Date: 2000-01-01 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Paranormal; Urban Fantasy; Witches; Magic; Fiction; Supernatural; Romance; Shapeshifters
Description: Alternate cover edition of ASIN B07CT38KNZ From the world of Rylee Adamson and the Elemental Series comes a heroine with nothing to lose and everything to prove…. My name is Pamela, and I am a witch who has no equal. Or so I thought. It has been three years since the Destroyer sundered our world. The land is no longer whole, but broken into pieces, most technology gone, and the continents shattered into an unrecognizable place. New monsters have risen from the depths, adding danger on top of danger. Through it all the humans fight to survive as they compete not only with the supernaturals for
Publisher: Hijinks Ink Publishing

Aimless Witch

Questing Witch Book 1

Shannon Mayer

Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

4. Three Years Later

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Afterword

Copyright

Aimless Witch, Questing Witch Series, Book 1

Copyright © HiJinks Ink Publishing 2018

All rights reserved

Published by HiJinks Ink Publishing.

www.shannonmayer.com

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a database and retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the owner of the copyright and the above publishers.

Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Original Cover art by Damonza

Original Photography by With Magic Photography

Mayer, Shannon

Created with Vellum

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the help of the usual crew of editors, copy editors, ARC team, and my family putting up with my absence, staring off into space as I daydreamed about the story. More importantly, this book would not have been possible without Stephanie Erickson. Your help, brainstorming and encouragement was everything needed to help this book come to life. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. ❤️

Chapter One

“Little witch,” the voice called to me softly, gently, “you have to get up. We can’t stay here. The fires are closing in and the ground is still shaking.” A paw patted my cheek and I slowly opened my eyes to stare into the face of my familiar. A tiny peach-colored tabby cat splashed with white markings.

I groaned and rolled to my hands and knees. “How long was I out?”

Oka sat on the rocks beside me. “Only an hour. The world is still shattering.” She shivered, and a gust of wind rippled across her fur. Only it wasn’t wind, per se, but heat flowing off the fires that burned around us.

I wiped a hand across my face. I shouldn’t have been able to sleep while the world broke around me, but we’d been running for twenty-four hours and I was exhausted. I wobbled to my feet and pulled my thick cloak around me. I wiggled my fingers at Oka and she leapt into my arms, then crawled to my shoulders and draped herself across them.

I did a slow turn. The ground was charred in every direction, the fire burning outward, away from us. To be fair, I’d started it. I turned and looked over my shoulder. Fifty feet away lay the charred remains of the trolls that had attacked. Smoke still curled up from the bones.

“It’s no wonder you passed out,” Oka said. “That much power after running as long as we were.” She shook her head. “That’s not how to train your abilities.”

I didn’t have the energy to argue with her. I’d lost my bag in the fire, so I had no food, no water, no clothing, no weapons. I sighed and held a hand up to the sky, tapping into one of the five elements I carried. A rush of cool air coursed down my arm and then in the palm of my hand, water condensed, pulled from the air around us. I brought it to my mouth three times, until my thirst was slaked, then offered it to Oka.

“What direction?” Oka asked.

“Does it matter? The world won’t be anything like what we remembered. For all we know, we could be on an island now.” I took a step, then another and another. There was no direction here, just movement to stay alive.

We walked for hours, and when we finally stopped, it was only because my legs gave out. Exhaustion, hunger, and apathy did me in. I struggled to care about what happened to me.

I’d done this. I’d been the one to bring about the destruction of the world. No small weight for a fifteen-year-old to carry even if I’d only been a tool to open the cracks and not the actual hammer that had shattered our world.

I crumpled to the ground near a pile of trees that had come down and pulled my thick purple cloak over me. I stared at the color, how it stood out against the chaos and darkness around me. I smoothed a finger over it, running the thinnest thread of magic into the cloth, tweaking the color until it was a deep, dark green. At least it was a natural color.

“You need to eat something,” Oka whispered.

“I need to sleep.” I closed my eyes, squeezing out a few tears as I did. She was my familiar, and she could feel my emotions even if I wasn’t willing to talk about them.

The ground beneath me rumbled and the sound of trees coming down made me hunch tighter underneath the cloak.

Oka disappeared, and for just a second, I thought maybe she was leaving me. Her thoughts came through loud and clear.

Don’t be silly. I’m here with you, Pamela. You didn’t do anything wrong. You helped the Destroyer do what this world needed—cleansing. It’s hard now, but it will get better.

I wanted to ask her where she was going, but I felt her intention as the question formed. She was looking for food for both of us.

Sleep caught hold of me, fitful and restless, but better than nothing at all. My dreams were all fire and tornadoes, of my family staring at me and asking me why I would do this. I saw the questions in their eyes. They didn’t understand what I had to do to help the Destroyer. Even if I didn’t fully understand the consequences.

That was a bitter pill to swallow. I’d not fully grasped how bad it would be when she—the Destroyer—actually pulled the world apart piece by piece. To save us all, she’d destroyed everything.

It looked a hell of a lot better on paper than in real life.

I shivered and woke as Oka approached, dragging something with her. I sat up and stared.

“A rat?”

“Sorry.” She shrugged and dropped the oversized rodent at my feet. “Only thing I could find alive and worth eating.”

I only had one knife on me. I pulled it from the sheath at my lower back and used it to open the rat, gut it, and peel the skin from its tiny body. My gorge rose a couple times, but I bit it back.

There was a good chance we weren’t going to be eating again for a few days, so it was time to buck up and take the hits head on. I started a small fire with a flick of my fingers at a space of rock at my feet and the flames sprang up.

“You wouldn’t use so much energy if there was wood involved,” Oka pointed out. I shrugged.

“I barely feel the drain for a fire that size.” I cut the rat in half and handed the top bit to her. She took it and crunched through the bone and skull. I put my lower half onto the flames. Cooking rat shouldn’t have smelled so damn delicious, but the scent wafted up my nose and my stomach rumbled while my mouth filled with saliva.

There was a shuffle of feet against the rocky ground behind me and to my right. I whipped around to see a girl a little younger than me staring back. Her green eyes were wide, and she was covered in ash, her face nearly black with it. Dark brown curls sprang out in every direction even though she’d clearly tried to tame them.

“I saw your fire,” she whispered. “Can I sit with you?”

I nodded. “Yes, of course.”

She blinked a few times, then flinched as the ground gave a shudder. She wrapped her arms around her upper body. “Are you from England?”

I forced a smile. “I grew up there, yes.” Funny to think that I considered all my growing up years to have been done by the time I was thirteen. At fifteen, I felt like an adult.

Then again, I’d done more in the last couple years working with other supernaturals to stop a demon invasion and saving the world than most humans do their entire lives.

Which made me helping to destroy it that much worse. Suddenly my appetite was gone. “Are you hungry?” I pointed at the roasting rat.

The girl didn’t hesitate. She snagged the back leg of the rat and pulled it right off the fire. It had to be burning her fingers, but she didn’t slow down. How long since she’d eaten last? I’d guess at least a few days.

Oka gave me a look. “That was for you, Pamela.”

“I know,” I whispered, then turned to the girl. She wouldn’t be able to hear Oka and wouldn’t understand why I was talking to her. “What’s your name?”

“Macy.” She smiled around the rat. “And you?”

“I’m Pamela, and this here is Oka.” I pointed to my familiar who sat glaring, her yellow-green eyes narrowed as they watched the girl eat my meal.

Macy squinted. “She looks a bit cranky. Is she an old cat?”

Her question caught me off guard and I laughed, a sound that seemed totally out of place sitting where we were, the world crashing to pieces around us. Oka snorted, stood and made her way to my lap where she curled up.

“She made you smile, so I don’t feel bad about feeding her now,” the peach-colored cat grumbled. I put a hand on her, still smiling.

“She’s not old,” I shook my head. “Just protective of me, which can make her look grumpy.”

Macy shifted a little closer to me, rubbing her arms. She only wore a thin, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. The temperatures were all over the place, but one thing was certain, the nights were damn cold.

I lifted my cloak edge and Macy scooted underneath with me, shivering. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

I kept the fire going longer than I wanted, but it would keep us warmer than not. And even without the food, my energy level had come up a little with the rest. Macy’s eyes drooped, and she fell asleep against me. I lifted my hand to the sky and pulled a few mouthfuls of water to me, enough to take off the edge of the hunger that had returned.

I fell asleep sitting up, holding Macy and Oka, our combined body heat with the fire helping us fend off the cold of the night.

The next morning came with a boom and a crash, and the sound of guttural roaring. I leapt to my feet, flung Oka off my lap and sent Macy to the ground, flat on her belly.

I spun to see a pair of purple-skinned trolls tromping our way.

Macy grabbed at me. “Hurry, we have to run. They’re slow enough we can keep ahead of them.”

I raised an eyebrow. “They were chasing you?”

She cringed. “I’m sorry. I thought I’d lost them.”

“Pamela.” Oka only said my name, but I heard the warning in it.

“I’m not going to overdo it,” I said.

Macy frowned. “What?”

I waved a hand at Oka. “She’s my familiar, and I can hear her talking.” Any other time I would have kept that to myself, but the truth was the supernatural world was no longer a secret. It was freeing to not have to hide who I was.

Or what I was capable of doing.

The trolls saw us finally and they picked up speed, their loose flesh dancing and jiggling as they shuffle-ran our way.

“I hate trolls,” I growled. Oka puffed up beside me and then in a burst of light, her body shifted, changing from a tiny peach-colored cat to a six-hundred-pound stripeless tiger.

She let out a roar, baring all her pearly whites. The trolls slowed and stumbled to a stop.

“Oy, oy, we just want the girl,” the one on the right said, pointing at Macy.

I laughed at him. “Oy, I think not, mate.” I found myself falling back into my childhood lingo the more agitated I was, which only agitated me further. I was not a child being sold to trolls again.

Troll on the left said, “Why don’t we just eat the two of them?”

“You see the tiger there, dummy?” Righty snarled. “Unless you want to try and get past it first?”

Lefty shrugged, reached over and picked up his buddy so fast I barely blinked, and Righty was sailing through the air toward Oka.

She leapt up and caught the troll with her big paws, then rode him to the ground, slashing with four-inch claws, tearing his belly apart with a few well-placed blows.

I looked at Lefty. “That wasn’t very nice.”

He grinned and pulled a stick from behind him. “I’m not very nice.” He pointed the stick at me but before he could do anything, I tapped into my connection with the earth. I softened the ground and sucked him under, all the way to his neck, then firmed the ground again.

I checked on Oka and Righty. He was dead. She was covered in blood. She hated trolls almost as much as I did. Probably because she knew what they’d done to me all those years ago. I shook my head. Not going there; this was not the time.

Lefty struggled against the hold I had on him. “Lemme go!”

I stood in front of him, a well of darkness flowing up through me, from the soles of my feet all the way through my body. Light and dark, I knew they were both a part of me, but the darkness called to me in a way that I struggled to fight, more so when I was in danger. The darkness was strength and ruthlessness to protect those I cared for no matter the cost. Like a dark phoenix rising through me, I embraced it. “No, I will not let you go.” I softened the ground further, shoving him down, deeper and deeper until his cries were gone, muffled under the earth.

I took a step back and turned to see Macy staring at me, her eyes so wide, they were likely to fall out.

“Macy,” I said softly as if talking to a wild animal likely to bolt, “I’m a witch. And I can protect you. I won’t let them hurt you. I promise.”

She blinked a few times. “Why would you do that? You don’t even know me.”

I looked to the side and Oka shifted back to her house cat form, a grimace on her face, blood still splattered across her pale orange coat.

The ground below us rumbled again and a crack appeared between Macy and me before I could explain my reasoning. I ran toward her, my cloak flaring out behind me as the crack widened, threatening to separate the three of us. I leapt over it, barely landing on solid ground on the far side. “Oka, hurry!”

“I’m on it!” she called back and then she was there, landing beside me light as a feather before she bounded ahead of us, leading the way.

We ran for what felt like hours as the ground cracked and split, trees falling around us. Somewhere around midday, we stumbled onto an old paved road and followed it until we could go no more.

The rumbling of the ground stopped finally, but that was when the real storm rolled in.

I stood panting, sweat cooling across my face as I stared up into the sky. “Oh, this can’t be good.”

Black roiling clouds bled through the sky, lightning forking in all directions and the boom of thunder so loud, I felt it to the center of my bones. It stole my ability to take a breath for just a moment.

I looked around us. There was no place to take cover, no cave, and the trees were still being split by lightning.

I held my hand out over the ground and pressed it downward, using my connection to the earth to create a hollow space. “Get in.” I pointed to it and the three of us scooted inside. I pulled the ground around us, creating something of a nest.

Macy clung to me, and I, to her. Oka curled once more in my lap. The cloak was our only real cover against the sudden onslaught of hail the size of my fists.

“Ay!” Oka screeched as a smaller stone bounced off her nose.

“Hang on.” I lifted my head and wove a barrier above us, though the energy it took was more than draining. I was at the end of my reserves.

I held it as the storm raged, my body shaking as hard as the wind around us.

Oka stared up at me. “Pamela, you’re not going to last much longer. You can take energy from me.”

I shook my head. “I need you awake.”

“Macy!” I shouted her name to be heard over the wild storm far from easing off.

She looked up at me, her face streaked with tears. “What?”

“I might pass out.” Even as I spoke, the fatigue from running, using my magic, no food and little sleep burst over me in a rush that left me shaking. “I can’t hold this barrier for much longer.”

“What do you want me to do?” she yelled. I didn’t really know. But I had to give her a goal to keep fear at bay. I’d learned that as a youngster in this world. Goals kept you from realizing how bad your life was.

“Get to some sort of cover,” I said, and then I was sliding out of consciousness. The hail would pummel me into the ground; there was nothing else I could do, though. There was no way I could even get to my feet.

The barrier fell, the weather slammed into us, and I blacked out completely.

Chapter Two

There was nothing for I don’t know how long. My body was done, bruised and battered from the hailstones, tired beyond anything I’d ever felt before.

A voice singing was what I woke to, and for just a moment, I could believe that I was somewhere safe. Maybe at home with the family I’d made myself leave behind.

I sat up, groaning as rocks dug into my butt. “Oka?”

“I’m here,” she murmured. A soft nose nudged against my outstretched hand.

The first thing besides the dark I noticed was the quiet. There was no storm, no rumbling of the ground breaking into shards.

“Am I dead?” I felt a little stupid asking the question, but this amount of quiet was not what I expected.

Oka laughed, and a paw settled onto my hand. “No. You aren’t dead. Right after you passed out, a big truck rolled up. We didn’t even hear it over the storm. They tossed us in the back along with Macy.”

Trapped, we were trapped. My heart rate shot through the roof, but then I realized we were on hard ground, not the metal of a truck bed. “How long have I been out?”

“A full day,” Macy said, answering before Oka could. I turned to her voice and finally my eyes fully adjusted; I could see her crouched in the front of a tent flap. She crawled in with me. “This family saw us and scooped us up. They don’t have much, but they are good people.”

I bent at the waist reaching for my toes. “That’s some kind of luck we have.”

Macy sat beside me. “Yeah, that was what I thought too. Here, are you hungry?” She shoved something into my hand. An apple by the feel of it, a little on the dried side. I took it and bit into the shriveled flesh. Good enough for me.

I ate the apple, core and all, and had to stop from licking my fingers. God only knew how dirty they were. I crawled out of the tent and pushed to my feet. The sky above us still rolled with black clouds, but here and there, breaks showed a brilliant flash of stars. Brilliant to me, anyway, as it told me more than anyone else could have.

Oka sat beside me. “I think it’s almost over. The breaking, that is.”

I nodded but said nothing. I had a feeling that while the breaking was nearly over, this mess I’d helped to create was only just beginning. There would be no happy endings here.

“Ah, there you are,” a new voice called out to me. Male. But not deep, more of a tenor.

I turned to him as he held up a lit lantern. I shaded my eyes. “Hello. Thank you for helping us.”

My manners had been drilled into me as a child, and I wasn’t about to start slacking now.

He grinned. “Well, me and Susy, we saw you two huddled under the hailstones and we couldn’t just leave you there. I’m Hank.”

I held my hand out and we shook. Hank had a farmer’s hands, rough and weathered, and I realized his face was not much better. He might have been younger than I initially thought.

“We’re planning on moving along at a slow pace. See who we can pick up as we go, who we can help. You interested in joining us?” He glanced down at Oka. “You can even bring your cat there.”

Warmth spread through my chest. The humans were not lost. There were still kind ones in this world yet. “Yes, and I can help too. Is anyone sick or injured?”

Oka dug a claw into my leg. “You are too weak, Pamela. You need to eat properly, or rest more.”

I bent down and scooped her up, then turned to Hank. “I can help.”

“Are you a nurse?” His brows furrowed. “You ain’t old enough to be a doc.”

I made myself smile. “There is more to this world than humans. You’ve surely seen that?”

He paled a little under the warm light of the lantern. “You’re one of those supes?”

“I’m a witch, yes.” I held my hand up and called on the fire element in me so a flame danced over my palm. “I’m a healer, Hank. I can help.”

He looked at the fire a good long time before he lifted his eyes to mine. “You don’t mean harm, then? There’s been a few … others … that were not nice.”

I lowered my hand. “I was trained to help those who need it. And I believe in that with all my heart. I could never live with myself if I turned my back on those I could actually help.” Hank took a step closer, surprising me, and stared down at me. Not in an aggressive way, but as if he were trying to figure out if I was being honest. I held his gaze. “Hank. If someone is hurt, please let me help them. If you change your mind, Oka and I will go.”

He squinted one eye and then slowly nodded. “I believe you. Come on this way. Susy has a baby in her belly and she’s been getting pains.”

I stumbled a step and Oka snorted. “Now you’ve stepped in it. Healer you might be; midwife you are not, my friend.”

Oka was right, and she was wrong. I could keep Susy from bleeding out. I could heal any wounds she might have from giving birth. But I couldn’t actually assist.

I looked around as he led me a short distance to an oversized pickup truck with huge tires and a camper-like back end built out of plywood.

The ground was openly smoking in places and I couldn’t see a stitch of anything living in any direction, plant or animal. That was a bad sign.

We were going to starve to death. Oka shivered, picking up my fear. “I can find us more rats.”

“Susy, I got the young girl with us. She’s a healer.” Hank opened the homemade door of the truck bed and I peered in. The woman on the bed didn’t look much older than me, the lights around her making her seem even younger if possible. Or maybe it was the way her eyes found mine, wide and terrified.

“It’s my first baby,” Susy whispered.

What came next was one of the longest nights of my life. I kept the pain at bay for Susy, working my magic through her body, easing the hurt where I could, and checking her to see if she was bleeding out.

The baby girl came with the light of the day as the sun broke through the storm clouds. I stumbled out and Oka grinned up at me. “You have a good heart, Pamela. It’s one of the things I love about you. But it’s also one of the things that is going to get you into trouble.”

I leaned down, and she rose onto her back feet to butt her head against my hand, then she wrapped her paws around my wrist and I lifted her into my arms. “You might be right. But I learned from the best to follow my heart.”

She snorted but said nothing else.

The next few days were rough. We moved as quickly as we could, but the road we were on was broken in many places and we had to backtrack more than a few times. I figured out how to extend our fuel reserves by mixing the gasoline and diesel with magic, extending its life, and ours.

During our rest breaks, Oka and I struck out into the forest looking for food. Something that seemed to no longer exist.

With each day that passed, I could see the strain on Hank and Susy. Fear for their child. Fear for each other. Fear for me and Macy, even. They were the adults, and they seemed to think it was their job to look after all of us.

I’d done this.

My belly rolled constantly so when the meager food shares were offered, I took only a portion of my ration. I couldn’t bear to take more. To eat their food when I was the cause of their suffering.

The fourth morning, Oka and I went out into what I was considering now as the badlands to see if we could find anything.

Oka trotted along at my side, her ears swiveling this way and that. “You need to eat, Pam. You can’t keep doing this. You aren’t helping them by being weak as a newborn kitten. I should know.”

I closed my eyes for a brief second and swayed before I took my next few steps. “I know. I just … I need to know that I’m doing something for them. I can’t create food. I can’t even catch anything because there is nothing left to catch.”

As we spoke a strange trilling cut through the air. A bird, by the sound of it, only it was no bird I’d ever heard sing before. “What the hell is that?” I turned to my right where the sound seemed to be coming from. A large crack in the ground wafted steam as so many of them did. I crept closer, the wind whipping my cloak out behind me.

Oka peered over the edge of the hole. The trilling came again as a flock of brightly colored birds burst out of the ground. Oka screeched and flailed, falling backward as I shot a hand into the sky, using my connection to air to pull down a half dozen of the birds.

Birds meant food.

Food meant I was helping.

I’d say we ate well that night, but the little birds didn’t have much meat on them. Still, the fear faded from Hank and Susy, and Macy started telling raunchy jokes that had us cracking up.

For the first time in I couldn’t remember how long, I felt like I was doing something good. Something right. The darkness in me slept, and I left it there, not prodding at it.

The next few days, more of those strange, brightly colored birds appeared. And then other creatures, tiny lizards that shouldn’t have existed in our world. They looked like little dinosaurs and they were fast—far harder to catch than the birds.

Hunger was our constant companion.

But we weren’t starving anymore, so I made myself count that as a win.

Susy walked beside me on the fifth or sixth day, the baby girl—Sunshine—wrapped to her chest as we looked for food. We’d set up camp and it looked like we’d stay where we were for a few days. Susy smiled. “A hot shower. What I wouldn’t give for one.”

Macy sighed. “Cheesecake.”

I groaned. “No, don’t talk about food. Please.”

They both laughed. Susy smiled at me. “How about a mattress with a down duvet?”

“Oh yeah,” Oka moaned from my shoulder. I poked her in the hip.

“You sleep on me, cat. What are you complaining about?”

“You’re all bones,” she grumbled. She wasn’t wrong there. Amazing what just a couple short weeks of no consistent food could do to the body.

Susy and Macy didn’t so much as bat an eye. They’d quickly gotten used to my discussions with Oka. Which was strange and wonderful. Maybe this new world wasn’t all bad.

We didn’t find anything new but managed to grab a couple of the brightly colored birds again. Two weren’t enough for even one person, but at least they were something.

We made our way back to where we’d set up camp. There was a stranger there, a man I didn’t recognize. He spoke to Hank who was nodding quickly. “Of course. Stay with us. The more people we have together, the better.”

The man’s shoulders straightened. “I don’t know about that. Too many people can be a problem too.”

Hank laughed. “Well, as you can see, there aren’t exactly a lot of people left.”

He introduced his wife, Macy, me and Oka. I didn’t speak to the new man, just watched him watching us. He was tall, in his late thirties, dark-haired, and built strong as if he’d been living this life long before the world came apart. In fact, his clothing was damn near clean, not ripped at all, and there wasn’t a stitch of soot on him.

He watched the women like we were commodities. I frowned. “And your name?”

