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“Get! Out!” Celeste shouted, managing to throw one of the witches into the back wall. Her neck snapped back, and her skull made a wetthunkbefore she crumpled, sliding to the floor in a heap. For a moment, the siren faltered, and time sped back up. I got a few steps closer before she began again, pointing one gnarled finger at me. One of the lions tackled Lyka to the ground, raking her claws across his side, but he didn’t cry out. He seemed paralyzed by the same song.
What am I doing? I need to help him!
I urged my legs tomove, but they felt heavier by the second.
Suddenly, Keziah came hurtling across the room, tackling the siren from the side. The creature erupted into pained screams, rabidly tearing and biting at the auburn wolf. Keziah snarled and snapped back, the two of them tangled in a mess of limbs, claws, and teeth.
I forced myself back to my feet, racing over to aid my brother as he managed to kick the lioness off his side. There was a hitch in his gait as he lurched sideways to dodge another bite.
Delila snarled, throwing the same dark witchfire I’d seen Sabine hurl only days before, but now I didn’t care. The eccentric witch had pledged her loyalty decades ago, and if dark magic was what it took to dispatch all these damn shifters, so be it.
Celeste went running in the other direction. After Keziah tossed the siren to the side, Celeste was there to finish the job, calling upon the strength of the wind to paralyze the siren and steal the air from her lungs, preventing her from starting another song. Springing forward, Keziah grabbed the gagging siren by the neck, splashing her blood across the stone.
“Is that everyone?” Piers asked, sounding slightly breathless as he dropped the second witch to the floor. I looked over a fewmoments later once I was certain the third lion shifter was dead, realizing he’d bitten her. Taking a ragged breath, I resumed my human form and staggered to one side, surprised by how weak I felt.
“Take it easy, Fenris,”Lyka said, taking his human form next to me. He caught me by the elbow.“It’s only minutes away now.”
“I feel…” I scowled as I looked across the room, realizing it was, in fact, darkening. I looked up at the ceiling and the hole there. It was meant to let in the light of the moon, but all I could see now was another way for more of the Solar Sovereign’s followers to get in.“Forget me. Make sure no one else gets in,”I said, pushing Lyka away.
He growled at me, wiping at a streak of silver blood dripping down his temple.“Don’t be foolish.”
Celeste and Delila had reconvened in the center of the room, the older witch having used another summoning spell to retrieve the small bag of ingredients Celeste needed from our tent. The two of them were working quickly to lay items out, but I realized I could scarcely perceive anything as the world around me wobbled. Or it wasmewho was swaying. Lyka spoke, his grip tightening on my arm, but I struggled to understand.
The roaring in my ears had grown deafening, and I felt a familiar tug on my wolf. He howled and writhed in agony, but unlike all the other times he was in pain, he didn’t force himself forward. Instead, it felt like he was trying to retreat further within. Pain wracked through me, and I trembled violently. If Lyka hadn’t been there to steady me, I would’ve fallen to the floor, gasping and clawing at the stone. His expression had morphed from concern to…
To…
Fear?
For the first time in hundreds of years, I was truly vulnerable. I could die, and I wouldn’t be reborn. And Ifeltlike I might die, like the moon’s shadow had somehow sucked all the vitality out of me, and I was only held together by Celeste’s presence in the corner of my mind. It was the only anchor point I had left. I had no idea what she was doing anymore, but her certainty, her determination, was what I could focus on.
Just a few minutes,I tried to tell myself. The eclipse would only last seven minutes. I only had to survive for seven minutes.
Suddenly, Celeste gasped, and I finally forced myself to move, still on my hands and knees. I craned my neck enough to look for my fated mate and realized she was grabbing at the strange mark on her chest. My concern gave me a brief burst of adrenaline as I dragged myself closer to her. She was clearly in pain, but it seemed to pass after several ragged breaths, and she straightened up before glancing at me. “It’s okay, Fenris,” she said, sounding breathless.
“What is it?” I finally managed to ask.
She offered me a fleeting smile, her attention already back on the spell. “It’s all right. That was just a reminder.” Whateveritwas, she wasn’t saying, but I could sense it through our bond. Her determination wasn’t wavering. If anything, her resolve had only hardened a bit more.
I frowned, about to press the issue when realization struck.She’s resisting the order to kill me.
Whatever she was thinking about, Celeste didn’t waste a moment as she called upon the power of the total eclipse. I felt a shudder ripple through me, and I realized she must be casting the spell to tie our life forces together. When I felt the tug of magic this time, it wasn’t painful; it was simply a strange sensation.
She turned to me. “I need a drop of your blood, Fenris,” she said, crouching close to me.
I pushed myself up into a sitting position and held out my hand. She took the knife and pricked one of my fingers before placing my hand over a bowl. Giving my fingertip a gentle squeeze, she dropped the shimmering liquid into the bowl of water below. Without a word, she did the same to herself, pricking a fingertip and squeezing out a drop of red blood.
I couldn’t look away, feeling as though I was staring into the universe between us. Celeste murmured as I felt a soft wave of magic growing before it crested. I paused and glanced at her, about to ask if it was working when I caught sight of her expression. Celeste looked exhausted, like she felt as hollow as I did, even though the eclipse was supposed to lend her magic strength, not take it away. Before I could say anything, a large explosion rocked the building, the stone groaning and cracking as screams erupted outside.
I forced myself to my feet, hurrying toward the door to try and keep anyone from getting inside to Celeste. The others had already left; they must have gone out while Celeste was completing the ritual. Piers was grappling with another vampire while Lyka tangled with an enemy wolf shifter. I could see he was badly favoring one of his hind legs, and his dark pelt shimmered with silver blood as he snarled and bit. As soon as he fought off the first wolf shifter, another took its place.
I couldn’t even see Keziah or Delila, but I didn’t have the time to hope they were all right or search them out among the fray. Other shifters had come up from the jungle to help defend the temple from the Solar Sovereign.
No sooner had I thought of her than another fierce cry erupted from the jungle, followed by another explosion. I realized the magic I sensed wasn’t from the explosions—or the witches who’d caused them—but a singular being.It’s her.
I shuddered as the intensity of her anger reached me. She was the antithesis of everything I was. She’d destroy the world as we knew it to reach her apex.
I couldn’t let that happen.
