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I smacked the ground with my hand, standing up and handing him his bag. With all the strength I had, I reached back and then threw the tracking stone as far as I could in the direction opposite of the one we’d been headed in. I’d aimed to have it land on top of a building or a fire escape, hoping that would throw them off.
“We have to move fast,” I said, taking off in a run with Nova at my side.
Markus ran beside me, silent.
Betrayal hurt.
I would know.
For a brief moment in our childhood, he’d befriended me. Played nice with the little broken shifter girl who’d lost her dad and didn’t have a wolf. If some part of the excuses he gave were true, that would be the brief inspiration for the wild tale. But it didn’t take long for him to use that friendship and false sense of safety to hurt me so much worse.
The first time I had ever been hit was because of him. He’d done something shitty to another kid and blamed me. Later, I’d gotten kicked off the monkey bars at an old playground and suffered a concussion for it.
Prick.
Still, my family had never betrayed me. Privileged or not, that had to sting.
We ran for what felt like miles, but it was just enough to get us out of town. Crossing into the trees, our feet met wet and muddy earth. I refused to slow down. We came up to the border between No Man’s Land and Blood and Beryl’s territory. An invisible barrier, but the hint of a magic line shimmered in the darkness.
Markus threw out his arm beside me, catching me in the chest, and I came sliding to a stop. Nova did the same, her paws digging into the sludge of the forest floor.
“I hear you, Elina,” Markus called out into the darkness, still holding his arm in front of me protectively. I knocked it out of the way, but he kept his guard up, moving closer to me.
Great. Elina was a witch, and I doubted she’d be alone. I couldn’t see anyone, but I felt it, and so did my wolf. How had he heard her?
She stepped out from behind a tree that we would have passed had we kept going. A wicked grin marred what would have been a pretty face. “You always did know my sounds,” she purred. Looking me up and down in disgust, she tsked, shaking her head. “Really, Markus? You’re trying to protect her? I thought you had better taste than that.”
“Old girlfriend?” I muttered out of the side of my mouth.
“Something like that,” he replied quietly.
Of course he’d dated her. I’d always kept my distance from her. I had no problem with witches. I just had a problem with bullies. Shifters started to filter in from behind her, and she cast a sphere of power, bouncing it between two hands like a baseball.
“What does that do?” I asked him, never having stuck around long enough to acquaint myself with her magic.
“Turns to fire.”
“Fantastic.”
I counted our opponents, trying to form a plan to fight my way through. Four shifters from Mathis’s pack and two witches, one who apparently could throw fireballs.
“What do you want?” Markus asked as they approached slowly.
“Dannika and that dog dead,” a shifter answered.
Markus’s body trembled, threatening to shift. Nova let out a growl that sent the pebbles skittering across the broken concrete street. “You can’t touch her. Tonight is?—”
The witch laughed. “You think we care? Andreas sent us per the Alpha’s order—and now that she’s Houseless, we’re not breaking any laws. Win-win if you ask me.”
Her words echoed in the silence, and I knew Markus was finally understanding the reality of our situation.
He shook his head. “Let us by, Elina. We have no quarrel with you.”
She rolled the magic sphere over her hand, not meeting his gaze. “She dishonored our House, Markus. You would understand that if the mate bond weren’t . . . affecting you. It’s nothing personal. She just needs to die.”
They’d formed their semi-circle, ready to strike and force us back. I had a feeling another group of shifters would be arriving shortly, and they’d be coming in behind us.
We were well and truly fucked.