The new guy smiled, but it was tight and didn’t reach his eyes. “Stefan.”

Oka gave a low growl from my shoulder. “I don’t like him.”

Neither did I. But I had no real reason, just a general dislike that I had learned to follow.

Stefan slid off his jacket and under it he was loaded to the hilt. On first glance, I saw four handguns, two knives, and a belt of ammo. It was only then that I saw the weapons at his feet.

I shot a look to Hank and shook my head. This was not a good idea.

But Hank ignored me. I took a few steps back, dragging Macy with me. “What is it?” she asked when we were twenty feet back.

Oka snorted. “Not subtle, Pam.”

“He’s trouble. Keep your distance from him,” I said softly.

“I thought he was cute. In a rugged old man way, of course.” Macy grinned at me, but I did not smile back, and her face fell. “Okay, fine, I’ll stay away from him.”

If only our life would have been as simple as staying away from Stefan, then we would have been fine. But it wasn’t.

And we weren’t fine, not even close.

Chapter Three

Four days passed in relative quiet. Stefan made himself very useful, making sure there was plenty of wood, water, and even food to a degree. He couldn’t catch the colorful little birds like I could, but I wasn’t about to tell him how I did it. No matter how many times he asked.

“Seriously,” he said from across the campfire. “How are you doing it?”

I shrugged and looked away from him. “Luck, I guess.”

He frowned. “I doubt that.”

Hank, Susy, and Macy had agreed with me not to tell Stefan about my abilities. At least, not right away.

Hank cleared his throat. “We’re almost out of fuel.”

My jaw dropped as I stared at him. “What?”

He nodded. “We need to stay here until we know for sure what direction we’re going. Stefan said he knew some people back the way he’d come. They should be along soon.”

People. What kind of people? I whipped my head around to look at Stefan who had a grin plastered on his face. A shit-eating grin, as my mentor would have said. A chill rippled down my back.

“You sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.

“You let the grown-ups talk, little Pammy. Go play with your cat and make a necklace with feathers or something,” Stefan said.

Both my brows shot up, and the darkness in me rose so fast, I couldn’t stop it. I stood and pointed a finger at Stefan. With bands of air, I pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him above the flames.

He was quiet and then he started shouting, so I stuffed his mouth full of air to block the noise. “Stefan, perhaps you’d like to reconsider how you treat me?” He glared at me, his light green eyes almost sparking with the anger that rolled off him. “Do not fuck with me, Stefan. These people here are my family and I will protect them.”

I released him as suddenly as I’d grabbed him, and he hit the ground hard, rolled to the side and came up with a gun pointed at me. Oka snarled, and Hank stood, both hands outstretched as if he could calm the situation.

“You’re one of them supes,” Stefan growled. “You all should be dead.”

I wasn’t concerned. Guns didn’t work around supernaturals. Something in our energy threw off serious vibrations that made the bullets and mechanisms do seriously wonky things. They didn’t shoot straight, in other words.

Before I could say anything else, he squeezed the trigger.

I might as well have been punched in the shoulder by a giant with a club. I was flung backward, shock slowing my mind more than the pain that bloomed, spreading through my body.

Shot. I’d been shot?

The rules of this world have changed, little witch.

That voice was one I’d heard before, the Mother Goddess, and she’d never led me wrong.

I hit the ground hard, and rolled, up on my feet, my good hand outstretched as I knocked Stefan to the ground. Warmth poured down my arm, though to be fair, I could only feel it once it touched my fingers. The rest of my arm was numb.

I was going to teach that bastard a lesson he would never forget. That was my thought.

That was not what happened.

A blast of wind slammed into me, spun me around and then pinned me to the ground. I struggled against it, fighting the bands, thinking at first that Stefan was an elemental.

I struggled to breathe through the maelstrom, and my vision began to dance and trip into the black of unconsciousness.

Oka roared from somewhere that seemed far away from me. I stared up at the sky and struggled to breathe, fighting for every breath as I worked my magic to free myself from the bonds on me.

Only there was no way to free them.

“Hello, daughter of Raven,” a voice said softly, which was so strange that I could hear it over the wind.

The hold on my head loosened and I was able to look to one side, then the other. Five people came toward me. I knew what they were, if not who.

Five elementals, representing five elements. Earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit.

“What do you want?” I asked, fighting not to panic.

I was Raven’s daughter, that was true; and he was, to say the least, reviled for his machinations. There was no doubt in my mind that I was in serious trouble.

The fire elemental stepped forward, her red hair and deep orange-gold eyes marking her as clearly as any stamp. “Well, we want much. But are given little. It is your fault our sanctuaries are broken, but we are forbidden to kill you.”

I swallowed or tried to—she wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know.

Her smile was fierce as she stared at me, like the face of a wolf on the hunt. “You have power as a half-breed that should not be yours, but ours. We are here to take back that which is owed to us. It is the least you can do.”

From her hand dangled a bracelet wrought of silver with a deep red gem that pulsed in the center. She bent and clamped it around my left wrist.

I tried to wiggle away. But there was nothing I could do against this much power. Witch I was, but elementals far outranked me in strength and magic. Especially this many.

Each of the others came forward one at a time, saying much the same thing.

“You owe me. Us.”

“We take what is by rights ours.”

On my left wrist went a bracelet from the water elemental and the air elemental, and on my right, a bracelet each from the earth elemental and the spirit elemental.

As each bracelet clamped onto my arm, the panic in me increased. I couldn’t touch my magic, but I chose to believe it was because of those in front of me, and not the bands they’d put on my arms.

“Now,” the fire elemental said, still smiling, “you will have only your mother’s power as a witch. Pitiful, now that I see the magic in you. All your abilities were powered by your elemental magic. Magic that should never have gone to you.”

“Raven will help me.” I spat the words at them and they looked at each other, laughing and smiling.

“Raven can help no one where he is now. And even if he gets free,” she leaned close, “it would destroy you if he touched those bracelets.”

Whatever belief that I was getting out of this without some sort of punishment fled.

From beyond the elementals came a burst of shouting, gunfire and screams. I strained to look past them, only to see that another truck had shown up, full of men.

Men with guns trained on Hank and Susy.

“Let me go! My friends need me!” I yelled.

The elementals laughed and stepped back, the bonds on me released. “Go then. With nothing but your two hands, half-breed mutt.”

I didn’t believe them. I couldn’t. Still, I tried to remove the bracelets as I pushed to my feet and ran toward my friends. The bracelets were stuck tightly.

I would deal with them later.

Ahead of me, Oka fought in her tiger form against a troop of six men. Six men with guns and knives and trucks lined up behind them. I reached for my connection to the earth … and got nothing but a tingle on my right wrist and laughter behind me.

Sweat beaded down my spine, a cold sweat born of fear, not exertion.

Stefan shouted at Hank to back down, then a shot went off. Hank fell backward, his body jerked once and then was still.

Susy screamed, Sunshine clutched in her arms.

Macy lay on the ground, blood pooling around her, eyes staring lifelessly into the sky.

Stefan and his men took the truck before I reached them and drove away, laughing.

I slid to a stop, dropped to my knees by Hank and put my hands on him. I fought to weave my magic through him to heal the wound in his chest.

Susy was still screaming, and I realized she was screaming at me. To heal Hank. Only I couldn’t.

I stared up at Susy, unable to speak around the fear that had me in its hold with only one thought racing through me over and over.

The elementals had taken it all.

I had no magic.

Four

Three Years Later

Oka trotted along at my side because I was no longer strong enough to carry her. My hand went to my ribcage, a game I played to pass the time as I walked. How many ribs could I feel? All of them was the answer, and they were more pronounced every time I touched them.

Then my fingers slid to my wrists and the fucking bracelets that dangled there. I’d considered cutting my hand off once.

Oka had stopped me.

My jaw ticked, anger making the pangs of hunger and exhaustion recede for a brief second. I’d tried everything to get them off, but there was nothing short of those who’d put them on me changing their minds.

“I need to rest,” I said.

Oka paused and then tipped her head to the side. “Off the road then. It’s far too open.”

She’d been saying that for days. But the road was the easiest path, and as hard as we’d worked to deal with that last mountain range, I needed easy for a bit.

I slumped against a protruding rock and leaned my head against it, swiping some of my long locks away from my face. Tangled, dirty, I didn’t even care. I leaned forward with my head between my knees.

On my back, I had a thin pack with a few small essentials. A pot. A knife. A piece of flint. One shirt.

I kept my head down and Oka slid under me so our noses touched. “I’m going hunting. It looks lusher here than the last section.”

I might have nodded. I’m not sure. She was just gone.

And I was done.

I let my body slide down until I was lying with my back against the rock. I didn’t feel bad for myself. I deserved whatever came to me.

But Oka didn’t deserve to die out here.

I closed my eyes and the darkness that was part of me laughed softly.

Embrace the witch in you, Pamela, and you’ll find strength you didn’t have before.

I opened my eyes and whispered back. “Who are you?”

There was no answer. Each breath I took was labored and I knew my body was nearing the end of its strength. Either we found food, or I was going to die.

Time passed, and I felt a surge of excitement cut through the exhaustion. Oka had found food.

I didn’t sit up but waited for her to come back to me. “A river with fish in it!” she screeched as she slid to a stop in front of me. I stared up at her. She grinned down at me. “Get up, we need to get some fish.”

I wobbled to my feet and followed her off the road—what was left of it—through some sparse trees that had regrown since all the destruction, toward the sound of running water.

Water even would be a boon at this point. I stumbled forward and dropped to my knees and stuck my face in the glacially cold water, drawing in big gulps before I flung my head back, my hair sending out a spray like those stupid shampoo commercials I used to laugh at with my mentor.

Beside me, Oka shifted into her tiger form, and I saw her grimace at the same time as I felt her pain in a literal sense. Shifting took energy, and that was not something either of us had.

She waded into the water and with a single swipe of her paw sent a fish out to me. And we aren’t talking a one-pound trout, but a thirty-pound giant of a fish that had teeth like a fucking shark.

I screamed and rolled as it thrashed toward me. I yanked my knife from my belt and slammed it through the monster fish’s head.

“Sweet baby goddess, Oka, get out of there before you get bit!” I yelled.

She bounded out, shifted and laid on her belly, breathing hard. “Just cut me some of it off. Please.”

I nodded and sliced the fish in half and pushed it across to her, grateful the blade was still sharp. That was the beauty of the knife a friend had given me a long time ago. Or maybe it wasn’t so long ago, but it felt like it.

Everything from before felt like forever ago.

I made myself cut through the side of the flesh, pulled it off and ate it raw.

“I hate sushi,” I said around a mouthful, “but this is amazing.”

I held back, eating only enough to feel just full. We’d done this more than one time, the feast and famine route; we both knew what would happen if we ate too much, too fast.

We spent three days by the river. Eating. Sleeping. Fueling up.

Doing better than we’d done in months. The fish were all teeth and no brains, so they were easy to catch.

I sat at the edge of the water naked, my clothes drying on the rocks to one side. My wrists drew my eyes as they so often did. My pride had done this to me, my belief that I was the strongest, baddest witch around. I snorted at myself. I was such a child then.

“You were old for your age, Pamela. Experience was all you lacked, not humility.” Oka sat beside me and stared across the water with me. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

I rubbed at the bangles as familiar to me as my own body. “The darkness talks to me far more than I want it to, Oka.”

“I hear it too. You aren’t the only one with demons inside.” She tipped her head, her ears swiveling. “Someone is coming, something with an engine.”

I scrambled to get my clothes on, grabbed my pack that had a few pieces of fish wrapped in it, and then we ran for cover. Mostly because we’d learned the hard way when it came to vehicles.

Most of the trucks belonged to Stefan and his gang of right bastards. We’d seen them at a distance a few times, and I’d been sure that he’d seen me. But I had no magic and was pretty much just a girl with a bad attitude. At least I still had that going for me.

Oka and I stayed between a rock and a larger tree, hidden from sight. The trucks stopped, and my heart seemed to freeze in my chest. “Shit. We can’t take them all.”

I was stronger already; being a supernatural meant I did come back quick from adverse situations. Like starving. Even so, I could take two, maybe three guys. Not twenty or thirty like Stefan had with him at last count.

Oka crept forward, belly to the ground.

“Don’t!” I whispered the word, but it was too late, she was gone.

I pinched my fingers together over the bracelets on either side, wishing for the thousandth time that I could remove them. Or that Raven could remove them.

Thoughts of my father scattered as I looked through the thin cover to see the people who approached the river.

Not Stefan.

A caravan of humans, men, women and … children. I stood before I thought better of it.

“Hello.” The word was foreign on my tongue and a few of the men lifted weapons. I held my hands up, the bracelets hidden under a long-sleeved shirt. “It’s just me and my cat.”

Oka was at my feet in a flash. “I was checking it out!”

“They have kids with them, Oka,” I said out the corner of my mouth.

She sighed. “Pamela, don’t do this. You can’t protect them. You know you have no magic.”

Only I did.

I just had to be willing to embrace the darkness in me. I swallowed hard, smiled and stepped out toward the caravan and the humans within it. The children were laughing and dancing around, going straight for the water.

“I wouldn’t let them in the water,” I said. “The fish have very large teeth, even if they are good eating.” Several of the adults swooped the kids up before they reached the edge of the water, despite the protests.

A large man with a big beard and eyes that still held kindness in them approached me, his hand outstretched. “I’m Richard.”

I looked at Oka, nodded and put my hand in his for a shake.

“I’m Pamela.”

And just like that, I was part of a human caravan.

Chapter Five

I’d been with Richard and his crew almost a full month and I still couldn’t believe our luck.

A caravan that had ample food, a decent crew of men for protection and kids? Actual children that had survived? That thought still boggled my brain.

A rustling near the edge of the path sent a flock of archaeopteryx into the sky, their green feathers blurring the lines between the tops of the evergreen trees that lined the narrow trail and the sky. I shook my head, knowing a certain peachy-orange cat would pop out of the brush with one of the archies in her mouth before long.

Three. Two. One.

Oka sprang out of the thick bush with one of the bird/lizard hybrids dangling from her mouth. The humans walking nearest to her swung around, guns and knives raised until they saw the culprit. She gave them what I liked to call her ‘Judging Cat’ eyes and sauntered toward me with her prize, tail held high. The archies were all feathers and scales, hardly worth the effort to take down for the stew pot. But Oka loved the chase and the archies were hardly in danger of going extinct.

And now that we weren’t constantly hunting for food to survive, she’d gone back to being a typical cat. Hunting and killing things for the hell of it.

“Someone’s going to shoot that damn cat one of these days,” a man who walked several feet ahead of me declared. He pointed his gun in her general direction as if I didn’t know where Oka was.

I laughed out loud as she sidled up next to me proudly, her prize dangling lifelessly from her mouth. I gave the man a tip of my chin, keeping his eyes on me. “You’d have to actually learn how to hit something first. I saw your aim in the training session.”

He spun around fully, anger tightening his face like a puckered and straining asshole. Don’t ask me how I know what that looks like, you don’t want to know that story. Ass Face looked me eye to eye, since I was tall for a girl.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he snarled and leaned into me, doing his best to intimidate me.

Please. I’d learned from the best how to stand up to bullies and assholes, and the last three years had burned away all my soft edges.

He wasn’t going to have the pleasure of watching me cower.

I raised an eyebrow and let my English accent thicken on my words. “I’m sorry. I thought I was rather clear. You see, I was pointing out your lack of ability to aim. Brush up on your skills, and you might have a chance at hitting her. But, alas, my suggestion seems to have gone over your head. I’ll be sure to dumb it down next time.”

“Why, you mouthy little bitch—” He raised his gun and Oka let out a long low growl beside me.

“He wouldn’t dare,” she muttered around her mouthful of archie. Of course, no one could hear her speak but me. Well, there were a few others—like those fucking elementals I’d caught glimpses of here and there—but I tried not to think about them. They didn’t take any note of me now that they’d bound my magic.

A tingle of dark witch magic slid along my arm as my defenses flowed, raising the hairs under the thick purple cloak. He was going to get a shock if he lifted that gun an inch higher.

Kill him.

Damn that voice.

A hand dropped onto his arm, stopping him before he had his gun fully lifted, and I lowered my still-tingling fingers. Shooting at me would have been stupid on many, many levels. But Ass Face didn’t know what Oka and I had survived, or how strong that had made us, how good we were at turning the tables on those who attacked us.

Richard, the leader of the caravan, who considered himself a spiritual seer of sorts, had his hand on Ass Face’s arm, his grip tight enough that I could see the strain in his fingers. Ass Face was newer to the group even than me, and by the looks of it, he wasn’t going to last long.

My suspicion was he was a spy for Stefan, but I’d not said anything yet to Richard about that. Just in case I was wrong.

Despite the fact that I knew Richard was no such thing as a seer, the people—check that, the humans—respected him. And I knew better than to correct them as to what he really was.

A charming charlatan who’d managed to set himself up as a leader of this caravan.

There were worse things in this world, and he did the best he could by them, which was more than many of the caravan leaders.

He was a good man as far as I could see.

He put his second hand on Ass Face’s shoulder. “Ron. Good to see you. Might I have a word? We need some help shifting some of the cargo around in the transport truck. Won’t move itself as you know.”

Ron frowned deeply and didn’t take his eyes off me. “Yeah, sure.”

I preferred the name Ass Face to Ron. Oka snickered, picking up on my thoughts. “You know, I’m going to say it every time he comes around. Ass face,” she said.

Richard eyed me as if he could see the smile I had hiding behind my lips as I struggled to keep my face straight. Finally he nodded as he nudged Ron away.

“Keep up with the caravan, Pamela. We don’t want to lose you,” Richard said over his shoulder.

“Of course.” I gave him a jaunty two-fingered salute.

I wasn’t sure if he suspected what I was, or if he was just looking out for a young, blond-haired, blue-eyed girl who still carried the faint accent of her homeland. My heart gave a funny jump as it always did when I thought of England. It would be no more now. Was it even intact? Or would it have been smashed against another larger continent?

I was eighteen years old and sometimes felt a hundred with the past that weighed on my shoulders.

Now that we were able to breathe a little, and not fight so hard to survive, it gave my head plenty of space to remind me of all the things I’d done.

Oka shifted onto her haunches, her butt wiggling, tail lashing side to side as she adjusted her weight for a leap. I pointed a finger at her. “Don’t you dare come up here with that thing. I don’t need green blood all over my clothes,” I said.

She wrinkled up her lips, her body sagging. Mild irritation flowed from her to me, but she took her prize off the side of the trail to eat her meal.

“I’d have shared it with you,” she called after me as I continued to walk behind the humans and their transport vehicles. I snorted.

“I’d rather starve,” I said, only half joking. If I didn’t ever have to eat another archie again, I’d die happy.

The humans startled and gave me some serious side-eyes—starving was no joke to them. I smiled at them all and then looked to the sky as if the wisping clouds were incredibly interesting. This was about the only downside of Oka being able to talk.

I forgot on a regular basis now that we were around people again. Three years on our own was a long time.

And the stinker loved to make me look like I was an idiot, talking to no one, laughing at jokes only I could hear.

She was lucky I loved her; the saucy little redhead was almost more trouble than me. Which was saying something.

“Don’t let Ron bother you.” The voice of the one person in this caravan I’d let get close to me in the last few weeks made me smile despite myself. Macey leaned down, grabbed the end of her long dark brown braid and used it to tickle Oka on the head before sidling up next to me.

When I’d first met her, I’d thought I’d misheard her. Surely her name wasn’t the same, but there it was. The world throwing a nice little coincidence at me for shits and giggles.

Her brown eyes all but sparkled with laughter, something that was in short supply in this world. “Ron’s just pissed because Isa won’t go to bed with him. Or even let him look at her tits for that matter.”

A man to her left slowed, frowned and slammed into her shoulder, making her stumble a bit. I reached out and caught her by the arm. She was rail-thin, and all muscle. Most of the humans who’d survived were by this point. Three years of living on what you could hunt and scavenge, learning to dodge the animals and supernaturals that remained … that left only the strongest bodies and hearts.

“You’re one to talk, Macey, since no one will touch you with a ten-foot pole,” he snarled. Right, this one had shown up with Ron. So, he was sticking up for his buddy, was he?

My suspicion that they belonged to Stefan only heightened. I needed to mention it to Richard.

Asshole Number Two turned around with a smirk on his face. “The men here are literally responsible for repopulating the planet, and not one of us would pick you. We’d rather let humanity die than fuck you even with a bag on your head.”

Her muscles tensed under my hand and I could feel the explosion building in her body. Control was not something Macey had great quantities of; in that, she was not like the first Macy at all.

I tightened my hold on her arm that was cocked and ready to punch him square in the face. She might have been one of the smallest of the women in the caravan, but, man, did she pack a punch. I’d seen it more than once in the last month with the men who’d thought she was an easy score because of her size and age. And I’d helped her on demerit duty on three occasions already after she’d been scolded for fighting. Though she was the same age as me, she looked years older. The world had aged us all.

But I felt like I owed it to her. To her and my first Macy.

“He’s not worth digging shit holes for,” I quietly reminded her. “And I will not be helping you this time.” That was a lie, but she didn’t need to know that.

“I think he is.” She pushed against me, and I held her arm tighter. He kept that smug grin on his face and I glared at him. I had to work hard to dredge up his actual name. I preferred Asshole Number Two. It was far more suiting to his personality, or lack thereof as the case was.

“Tom,” I said, working to put a smile on my mouth, “I’ll let her go in about five seconds. If you aren’t smart enough to move along, you’ll deserve your third broken nose from her this month. Then even Lucy won’t bang you.”

Lucy was what I would consider the easiest woman in the caravan—she craved the men wherever she could get them and the sense of safety being in their beds gave her—her words, not mine. But she was sweet, and the other women loved her for her gentle disposition and kind heart. What she was doing with a guy like Tom was beyond me.

Then again, the women here didn’t have the luxury of being picky unless they wanted to go to Stefan and his bastards. The world had shifted so rapidly that it was no longer about who had the best car, the best job, the best abs … now things were about who could survive. Who could protect the children brought into the world.

Who could see the monsters before they caught you in the dead of night.

I squinted at him, thinking. Maybe abs could still be considered important. Surely, they would be a better trade-off than this loser.

Basically, it wasn’t about how romantic a guy was anymore, or even how nice. You’d put up with a man’s garbage if he was good at keeping you alive. Who cared if he was good anywhere else, right?

The whole situation was so wrong.

Tom frowned, and I tipped my head as I began to count down. “Four. Three. Two.”

He skittered away before I made it to one, leaving the two of us to walk alone once more. I patted her on the shoulder. “You must learn to rein in that temper, Macey. I won’t always be here to hold you back.”

She tipped her head to the side to look at me, her eyes narrowing. She affected a strong English accent. “You must learn to rein that temper in. Why? You got a man you’re going to run off with? You’ll be here until you die, just like the rest of us.”

I shook my head at her attempt to imitate me. Much as we were sort of friends, she wasn’t the soft sweet kind of Macy. She was harder than granite in more ways than one.

