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Kiara rolled to the side at the last second, and the wolf slashed across the soil, sending dirt and debris soaring.
The next wolf dove for me, but I was ready.
Isiah had gifted me the blade in my hand, and while simple, it had been crafted by the people of Rine, Alec’s kin from the north. When it sliced through the air, it whistled, a song of promise.
The creature shifted back, but I’d nicked him, a superficial cut, one that had his hackles rising.
Somewhere nearby, I heard an irritated scoff. Patrick, likely sitting back and enjoying Lorian doing his dirty work. He didn’t appear keen on getting his hands dirty.
Jake cursed as his wolf parted the fog and pounced, but he managed to duck and roll. I sent a prayer to Maliah, Goddess of Revenge and Redemption, hoping she’d aid him, but for now, I had to focus on my own battle.
The wolf came at me again, this time going right for the throat. Pain lanced down my neck while I shoved myself to the ground, and thick warmth slid down to my collarbones. I swallowed hard. While not enough to kill me, it hurt like a bitch.
Between that and the cut Patrick had inflicted, I’d be lucky to have a patch of skin not bleeding by the end of this.
Jumping to my feet, I waited until the animal was a few feet away before I moved. When it lunged, I vaulted onto its back, digging my fingers into its pristine white hide.
It howled, attempting to buck me off, but I held on, knowing that if I died, Kiara and Jake would be by themselves. That thought strengthened my hold, and that same heat I’d felt when healing Kiara resurfaced in a sickening rush.
My entire body became a living and breathing flame.
Around me, the Mist lightened, and when my gaze landed on Lorian’s, a stunned expression marred his rugged features.
With the fire in my veins and an unbreakable purpose swelling in my heart, I twisted down and thrust Isiah’s blade into the wolf’s head with a roar. Lorian’s beast thrashed up and then jerked violently before dropping to the ground, taking me with it. I shifted out of the way, rolling so I wasn’t pinned beneath hundreds of pounds of muscle and fur.
When I stilled, I stole a peek at Kiara, who had a nasty cut across her right arm. She’d gotten in a blow of her own, her wolf’s hide matted with red. Not a lethal wound.
She smiled as it kicked at the dirt with one paw, preparing to pounce. Shadows swirled along her frame, darkening when she lifted her hands, one gripping her blade. The other, however, she opened, aimed directly at the beast.
“Kiara!” I shouted, just as the wolf soared. It knocked her onto her back, but she didn’t drop her grin. If anything, it flourished.
I bounded over, about to drive my dagger into his side, when pure night shot out of her.
Tendrils of it blasted from her body, wrapping around the wolf’s thick neck. Her teeth were gritted in determination, her eyes narrowed on her kill.
The wolf’s head snapped off its body.
It didn’t even have time to cry out as her shadows devoured it, as they spun around its fallen head. Only when they ceased, flying back into her body, did I see what remained of the wolf.
Ash.
For a heartbeat, Kiara’s smile turned wicked, her eyes dimming, but then they cleared, and her smile dropped as she turned to Jake, concern causing her brow to wrinkle. But I’d seen it; how she seemed to radiate the darkness itself and all of the nightmares it concealed. I should have been afraid—and maybe, in truth, I was—but the emotion at the forefront was pure relief.
Kiara had ripped off her mask, finally allowing the world to see the two sides of herself: the light and the dark. Such a creature shouldn’t exist, but there she stood, proof of the impossible.
“Jake!” She jumped up and raced to her friend, who had managed to get himself halfway across the clearing of Midnight Blooms. He was barely holding his wolf back.
As she went to help Jake, I turned my sights on Patrick and a god. I had faith that she’d best the wolf. Again, pride overwhelmed me; how lucky I was to have her on my side.
Lorian bared his teeth as we killed his creatures, but his focus locked on Kiara, anger and confusion scrunching his heavy brow. But Patrick? He looked murderous.
“Do something!” he shouted at Lorian, getting in his face.
Not a wise move.
Lorian whirled in place, his broad hand wrapping around Patrick’s neck in a blink. He lifted the boy in the air. “I promised you my wolves, nothing more,” Lorian seethed, dropping Patrick like a sack of potatoes. “And I never saidIwould help, should they fail. You’re already costing me much more than you know.”
The god looked to me then, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of surprise float between us, an odd sort of connection that held no explanation. He, too, paused, his mouth twisting in a grimace.
