze, the blood dripping into my eyes. Hurt and grief and terror ripple through me.
“Sadie,” my sisters call my name, but I can’t tell the difference in now and then, and I plummet headfirst into the swamp below. The water crashes around me, the soothing lap of waves tugging me down, down, down to oblivion.
25
NOLAN
Helping the bear and the mountain lion pull shifters apart annoys me more than it should. Probably because my mate’s off battling the Big Bad and I’m stuck here pulling patrol duty instead of by her side where I belong. I’m exhausted, aching, and not in the mood to play bouncer to a bunch of people acting on chaos brain.
“How many more fights can we break up before we go help the Furies?” I ask Stone.
“You getting anything through the mating bond?”
The link she’d allowed me when she kissed me as though I’d locked lips with a magical live wire. The colors surrounding her had been the only reason I hadn’t lost my sanity when she and her sisters flew away with black eyes and supersized doses of rage. “No.”
He shakes his head, picking up a bobcat shifter by the scruff of her neck as though the teenaged girl isn’t swinging punches for all she’s worth. “I want to be with Kiva as much as you want to go to Sadie, but they need us keeping the order in what will be left of their city, and they won’t like you getting in the middle of their fight.” The bobcat hits him in the ribs, and he roars in her face. “Calm down before you hurt yourself.”
She whimpers, sounding more emo girl than enraged wildlife.
I point a running deer shifter to safety and watch until he’s locked himself inside. “Fear’s making them all psycho.”
“It’s a powerful motivator.” When the bobcat growls at him, he gives her a little shake. “Chase?” he calls for the mountain lion shifter. “You got any more of Sadie’s spelled charms?”
“No.” The mountain lion holds up a candy. “But Tisia left some of her cool it caramels, and those seem to be working to take the edge off.” He holds one out to the bobcat girl who snatches it, swallows, and stops fighting.
“I’ll do a sweep of the—” My voice cuts off as terror spirals through me. Not mine—Sadie’s. The link between us goes dark, a throbbing grey I haven’t seen from her before. “Something’s wrong with my mate.” I move to go to her but remember getting shot the last time I ran after her without thinking things through.
“What’d you sense?” Stone asks, his no nonsense tone cutting through my worry.
“Fear.” I fight a shudder. “Then grey. The link between us is all static.”
“Run,” he says. “Shift on the way. Don’t stop for anything.” The dread in the man’s gaze makes me wonder what he felt through his completed mating bond when Kiva’s first life ended.
I race toward where I felt her when our connection went wrong, dodging the madness around me as I shift and drop to four paws. Calling on my wolf’s bravery, I untangle myself from the clothing and push to go faster. The scent of fear and sweat overwhelm me, and my chest aches where the silver arrowhead pierced, but I don’t care. She’s all that matters.
My wolf darts through the trees toward The Rink and the swamp just beyond it, to the edge of the water where my mate sat fearlessly while the sea hags slithered through the stillness like snakes. Battle cries, the thwang of metal on metal, and the flap of wings surround me. The stench of smoke burns my nose and eyes.