I didn’t see myself telling her the truth about me and Oka.

Humans were too fragile … and seeing them die broke something in me every time.

How had my mentor seen so much death and kept her heart intact? I wasn’t sure I would ever understand the strength she had.

You could be that strong, if you embraced me. Damn that inner voice. She whispered to me, but I pushed her away. There was no good answer for that suggestion.

I’d survived this far without letting the darkness in me rise. I could survive another three years. Or thirty if I had to.

“I don’t like being the outcast, you know.” Macey lowered her voice so those walking ahead of us wouldn’t hear. “I’d like to feel safe at night. To be able to sleep without keeping one eye open for wandering hands.”

“They leave us both alone.” To be fair, they left me alone, and because Macey slept near me, they left her alone now too.

My first night, one of the men tried to join me in my bed. I’d been exhausted and stupidly let my guard down, falling into a deep sleep.

Which left Oka protecting me. She’d gone mental and almost shifted into her alter ego on his scrawny ass. As it was, a six-pound house cat against a two-hundred-pound man, you’d think there would have been no contest. And there wasn’t, not for Oka.

His face had been slashed up so badly, after stitches, he promptly got an infection and had been useless for almost a week as he’d fought off fever and pus-filled abscesses. Which was the other reason humans didn’t bother Oka any more than they bothered me.

So being an outcast was just fine with me as it kept me from getting too close to anyone, but Macey seemed bothered by it. That was the thing about humans; they loved to be part of something bigger.

Macey’s eyes darkened, and her face tightened like a storm building on the horizon. I wanted to groan at the look on her face. This was not going to go well. It was just a matter of when she’d blow.

We walked behind the thirty or so humans, including the three kids and one pregnant woman. For vehicles, there were two trailer-pulling pickup trucks and a Humvee, all of them plagued by the constant smell of the magic and alcohol mixture the trucks ran on.

I was fairly certain I’d never get that tangy, acrid scent out of my long blond hair. Or my cloak, for that matter. I touched the material, tugging it a little tighter around me. My last connection to my father, Raven, as he’d given it to me what seemed like forever ago.

“I hate this stinking shit hole of a world,” Macey said, surprising me. I mean, not that she hated it, but that she said it out loud. That kind of talk could get you kicked out of a caravan on the hunt for Shamballa.

The world was so different since Larkspur, the elemental known as the Destroyer, had done just that—destroyed it.

The truth was my heart still searched for her in this broken world, but I hadn’t found her in my three years of aimless, pointless, wandering here in the north. Or what had been the north.

Although the landscape had changed, and we were with a caravan, I was still alone. Well, not completely. I had Oka, of course. She and I had been through a lot together. Even before the breaking.

I loved that saucy little cat and her fierce determination to protect me.

Macey didn’t have anyone like that in her corner. As far as I knew, she’d been alone since the beginning, and I felt like I should be that person for her. To somehow make up for failing the first girl who’d thought I could protect her.

Macey never said if she had a family before. She never talked about it. I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened. How had she—a fifteen-year-old human girl at the time—survived when so many had died?

“Macey, why not tell Richard? He’ll stand up for you, surely?” I didn’t mean to poke at her. I’d just seen how relentless the men of the caravan had been with her. Even if she hadn’t done anything, they couldn’t just let her alone. They constantly berated her. Reminding her she was worthless in their eyes, only good for one thing. That kind of torment grated on a person.

If she didn’t do something, eventually they’d break her spirit enough that she’d give in to their demands.

Her best bet was to change caravans. Not an easy task, but they were out there. They were on the CB radio from time to time as they gave their locations and asked for news.

That had perhaps been the biggest shock to me when we joined Richard and everyone. That there were other humans out there surviving besides Stefan and his men.

Macey shook her head and tugged on that long braid of hers. “Because every group is the same, Pam. Every single one of them. Full of survivors. That does not mean nice people.”

I frowned. That was the hard truth of this new world.

She was right. Despite the fact that this wasn’t the only caravan out there, the dynamics wouldn’t be that different. Stefan was a perfect example. Without laws to adhere to, many of the humans and supernaturals had gone seriously rogue.

And while adding another person to a group meant more hands to help take the burden of chores, it also meant more mouths to feed. And living on the edge of survival for so long had made many people unsympathetic, to say the least.

The humans were harder in this world. Meaner and more suspicious. Frankly, I wasn’t sure it was what the world needed in its brokenness.

“Well, that isn’t true. They don’t all have me and my fabulous cat,” I offered, trying to steer her in a more lighthearted direction.

“How you’ve kept that little thing alive all this time is beyond me.” She shook her head. “Seriously, and how do you get her to follow you like she does?”

I smiled. “Oka takes care of herself. And me, occasionally. She came trained.” I left it at that. They didn’t know who I was, and they certainly had no idea who, or what, Oka was. I wasn’t about to enlighten them. My anonymity was my biggest ally, at the moment. Because even if they knew what I’d been capable of once, I was no good to them now.

Not true, you could still be strong, little witch.

Yeah, no thanks. I kept Macey at a comfortable distance. I’d do my best to help them, but my skills only went so far. And the darkness was not something I was willing to give in to.

I smacked her on the back a few times, adopting one of my mentor’s sayings. “Suck it up, buttercup. Moping doesn’t look good on you.”

She gave me a sidelong glance and walked away to follow the caravan on her own.

Well, so much for cheering her up. I grimaced. I was rusty with my social cues after so long on our own.

I’d never work in management, that was for sure.

My lips twitched at my own stupid joke. Management in the After Rending, or AR as the humans kept calling it? Sweet baby Jesus, that would be running or helping to run a caravan. Thanks, but no. Been there, done that, got the emotional scars to show for it.

I held back, waiting for Oka to catch up, and thinking about my own family. The ones I’d left behind and the reason I was alone.

After the Rending, I could’ve gone back to Rylee and Liam, all the others that had been my only real family for years. But it didn’t feel like the right time, for lack of a better way to explain it. I didn’t doubt that at some point I would go home to them … just not yet. I needed to find someone who could free me of these fucking bracelets. And maybe someone who could complete my training. Raven was out of commission, to say the least, and I hadn’t seen him in a long time. Maybe the elementals had been right about him.

I reached inside my cloak, feeling the last remnant I had of him, my zombie-slaying blades.

It hadn’t been that long after Lark had pushed the reset button on the world that he’d given them to me. The remaining humans were dying by the millions from a plague there was no cure for no matter how they tried to fight it. On the other hand, the supernaturals fared much better, preying on those who’d survived.

After the supernatural plague claimed so many of their population before the Rending, they needed to add to their ranks too. And the humans were ripe for the taking in this post-apocalyptic world.

The humans had no idea what hit them. They hadn’t even known the supernatural world was a real thing, not something only relegated to books and movies. They found out soon enough that they were in far more danger than they could have ever imagined. That the breaking of the world and the loss of their technology was the least of their concerns.

I learned from Richard that was when the earliest groups of humans began hiring either a mage or a witch to keep them safe—whatever they could find and afford. They started with small communes, thinking they would be safe if they settled and put up walls.

Not so much. The supernaturals knew easy prey when they saw it.

Sitting ducks … that’s what they became. While Oka and I had been surviving in the wild, thinking we were alone, the humans were striking out for Shamballa (a place that as far as I was concerned, did not exist) as fast they could.

And that was what led to the caravans. Keeping on the move meant there was less chance of being hit twice by the same monster as the caravans crossed territorial lines the humans couldn’t see, but their witch or mage protectors could. In theory, that was.

And all of that was why I kept who I was hidden. With the bracelets on, I couldn’t access the power of the elemental blood I carried. Which left only one route if my hand was forced.

To embrace my mother’s bloodline and the darkness that came with it. The consequences of that … I had no idea what the cost would be.

I couldn’t put myself out there for the humans while I struggled to keep myself and Oka alive. I had a destiny—I was sure of it. I just didn’t know what exactly it was, and until I did, I had to keep the dark inside me at bay. Something told me if I embraced it, there would be no going back.

For now, I was meant to be here with Richard and his crew. To help protect them with what little skill I had.

I also knew that trying to keep humans alive was not easy, more like trying to keep a pack of lemmings from the edge of the cliff.

Impossible.

Yet here I was, trying to hold the lemmings back like the fool I was.

Chapter Six

As I walked along behind the caravan, my body on autopilot, my mind wandered back to the last time I’d seen Raven and the things he’d said. The tools he’d given me. I wondered as I so often did how much of what he’d said had been in code, as he loved to give me clues and make me figure shit out on my own. Puzzles, the man liked his puzzles far more than was healthy for anyone.

“Hey, little witch.” Raven’s voice startled me out of a sound sleep, which in itself was impressive as I lay on the hard, cold ground, Oka passed out on top of my chest.

I yanked a knife out, my bracelets jangling and had it at his throat in a split second. Only a few days had passed since I’d lost my magic. Since I’d lost my friends.

“Easy, Pamela. We have to stop meeting like this.” He smiled down at me. His blue eyes were mirrors of my own. His jet-black hair curled at the base of his neck, blowing a little in the night air. I blinked up at him. He looked tired—exhausted, really. And there were marks on his clothing and what skin I could see that said it all. He’d not had it any easier than us. Which was strangely satisfying.

I put the knife away. “Raven.” Yeah, I didn’t exactly call him Dad. “What are you doing here? Please tell me you can take these off?” Hope blossomed inside me at the sight of my father as I fully came awake. To human eyes, he looked no more than twenty-five, but he was far older than that with far more experience when it came to magic. “Have you come to take me somewhere, to train me?” I asked. More out of curiosity than hope. Even then, I wasn’t that foolish.

He frowned, his blue eyes shadowed. “No. Your place is here for now, Pamela. I can’t remove the bracelets, and I can’t stay more than a moment. You’ve got a good mind, and a brave heart.”

Fatigue and sadness warred inside me. “So, what do you want? I’m not in the mood for another one of your quests that ends with me helping to destroy the world.” I grumbled and pulled my cloak up around my neck. Oka poked her head out from under it as she slid onto my lap and woke up. Her golden-green eyes narrowed. I put a hand on the top of her head.

“I have a gift for you,” Raven said. “It is the best I can do for you now. The elementals are watching me closely and my own abilities have been tapped.” He held up a wrist to show me three bracelets dangling there. Blue, red and white stones. He’d been blocked from wind, air and water. Why not spirit and fire? Why only the three elements?

I frowned. “A gift? Are there strings attached?”

He shook his head, a bit more sadness in his eyes. But I wouldn’t let that manipulate me. That was our relationship. He never did anything for nothing. Never. Even if he was my father, he’d been the one to teach me that.

“The world is different now, Pamela. You need all the help you can get.”

“Exactly. Which is why I need you to finish my training. With Lark gone …” I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. She’d left me directionless. Wandering aimlessly, just trying to survive in such a broken world. It hurt that I could be so cast aside by the few people who were truly my blood relations.

Raven’s eyes flashed in the darkness. “If I recall, you left Larkspur and ran off to the north, not the other way around. And if you’d stayed with her, you would have died.”

His words cut through the lies I’d been telling myself. I hung my head; he was right. I’d left Lark, running away from the shame of helping her break the world, of turning my back on Rylee, Liam, and the rest of my family.

He drew a slow breath. “Pam, you don’t need me as much as you think you do. Stop searching for more training. There comes a point where … you just must let the power be your teacher. You are strong and smart beyond your years. Use what you have. I am searching for a way to remove the bracelets. And until then, use these. They are weapons, yes, but they can absorb a direct blow of magic.”

He pulled back his cloak and pulled out two crescent-shaped knives set with a finger grip in the middle of each. He set them on the ground between us. I scooted across the ground to where he crouched, and his black cloak swirled out around him. On my knees, I leaned forward.

“What are they?” I asked as I lifted one of the weapons, looping it over my fingers, loving how it fit my hand perfectly, the blade protecting my knuckles in a shape reminiscent of the moon.

“Zombie slayers. You’ll need them. More and more ground is turning into death swamps.” He picked up the other one and held it to the light. “They will cut through bone with ease, so be careful. You shouldn’t need to sharpen them either.”

Like Rylee’s katanas … and then the rest of what he’d said sank in.

Zombie slayers. I did not like the sound of that.

The new—well, let’s call them problems—that had appeared since the world had been pushed into reset mode were astronomical. It seemed like there was one new fatal problem for every human who died in the whole damn world.

Zombies were just one of them. And with each human they killed on their grounds, their numbers grew exponentially.

Oka sniffed at the blade in my hand. “So, what do you want then, troublemaker?” She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at my father.

Raven laughed and reached for her; she swatted at his hand with a low hiss. “I see nothing’s changed where you’re concerned,” he said. “But that is good, fierce one. Protect her, because I cannot.”

“I don’t need you to tell me to do that.” She eyed him suspiciously, knowing him as I did. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“You are both smart to keep your guards up. This world is … unforgiving, to say the least.” He looked at me.

“I’m surviving,” I said.

He reached out and touched a finger to my cheek. “This world is making you hard, Pamela. That is a wound no one can heal. And it will lead you down a dangerous path if the darkness comes for you.”

I tipped my head away from him, not wanting him to see the fear in my eyes. “Thanks. For the blades.”

He glanced over his shoulder, as if he heard something meant only for his ears. Then he nodded, gave me a rare smile, and vanished, riding the power of the element spirit away.

*_*_*

I hadn’t seen him since then. Flashes here and there out of the corners of my eyes, that I thought could be him checking up on me, making sure I was still alive, but I wasn’t sure.

With fewer than a hundred thousand humans remaining worldwide—if the news from the last communication we received on the CB radio was right, and the supernaturals getting more aggressive, not to mention the zombies—his concern wasn’t too out of place.

But then, why not take me with him?

I sighed as soon as the thought crossed my mind. No, I knew that answer. The elementals.

Oka strode up beside me and leapt into my arms, climbing swiftly onto my shoulder, completely derailing my train of thought. She curled into the hood of my cloak, purring contentedly, the white marking on her chest and paws tinged green with the archie’s blood.

“I see you’re fat and happy after a bit of a snack,” I said.

“That was a particularly juicy archie. I think he’d been eating berries heavily and it sweetened the blood.”

I grimaced. “You know, the archies probably have a nickname for you? You murdering orange cat. Like Jack the Ripper back in London,” I said.

She snickered. “The Stalker.”

“Killing Machine,” I offered.

She let out a burp right in my ear. “Oka, the Terrible, Bringer of Death.”

I smiled to myself as the group of people in front of me came to an abrupt stop, their body language as they leaned to the side and back telling me something was wrong before anything else.

Like a herd of prey, they shifted backward, pushing toward me and Oka.

“Well, this can’t be good,” I said softly. She perked up on my shoulder, then stood on her back legs, propping her front legs on the top of my head to get a better view.

“I can’t see around the big trucks.” She tightened her claws in my hair and I grimaced.

“Scalping me isn’t going to help,” I pointed out.

She dropped back to my shoulder, sitting like a parrot, swaying with the movements of my stride. The humans pushed back, and I pushed forward. What else was new? The reality was, if whatever up front was attacking, there would have been a hell of a lot more running and freaking out.

As it was, a single scream pierced the air.

Good enough for me. I swept my cloak back and ran for the front of the caravan.

I might not have the magic I once did, but I could still fight, and I could still help.

Even if I already knew it was a bad idea.

Chapter Seven

The scream echoed long and loudly from the front of the caravan with barely a break in it for any breath. It went on and on and a part of me wanted to smack whoever was making the fuss. Humans were no longer at the top of the food chain and drawing attention to a whole caravan of the useless gits was like ringing a dinner bell for a buffet.

Generally speaking, long drawn-out noises were just a damn bad idea.

Oka tightened her hold on my shoulder. “Should I shift?”

“No. Not yet. Not unless there is no other choice,” I said. She just liked striding around as a tiger. The shape was still a novelty to her in some respects because of the energy it took. She’d not been able to use it often. Honestly, I didn’t blame her. If I could shift into a huge tiger, I’d want to do it too.

I reached for one of my zombie-slayer knives tucked safely inside my cloak as I jogged to the front of the caravan. My adrenaline ran hot, high, and I couldn’t help it. I’d been trained by one of the best fighters the world had seen, and the thrill of the fight stained my soul.

I grinned to myself and Oka snickered, picking up on my thoughts. “You are terrible.”

I shrugged.

The truth was any number of supernaturals could be on our trail, wanting to add to their own numbers. Or just wanting an easy meal. Regardless, all this noise was bad, so whoever was making the racket had better hope there was something chewing on their freaking leg.

I pushed my way through the crowd, bracing for the worst. If nothing else, this new wild world had taught me that. Brace for the worst, and you’d be ready to fight what was ahead.

The screamer was on her knees, her eyes covered with her hands. Hair a mix of blond and gray; I thought her name was BJ, but I wasn’t sure. Either way, no one was trying to stop the noise. I dropped beside her and grabbed her arms, shaking her hard enough to snap her head back and forth.

“Shut the fuck up!” I said.

Her mouth hung open and she just stared at me as she drew a breath for another scream.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. I grabbed the edge of her shirt, sliced it off and stuffed it into her mouth, then pushed her jaw closed over it. “Shut up, or you’ll bring the monsters to us.”

Her eyes bugged out and her hands went to her mouth. I looked over my shoulder. No one even noticed us, they were too focused on whatever had set her off. I turned back to her and smiled. “I mean it, shut up.”

Oka shook her head. “Seriously, how did any of them survive this long?”

I didn’t know the answer to that. What I did know was that even those who’d survived thus far were beginning to break under the strain.

I sighed and turned away from the screamer, her hands still over her mouth. At least she was being quiet.

The stench hit me first. Although whatever it was hadn’t been dead long enough to start decaying, it would seem it had shit quite a lot as it died. A pile bigger than Oka was already gathering flies near the creature’s back end, splattered with blood and its last meal. I brought my palm to my face as I tried to shield myself from the odor, and Oka buried her face in my neck.

“Fuck, that is bad,” someone muttered.

I’d have agreed, but that would have meant drawing a bigger breath to speak.

As I drew closer, Sage, the humans’ witch and paid protector, stood over the body of the creature. She was a classic hippy witch with her long robes, multiple beaded necklaces, long dreadlocks and rings bedecking all eight of her remaining fingers.

I looked past her to the thing on the ground. Three different animal heads greeted me with their tongues hanging out past dead lips and beaks, each attached to a long neck, which slid down to a thickly muscled body.

The hawk and snake heads still had their eyes open, watching us from the afterlife while the lion looked like he was sleeping peacefully, if you discounted the blue tongue. The body was built similar to an ostrich with terribly undersized wings, clearly too small to give the creature any kind of lift. Six legs, webbed feet, and oversized claws I wouldn’t want to get too close to, capped off the most bizarre-looking creature I’d ever seen. And I’d seen quite a lot in my eighteen years. More so in the last three than all the others combined, but still …

“What the hell is that?” Oka strained to look closer without getting off my shoulder, her nose twitching madly.

“I don’t know what it is …” I trailed off, looking closer, trying to find some reason for why it was so different. Some characteristic that would clue me in to what it was and set all our minds at ease. I’d read some of the best encyclopedic books available on the supernatural and I couldn’t recall ever seeing something like this. Not even close.

The group around us shifted nervously and whispered among themselves, equally unsure what to make of this new species and what it could mean for the caravan. Sage stood closest to the beast and held up her hands, her long red cloak hanging from the backs of her arms. The group quieted when they saw her, as if she were an authority on the subject of supernatural taxidermy.

Boy, did she have them fooled.

“This is nothing more than a griffin. Let’s keep moving, the stench will fade as we get farther from the carcass,” she said, her voice heavy on the breathiness, her bracelets tinkling as she twisted her wrists this way and that.

It took all I had not to roll my eyes and throw my head backward. What a show she was putting on.

BJ ran up to her and pointed at her still-gagged mouth. Sage turned to the woman and dislodged the cloth I’d stuffed in there as if she were incapable of getting it out herself. BJ fell to sobbing, but at least she was no longer screaming.

That was one human trained. Oka snorted. “I doubt she’s trained.” I reached to her and pretended to pinch her mouth shut. I wanted to hear what Richard and the others were going to say next.

“Are you sure?” Richard squinted at the body on the ground, nudging it with one foot. “That is just a griffin?”

At least he had some sense to be suspicious.

Sage smiled at him, but it was tight, strained at the edges. “Of course. I am the witch here, not you, Richard. It would be best you trust me as always. I will not lead you astray. Unlike your last witch, Wilma.”

Richard paled and turned away from her, his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

The last witch had been stronger than Sage. I’d joined the caravan the day before she’d died. The smell of belladonna was thick in the previous witch’s nighttime tea and I was pretty sure Sage had killed her. Stupid. It was fucking stupid, seeing as Sage had about as much magical prowess as some of the humans in the caravan.

But there was nothing I could say without alienating myself further from the group. And I knew where that would land me. Out of the caravan. And while I wasn’t fully on board with how everything was being done, the last month had given me the lift I’d needed.

I couldn’t stand Sage, though, and it would almost be worth it to put her in her place to be booted out. She was their paid protector, and here she was bald-faced lying to them over something that … well, it probably wasn’t important, but I didn’t like that she was pulling the wool over their eyes. Again.

Sage didn’t have the slightest idea what that thing at our feet was any more than I did, but she needed to maintain her sense of power. And her paycheck, as it were.

I couldn’t call her out on killing Wilma, but I could put the seeds out there for Richard on the creature in front of us. “It isn’t a griffin,” I said. “This looks nothing like a griffin. Yes, those creatures have bird parts, and lion parts, but they also only have one head and—”

She whipped a hand through the air and hit me with a sharp magical slap across the right side of my face that cut me short. The crack of the magic against my skin made the group fall silent. Oka hissed, and my blood boiled in an instant.

Embrace me. She is a liar, and a thief. Your magic would crush hers.

I fought the urge to grab hold of the dark magic in me. Really, I should have seen that coming, both the slap and the urge it induced in me.

It took every ounce of restraint I had not to lash out at that dumb-ass pretender. Slapping people from a distance was probably the best trick she had in that raggedy bag of hers besides her herbal poisons. She knew nothing about supernatural creatures or how to protect the humans from them. The fuckwit was going to get the caravan killed. My jaw ticked as she stared down at me.

“It’s a griffin, and I will not have a child try to make me look a fool only because she wants attention,” she said firmly, staring at me with her hard, angry brown eyes. The crowd around us shifted, almost as if they knew what was coming. A fight … but they were wrong. I would not fight this idiot.

Though I’d admit, there was a moment where I had to fight the urge to stick my tongue out at her as if I were the child she claimed, as she turned away from me. She waved her hand again, tinkling bracelets once more jingling.

“Everyone, just go around the creature. And try not to disturb it. The last thing we need is a dead creature’s scent on us. It could be infected with the plague.”

Well, at least she wasn’t wrong about that. The zombies were becoming a bit of a problem on this section of the caravan’s route. Since I’d joined them, we’d stumbled into more than one nest of the undead. Almost as if Sage wasn’t even watching for them or didn’t know how to identify dead swamp ground. Needless to say, my zombie slayers had been busier than ever before and that was likely one of the reasons the men left me alone, besides Oka.

I stood next to the body of the weirdly put together creature as the caravan parted around me, refusing to touch my hand to my cheek and rub at the slap she’d given me.

“I really kinda hate her,” Oka said, and all I could do was nod. I agreed.

A child’s soft giggle turned me around.

Frost, the oldest of the children, waved and smiled widely as he went by, strapped to the back of one of the women. Not quite three, and he was one of the few bright spots in the caravan and the whole reason I’d been drawn to it.

Saving kids was what I’d been taught by one of the best. I couldn’t turn away from them, even if I was barely better than another human in terms of abilities.

The other kids waved too, mostly at Oka.

Oka waved—waved—a paw at him from my shoulder, and I nudged her with the knuckles of one hand. “Focus, cat. That is not normal behavior for a feline.” She really liked the kids, especially that boy, and the feeling was mutual. Sometimes I wondered if she’d abandon me for him.

She dropped off my shoulder as I squatted next to the creature, and swatted at my ankle, picking up on my thoughts.

“Please, I’d never leave you. But you must admit. He’s pretty cute with those blond curls of his,” Oka said.

I shrugged and smiled. “I suppose. He’s stinky and sticky like the rest of the kids, you know.”

I let the caravan get ahead of us a bit. Macey hesitated as she stood beside me, looking at the creature for herself, her nose wrinkling.

“I’ve never seen a griffin that looked like that,” she said. “I’ve read about them, you know. I liked to read before the Rending.”

I debated what to say to her. She was human. She probably hadn’t seen that many griffins to begin with. I’d seen one in the flesh. That one had been dead too, but it had been a real griffin. If I challenged what Sage had said to the caravan again, it might crack the already fragile trust Macey had in this group.

As bad as it was, this was a decent group when it came to protecting the women, allowing them some choice in who they went to bed with. Which meant it was the best that Macey was going to get.

So, I stayed silent. She snorted. “That’s what I thought. You’re just like the others, thinking Sage knows everything. Well, she doesn’t. I know things too,” she said before she walked away, her back stiff with anger.

I just sighed and shook my head. I couldn’t worry too much about her mood swings. Not now. Not when faced with such a bizarre-looking creature. Because I’d learned that you didn’t take weird shit lightly, not in this world. Doing so could get you killed.

Oka waited for Macey to get out of hearing range—no doubt for my benefit so I didn’t look like a mad woman again—before she spoke up. She didn’t like the humans to see us talking, even though they couldn’t hear her. Get me caught looking like a fool? Sure, she was game for that. But not a full-on conversation.

“Pam, what is it? In all my years, I’ve not crossed paths with anything remotely like this.”

I almost laughed at her. She was younger than me and had been confined to an elemental world before I’d found her. But I didn’t point that out. I wasn’t into being mean for the sake of being mean.

I took one of my knives and lifted one of the legs before letting it drop back to the ground. The bones were light, like a bird. Nothing about the creature made sense.

“I’m not sure. Another anomaly, like the others.” I’d never seen the creature in all the books I’d read during my years with Rylee. Worse, it was quickly becoming a pattern: a strange dead creature left in the middle of the road with no discernable species attached to it.

Maybe pattern was a bit generous. But I’d seen two other weird creatures in the last month I’d been unable to identify.

Both dead.

Sage of course had given them names, but she’d been wrong then too, and we both knew it.

“What does it mean? Because this is not even close to normal,” Oka said, her tail twitching only at the very tip as she examined the creature carefully, sniffing at it here and there.

“Don’t know that either. But I agree, it’s not normal. Not even for this world.” I thought for a moment, wondering if it was something out of the Veil. Like the archies and the big fish with wild shark teeth.

When the world had been broken, so had the Veil. The Veil was essentially layers between the worlds of the living and the dead. Seven layers that went to the level which had housed the demons. The Veil had been holding them along with a host of other creatures … it was possible that these were creatures from somewhere within it.

Really, anything was possible, which made this difficult at the best of times.

I shook my head, answering my own question. “Even if it was something from beyond the Veil, why aren’t there others? No creatures are singular—born out of thin air. They all have mates so they can produce and overrun the land. Why are they always alone? Where are their kin? And, why have they been dead? What’s killing them? There’s never a bite mark or obvious missing limbs, nothing. Are these new creatures unable to survive in this world? Or is there more to it? Is someone killing them? And if so, why?” The questions poured out of me.

My little cat sighed. “All good questions, and like always, you’ve got a shit ton of them.”

I smiled at her and rolled my eyes. At least I knew my questioning of things hadn’t changed.

Oka walked around to the other side of the beast and turned her head to the side. “Wait, what is this? Another one?”

I got up to see what she’d found, and a frown creased my brow.

Burned into the creature’s hide, right in the middle of its chest was a symbol I’d seen before. The flesh under the mark was charred black, and around that it was bright red. As if the brand was relatively new. More than that, it was the same symbol I’d seen on the other two strange creatures, though they’d been placed on different body parts.

The first time I’d seen it, I thought it was just an oddity of the creature’s characteristics, just something it had. But then we’d found it on the second creature that didn’t fit into any gene pool I’d ever heard of.

The exact same symbol. An open circle, a line, and a closed circle. What little study I’d done of signs and symbols told me it was a sign of attachment. As if the creature was tied to someone else, as if it were bound to them.

Except, that wasn’t all on this “griffin.” The closed circle had an addition. Three small dots ran along the edge. I made myself lean close and touch it, hoping for a bit of residual energy that would give me a clue. Nothing came through, though.

Did that change the symbol’s meaning? Or did the three dots mean something else entirely?

Or was it all just another strange coincidence?

“It’s the same as on the others. Except for this,” I pointed at the dots. “Those are new.”

“What does that mean?” Oka asked as I stood. She jumped into my arms and climbed onto my shoulder once more, looking down at the poor beast.

“One thing’s for sure. This isn’t good. And we are seeing them closer and closer together.”

“Something is ramping up,” she said. “We need to be extra vigilant, Pam.”

The sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach agreed with her even if I didn’t want to admit it out loud.

Chapter Eight

Funny thing was, I didn’t have a lot of time to digest our inspection of the dead creature on the road, or any thoughts on the not-griffin, or the symbol burned into its flesh, or what it could mean for everyone before the bloody screaming from the front of the caravan started again.

“Damn it, BJ, shut your trap,” I muttered. She seriously needed to relax. We lived in a startling world filled with horrors you didn’t dare even dream about regularly leaping out at us. Did she not get that memo?

Oka laughed. “Maybe Sage will give her a sedative of some sort. That’s about all she’s good for when it comes to being a witch.”

“A heavy dose, let’s hope. Something that will last a solid twenty-four hours. Long as it’s not belladonna.” I stretched my arms over my head and twisted to one side to see a flash of black rip through the trees.

Well, if that wasn’t a pile of dog doo just waiting to be stepped in. Looks like I judged old BJ a little too harshly. Perhaps her scream was more warranted than I’d thought.

Another streak of black, followed by one of dark brown, and one of gray. More colors, more movement. They flashed through the forest to our left, and I counted as fast as I could in order to get a bead on them.

Wolves were dangerous, and we’d had a few run-ins with them as far north as we were over the last three years. Hell, what we traveled on was a huge chunk of what was left of Alaska. I’d have been surprised if we hadn’t run into wolves.

But these were not your average everyday wolf, but their larger, crankier, hungrier cousins.

Werewolves, to be precise.

From ahead, I heard Richard shout above the commotion. “Circle! Children and women in the center!”

This was his defense strategy, and as things went, I’d seen worse. The caravan worked to get themselves turned around, backing the vehicles in fast and hard, the pregnant woman and very few children placed in the relative safety of the circle.

The men set themselves up to fight, but they weren’t going to be fast enough. I could see it already.

“Oka, are there as many wolves as I think?” I asked as I broke into a jog.

“Yeah, there are,” she said. “Now can I shift?”

“Hang on. If there are too many, they’ll come at you and I don’t want you to get mobbed and hurt.” That was the downside to her shifting into her tiger form. She was hard to miss and made a great target, and I didn’t want to risk losing her.

I moved with the flood of bodies as they fought to get inside the circle of the trucks, my eyes tracking the pack as best I could.

The pack was sizable, possibly the biggest we’d come across. Which told me they didn’t need us to grow their numbers. They were after something else then.

An easy meal.

Easy food that was tender and couldn’t run all that fast—like the children. My heart picked up speed. They wouldn’t dare. They damn well wouldn’t dare!

The commotion came at me from all directions as the pack surrounded us, launching at us from everywhere. None were close enough to me to dive into them. I kept still, the chaos filling my ears, feeling the flow of the fight as it picked up.

That was until a big gray wolf leapt over a group of fighters, landed on the hood of one of the trucks and then bounded up onto the back of it as he headed straight for the center of our group.

“The kids, that fucker is going for the kids!” I yelled as I turned on the speed, my cloak snapping out around me.

“Frost!” Oka cried as she jumped down from my shoulder and ran ahead of me, weaving effortlessly between people’s legs.

I worked my way forward until a spear flew right in front of my nose and hit a small brown wolf in the leg. It only served to make him angry, and I was his closest target. I turned in time to see the thrower, Ron aka Ass Face, already running away.

“See? This is what I meant, Ass Face!” I hollered at him. But he either didn’t hear me, or he didn’t care. Maybe he was hoping the wolf would take me out.

But it would take more than a small werewolf to wipe me off the face of this broken Earth. She bared her teeth at me and lunged forward just in time to see Oka doubling back, running to my aid. I shook my head, and she skidded to a halt. “The kids, help the kids! Shift only if you have to!” I yelled at her. She nodded and took off again as I leaned back, letting the wolf take me down to my back. Thing was, she didn’t know I had the zombie slayers tucked near to me, or that even a bite from her wouldn’t turn me into a werewolf. I had her by the throat with one hand, holding her off while I reached for one of my curved blades.

“What the hell are you doing?” I snarled at her.

She snapped her teeth. “Death comes. We precede her.”

Well, she was right about that.

The female wolf lunged hard at me, then jerked with a suddenness that had nothing to do with my own blade. Her growl cut short right in the middle of a rather throaty sound that turned into a burble of air escaping past the blood in her throat.

I rolled her off me to one side and sat up to see Macey yank her machete from the wolf’s spine. She nodded to me before moving on to the next target, doing what she could to help fend off the wolves. Blood splattered the side of her face and one arm. For a little human, she was doing a bang-up job of taking out the werewolves in the few minutes they’d been attacking. She was out for their blood, and I certainly wasn’t going to stop her. That kind of drive kept people alive.

Pamela, you could end this all in moments if you embraced your magic. Wipe them out with the snap of a finger.

Sweat beaded out along my face that had nothing to do with my physical exertion. “I will not,” I growled.

You will die without me.

I rolled the back end of the wolf off me, fighting to ignore that dark voice, my hands warm with blood. Shaking, I stood to meet my next challenge, blades ready.

But there was none. The wolves were making an organized attack on the center of our caravan. Right where Richard had squirreled away the children in the hopes that they would be safe.

How many children had they lost to the supernatural world? Too many to count. Too many lost, too young. Rage lit me as I strode toward the center, anger like I only knew when innocent lives were on the line. I didn’t give a shit about the adults—they could take care of themselves, but who helped the children?

Distantly I knew that was Rylee’s teaching coming through, but I didn’t care. I clung to it for all that it was as true to me as it was to her. I would not let a child suffer if I could stop it.

As I approached, Sage was casting nothing more than weak stunning spells that only annoyed the five wolves that had surrounded their stronghold. Although, stronghold was a bit generous, if I was being honest. The group had the three children locked away inside the cab of one of the trucks, and Sage stood on top of the cab, with humans on the ground shooting arrows, and throwing spears at the beasts. A few actually hit their marks; if they worked together, they’d be even more effective.

Where were the guns? I knew the men had them.

It hit me then that if the guns weren’t being used, then the caravan was finally out of ammo. Shit. That was going to make life harder yet. But that was a problem for another day.

Today was all about surviving.

I looked for Oka and saw her under the cab of the truck, waiting. She’d not shifted. Her thoughts and emotions ran through me. She’d hold back unless the kids were in danger. She knew there was a chance she’d be killed if she shifted—if not by the wolves, then the humans once they saw a big-ass tiger in their midst.

“Good girl,” I whispered.

The wolves were strong, fueled by the rapid healing of their supernatural blood, and continued their push toward the truck. Even from where I was I could see the fatigue on Sage’s face.

This was not going to end with her alive.

One mottled brown wolf broke through and went at Sage from the passenger’s side of the truck, its claws shrieking across the metal as it dug in deeply. Within the cab, the children screamed.

The brown wolf growled and snapped at her feet, close enough to grab her cloak if she got careless. Part of me hoped she did.

She needs to die. You deserve her place as the caravan witch. You are the power here, not her.

I gritted my teeth and forced that voice down, away from the surface. For now, it was the best I could do.

Sage fired off another weak spell—nothing more than a small burst of power really—that hit him right in the nose, making him growl even more, but it didn’t deter him. Awesome, all she’d done was piss him off. She threw her hands up, clearly getting ready for some other parlor trick when I saw the abandoned bow and arrow by the truck. I scooped them up, pulled an arrow back, aimed, launched it at him.

The arrow hit the wolf square between the eyes with a heavy thunk and sent him back about ten feet, where he lay motionless and well away from our crowd of people. One down.

Sage froze, her mouth an open O of surprise like even she couldn’t believe what she’d done. I looked away, shaking my head. She’d not even seen the arrow.

“Idiot,” I muttered.

She turned to face the next closest wolf. He climbed up the hood of the truck while spears, arrows, and rocks rained down on him. I was curious as to why he ignored the men and was so hot on Sage. I mean, sure, she was the designated protector, but it wasn’t like she was doing a whole lot of protecting. Then again, I had just painted a bullseye on her by smashing that other wolf back. Maybe she wasn’t the only one who’d not seen the arrow. Fucking hell, this was turning in on me in a way I’d not considered.

I ran around to be at her back. It wasn’t easy, seeing as there was already another wolf between her and me, and two of the caravan’s men working to bring the wolf down.

Their blows with large staffs did nothing but throw the wolf off balance as he advanced.

The temptation to take the big bastard out right then made my fingers itch. I nocked the next arrow, watching for my opening. It would come fast and I had to be ready.

“Now?” Oka called out to me from under the truck. I glanced to see her staring up at me, all but begging with wide eyes.

“Not yet!” I yelled at her. Her shifting into a big orange tiger was a literal last resort. I watched the wolf in front of me, slowing my breathing so I was ready. The two men of the caravan backed up as Sage made her move.

Good gods, they thought they needed a blast radius with her?

Just as before, she raised her hands in the air and jangled her bracelets. Hard to believe that the humans had fallen for her tricks. I’d never have learned anything from her, except for maybe how to manipulate people. And I’d seen plenty of that with my own father, enough to know it was a skill I didn’t want.

She flung her hands at the wolf in a jumble of bracelets and flapping robes and a muttered word that sounded like “begone.”

I timed the shot, and once more the arrow struck the wolf between the eyes, burying deeply, and partially hidden by the long shaggy fur. Good enough.

No one would ever realize it wasn’t Sage, unless they stopped to check the dead wolves.

The ground below us rumbled and as the wolf tumbled back, a hole opened up. Fuck, this was not the time for an earthquake!

Don’t worry, it got worse from there.

The two men that had backed off for Sage’s blast radius along with two others who’d come to help fell into the pit as well, screaming as they went down, followed by another wolf who willingly jumped in.

“Good shot!” Oka yelled.

“Stuff it!” I hollered back.

We didn’t need to add to the already low numbers of humans out there. While I might not be into making myself a caravan witch, them getting killed—even by accident—on my watch wasn’t generally a good idea.

I counted as the men struggled to climb out of the hole, shoving each other up on their shoulders and grabbing for the hands of those reaching down for them. Four of them had fallen in; only three came out. While they hauled them up, others stood at the edge, and fired on the wolf still in the bottom of the pit with everything they had.

If they could all get out before the wolf … I could handle him before they realized what was happening.

“Hurry,” I growled as I dropped to one knee and pressed my hand into the soft soil. “Come on, hurry!”

The split second the last guy crested the opening, I tried to connect with the earth, forgetting in the heat of the moment.

I arched back as electricity snapped through me, the bracelets jangling and dancing just like Sage’s as I fought to breathe through the pain.

Darkness swelled through me and my eyelids fluttered at the feel of it against my insides, like silk, warm and sensuous.

I lifted a hand and the dark wrapped around my fingers, the pain eased and I took a breath.

Panting, I sat on the edge of the hole.

No one would notice, right? In all this chaos, surely no one would notice what I was doing.

I looked up from my crouch, the dark magic making my fingers tingle. Fear and excitement licked at me. Could I use some of it, and not fall victim to the darkness within? I wasn’t sure.

Three wolves still ranged around the truck, moving with twitching limbs and eyes that were full of fear. One in front of me, and two to my right, in front of Sage. The three of them watched her, the seemingly powerful witch, and bared their teeth as they wove from side to side as if deciding just how to attack. She turned to face the closest to me.

I lifted a hand to her and pointed to the wolves right in front of her. “Seriously, what about those two?”

She ignored me and continued to turn. I ground my teeth in frustration.

With her at my back now rather than the other way around, I couldn’t attack it without her seeing, and knowing exactly what I was doing. Weak she might be, but blind she was not.

“Now?” Oka asked again.

“NO!” I yelled as I stood and ran toward the wolf, his eyes still locked on Sage.

I was going to have to take a hand-to-hand approach before Sage could make her so-called attack happen. The wolf’s eyes widened as I leapt at the sandy-colored beast.

He was so focused on Sage, he hadn’t seen me coming even though I’d run right at him. That reaction or lack thereof told me two things. One, he wouldn’t have survived very long in the pack; and two, he was a new wolf. The old ones were way harder to kill and were hyper aware of their surroundings.

This one thought he knew where the threat was and ignored little old me, which meant I won before I even delivered the fatal blow.

“I’m getting in on this!” Oka yelled as she burst out from under cover and leapt in time with me. There was no time to tell her to back off.

She landed on his scruff hitting him from the side, digging in her tiny razor-like claws. He turned toward her, again ignoring me as he snapped his teeth at her. Which gave me a wide-open strip on his back. I landed flat on his back and sat up as though he were a horse. I automatically clamped my legs around his middle, holding on. He yelped and bucked a bit, but I was ready for that, clenching tighter with my long legs, easily holding my seat.

Oka climbed to his head and went to work on his eyes and the edge of his nose, while I leaned forward, flattening myself against him. I fumbled a bit for my crescent blades.

“Fuck!” I yelled the word as I finally got a blade out and dragged it across the front of his neck in a perfect arc, a nice clean cut that went all the way back to his spine.

Although I guess it wasn’t really all that clean, since blood sprayed everywhere, but we got the job done.

Two wolves were left around the truck. Breathing hard, I stood and took a quick look around. More wolves were closing in from the outskirts of the caravan, and god only knew how many beyond that in the forest waiting.

Oka leaned against my leg, getting my attention. “They sent the new wolves in first, knowing they would die. They’ll hit us with the old-school werewolves next.”

I nodded as my blood chilled. “The ones who’ve been around from before the Rending. Well, shit.” This was going to get fucking ugly.

Come, take my hand. You can end this. No more lives will be lost.

Ah, that was dirty pool. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from responding. Oka shot me a look. She knew I was fighting my own fight too.

The werewolves were reforming their ranks. Their numbers were shrinking, and the caravan would think they were safe and let down their guard.

Then and only then would the old werewolves take all of us out if I didn’t do something and fast.

Arrows sailed at the wolves mercilessly, but they’d be running low on those by now.

Could I have wiped the wolves out on my own? In the past, I would have said yes, but unless I was truly ready to embrace the dark magic, it wasn’t going to happen.

“Work together,” I shouted at the men still standing in the perimeter ring. “Pick a target. Take them down one by one!”

Slowly arrows started flying toward single wolves on the outskirts. Picking them off one at a time.

“You,” I pointed to the four men who’d climbed out of the pit, “aim for the wolves closest to the truck.” I made my way around behind Sage, who turned and glared at me. I caught a flash of Ass Face as he ran by. “And for the love of the Mother Goddess, try not to hit me, Ron!”

Oka snickered. “Oh, Ass Face, how you lasted this long is beyond me.”

Sage snapped her fingers at me. “You don’t give the orders here.”

“Not the time.” I pointed past her. She whipped around as a wolf leapt onto the bed of the truck. Arrows and spears littered the air, raining down on the beast, clipping Sage here and there, sending her reeling backward as she tried to cover her face.

“Stop hitting me, you fools,” she screeched, making the rain of fire cease, which was of zero help to the kids and the pregnant woman hidden in the cab.

They’d gone silent, which I could only hope meant the one adult in the group had hidden them down low, so they didn’t see the carnage.

“Fuckwit,” I muttered with a shake of my head. The men could’ve saved Sage. But instead, she frightened them into taking aim somewhere else. Now she was all that stood between those kids and that wolf. If you didn’t count me and Oka. But she didn’t know that.

There were five men within earshot, and a wolf closing in fast from the perimeter.

“I’d take that one out if I were you,” I suggested with a tip of my head, before I took off running to the truck.

But my feet slid to a stop when a scream snapped my head around to the left. A scream from a voice I knew better than anyone else in this caravan.

Macey was pinned hard to the ground, barely holding off the jaws of a snapping oversexed black and white wolf with one hand. Her machete was just out of reach of the fingers of her free hand. I hesitated for only a moment. Sage would have to wait and hope her ineptitude kept her alive. Macey needed help, and no one else in this caravan was running to her rescue.

I turned and launched myself at the wolf that bit at Macey’s face. Her face was shiny from the amount of saliva that had splattered over her cheeks and her mouth was pinched shut tightly.

If she survived, there was a chance she’d turn. And the caravan would execute her.

The wolf was like the others, young and stupid. His back end was humping while his front end snapped and snarled.

I wasn’t sure if he was trying to kill her or fuck her. Either way, it was about to end.

“Keep your mouth shut no matter what, Macey!” I said. The wolf’s head swiveled to me, eyes narrowed, and ears pinned to his head.

That distraction was all she needed. She kicked him right smack in the balls. He let out a howl, and his eyes closed with the pain. I took my chance and hit him full force with my shoulder, knocking him off balance, flipping him over onto his side for just a second. Macey and I moved in tandem to either side of the wolf.

Macey reached for her machete, and as I pulled my arm back to slash through the wolf’s lower back with my blades, she pointed at me. “Don’t you dare. That one’s mine.”

Absently, she wiped a bit of blood from her face, smearing it, giving her a feral, wild look that made me think of death masks. Her brown hair was no longer braided neatly and had come loose in several places. The blood highlighted her cheekbones and she grinned with her teeth bared.

A premonition slid over me, almost like I could see her life force. And while it burned brightly in that instant, she was not long for this world.

“Macey, be careful!” I said.

I couldn’t do this again, I couldn’t lose Macey again.

Her tank top was completely askew after having a two-hundred-pound wolf on top of her, fighting for her life. She was a strong girl. I had to be wrong.

She turned the handle of the blade, spinning her weapon as she approached the wolf that groaned and writhed on the ground.

I made a reach for her and she dodged me. I had to pull her back from this or she was going to die. I knew it in my gut.

“Macey!” I snapped her name in the hopes I would yank her out of this madness that had hold of her. Blood lust was a real thing. This was not the first time I’d seen it take over someone. “We don’t have time for this shit. They’re targeting the kids. We need your help.”

“In a minute.” She shrugged me off.

She didn’t understand she was potentially hurting others by following her own whims.

I suddenly had an insight into how my mentor must have felt dealing with me when I blasted off on my own instead of listening to her.

Time seemed to slow. She raised her blade over her head, but the wolf was playing possum. She was close enough to finish him off, but he leapt up, out of her range. His eyes locked on me.

“I’ve heard of you. The girl in the green cloak. Where’s that pussy of yours? I’d eat it.” Then the dirty bastard tried to head butt me. Honest to goddess, he whipped his head around, and tried to get me right in the gut, teeth snapping on the last of his words.

I leapt back on instinct alone, turning it into a backflip, dodging the blow and his teeth, but barely. His attention on me gave Macey the opening she needed. He’d ignored the human to come after me.

He was a fool; she had a mean streak a mile wide and the blood lust drove her hard.

He lunged at me, and I hit him in a sweeping blow with the blade in my right hand that carried all my weight behind it as I stood from my backflip. My curved blade tore through the flesh of his exposed neck as he overshot me. He stumbled a few feet, gagged as he tried to breathe through his sheared neck and flapping muscles before he went to his knees, dying slowly, bleeding out in a puddle that soaked into the ground.

Werewolves might heal fast, but a blow like that was deadly even to the hardiest of supernaturals.

“Hey, he was mine,” Macey said like a bratty little kid. Except she was serious. Genuine hurt and anger flashed in her green eyes as she stormed off.

I suddenly felt bad for the shit I’d put Rylee through. It seemed as though karma was giving me my own dose of bad attitude.

Her angst was the least of my worries at the moment.

The snarls of the battle atop the hood of the truck drew my attention from Macey as she ran off to find another wolf to fight.

You can’t save them all. Oka’s thoughts came through loud and clear. A flash of orange showed me she was back under the truck, waiting for her moment.

“Macey is going to die,” I whispered, and a burst of genuine sadness rolled through me. The older wolves were waiting and there would be no stopping them.

I caught a glimmer of movement as they watched from the trees and my blood ran cold.

Fuck shit damn, this was going to get far worse before it got any better.

But I had to try and stem the tide.

“Macey! The truck! Protect the kids!” I called after her, hoping I might channel that rage of hers in a better direction. But she didn’t hear me. She took off toward the outskirts, closer to the older wolves.

She thought she was strong enough to survive this battle.

And I wasn’t sure any of us would if the older wolves took things in hand. I twisted around.

Sage was right where I’d left her: trapped atop the pickup truck, throwing weak spells, pissing off the oversized wolves out for blood. She didn’t carry any traditional weapons, which was a fatal mistake if you asked me.

My mentor had taught me that while magic was a powerful weapon, there were times when magic could use some help getting your ass out of the frying pan and avoiding the fire.

Times like being surrounded by wolves and humans.

My only choice was to get back to the truck, neutralize the threat one wolf at a time, and then make it look like Sage had saved the caravan. At least, that was my plan. And like Rylee, my plans always played out beautifully.

Yeah, not so much.

The wolf currently after Sage was a brilliant white-coated beast with eyes so blue, I could see them even at a distance. And he was big, so large he took up most of the truck bed, which would leave me very little room to move around, or even get a good angle on the beast. My knives were not made for throwing. He leapt from the truck bed to the top of the cab and let out a long howl.

I ran toward them, my thoughts spinning.

For just a moment, the beast’s size made me wonder if this was their Alpha, but I shook that off a second after I thought it. I seriously doubted it with the wolves that waited in the trees. In theory, you take out the Alpha and the pack should scatter. At a minimum they would retreat and regroup, giving us a chance to slip away, cross territories and lose them in the wake of the big trucks.

In this case, I’d settle for taking out the biggest wolf and hope it did the same as killing the Alpha. The other wolves seemed to be waiting on him to make his kill of the witch.

As I got within ten feet of the truck, Sage fell onto the hood flat on her back, her robes flying up over her head as she screeched, which gave the wolf even more dominance over the sanctuary for the kids.

Their screams punctuated each new bang and thud on the metal of the truck.

This was not going well. I grimaced and looked for Oka. She was under the truck still, waiting for her moment.

Her eyes lit up as they met mine and I shook my head. Not yet.

I wasn’t giving up on doing this the old-fashioned way.

The wolves would converge on Oka if she shifted, and I wasn’t willing to trade her life for the humans.

I needed the high ground if this was going to work. I made my way around the front of the truck as the big white beast snapped and growled at Sage. The last thing standing between him and his prize. Or so he thought.

I jumped up onto the hood, and Sage yanked her robes off her face and looked at me with wild eyes. “Help us! I feel the dark magic in you!”

Ah, fucking hell, that was the last thing I needed. “Stay down.” I pushed my way past her as I brandished my blades at the wolf. He growled down at me, undeterred. If anything, he grinned, his tongue lolling to lick his lips.

“What are you going to do, little girl? Fight me with your pig stickers?” He snarled the words, blood flecking the edge of his mouth.

I grinned right back at him. “You know the story of Little Red Riding Hood?” I rolled my shoulders and my cloak swirled out behind me in a lucky gust of wind. “I’m not the little girl, wolf. I’m the fucking hunter.”

He bared his teeth and I crouched, my blade held up on an angle, ready to cut him open.

The wolf had the high ground on the roof of the cab, but maybe I could still get a good hit from where I was. All my blades needed was a soft spot and a split second. I just had to steer clear of those teeth until then.

He lunged and snapped at me as I slashed up at him, not really trying to hit him, just getting a feel for his range of motion. Which, it turned out, wasn’t much. Screeching like a banshee from hell, Oka jumped onto the edge of the truck bed and was under his belly in a flash.

“Dogs drool, cats rule!” she yelled, and slashed one of his legs as she went. He yelped and fell while she slid easily out of harm’s way, down the side of the truck before landing gracefully on all four legs. “And that’s how it’s done, bitch boy.”

Another time I would have laughed at her sass; as it was, I settled for a grin.

He went down hard and slammed the side of his head on the top of the cab. This was my split second. I pushed off and came down on his neck in a one-two combination that left a spray of blood trickling down the windshield. I cringed, wishing I could shield the kids from the gore of the day.

Because although Frost was three, he was still a baby as were the others. Still little enough to be carried on someone’s back, still young enough to not understand how bad this world we lived in was.

Still too small for such horrors as wolf attacks and blood everywhere.

I turned away from the body of the wolf and stared out at the trees. A big wolf with indeterminately colored fur, but with a burning gaze of golden eyes, caught my attention.

You could cage that one with your magic, Pamela. You could make him your pet.

For just a second, I considered it, and took a step toward the tree line before I could stop myself, the darkness in me whispering its seductive call. If I could make them mine, we could protect the caravan better.

The wolf’s eyes widened. He bobbed his head once, lifted his muzzle and let out a long low howl, and then he disappeared.

Had he somehow seen the darkness in me too?

A shiver ran through me. I got the feeling that was exactly what happened. The magic had saved us, but not because I’d used it.

The Alpha wolf had seen the potential and that had been enough to send him running.

Bloody hell, that could not be good.

But for now, they were gone, and that was the best you could do some days.

With one foot, I shoved the wolf off the truck and climbed into the bed, wiping the blood off the back-slider window with the edge of my cloak. “Frost? Kids, you okay?” Oka leapt up beside me and put her paws on the window.

The little tow-headed boy put a hand up, against the glass where Oka’s paw was. Tears swam in his eyes, but his cheeks were dry. He scrunched his hand over the glass as if he could hold Oka’s paw, as he met my eyes with a stiff bottom lip. The pregnant woman who’d been charged with staying with the kids inside the truck held them all close to her, and tears streamed freely down her cheeks.

“I’ve got this. It’ll be okay,” I told her. She nodded to me, but clearly didn’t believe me.

A thump of metal snapped my head up. Sage was back on the hood of the truck literally stomping her feet. Like that was going to help the kids be less afraid. “What right have you to tell her you’ve got this? You barely have a place in our caravan!”

“Sage, this isn’t really the time—”

She cut me off. “You’ll address me as Mistress Sage.” She leaned in close. “The magic in you is a black stain, and you obviously don’t know how to use it, or you would have. And I will not have an underling like you screw up my place here.” The twist of her mouth was the only warning I had.

She flicked her fingers at me and a sharp, magical slap spun me around, my cheek stinging hot with embarrassment as much as the slap itself.

I went to a knee, mostly to catch my breath and put my blades away before I used them on Sage. A slap to the face was not the worst thing I’d had done to me, and I doubted it would be the last indignity with the way things were going.

Blades put away, I slowly stood and turned to face Sage. “One day you’ll regret that, Sage.” I refused to call her mistress. There wasn’t a single thing she’d be able to teach me even if I still had full control of my elemental magic.

Even if I had embraced the dark magic humming in my veins, whispering to kill her on the spot.

I didn’t lower my eyes but let the darkness swirl upward, so Sage could see it. She sucked in a sharp breath and took a step back. I smiled. “I see you understand.”

“Ladies,” Richard said as he climbed to the top of the truck. He looked at her and then to me, but I dropped my eyes. I didn’t need him to see how ugly I was inside.

Richard took Sage’s hand and raised it into the air as if she were the champion of the day.

What a crock of horseshit. Everyone had pitched in, this was hardly Sage’s handiwork. If anything, she’d put people in danger, not saved them.

Richard held up both hands, silencing the crowd. “This attack is more proof how valuable the children are: they are our future. We must continue east. The Haven, Shamballa, is our only hope of survival. Sage will get us there. She will keep us safe on the journey, just as she has done today.” Richard’s voice was hoarse from the fight, full of exhaustion. And hope, damn it, he still had that in spades.

I lifted both eyebrows at Richard’s praise of Sage.

There were others who had fought, the rest of the caravan had helped too. As if this victory was hers and hers alone.

Ahh, you deserve their love, Pamela. You deserve their gratitude.

“Shut the hell up.” I whispered the words to myself and closed my eyes. The voice was so frequent now, more than at any other point in my life.

Why, though, what had changed? For three years, the darkness in me had been relatively quiet, so this sudden resurgence made me nervous, to say the least.

At my feet, Oka pawed at my leg. I bent and picked her up and set her on my shoulder, keeping a hand on her. Touching Oka, the darkness pulled back. I sighed a breath of relief.

“She’s really something, isn’t she?” my cat said.

I kept my eyes neutral as I looked up at Sage. “Well, she sure as shit isn’t going to have me bowing at her feet, and calling her Mistress Sage, so yeah, I think this could be a bigger problem than I expected. I think we are going to have to leave soon.”

Sage glared at me while I kept emotions off my face. She knew I had magic in me, and that was threat enough for her.

“You think she’ll try to kill you?” Oka asked.

I snorted. “I’d like to see her try.” But Sage was the least of my concerns.

The darkness in me was only just beginning to make its bid, and I had no doubt the efforts to sway me were far from over. No, that instinct that had kept me alive the last three years whispered they were just beginning.

Chapter Nine

Oka and I watched as Richard and Sage climbed down from the back of the truck, their heads bowed together, their voices low. The attack of the werewolves on the caravan had to have rocked them. In the month I’d been with the group, we’d dealt with nothing worse than zombies, which were bad enough on their own, and in small numbers at that.

I frowned, watching Sage get more and more animated as she spoke. What I wouldn’t give to know what they were discussing. Luckily for me …

“Oka, you want to check things out?” I whispered, working to keep my mouth from moving too much. I didn’t want her to go so soon after the darkness had been egging me on, but it was necessary. We needed to know what Richard and Sage were discussing.

“I’m on it.” She leapt off my shoulder and trotted after them like nothing more than an innocent orange house cat looking for a handout and a head scratch.

While my little spy went to work, I took stock of my blades and checked myself over for any injuries I might have missed. The humans around me were doing the same, checking one another over for bites.

Because a bite would have meant an instant death sentence. There was no way they’d let a bitten human go to join another pack. Nor would they let them stay in the caravan as a protector. New wolves were too unpredictable. And the old wolves were too busy trying to make new wolves. I sighed, fatigue tickling at me.

I had no bites—not that they would have affected me anyway. I was not Immune, but I seemed to have some sort of low-end immunity to certain things. I’d found out the hard way being bit by a werewolf at the beginning of this new world.

The scar on my right forearm was deep, the teeth marks obvious. I kept it covered at all times, just in case.

But the humans didn’t know that I was safe. And I didn’t want to have to fight my way out if they tried to execute me.

I looked to the south end of the caravan where Macey had died. I needed to bury her.

I closed my eyes, seeing the blood pool around her head, hearing Susy screaming and Sunshine crying out. No … that was not now, that was then. I rubbed my hands over my face. What twisted trick of fate would bring me to a second Macey?

“She’s alive,” I said to myself. “Let it be enough for now.”

With a shake, I finished checking my limbs. Cleared of any new wounds, I turned and headed to the back of the truck where I could hear the chatter of the kids as they quickly snapped out of the horror show they’d just seen.

They hung around the truck, clinging to the pregnant woman, asking questions at a rapid-fire rate.

“Were those bad wolves?”

“Will they come back?”

“What is all that red stuff?”

Sweet baby goddess, I was glad it was her and not me trying to answer those questions.

I watched for a minute, fully ready to leave when Frost spotted me. His face lit up as he ran toward me, then tried to leap into my arms. He didn’t cry or even ask me one of those hard-to-answer questions; no, he just clung to me as I pushed him gently to the ground. He clung to my legs, his eyes looking up with such a certainty that I squirmed. Like he knew I had saved him.

I knew exactly how he felt, though, that need to be held after so much fear was intense. I patted his back. “You good, kid?”

“Yuppy doody, I am.” He grinned up at me and my heart stuttered, and my jaw dropped.

“Wha … at? Where did you hear that?”

He shrugged. “I dreamed it.”

I crouched down to him and stared into his face. There was no way he could have known those words … unless he’d seen Alex. Alex, my best friend from the first time I’d leapt into this world of monsters and demons, was also a werewolf. But he was gone, and there was no way he could be in Frost’s dreams.

I shook my head. No, Alex was nowhere close. He couldn’t be.

“You’re going to take care of us, aren’t you? The man in the cloak like yours said you would stay.”

I struggled not to let my mouth drop open wide a second time. “In a dream?”

“No, I woke up. He was beside me. He told us not to tell you.” His blue eyes widened, and he covered his mouth with his hands. “Oops.”

“It’s okay. I won’t say anything.” I rubbed a hand over those blond curls while my heart beat out of control. The one in a cloak could only have been Raven. But what did he have to do with this caravan and these kids? Why would he have spoken to them and not me? What was my father up to now?

“But you’ll stay?” he asked again.

“Yeah, for now.” Damn, I did not want to make a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. Not with Sage acting the way she was, and the magic that begged for me to hold it tight. My skin crawled with images from my past, of children dying, of those children turning into zombies that thirsted for my flesh. I had to close my eyes as I fought to get control of myself.

The thing was, I wanted to keep the kids and this stupid caravan safe, and that frightened me. I knew what caring deeply cost when those people died.

But in that moment, I could admit at least to myself that a large part of me wanted to be given a second chance. To know I had a purpose, and that was to keep Frost and the other kids safe. Just the way Rylee and Liam had always taught me—to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

“Old habits die hard,” I whispered into his hair, and he looked up at me a frown creasing his tiny brow.

“What are habits?”

Yeah, hard questions. I smiled as I backed away from him. “Don’t worry about it, kid.”

I fought to shake off that need to protect them. Not because they didn’t deserve it, but because there was no doubt in my mind that at some point, I’d fail. I had no magic that I was willing to use. And when that moment happened, I would have to see them die.

Frost’s frown deepened. “I don’t have a mommy.”

He pulled back from me and I found myself staring into his deep blue eyes as my heart broke for him. Damn, this kid was good.

“I don’t either,” I said softly. I never knew my real mother, though she was the one that black magic came from. “But I found one. Maybe you’ll find one too.” He blinked up at me and I put my hand over his mouth before he could say what I saw in his eyes. “No, Frost. Not me. I’m not mom material. I’m sorry.”

Then the tears did start, slowly, trickling down his round pink cheeks. His little lips turned down and trembled as he backed away from me.

Goddess of all that was holy, all he wanted was exactly what I’d always wanted. A family, safety, love. A mother. Things I’d found in Rylee and her mismatched pack, things that I’d left in order to find myself.

I swallowed back the lump in my throat as he ran and hid himself behind the pregnant woman as she waddled carefully over to me. Name, what was her name? Damn it. When it came to people and their names lately, I had a shit memory.

“What do you make of it?” she asked, carrying one of the kids on her hip while another chased her ankles. Frost held onto the back of her skirt, hiding from me. They weren’t all her children, but she seemed to be charged with watching after them most of the time, since she couldn’t really help do much else in her current state.

“Chris, right?” I asked, and she nodded. I wasn’t sure that we’d ever met and talked before, since I’d made such an effort to stay on the periphery of the group, in order to keep from growing too attached. I dredged the name up from all of Oka’s spying. She kept me up to date on all the gossip she picked up when she was making her rounds.

Who was sleeping with whom, who was in trouble with Richard, who Sage was angry with.

The answer to that last one was usually me or Macey.

“I think they wanted the kids,” I said. “If it had been food only, they would have pulled the outside fighters into the woods and been done with it. If they wanted mates, they would have taken the women. They came straight for the kids, ignoring everything else.”

“No, you have to be wrong.” The horror in her voice made me really look at her. At the lines in her face, the fatigue and fear in her eyes. She put a free hand on her growing belly. “I’m sorry, but don’t you think you could be wrong?”

I shrugged. I wasn’t into false platitudes even at my age. “I suppose. But I don’t think I am. They were too determined. There was far easier prey they could have taken. It just means Richard and Sage need to take better precautions.”

I walked her back to a truck that had no blood splatter on it. Not Chris’s and the kids’ usual ride but it would do. “Hey, wait,” I said, and she turned. I gave her a grin and pointed at a different truck. “I know this is Richard’s special ride, but you four should go in it.” I pointed at the Humvee. No, I wasn’t in charge, but Chris didn’t argue, and the kids were excited to ride in a new truck. The Humvee should have been where they were in the first place, not Richard.

The children were watched closely here, but it was different. Like … they wanted the kids protected, but it felt more like show than truth to me, which I didn’t like. In theory, the children were precious to this group.

But then if they were so special, why weren’t they in the armored vehicle?

Unlike the rest of the people, I’d not been in caravans the last three years. I’d had no idea they even existed up until they’d stumbled on us at the river. Maybe the dynamic here was different than the others out there, I had no way of knowing.

But Richard, he thought the kids were something special, more than just because they were kids. And the way Frost had connected with Oka, I wondered if he was right. The addition of my father visiting the kids had alarm bells going off inside my head.

The thing with Richard was that he treated the kids special, but also with a bit of something else … fear wasn’t quite the right word, but it was close. Trepidation maybe?

I grabbed the door of the Humvee and opened it. “Here you go.”

Inside the armored truck were blankets and a few pillows. Enough for the kids to hunker down and sleep for a bit, which by the way they were dragging, they needed. After all the excitement, the down time was necessary, and for Chris too if her sluggish movements were anything to go by.

Frost grabbed my hand and dragged me into the Humvee after him. “Tuck me in, please. And sing to me.”

I glanced at Chris as she tended to the other two littles.

“Pammy?” Frost whispered. I tried not to visibly cringe at the name only one other person in this world had called me. A person who’d … no. I was not going there. Alex had called me Pammy. Alex had been the only other person to say yuppy doody that I knew of. Damn it, this kid was doing his best to get to me.

“What’s up, Frost?” I clenched my hand to keep from sweeping a stray piece of blond hair away from his face while he looked at me expectantly. Damn it, these kids were my kryptonite.

He frowned. “Are all wolves bad?” Ah, the question Chris had answered with an instant “yes, they are all evil.” I lowered my voice and leaned close.

“No, not all of them. Just like not all people are bad.” I smiled, thinking of Alex still. My best friend and a werewolf to boot. “Some werewolves are good. Amazing even. And hilarious. I knew one, he was the kindest, gentlest creature you’d ever meet. He was my best friend.” A flood of sadness washed over me, and I worked to block it from Oka. If she picked up on my emotions she’d leave her spying to come and check on me.

“What happened to him? Why isn’t he here with you then?” Frost asked, snuggling deeper into the blankets.

I looked up at the ceiling of the Humvee, just to have somewhere else to look rather than into those blue eyes that held so much trust. So much innocence.

It took me a minute to spit out three little words.

“I don’t know.”

In an instant, I was transported back to the day I’d broken the Veil with Raven’s and Larkspur’s help. Alex was trapped within the Veil beyond the souls of the dead, and by releasing him, I’d given him a second chance at life. I could still see him, still feel the weight of those golden eyes of his, seeing the trust he had for me and what I was doing.

My heart ached all over again as though I’d only just lost him. Before I knew his fate, Lark had whisked me away, and I didn’t see if he broke through, never made sure he was okay. I mean, I know he broke free of the deepest level of the Veil, because if he hadn’t, Lark wouldn’t have been able to break the world. Alex had been the key holding things together and I’d freed him.

In the three years since that moment, in all my wanderings, I’d not found any sign of him. I had begun to think of him as dead, because that was easier than thinking he wouldn’t come looking for me.

Besides, with the destruction and the upheaval, I think the logical, rational part of me was right. He likely hadn’t survived.

But in the darkest part of the nights, when the cold wrapped around me and I remembered my first friend, my heart still hoped he was out there. Even if he wasn’t with me, I hoped he was alive and well. In the wildest of my dreams, I imagined us stumbling across each other, our hearts drawing us together. Our embrace would be everything I needed and more, and he would never let me go again and my wandering would come to an end. I knew it would probably never happen, but it made me feel better to know it could, no matter how remote the possibility.

Frost pulled the blankets up around his round little chin and smiled to himself. “I want to meet him.”

I smiled down at him and cleared my throat before I pulled back. He seemed to have forgotten that he’d asked for a song. The only one I could have done was “You Are My Sunshine,” and when you were trying not to get attached to a blue-eyed cherub, even I knew that was a bad idea.

I patted him on the head, about as awkward as could be. “Me too, kid. Me too.”

I nodded to Chris as I shimmied out of the Humvee, seeing Macey a few feet away, a glower on her face. As usual.

The kids and Chris would be crammed in there, but at least they’d sleep better than if they’d taken one of the tents that were now stupidly going up.

Fuck me sideways, was Richard insane? We’d just finished fighting a pack of werewolves and he was going to camp on their still-warm blood?

Hell no, this was not happening.

I let my connection to Oka open more fully, following the ties that bound us together, pinpointing where she was and, by association, where Richard was too.

They were east of the camp.

“You told him all wolves aren’t bad?” Macey’s accusatory tone snapped me out of my head space and I slid to a stop.

“What?” I stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

I motioned for her to walk with me. I had to get to Richard and get him to see how stupid this was without full on calling him an idiot. Yeah, it was not going to be easy.

She fell into step beside me as I steered us east again toward the outskirts of the caravan. People were starting to assess damages, make fires, and set up camp. Morons. You did not camp where blood like this was spilled. Had they forgotten the other creatures out there?

Apparently.

“You lied to him. I heard you through the door of the Humvee,” Macey said.

I struggled to put the pieces together as my mind was already working on how to convince Richard we needed to move. She’d heard me? Then the puzzle clicked. Right, the Alex story.

I shook my head. “No, I didn’t lie. I knew a werewolf who was … well, he was my best friend.” I couldn’t stop the sorrow from creeping into my voice.

“Wolves are the reason I’m alone, Pam,” Macey said with more pain in her voice than I’d ever heard.

I slowed my feet and she sat on a protruding rock that had a flat surface, a perfect natural chair. She was quiet, and I took the opportunity to look around.

The spot we were in was sort of picturesque. A small creek ran alongside the trail we’d been walking, and the sound of it babbling along was easy on the ears. But I had a feeling the conversation with Macey would be anything but picturesque.

I didn’t really need to ask her the next question, but I think she needed to tell me and I could give her that much.

“What do you mean the werewolves are why you’re alone?” I asked.

“I mean, they killed someone I loved.” She glanced at me with an old pain in her light green eyes. Pain that I suspected was what had made her the way she was. Hard, angry, and mean as a snake when she was riled.

I couldn’t escape a sudden sensation that she was a pale reflection of me and what I’d lived through, what I could have been if my mentor hadn’t found me. I’d lost everyone I loved too, more than once. But I wasn’t as hard as Macey. Not by a long shot.

Nor was she like the first Macy. I could feel something on the periphery of my understanding, the reason why I’d been drawn to both girls, and their potential reflection of my own life.

Before I could get too deep into that can of worms, she rescued me with a deep breath and her story tumbling past her lips.

“When the world fell apart, my parents were killed. Our house collapsed in on us in one of the first big quakes. My sister and I survived out of sheer dumb luck—we were outside when it hit. I knew the humans were banding together to stay safe, so I went with a few neighbors we’d grown up with. One of the men got a little too friendly with Marley and me. So, we left. I vowed not to get her in that spot again. I thought we were safer on our own. I was wrong. There were worse monsters lurking in the dark than a man who gets a little handsy.”

I stayed silent while she talked and kept my eyes on the water as it danced around the small rocks in the creek below. Her broken story was the same as so many others. I knew Frost’s wouldn’t be all that different—none of those kids’ missing parents would have a better story. In this world, people you loved died every day. It was a part of this new life. As if my reality had become everyone’s overnight.

I wished that hadn’t been the case, but there was no turning from it.

Macey yanked a tall piece of grass from the ground and peeled pieces of it away, casting them aside as she went, her eyes downcast. “The werewolves came for us, looking to increase their numbers, looking for mates. It was a small pack, hit hard by that first plague that took the supernaturals out, I guess.” She looked at me, looking for reassurance that I knew what she was talking about. How could I not?

The image of dying children, of me fighting with my own abilities to save them, of failing. I shook my head. No, there were no dying kids here. Or at least not kids I would see die.

I cringed and made myself nod. She went on, tossing another piece of grass into the creek. “But a fifteen-year-old with no fighting experience, and a ten-year-old ballet dancer were no match, even for a small pack like that. They dragged her away and left me to die, they didn’t even bite me. They just wanted her. I have no idea if she’s alive or not. And … I don’t know which is worse. To have her be dead, or one of them.”

She looked over at me nervously. “I did look for her for a while, you know. I didn’t just abandon her. But on my own, I was vulnerable, and injured. I knew I had to find a group that could help me get better. But none of them wanted to help me, I was a burden.” She shrugged. “I hope for Marley’s sake she’s happy. But I doubt it. She’s probably dead.” She tossed the last piece of grass into the creek with more force than was necessary.

“I’m sorry, Macey,” I said.

“Sorry doesn’t bring her back. Sorry doesn’t change what they did to her.” Her words held a lot of heat, but I didn’t flinch. She wasn’t angry at me, but at the world.

“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” I wanted to tell her I would help her. I would search for her sister. But I knew I couldn’t, and she was probably right. Marley was likely dead.

Even though my heart screamed to help her, to tell her we’d find a way, I knew I couldn’t—there was the caravan now, and the kids here needed … well, they needed someone with more magic than me, but I would have to do.

Offering to help Macey would only cause her more pain when or if we found her sister, and what was left of her. But the pull to help was still there. After all, it’s what Rylee had taught me to do: help injured souls, save the children, put the pieces of others’ lives back together.

“Since then, every wolf I see is that gray one with the green eyes that hauled Marley off into the brush. And as far as I’m concerned, every werewolf out there deserves to die.” Her eyes locked with mine, daring me to challenge her reasoning.

I shifted my stance. There was no way I could convince her otherwise, so I didn’t bother to try. Instead I put her on the spot. “What if the next wolf you see is your sister? Would that stay your hand?”

She frowned as she stood. “None of the wolves we saw today were her. And if it was her … maybe she’d be better off dead. Better than being one of them. A freak show supernatural monster.”

Well, that was subtle. Her eyes locked on mine. “So, you see, there are no good wolves. No good supernaturals. Not even that idiot Sage is any good.”

While I agreed with her on Sage, I knew the rest was a blanket statement coming from pain and grief. No better than saying all politicians were idiots back in the day. Most, sure, but there were always exceptions to the rule.

“Sure, if that’s what you want to believe, fine by me.” I shrugged. “Look, I have to talk to Richard.”

She frowned. “Why?”

“Because he’s being a dick.” I turned my back on her as she gave a laugh, and then I started east again. Richard needed a smack upside the back of his head. And I was just the witch to do it.

Chapter Ten

I found Richard, Sage, and that ass face Ron arguing near the edge of the forest. The forest where the werewolves had come from and only just retreated to.

Like I said, they were idiots; it was amazing that they had survived the last three years. Their previous witch, Wilma, must have been nothing short of a powerhouse.

Oka sat at their feet, grooming herself, innocent as could be. But even as I approached I saw her eyes flick to the forest over and over. She knew as did I that just because the werewolves had retreated didn’t mean they were gone.

My skin itched with the weight of unseen eyes. Yeah, we needed to get our butts in gear and get moving.

“Hey, Dick.” I shouted the shortened version of his name and the three of them stopped and turned to me. I smiled. “Look, I know you all are busy running things. But you have to get your caravan to move.”

Sage pulled herself up and raised an eyebrow. “You are not in charge—”

“There are creatures out there,” I pointed at the forest, “that hunt by scent alone. They will smell the blood of the injured and dead and they will come looking for a free meal. You need to move your people, Dick.”

Oka coughed at his feet, covering a snicker.

Richard’s eyes were hard, but apparently, he wasn’t a complete idiot. “You have a point. Ron, head back and get the caravan moving. We travel ten more miles. Will that be sufficient?”

Oh, the snotty sarcasm, that was the most real emotion I’d seen from him yet. I kept the smile plastered on my face. “Fifteen would be better.”

I turned and flicked my fingers for Oka to follow me, then paused and looked over my shoulder. “I put the kids in the Humvee. Where they could be safe from a second attack. Seeing as they are our future, right?”

Richard stiffened, but he couldn’t argue with me. Not if he really was all about keeping them safe. “Of course, excellent idea,” he said softly.

Yeah, we were not going to be friends after this, but whatever. I would do what I could to keep Frost and the other kids safe as long as I could.

I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see them all die in front of me.

You are being a child, Pamela. The darkness is yours to command. To use as you wish.

I cringed, but already I could feel a pull on me. The urge to reach out, just to give in to the magic that could make a difference, a real difference. But what would it cost me?

My soul, or any sense of right and wrong? I had no idea, and I was terrified to find out.

I shook my head. “Fuck, this is getting dicey.”

Oka trotted along beside me. “We need to talk. You aren’t going to believe what I learned from those two. Before Ron showed up, at least.”

I took a breath and nodded. “Fire away,” I said, despite the fact I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what she had to say.

She paused as we got close to the caravan. “At least they listened to you.”

“This time,” I said softly.

The humans were like a kicked anthill, packing up fast and just shoving their bags into the few vehicles. Fires were being put out with buckets of water from the creek.

I held myself back, watching as the group slowly got moving again. Fifteen miles would take half the night, easily. Maybe longer. But it had to be done.

Oka pawed at my leg and I held out my arms for her. She leapt up and put herself onto my shoulder.

She leaned into my head, and a deep sigh slid from her. “I don’t think we can leave this caravan, Pam. I know you’ve been considering breaking away, and I understand why, but … something is happening here. Something we were supposed to stumble on. I’m sure of it.”

Now, that was not what I was expecting from her. But I kept my thoughts to myself. Mostly because I’d been thinking the same thing with the connections Frost had shown me to Alex and Raven. Something was indeed up.

“Why do you think that?” I tucked my hands under my arms. Sure, it was summer, but this far north, the nights were still blisteringly cold, and tonight would be no exception. What I wouldn’t give to light a couple tiny fires and just hold them in my hands as I walked.

Oka adjusted her balance before she went on, her tail wrapping around my neck like a furry orange scarf. “Richard believes the kids are Immunes and that is why the werewolves came for them. Frost included, of course. And he thinks that the new child of Chris’s will be born Immune as well. The general belief he’s holding to is that all children born since the Rending are Immune. That their new Immunity will bring a sort of balance to the world. Since so many humans have been lost, and the supernaturals have enjoyed a bit of an uprising, he thinks this is a form of evolution to keep the humans from dying out.”

“What does Sage say?” I asked.

“Well, she argued against him, said he was an idiot. What’s curious to me on top of his theory, which in itself isn’t all that far out there, is how he even knows what an Immune is. How can he possibly know these things if he’s just a human?”

Yeah, that had been my next question. How could he know a term like that when it was rare even within the supernatural community?

Secrets and lies, looked like our little Dick was full of them.

I nodded and fell into step a good twenty feet behind the last of the caravan. Far enough back to be separate, but not totally out there by myself. Even I knew that being with a group like this was better than going it alone again. At least for now.

I thought about what Oka had told me. If Richard was right, then humans becoming Immune would surely slow down the exponential growth of the supernatural community. Assuming they weren’t just killed outright.

“I’m not sure that it matters, though, not really. If anything, it means that the kids are safer than we thought they were,” I pointed out.

“And all the more reason to make sure that they make it to adulthood. But we don’t even know if they are Immune. I mean, unless you want to see if Sage will lay a spell on one of them right now?” Oka said.

I snorted. “No, that can wait and be a last resort of figuring this out. Last thing we want is to tire Sage out. We might need her for something.” And there was no way I was going to tap into the magic left to me and test it on a bunch of innocent kids.

I mulled it over and over, looking for a moment since I’d been here where I could say that the kids showed signs of being Immune. I snapped my fingers as the images pulled together. There it was, a scene that I’d thought nothing of at the time because Sage was so weak to begin with. I’d assumed it had been her just being what she was.

“You remember when we were first with the group, maybe the first week, the kids were playing outside Sage’s tent? They were making a ton of noise and started throwing rocks at her tent because they bounced off and back at them? And they’d taken some of Sage’s herbs off the drying rack for a bouquet for Chris.”

Oka nodded. “Yes, and Sage lost her mind.”

My turn to nod.

“She tried to give them all a slap with her magic, nothing that would have been hard enough to really hurt them, I don’t think. But … they ran away when she yelled, Oka. Not when the magic touched them.” I pulled the scene through my head over and over, replaying it.

Yes, I was sure of it now. Even when the magic had touched them, it hadn’t done anything. At the time, I thought it was because Sage had second thoughts about backhanding a bunch of toddlers and had pulled back. But now, I could see it for what it was.

Her magic had dissolved around them.

They were Immunes.

I could go along with that from what I’d seen with my own eyes. But Richard was making a leap if he thought that all children who’d been born in the last three years were the same as the three in this camp, or even Chris’s unborn child for that matter. There might be something special about these three toddlers. Maybe some supernatural bloodlines in their background he wasn’t aware of. That sort of stuff happened all the time.

I should know.

“He also really believes there’s a place he’s calling the Haven, some people call it Shamballa, in the east. I mean, I know he’s mentioned it, but I thought that was all for show. But from what he said it’s more than that.” Her cat lips dipped down as she spoke. “He believes that the Haven will block all supernaturals outside its walls.”

I snorted. “Walls? Standing walls?”

“That’s what he said.” Her ears flicked, and I could feel her emotions as she considered it. A place of safety for the humans would be a good thing.

Richard had mentioned it during his congratulatory speech about how Sage would lead them there, after she’d pretended to defeat the wolves. I’d assumed it was a leftover sanctuary from before the Rending, or just something said to keep people happy. Maybe a place with a hole-riddled fence acting as a defense where a larger group was waiting for them.

I understood humans needed a goal in order to get up and keep going every day, and what better goal than a place of complete safety?

Not that there was one. I’d have heard of it before now. Hell, Stefan’s assholes would have taken it by now. Still, it made sense in terms of continuing forward and keeping the caravan mobile. If they found this Haven and didn’t have to fend off werewolves and other marauders, they could grow food, keep livestock—assuming again that they could keep the predators away, and just make better lives for themselves. But something about the way Oka spoke made me think there was something more. “Where in the east?”

She shrugged her small shoulders. “He doesn’t know. Just east. So that’s why every day he leads the caravan into the rising sun. Just, go east. That’s his mantra. He thinks the Haven is protected from being easily found.”

A chill swept over me. There had been a place of safety like what he was thinking, several actually, but they’d been created for the supernaturals of the world, not the humans. My training of magic was scattered, but one thing I knew for sure was that it liked balance. I tapped a finger on my chin. It was possible that those places of safety had flip-flopped when the humans became the creatures in need.

But … I wasn’t so sure, and my theories were nothing more than that. Theories.

“Okay, but what happens when he hits the ocean before he comes to this magical Haven of his?”

Oka shook her head. “No idea. But that isn’t the half of it. He believes this place will keep them safe … forever.”

I nodded. “Never would have guessed that with a name like the Haven.”

She ignored my interruption. “And that if we bring enough Immune children to it, Richard could save the human race from going extinct. He talked like it was a higher calling he had. He did mention Wilma, the previous witch. Oh, could that be where he learned about Immunes?”

“No, most supernaturals didn’t know about Immunes. It wasn’t common knowledge,” I said softly, thinking on her words.

It wasn’t just some mass settlement Richard was looking for. For whatever reason, he thought all the Immune children would be there, and singlehandedly resurrect the human population. It was a tall order for a bunch of toddlers and one unborn baby.

“Well, he fancies himself pretty smart then, doesn’t he?” I said.

Richard did have some curious insights, but this information was striking, to say the least. How the hell was he getting it anyway? I just couldn’t believe that he came up with these theories on his own, which meant he had a connection to someone who did know. And that, sure as shit stinks, was not Sage.

I frowned. “You think Wilma could have believed this?”

“Oh.” Oka breathed out the word. “That would make sense. Maybe they were close?”

That was possible.

“Maybe,” I agreed.

“Well, Dick believes the wolf attack targeted the children for a reason. That the supernaturals know about the Immunes and want to take them out. They don’t want them breeding,” Oka said. “And I hate to say it, but all of this does make sense. I mean, parts I wish didn’t, but …”

I agreed with her again. “Yeah, that isn’t much of a stretch. At least the part about the wolves targeting the kids. We saw that ourselves.” I frowned. I’d been circling that very theory since I’d seen how the werewolves had gone after the truck. With so many of us around that would’ve been easier to pick off, it was clear they had a goal in mind. Now that their numbers were starting to recover post plague, I knew they weren’t on that kind of mission. Nor did they seem terribly starved. They were after something else. And the children were the only thing that made sense based on where they concentrated the attack.

Richard’s thought that the kids were Immune only added pieces to the puzzle that fit better than I wanted. There were questions, though, that I could make neither heads nor tails of.

“How would the wolves even know the kids were Immune?” I asked softly. “Who would know about an Immune, or that it was even a thing to look for?”

Oka’s tail twitched as she mulled it over. “I really don’t know. An elemental maybe? There are some left besides your father.”

Of course there were. I touched the bracelets, hatred flowing hot through me at the thought of the elementals who’d done this to me.

Then an image of my father chatting up the toddlers flashed through my mind. Could he have set the wolves on us? I didn’t want to believe it of him, but I couldn’t discount it, much as it felt like a knife to my gut. His way of doing things often left the innocents of the world shattered.

I pulled myself together. “If Richard is right and the rumors of Immune children are spreading … that puts this entire caravan, all of the caravans out there in serious trouble,” I said.

The possibilities made me uncomfortable, to say the least.

Those kids didn’t deserve this life. Not to mention the fact that I couldn’t deny my role in creating this new world. In the past, I wanted so badly to try to set things right for those who remained. But all I’d done was watch them die while my magic was stripped from me.

I could almost hear Rylee’s voice in my ear. What about the young, who had no champions? Who were just like you, Pam, fending for themselves in a harsh and cruel world?

“I can’t do it again,” I whispered. “I can’t.”

The truth was a deeper dig than all of that.

Oka bumped her head against mine. “I feel your turmoil, and your confusion … and your grief, Pam. Talk to me.”

I grabbed the edges of my cloak and hugged the thick material around me. I could use it to become essentially invisible, to slip into the darkness unseen when I’d still had my connection to spirit. Now it was just a cloak and a reminder of what I’d lost.

She bumped my head again. “Pamela, I am your helpmate. That means not only do I keep you safe, but I help you work through things. Now … what exactly are we doing here?”

“What?” Her question completely threw me off. Not because it hit on what I was thinking about, but because we never really talked about what we were doing. Survival, that was always our number one priority. Finding someone who could remove the bracelets, and maybe to help me learn more about my skills as a magic user.

In three years, we’d found no one but humans and rogue supernaturals, all fighting to survive. None able to help.

Aimless … I’d been aimless and running from the past for three years.

Oka’s words echoed my own thoughts eerily. “We’ve been wandering for three years without any kind of goal other than to remove the bracelets. But where? Or maybe … maybe they won’t ever come off and that is something you have to consider.”

She looked up at me with her big chartreuse eyes, waiting for an answer I didn’t want to give her. Saying it out loud gave it life and meaning. I wasn’t ready for that.

I picked up speed, angrier than I should’ve been … because her question scared me. And I knew she’d pick up on that too. Shit, I needed to breathe.

“I don’t know, Oka. Okay? I can’t believe that there is no escaping this prison,” I said softly, touching the bracelets.

She patted my cheek and then jumped down, pacing along beside me. “No, not like that, Pam. I just wonder what you think your purpose is. I will follow you wherever you lead, you are my purpose. But what is yours? The bracelets, of course, but what else?”

I threw my hands up in the air, knowing all along I was running already. “Well, join the how the fuck do I know club, cat. I’ve been asking myself that same question for a long time. And you know what, my purpose is not with these folks. It’s not with anyone. I can’t help them, Oka. I have nothing to offer but a pair of blades.” I pointed wildly ahead of us, not bothering to look to see if any of them were watching my interaction with my cat.

Lies, you lie to yourself. The darkness whispered through my heart. You have magic, you are just too cowardly to use it.

Oka snorted and shook her head. “I feel your fear, my friend. I could guess, but I’d rather you tell me why. Why are you so sure of those words that you fling about?”

I stared down at her. “Because my life is not aligned with the humans. We learned that years ago. They die, remember? All too damn easily!” Not again, I wasn’t going there again.

Blood everywhere, bodies at my feet … the last breath escaping Hank, cool against my cheek as tears leaked from my eyes … I pushed that memory away with a bitten back sob.

That was a hell of a lot of nope. Not going there.

Oka did not give up, though. “Those humans are not these humans. There are children here, Pamela. Children you can save. The others were lost before you ever stepped into the picture. They let Stefan in, you know that! And if these kids are truly Immunes, they are no longer just humans then, but closer to us supernaturals than the rest here would want to know.” She trotted alongside me, her tail straight in the air and the emotions that slid through her were full of certainty that she was convincing me. Smart-ass cat.

“And my magic?” I asked. “I can’t save them.”

“You did today, without a stitch of magic. It’s why Rylee taught you to fight, almost like she knew one day you would need those skills more than ever.”

Damn, she’d struck a chord and we both knew it. I frowned down at her and kicked a rock onto the side of the broken road. At one point before the Rending, it had been a highway by the looks of it, but now bits of concrete were scattered here, and the road was far from smooth. The fear and grief that drove my anger reared their ugly heads inside me, pushing me away from Oka.

“You know what, you’re right. Let’s go. I made a decision, we’re leaving.” I said the words in a rush before I could change my mind.

I snapped the cloak around me and walked out into the darkness, and I knew even if any of the humans had seen me, none of them would stop me. Not even Macey. She would use my departure to fuel her anger with the world and how unfair it had been to her. It would make her stronger.

The only ones who gave me true pause in leaving were the kids. The thought of never seeing their sweet, innocent faces again almost brought my feet to a halt. Almost. They were safe in the Humvee.

My grief-fueled anger forced my feet forward as I put space between me and the caravan.

I couldn’t help them, just like I couldn’t help Hank, Susy, the first Macy or baby Sunshine.

Screams rent the air, the elementals around me laughed and then I was racing to help my friends. Only I couldn’t save them.

Once more I shook it away. No.

“Where do you think you are going? Just going to walk into the bush with the other wild creatures? Going to just give up on this world, are you?” Oka called after me. Yeah, she wasn’t one to pull punches. Or paw swipes, I guess.

She jumped up onto my shoulder from behind, but I didn’t falter as I strode away from the still-moving caravan.

“Anywhere but here. Oka, I cannot do this again,” I whispered that last bit. I just can’t.

She swatted my face with the pricks of her claws out to get my attention. “Pamela, let’s be real about our situation. One. The only people who could help you learn more at this point in your training, or free you from these damn bracelets are elementals, and given your parentage, I don’t think they’d be wild about teaching you and helping you get stronger. We know Raven can’t help you; likely he’s in deeper shit than us.”

“Thank you for that astute observation, Captain Obvious,” I said dryly. Raven was not exactly well loved in the elemental world. Long and short, he’d done a lot of bad things in the name of trying to do the right thing.

“Don’t get mad at me. I didn’t make your parents knock boots,” she said. “And I can feel the darkness in you acting up. I know you’re trying to hide it from me. You can’t give into it, Pam. It’s a magic that could eat you from the inside out.”

I sighed as I veered off the trail, wanting some quiet after all the chaos and upheaval in my mind and heart. The farther I got from the caravan, the more the night closed in on me, on us. Owls hooted, and night creatures moved about in the underbrush, rustling here and there as I walked by the light of the moon, hidden from the eyes of the world for a bit. A pair of archies roosted in a tree to my right, their eyes locked on Oka.

“What would you have me do, then? Go back to Rylee and Liam? They can’t get the bracelets off any more than I can.” I thought about that for a moment when she didn’t answer me right away. I knew in my heart I’d always have a place with Rylee. She was the closest place to a real home I’d ever had, the closest thing to family. But going back didn’t feel right. Not now. Something kept my feet moving forward, aimless as I was, and I knew I had to follow that pull to wherever it led me.

No matter how hard it was.

“It’s not what I want, Pam, but what you need. Do you need to go back to her?” she said all cat-like cryptic.

I thought again about going south to Rylee. No …

“I don’t think it’s time for that yet. Home can wait,” I said absently as I approached a clearing between the trees where a small pool rippled and reflected off the trees around it. A picture of tranquility. I wondered if this was the source of the creek, knowing the wandering of my mind was an attempt to avoid the tough questions in front of me.

The thought of home called to my heart, with its sense of safety, of being loved and appreciated for who I was. But I knew it wouldn’t be the home I remembered. The world was broken, and so was my home. I knew instinctually Rylee and Liam would be just as focused on survival as I was. And they had all their babies to consider.

More than that … I wasn’t sure if they’d forgive me for my part in breaking the world with Lark. I could still see the hurt in Rylee’s eyes, could still see the lines on her face as she realized what I was doing.

Despite the way Oka and I wandered with no real direction, there were very few options for us. I had to keep moving forward, searching for someone who could help me.

I sat at the pool, curling my feet under me, and toyed with the water with a single finger, making designs and ripples that danced away from the tip.

So many people had gone before me, so many who might be able to help if they had survived. If they hadn’t found their lives cut short. Larkspur. Milly.

A little magic won’t hurt, and it could help you, I could teach you.

Before I thought better of it, I stirred the water faster, working a bit of magic into it. A little magic wouldn’t hurt.

A fog settled over the small pool, deepening to a dark gray. Oka sneezed, but I kept my focus, stirring a little faster, thinking about the advice I needed.

Instinct pulled the magic from me for … whatever this was that I was doing.

More, and a spirit will answer you.

Slowly, I called up more of the magic, and the feeling of it slithering around inside of me was almost … happy. Happy to be used for something, anything. I meshed it with the fog, and the power thrumming through me delved deeply into the pool.

“What are you doing?” Oka asked. “Pamela, not that magic, please.”

I flinched as she moved to touch me. “No, I have to try, Oka and when you touch me the magic runs from me,” I answered, my voice thick as though I’d woken from a deep sleep.

The fog shimmered with colors as a form began to condense. My heart leapt at the tall feminine figure that began to pull together. Larkspur, it had to be her.

“Lark?” I reached a hand out to her.

The voice that responded was a woman, but… “No, child. It is not Lark.”

Of all the people I hoped would appear before me, Giselle wasn’t really the one I wanted. I wasn’t sure who I was hoping for, since Alex wasn’t in the spirit world anymore. But there she was, her face full of curiosity, and maybe some amusement. She’d been a Reader, someone who could see the future and tell you what would come for you. She’d been Rylee’s mentor, and I’d never met her in real life, but I’d met her soul before and she’d been unhappy with me then.

“Veil breaker. Why did you call on me?” she asked.

My guts clenched at that title, but I fought through the shame. Truth needed to be embraced. “That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” I said.

Oka nodded, and her shock filtered through to me, but she said nothing as she stood at my side. She had never met Giselle, but she was likely picking up on my discomfort under the older woman’s gaze.

Giselle just looked at me, her gray eyes inscrutable in the depths of them.

“Are you not trapped then?” I asked.

She smiled, her young and unlined face the only one I’d ever known. “The Veil is shattered, and spirits roam where they wish. But you called me here, so I assume you want to ask me a question other than what happened to the spirits of the Veil?”

I cleared my throat, not sure how to start.

“Like a bandage, just rip it off,” Oka prompted.

Right. The first few words blurted out of me. “I need advice.” I held up my arms to show her the bracelets. “I’ve been bound, I have no magic.”

She leaned in close. “Then how did you call me?”

“The magic from my mother’s bloodline,” I said. “I … thought only a little wouldn’t hurt.”

Giselle sighed. “You remind me of Milly. Reckless, willing to take chances.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to be compared to the witch who’d done so much damage to Rylee and had in the end been the cause of Giselle’s death. I swallowed hard and Giselle went on.

“I can do nothing for the bracelets. A power far greater than mine will be needed to remove them. But the magic in the blood of your mother … it is dangerous and not to be taken lightly.”

“So I can use it?” Hope flared.

Giselle just stared at me, her face expressionless. “You can do whatever you wish, Pamela, but there is always a cost. I do not know what the cost will be to you.”

The darkness in me laughed softly, mocking Giselle’s words. She knows nothing.

“Ask her the rest,” Oka prompted.

She was right, I’d not expected much else when it came to the bracelets. I looked to Giselle. “This broken world is … not what I thought it would be. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m pulled on all sides. Who do I protect? The supernaturals? The humans? Just me? I have no direction, and it’s … it feels like it is slowly killing me. I can survive, I know that. But is that all there is?” I rambled, I could feel it, and yet couldn’t stop the flow of words. “I’m having trouble finding my purpose now that I’m here. Away from the others.”

Her eyes softened. “Your lot is not an easy one, Pamela. There are more forces in play than even you realize, and you will be a catalyst for change as Rylee so often was.” Her eyes drifted closed and she held a hand out to me. I lifted my own hand, mirroring her, and placed it over her ghostly palm. There was a tingle of cold between us, energy flowing from me to her, giving her strength to see what she needed to see.

She drew a slow breath and let out through her nose as if meditating. “Your path is forged by the sun and the wind, by the elements in your blood even though you cannot touch them right now. Follow their call and you will find your place in this broken world the Destroyer left for you.”

Oh, fantastic. A riddle, just what I was hoping for. But really, what else did I expect from the seer? She’d never given anyone a straight answer.

I kept my hand over hers. “Giselle, I want to learn. I want to know how to protect the people I love from the horrors that the Rending has made. I want to be strong enough to not falter again, to not fail those I am trying to protect. There are new creatures rising. Beasts I know didn’t exist before I broke the Veil. They look …”

“Broken?” she offered. “They are. They are not of the world you knew, Pamela, but of the world as it is now.”

I stared at her and she stared back. “How can I learn more?”

“You’ve abandoned those you love to fend for themselves in this shattered world of horrors, as you called it, to learn. May I suggest you stop looking for someone to teach you, and start teaching yourself?”

It was a slap in the face, and a hell of a lot more potent than Sage’s little parlor trick, and it echoed what Raven had said to me so long ago. Oka sucked in a sharp breath and let out a low growl.

“You go too far, spirit.” She hissed the last word.

Giselle’s eyes flicked to the little cat. “No, Pamela needs to hear this, and you, little familiar, know I speak truth. No one else would say it. They would coddle her because she was the child we all loved. She is a child no longer, there are no skirts to hide behind.”

Her words stung, but she was right. There was truth in them.

That didn’t mean it was time to go home to Rylee. “Giselle, you know Rylee and Liam don’t need me. They have each other, they have Ophelia and Eve, and the babies.”

Slowly, Giselle smiled at me. “You won’t be a teenager much longer, Pamela, and I actually doubt you’ve been one for years. In age perhaps, but not in heart. Your age is a shield you hide behind. Now it is time for you to stand taller than ever before. Take responsibility for your choices and live the life that resonates with your heart. Your heart is what should lead you, always.”

My eyes welled up and then fluttered closed. “I don’t want to get hurt again, Giselle. Rylee … I don’t know how she lost so much and kept going.”

She sighed. “I will only say this once, Pamela. Stop comparing yourself to your mentor. She is one of a kind. As are you. The strengths you have are different, but they will carry you if you let them.”

I slowly opened my eyes. “People have died. Ones I was trying to protect.”

Her eyes were sad. “People die, Pamela. Every day. Especially now in this world.” There was no condemnation in her words.

Shit, I wanted to protect the people around me. I wanted to help, not run away. But I was afraid of the cost to my already battered heart. Oka butted her head against my leg in a silent support.

Giselle slowly withdrew her hand. “Your path lies to the east, Aimless Witch. You’ve seen the darkness in this world, and in your own heart, and both are growing. It stalks the humans that remain. You are either the child that Rylee taught, or you are not. This is the last chance you have to follow her training or forge a different path.”

She began to fade, and I couldn’t look away. “She taught me to protect those who could not protect themselves. To stand in the path of the oncoming shadows.”

Giselle nodded. “That she did. Is it who you are, Pamela? Or do you follow your elemental blood and wall yourself off from the world? Or your mother’s blood and only save yourself?”

My heart thumped hard inside my chest and I whispered my greatest fear. “What if I’m not strong enough, Giselle? What if they die when I am protecting them … like the others?”

I blinked up at her and her image wavered, strengthening for a moment more. “Rylee did not always succeed in bringing children home alive, Pamela. But she never stopped fighting. Even when the odds were against her.”

“I’m afraid.” I could barely say those two words.

She nodded once. “Then they will all die. If you fight for them, some will live.”

I looked away from her, back toward the camp. “The kids … will they survive?”

I knew I was looking for a guarantee. One that really would never exist.

“I cannot say. Their leader is right, though. Someone hunts the children who are Immune. Someone who would see chaos reign and keep balance just out of the world’s reach.”

“Who?” I asked, but before she could answer, a distant scream reached my ear, followed by a single gunshot from up the road.

“Bloody hell,” I said. The image of Giselle dissolved, and I spun and ran toward the roar of battle.

Again.

Chapter Eleven

I burst out of the woods and back onto the trail, not sure what I would find when I reached the slow-moving caravan. Night had fallen, and the darkness would work against us in a fight.

“They barely made it a mile without getting into trouble!” I snapped as I ran toward the back end of the group.

Oka bounded along beside me. “Now? Please say now!”

“Let’s see what the hell is going on first.” I gritted my teeth as I ran, legs and arms pumping hard as I tried to move fast, but still save some energy for a fight at the end of it. A mile wasn’t that far. I could cover it quickly with my long legs. Five minutes, tops.

Oka laughed, picking up on my timing. “You aren’t that fast.”

“Race you?” I offered.

She didn’t answer with words but instead shot out ahead of me, her tail straight in the air as she leapt the chunks of concrete and easily dodged the holes in the semi-darkness. That was the perk of night vision, I supposed. I stumbled twice, and only went down to my knees once.

And Oka was right, it took me longer than five minutes to make it to the caravan.

Breathing hard, I slid to a stop and took it in. The horror unfolding in front of me was certainly not what I’d been hoping for.

A newly dead body rushed me, mouth open, eyes white with the classic zombie glaze. It was Ron, aka Ass Face. He was faster as a zombie, the stinking fucker, and he tackled me hard, taking me to the ground. Oka leapt onto his back.

“I got it,” I grunted as I held him back with one arm jammed under his chin. He roared his frustration as he snapped his teeth at me. He sounded much too animalistic for the arrogant fuckwit I’d dealt with only hours earlier.

“Shit, Ron. You really should’ve learned to aim, mate,” I said as I dragged one of my zombie slayers across his neck all the way to his spine, relieving him of his head. It rolled off me, the teeth still snapping. That much was true of the stories. A direct hit to the brain was needed to finish the dirty fuckers off. I pushed to my feet, then kicked the detached head for good measure before I turned around.

Chaos played out behind me as I stared at the camp. People ran everywhere as Sage made—once again—a rather poor attempt at eliminating the threat. Her inflated opinion of herself was coming back to bite her, and the entire caravan, in the ass. They’d landed themselves right smack in a zombie nest thanks to her carelessness and inability to actually read the ground.

And she was powerless to save them from her stupidity.

“What a stupid twatwaffle,” I muttered, and Oka startled.

“Never mind her. The kids. I’d bet my next archie the creatures will go for them,” Oka said, prompting me to get my own ass in gear. I took a breath and ran into the mess of bodies, living and dead.

One of the men tried to run past me and I grabbed his arm, dragging him with me, shaking him a little as we went. “Oh, no you don’t. This way. Form a barrier around the children. We can stop the dead, they aren’t as bad as wolves.”

The fear in his eyes lessened as he nodded at me. “Okay. Yeah, got it,” he said, then ran back the way he’d come.

He had a job, and so did I. In the end, magic was a bit useless against zombies unless you used it to pop their heads off like a dandelion, so in this fight I was on about as solid ground as I could be. The image of a field of zombies planted at the feet with their heads being popped off randomly was bizarrely funny, and I smiled to myself as I picked my way toward the worst of the fight.

Sage had already demonstrated to the caravan she didn’t possess the kind of power that could outright save them. Funny to think I was grateful for a bunch of zombies.

A cold, slimy hand on my leg broke my train of thought. It wasn’t someone I recognized, thank the Mother Goddess. It was a woman who’d been dead a long time, so not even from our caravan.

The last thing I needed was a tiny Frost coming after me, wanting to tear my flesh off with his teeth. Just the thought of it made me want to vomit, my gorge rising at the thought of any of the kids being turned into zombies. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure that if an Immune died on the zombie grounds that they wouldn’t turn, and frankly I didn’t want to find out.

Oka skidded to a stop, but I sent her on with a tip of my head. “Go, see what help you can give. Stay small as long as you can.”

I stomped on the hand of the female zombie, pinning her down. “You’ve got a little something in your eye there,” I motioned to the arrow sticking out of her face. She roared at me, like Ron had, and I kicked her in the chin. She bellowed louder as I worked to get firm footing while she swiped at my legs. She was backing me into the battle, and that wasn’t what I wanted. I needed to face that head on. I couldn’t afford to get pinned between her and a horde of her friends.

She raised herself into a crawling position and screeched, giving me the perfect view of her green, decaying neck. A buzzing bug flew out of her mouth while she screamed, and I fought back the gag that threatened to alter my aim.

“Game over, screechy,” I said as I reached back to drag my blade across her neck. But before I could, her head fell to the ground at my feet. As if it had just spontaneously popped off all by itself.

“We’re even,” Macey said as she stood behind the zombie, wiping her machete clean.

“What?”

“You took my kill, now I took yours.”

She had a rather satisfied smile on her face. But I was still confused. I didn’t keep score, nor did I keep track of my kills. But clearly the wolf I’d killed had crossed one of her invisible lines of acceptable behavior. In my attempt to puzzle this confrontation out, I didn’t see the zombie lurking behind her, the stealthy bastard.

He roared as he lunged for her, sinking his teeth into her shoulder. “No!” I cried as I leapt into action, burying the serrated edge of my blades into his shoulder and yanking him off her.

I didn’t even bother to look at him. My only concern was for my friend. Because in spite of me working to stay distant, Macey was my friend, and she’d been my second chance. She’d told me about her sister, and about her fears, about her life before. And I didn’t take that lightly.

The zombie howled as I pulled him off his feet and he landed flat on his back in front of me. I jerked the crescent-shaped knives out of his shoulder and he scrambled to roll over and right himself. I kicked him in the chest and knocked him off balance. An opening was all I needed.

He rolled quickly, closing my window of attack, and his muscles tensed. He watched me with pale green eyes that weirdly glowed in the dark, eyes that matched the decay on his skin. He’d been a zombie for a while. Neon green slime hung from his mouth, connecting with his shoulder as he growled low at me, swaying a little, calculating my next move. As if he wasn’t some mindless dead body without a soul.

More like he was a predator, and I was his prey.

What was this new fuckery?

This zombie was crossing a line. He didn’t deserve the swift death I had to give him. I could see it in my mind. It would be easy. He’d launch, I’d step out of the way, and cut his head off. The zombies were nothing if not predictable.

But he did something surprising, which for a dead thing said something. He stood up straight, and took a defensive stance, as if waiting for my move.

I did not have time for this bullshit. By the screams around me, the caravan was sinking like the Titanic.

Fast.

I lunged at him, blades drawn, and he was the one to step out of the way, using my body weight to propel my forward motion, and leaving me vulnerable. He used my own damned move against me, the ridiculous codswallop.

This was not how it worked with zombies.

He rounded on me quicker than I thought a zombie should be able to move and put his knee into my back, forcing me to the ground. I tasted dirt and tried to spit it out as he settled in on me.

“Goddess. What do you weigh, a ton?” I croaked as his bony knee dug into my back between my shoulder blades. I kicked my legs trying to make a connection with the heel of my foot but found nothing but air. I tried to worm my way around, to get a glimpse of Macey, but he wouldn’t allow for any wiggle room at all.

So, I sliced his leg. It was a blind swipe, and I knew it wouldn’t do him any damage, but I was hoping to get him off balance. This son of a bitch was going down. Right here, right now.

I did more than throw him off balance.

I cut off his foot, the blade going through the rotten leg bone with ease.

He wobbled, and I scrambled out from under him, seizing my moment. As I stood, I pulled his remaining foot and leg with me, setting him even more off balance. He landed flat on his back, the sound a mixture of wet flesh and thick skin hitting the hard ground.

I was on him in a flash, and this time, I didn’t hesitate. No emotion registered in those creepy green eyes as I separated his head from his body.

I sat back and sighed. “Whew. He was a bugger,” I said, not wanting to look back at Macey. Hoping I wouldn’t see what I knew would be there.

The zombie had knocked me a few yards away, and when I turned, nothing could’ve prepared me for what I found. My scrawny friend, snarling and tearing at her own clothes, wild with hunger for human flesh. She was gone, but torturously, she was still here.

This was not … possible. The zombie bites had never turned people before. If you died on the infected ground, yes, then you turned. But the bites themselves were equivalent to a dog bite. They got infected easily, and they could kill you that way. Even then, you had to be on infected ground to turn.

There was no way Sage could have missed infected ground. Even she wasn’t that blind.

“No. Macey. Hear my voice. Stay with me.” I ran to her, tucking my blades away so I could grab her by the shoulders and shake her. She looked up at me, her dull green eyes wild like her hair as spit and blood foamed at the corners of her mouth. The gaping wound in her shoulder was beyond me. Her neck and chest were soaked crimson with her own blood. She’d bled out fast, and the infected ground had claimed her.

Sage had missed the signs. And Macey paid the price.

Her machete lay forgotten on the ground at her feet as she writhed in my arms. This could not be happening.

I should have been able to save her. And I knew in that moment Macey had been a big part of the reason I’d stayed with the caravan. A second chance to save a Macey, and I’d failed again.

My heart took another punch. But … Giselle’s words rippled through me.

Rylee never gave up.

I would not accept this. I held Macey firm while the zombie’s curse coursed through her body, giving her inhuman strength. I knew my grip on her wouldn’t hold. She’d get loose. Soon, and then I’d be fighting her for my life, forced to use my power to remove her head.

Your magic can call her back.

Damn it. So be it, then.

“I’m not giving up on you!” I yelled at her as I opened myself to the dark in my blood. It roared forward and I screamed as it cut through me as if I were made of paper. The magic had a mind of its own as it slammed into Macey.

Smoke rolled off me as I wrestled with this new and wild magic that made me gasp for air. I tried to weave it around her snarling body, searching for the way to save her, to bring her back from this … the worst way to die. She’d been through so much, she didn’t deserve this.

I would save her, damn it!

As the magic reluctantly tightened around her, I held fast to my hope. I would do this. I would bring her back. She would not be another name added to the list of those I’d lost.

I wouldn’t let Macey down.

But then, the magic crumpled around her as if it had squeezed her too tightly. It found nothing. No mind to manipulate. No soul to zero in on. Nothing.

Of course it didn’t. She was a zombie. Her mind wasn’t there anymore. And apparently, neither was her soul.

Anger rose in me and I let out, screaming to the night air, adding to the cacophony. The magic spilling out of me and shooting out in every direction. The grief too much to bear, to hold in.

“I’m sorry, my friend,” I whispered.

Carefully, I pulled her machete toward me with my foot while I held her. I knew it would have to be quick. She was gaining strength by the second.

It felt like time slowed as I let go of her, stepped out of her way and she fell forward, toppling over as I bent to pick up the knife. She was horribly uncoordinated in her new existence, nothing like that old zombie I’d just dispatched. He’d had years to learn to move around, calculate, and become deadly. His mind had reformed into a killing machine, which was unheard of. There was no way I would allow Macey to turn into that. Tears streaked my face.

“Fuck, I hate this,” I whispered.

Macey landed flat on her stomach, snarling and flailing around. It broke my heart as I raised the machete. “If I see Marley, I’ll tell her you never stopped looking, Macey.”

In one, swift move, I brought the huge knife down on the back of her neck, and she stopped moving instantly, stopped snarling, stopped existing, as her head rolled about a foot and came to rest with her open eyes looking at me. I cried out again, not because of what I’d done, but because of the sheer lack of emotion I saw in them. She was gone, turned to one of the monsters of this world. Her worst nightmare.

And mine.

I searched for the anger at the injustice of this world. I needed it to keep going, to do what I had to do.

The battle still raged, I could feel it in my bones, the blood lust curling up through me, calling to me, the dark magic there again, begging to be used. Only it had done nothing useful.

Are you sure about that?

I wasn’t on the outskirts of the battle anymore. I’d somehow gotten right into the thick of it. Zombies were everywhere, but they were slower than before. Against their skin, I could see the sparkle of my black magic that looked like midnight diamond dust.

The magic had bought me some time to inflict more damage with my blades.

I didn’t have time for grieving Macey. I never did. We needed to get the children and get out of there. Now.

I jammed Macey’s machete into the ground next to her, a tribute of sorts, and searched the battle for my next move. I yanked my own curved blades from the ground, grabbed hold of them and took a deep breath.

Time to do some killing.

I strode into the thick of the fight, taking heads with each step, dropping zombies left and right as I fought my way to the center of the caravan like a dance of death.

The man I’d issued orders to what felt like eons ago had listened, and had created a human wall around the Humvee, protecting the kids and Chris. I cut down two zombies as I reached him.

“Cut their heads off, destroy their brains,” I yelled over the din. “They won’t die until you do.”

They knew this, but in the chaos and fear they were just swinging blindly. Like sheep bleating at the wolves. They needed someone to take them in hand.

The man echoed the order down the line. Their movements became more coordinated, the blows deadly to the zombies.

Over and over my blades landed. Oka found her way back to me, helping me keep the monsters off my back.

“Behind you!” she called out and I swung without looking, driving the tip of a blade deep into the side of a zombie’s head. I yanked it free and spun, kicking another zombie in the chest, snapping the bones of the sternum.

“To your left!” Oka worked around me, tripping up the zombies where she could.

I hated to admit it, but if the magic hadn’t slowed them down, we’d have been overrun by now.

Oka was deadly in her accuracy and her tiny body kept the zombies from not just overrunning me, but the humans too. In her smaller form, she was actually better at keeping the zombies from me. We’d learned that much in the last three years. Bigger was not always better when it came to battles.

A house cat had her place in this world too.

The battle wore on into the night, minutes ticking by and turning into a solid hour. That may not sound like very long, but it might as well have been a month for the drain it was on the body.

With each ooze-covered zombie I cut down, two more took its place.

Exhaustion threatened to creep in as the adrenaline of the initial fight wore off.

I looked to the barricade. The humans were getting sloppy. Two of them were picked off while we fought, and the morning sun rose. Was it that early already?

A question floated through my head. Where the hell were Richard and Sage? I’d seen her at the beginning but then nothing. I wasn’t sure whether to root for her or the zombies, to be fair. Little Dick, I wanted him to live … I still had to pick his brain about how he knew of the Immunes in the first place.

I shook my head. We had to end this, there would be no winning while we stood on infected land.

I pointed a blade at the man who’d taken my initial orders. “Get two of your guys into the trucks and go. We need to get clear of this land. It’s infected.”

He nodded to me and turned to bark orders.

“Oka, watch my back,” I said.

“On it.” She put her butt against my calf.

I poked my head in the Humvee.

The kids were silent. Their faces were white with fear. Chris clutched at her belly. “Is it done?”

I shook my head. “Not yet.”

She let out a soft groan. “God save us.”

I shrugged. “I’ll be honest. It probably won’t be Him doing the saving.”

Frost looked at me, his eyes wide. I gave him a wink.

“You look after Chris for me. Okay? Protect her.”

He took a breath and nodded. “Okay.” He placed a hand on hers.

One of the other children grabbed at me. “Are you going to get rid of the monsters?”

I nodded. “I will keep you safe,” I promised.

And I knew in that moment, I’d give my life keeping that promise if I had to, magic or no magic.

“Pam, we have incoming,” Oka said.

The kids smiled up at me and I turned back to the battle.

I looked down at Oka. “Let’s get them out of here.”

Chapter Twelve

Oka wasn’t kidding about the incoming zombies. There was a literal wave of them cresting the small hill that ran off the side of the road.

“Well, that sucks,” I muttered.

For the first time, I caught the sound of jangling bracelets and I turned toward them.

Apparently, Sage hadn’t really given up or been killed, but her attempts at defending the camp were weakening as the horde closed in. The caravan was seeing just how unskilled she was, and it was the worst possible time for that shit.

The zombies had us surrounded.

I had to do something. And with that decision went any other choice I might make later. I knew it. But I knew it like I knew we’d die if I didn’t do something.

Yes, now you will feel the power of your true bloodline.

Fear cut through everything else. “Oka.”

“I’m here. Do it if you have to.” She nodded at me, but I felt it in her too. This magic was not something she understood either.

So, I hefted myself up onto the bed of the truck as it fired up and opened myself to the dark magic, shaking as I did so. This was the power that had first appeared in me, the power that had sent my first family to sell me off to a pair of trolls.

The magic slithered down my arms to my hands.

Just like your other magic, you can use it to create anything. Power, straight power will be best.

I nodded and held my hands together, cupped as if I held a ball. The magic pooled there against my palms, cool, and slick, nothing like the elemental power that had always felt warm. Safe.

This was anything but safe. I held it there as it vibrated, rattling my teeth and reeking of sulfur, of demons and death, as the humans loaded the guards into the second wagon.

The horde closed in and I threw the spinning black ball of magic in front of us and then leapt down from the truck. Bodies flew every which way, creating an opening, along with a bit of a crater for the trucks to navigate. The pull on my energy was immediate and I swayed where I stood, my muscles spasming hard. “Go,” I roared at the driver, my voice twisted and strange even to my own ears, and he didn’t wait to be prodded again. In an instant, he mashed the gas pedal to the floor, and the truck lurched forward, faster than it probably had in years.

The tang of the exhaust was a welcome scent as the second truck followed suit, taking the rest of the caravan away, bumping down into the shallow crater and up the other side faster than I thought either truck could go. Oka and I brought up the rear, cutting the zombies down as we ran.

I didn’t dare use the magic again. My body ached as though it had been dropped off a ten-foot cliff and bounced every inch along the way.

They closed in on us as the trucks got farther and farther ahead. How fucking big was this swath of infected land? Normally the zombies stayed in a tight radius of their nest and whatever ground they’d claimed as their own. Problem was, if we were running toward the center of the nest, it would take even longer to get out of range. There was no way to know, though, so the best thing was to just keep moving.

Story of my damn life.

I sliced and cut more and more of them down, seeing one or two more familiar faces. None of them I knew well but having seen them alive only moments before didn’t make it any easier.

All the while, my mind raced. I’d used the magic of my mother, but what had it cost me?

What had it taken from me?

As the sun shone through the lower branches of the evergreens around me, one of the men who’d just been fighting alongside me attacked. I gritted my teeth, seeing him that way. He was a fresh zombie, so he wasn’t decayed yet, though he did have a huge chunk of flesh taken out of his neck where he’d gone down.

“Sorry, but it’s better this way. I’ll end it quickly,” I said to him. I knew he couldn’t understand me, but it helped me hang on to my own humanity to talk to him.

He roared, his vocal chords rattling as he lunged for my midsection. I jumped back, just outside of his reach. He fell to the ground at my feet. Zombies weren’t terribly coordinated in the beginning and tended to put all their energy into each attack. So, if they missed, they toppled. Before he could right himself, I severed his head with one swift movement.

“We should get out of here,” Oka cautioned.

“Agreed.”

But as I was moving to make my escape, three of them closed in on me. I wasn’t surprised, but I was running out of adrenaline after fighting all night. After killing more than one comrade. After seeing the fear in the kids’ eyes. After I’d given Macey her end. After using a magic that terrified me.

I was tired. Tired of wandering. Tired of fighting. Tired of just surviving.

They came at me with flesh hanging off their arms in slimy clumps. One of them closed a hand around my leg, and its vise-like grip was impressive. I slashed at its arm with my knife, and I did manage to cut it off, but it didn’t fully release me.

“Damn it.” I dragged the hand along, making my escape even slower.

Six others leapt at me from all sides, like I had a bloody football and was near the end zone. I tried to duck out of the way and they crashed into each other, landing on top of me in a snarling heap.

Pinned down as I was, panic caught hold of me.

“Oka, now!” I screamed. There was no one else here to pull them off and my exhausted state made taking hold of the wild magic a crap shoot.

That was all the encouragement she needed. She shifted into her tiger form, her roar rippling through the air.

She made short work of the zombies on top of me, tearing them off with her massive paws and teeth. Her strength fueled my own and I managed to slice off the last zombie’s head with a squelching thump.

Oka’s snarls were exponentially more ferocious than the zombies’ as she tore them away. The one on the bottom of the heap snapped its teeth at anything nearby. Once or twice it got a mouthful of one of its buddies, but they took no notice of the damage it caused.

Oka tossed the zombies aside like they were nothing more than field mice. I scrambled back as she bent down and tore the last one’s head off with her sharp fangs, dropping the still-snapping face next to me. Like a present. I grimaced up at her.

“Thank you?”

She nodded, but her eyes were not on me. I scrambled to my feet, wobbled a little and put a hand on her for balance. I was winded hard, my body ached, and with my strength low, there was no way I could use any magic.

I could almost feel it begging, and that was a sure sign I’d lose control. Who knew what would happen then?

Around us the horde kept coming. I knew I could fight it all day long and not make a dent in it. It was time to make a run for it.

“Run,” I told her, and she didn’t need to be told twice. In her tiger form, she was a lot faster than me, but she brought up the rear, knowing how tired I was. Still, I felt her send me strength through our bond, powering my legs, heart, and lungs. I pounded the earth with each stride, pushing myself forward as I ran with the speed of the wind whistling through the trees.

The trail became a blur as we raced along, avoiding the reaching arms of the undead with ease. By some miracle, we put distance between us and the zombie horde. Their screams of hunger died down, and so did my pace.

Once I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we were safe from the undead, I slowed to a walk, and Oka shifted back to her house cat form. I stopped walking and she leapt into my arms. I hugged her close to me, taking a deep breath that made me gag. She smelled of rotting flesh, sweat, and blood. But she was alive.

I sat in the middle of the trail, holding her, and cried. Tears of horror for this world we lived in, tears of gratitude that we’d yet again survived a brush with death, and tears of sorrow for the members of the caravan we’d lost so horribly.

“I have to say, of all the ways to die in this new world, I think becoming a zombie is one of the cruelest,” I said as I worked to compose myself.

“Agreed,” she said, as she nudged my hand with her head.

“Thank you, Oka. You saved me. Again.” We often went back and forth, saving each other in this world, but it didn’t make it any less amazing every time it happened.

She shrugged, like it was nothing. “It’s what familiars do. You know that by now. I’d give my life for you.”

“I do,” I said. “Doesn’t mean I don’t still love you more each time.”

She patted my cheek with one paw. “Don’t get emotional on me. Let’s find the humans. They don’t have an amazing cat like me looking out for them.”

Not yet, I thought. Her eyes swiveled to me and she arched a brow but said nothing.

I smiled at her, knowing she was emotional too, and doing her best to hide it.

Despite her being my helpmate, she was young too.

I kept our pace slow, trying to regain some of our strength, which meant it was after midday by the time we came upon the caravan, a few miles up the trail. I was glad they kept going after they got off the poisoned land. They didn’t need a couple rogues taking out what was left of the herd.

We were spotted about a hundred yards off, and the shouting started early. They waved at me, and I heard …

“Are they cheering? For us?” I asked. To be fair, I figured they’d start shooting as soon as we came into view, thinking we were zombified.

“I guess,” Oka said. Her suspicion mirrored my own. What the hell was happening here?

The caravan came to a complete halt, and the group surged toward us. I stopped and took more than a few steps back to keep from getting mobbed.

Richard made his way to the front of the crowd. Sage stayed noticeably on the edge, arms crossed over her chest, her red cloak drawn close around her as if it were some kind of shield against … whatever it was she was protecting herself against. Goddess only knew.

Richard stood in front of me, his eyes fatigued, the lines on his face deeper, and then he smiled.

As if that shock wasn’t enough, he threw his arms around me before I could dodge him and gave me a gruff squeeze. Shock kept my mouth shut. Better to listen and see what this was all about.

Hell, he even bent down to pat Oka on the head. “Thank God, you’re alive. Both of you.” He nodded again to Oka. He motioned toward the caravan with a tip of his head. “There is much to talk about. Come.” He paused and glanced at me. “Do you think this is far enough away, that it’s safe to camp now?”

While I had no connection to the earth any longer, I could read the signs of dead land easy enough. And there were none screaming that there were any dead about to sprout up.

No strange depressions in the ground, no faint whiff of decay, no strange green rocks where there were stones of no other color.

“Yeah, sure.” I shrugged, acting like it was just a guess on my part. Who was I kidding? Obviously not them. They’d seen the magic in my hands, and now I had to explain that was a one-off. That it wouldn’t happen again.

“Good, good. Again, please, let’s talk.” Richard ushered me forward, a protective arm around my shoulder that I pushed off as Oka climbed into my arms.

I knew what was coming. I knew the talk he would give me.

But would I be able to give them the answer they wanted?

Chapter Thirteen

Richard led me through the caravan, and every one of the remaining members I saw either nodded or smiled to me. Fatigue was as heavy on them as it was on Richard, but there was gratitude in those lines on their faces.

My jaw ticked. Oka purred. “They know what you are.”

No shit, I thought back to her.

“But that magic, I felt it, Pam. It was dangerous. It didn’t want to be used by you but to be wild. It only wanted death—”

“Enough.” I cut her off. “Just enough.” I already knew that. I’d felt it in the aftermath, that desire to kill, to wipe out everything around us.

Never again could I use that magic.

We shall see about that. Danger will come to you until you break, Pamela. I would rather that not be the case.

Richard slowed as we reached the front of the caravan where the Humvee was parked. Already a small fire had been made and someone had put a pot of water over it.

He fussed around it like an old lady, producing two chipped mugs with real, honest to God, Earl Gray. My mouth watered at the thought of the fragrant tea.

What can I say? I was an Englishwoman to the marrow of my bones.

After a few minutes, Richard offered me a warm cup of tea. I held it between two hands, breathing the smell of something so familiar deep into my lungs.

I held my tea like it was some kind of lifeline. It was solid, real, and I knew exactly what to do with it. Drink it down no matter how hot it was. I took a sip and nearly groaned.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a decent cup of tea,” I said softly. “Thank you.”

Richard smiled and then turned as someone tapped him on the shoulder.

I recognized the newcomer as the man I’d commanded to circle the wagons, as it were. Richard welcomed him to the fire with an outstretched arm. He was muscular, with long brown hair that hung in waves past his shoulders. His face, however, was clean-shaven and covered in grit and blood, as were his clothes.

“How many have we lost?” Richard asked.

“Nineteen remain, which means …” He trailed off with a grimace.

“Eleven have been killed.” Richard sagged as he spoke. “That’s the worst hit we’ve had since the beginning of our journey.”

His reaction soothed some of my concerns about him. He was far more devastated by the losses than I expected him to be, and I could see it wasn’t an act.

Maybe he wasn’t as bad as I’d thought.

Oka stretched across my shoulder, her belly fur warm against my neck. “He actually cares for them.”

I nodded, but kept my mouth shut. I agreed with her. This was no act Richard was putting on. He was visibly upset.

Before I could ask them if they had recovered any bodies, Sage strode toward us. She pushed between me and Richard to place her hands above the flames. She snapped her fingers and the flames danced a little.

I snorted, couldn’t help it. She was posturing, and by the looks of it, her show had not impressed Richard or his man.

“Do we have all the names?” Richard asked.

“Most. We’ll add them to the roster of the dead,” the man—damn it, I needed his name—said.

“Macey was one of them,” I said, watching the steam from my cup scatter at the mention of her name.

“Who the hell is that?” Sage demanded, rage flowing off her like a damned freight train. A freight train that was gunning for me out of fear as much as anger. I didn’t have the energy to bother facing her, so I just ignored her. I’d deal with her only when I absolutely had to.

“Macey has not been seen since the battle,” Richard confirmed, even though I didn’t need it. I knew what happened to her. I saw her empty eyes in the steam as it rose off my tea, so I blew it away.

“And the children, they are all safe?” I asked.

“All survived,” the man said.

Irritation flowed through me, not that they’d survived, but that I didn’t know who he was. Something about him tugged at me. What the hell was his name?

Oka shook her head. “No idea. I think he must be newer. I’ve not seen him around.” Macey. Ron. Most recently Chris. I knew them. But I’d stayed outside this group as much as I could, watching from the periphery. Looking at this man who’d saved those kids, and nineteen others, I felt like that was my mistake, to have not at least found out his name.

“Well done …” I trailed off, hoping he’d fill in his name.

“Tristan.” His eyes were carefully neutral, and I realized I’d seen him somewhere before this. But that was impossible, I’d not been with any other caravan previously. Trick of an exhausted mind, I supposed.

I gave him the best smile I could muster, given the circumstances. “Tristan. Thank you.”

He looked at Richard and nodded as if encouraging him. “I believe the thanks goes to you …” he trailed off, mimicking me. It turned out I wasn’t the only one who was bad with names in the group.

“Pamela, and her cat, Oka, if I recall,” Richard filled in for me while Sage glowered at him. If she had any actual magic, I think she would’ve dropped that man dead where he stood with a single, venomous look. All I could do was shake my head. More drama. The last thing this world needed was more drama.

Richard turned to me. “He isn’t wrong, Pamela. We owe you our lives. There is no way we could have survived without your help.”

“If we had stayed where we were, we would not have run into the dead at all,” Sage snapped.

She had a point.

I looked straight at her, an unnatural rage rising in me hot and fast. I could all too easily imagine popping her head off like one of the zombies. I reined it in.

Barely. “And if you’d actually been on the lookout, we could have blown past the dead ground with minimal injuries.”

Her eyes widened and then narrowed so fast I thought she would take a swing at me.

Richard stepped between us. “Please, we have had enough fighting this past night. Pamela, we are in your debt.”

My emotions swelled, and I couldn’t catch hold of them. I hated the way my voice caught on the words, tears tugging at me. “And the eleven who died? What do they owe me? I didn’t save them, Richard. I couldn’t. I wasn’t fast enough.” I looked down into my tea as if the loose bits would give me the words I needed. Or the future I wanted. No, this tea was warm and soothing as I held the metal mug between my cold hands, but it gave me nothing else.

Richard put a careful hand on my shoulder. “The loss of their lives taught us a hard lesson. We’ve put our trust in the wrong person.”

My eyes shot from my tea to his face. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was nodding a dismissal to Tristan. Tristan took a step back. His eyes shot to mine and I thought I saw a measure of sympathy in their depths.

Shit. The moment stretched and then snapped.

“What?” Sage and I both said in unison.

“Pamela, I would invite you to be our tutelary, and help us reach the Haven with as many people as possible. We know there will be losses, we do understand that. But we also see the strength you carry. You have a good heart. Whatever is holding you back … we will help you.” Richard spoke softly, as if to a horse that was about to spook.

A shiver I couldn’t stop ran through my entire body. Not that I was surprised at his request, but I should have seen this coming about two miles off. And I’d walked right into it for a cup of hot tea.

Oka flicked her tail a few times. “This is your crossroads. Remember what Giselle said. Which path will you take? I know you are scared, but they need you. They need us.”

She was gentle in her words, but they stung because I knew she was right. That’s the thing about truth, it’s anything but gentle. A sharp knife could not have cut me cleaner to the bone.

Richard wanted me to replace Sage. To be their trusted protector, and the one who would get them to the sacred Haven they believed in, alive. I fought the panic and the memories as they surged around me. There had been a time before the Rending when I would have leapt at the opportunity to prove myself. When I would have thrown myself into the battle because I didn’t understand how bad things could get.

But I did not have the magic they thought I did.

Oka breathed a sigh. “That girl, the one who leapt before she looked? She’s still in you, and she’s stronger than you know. The caution this world has taught you … it is not who you are, Pamela.”

I shivered as her words coaxed a flame within me to life, small, burning, and hot with the need to follow my heart.

Crossroads … I made myself turn around and sucked in a sharp breath. We literally stood at a crossroads of the highway where two paths converged. I’d not noticed before, but the markings were there clearly now that I was looking. Damn …

This was not a coincidence.

Sage snapped her cloak back, baring her arms like she was going to demand I fight her right then and there. “This is an outrage. Wilma left me in charge on her deathbed, you know that! I am the caravan witch! Not this … this girl!”

Richard stayed where he was, seemingly calm, but his words were some of the harshest I’d ever heard him speak, and I silently cheered him on as my own world twisted in on me.

“Do you know what’s an outrage?” Richard growled, drawing my eyes back to him and Sage. “You. Your blatant lies about what you could do and the extent of your capabilities. We trusted you with our lives, with the lives of those children who are our future! As far as I’m concerned, Pamela here seems to think she’s responsible for the deaths of the eleven, but those deaths are on you, not her.”

A small ball of power pooled in Sage’s hand as her brown eyes snapped and crackled with anger. I saw her intent in an instant. Not going to happen, Witch.

I snapped my hands out, blade up, and caught the magic on it, dispelling it before it could hit Richard. “Don’t you dare slap him. He isn’t saying anything that isn’t true.”

He moved up beside me and his presence smelled of pine trees and something earthy I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it was familiar.

And I suddenly knew why I’d been avoiding him. The way he growled his words, the anger that flashed in his eyes … he could have been a cousin to Liam. Or maybe even an older brother. The shock of that recognition hit me hard and I sucked in a sharp breath. He probably wasn’t related, but shit, he was more like Liam than I wanted to admit. Fighting to protect his people. Stoic. Fair. If a bit too dependent on Sage.

Liam would have never been that dependent on anyone, not even Rylee. I smiled to myself, and almost asked Richard if he was related to one Liam O’Shea.

“What did you say to me, Dick?” Sage stared hard at me, her body all but quivering with rage.

I should’ve just stayed out of the conversation between him and Sage and let him handle her. But understanding why I’d avoided him, and why I wanted to protect him meant I was not stepping away.

The very whisper of the idea that he could be family was enough for me to stand my ground.

The gauntlet between Sage and me had been thrown.

I smiled at her. “I’ll repeat myself only this once. Don’t you dare slap him. Ever. And only I get to call him Dick.”

Across my shoulders, Oka twitched, ready as always to stand with me.

“I’d like to give her a little slap. Claws extended,” she grumbled.

I didn’t reply to Oka. Even though I agreed.

I cleared my throat, covering any reaction to Oka’s words.

My choice was here. I knew it was. There was no more hiding.

This truly was the crossroads in more ways than one.

Then you will have to embrace the magic in your blood if you wish to truly protect them.

I shook my head. No, I wouldn’t. I would find a way around it.

Sage lifted her hand again, bracelets jingling, and I arched an eyebrow. She was a fool to try it again.

I breathed out slowly as I brought both knives up and settled into a fighting stance. She tossed two blasts of power and I caught them both on the edge of the blades, cutting them cleanly away. I flicked them back at her and the power rolled away from me, slapping her face first one side, then the other.

Well, hot damn, maybe I did have something to work with.

She let out a scream, her cheeks reddening from her own magic.

“Sage, there is no need to get your knickers in a knot.” I glanced at Richard. “She was going to try again to hit you.”

His lips twitched with suppressed mirth. “Pamela, do you think that’s necessary?”

I nodded, feeling the truth ripple through me. “Yes. Until I take her in hand, she will continue to push on the both of us. And while I dislike her, I’m not going to put her out of the caravan unless you want me to. You’re the boss. Not me.”

Richard rubbed a hand over his chin. “Then what do you suggest we do with her?”

“You snot-nosed brat!” Sage screeched. The thing was, all the yelling was drawing attention, and just like BJ screaming the day before, the noise did nothing to help us. I wished I could flip her upside down, and if I was lucky the blood rushing to her head would make her pass out.

But I had no such ability now.

Oka snickered. “Oh, goddess, let it happen.”

“Could you teach her? Is there a possibility she could get stronger?” Richard asked.

I shook my head. “Even if she could, I have no desire to be her teacher. There is no real power in her, Richard. She has a good knowledge of herbs, and how they affect people, and she’s right good at pissing things off with her slapping. But it’s no more than that.”

Richard’s face fell, for the first time since he’d brought me to share tea. “You can’t teach her? I was hoping that with two witches we’d have a better chance.”

I shook my head again as Sage let out a bloodcurdling screech and threw another slap at us that I caught on the edge of my left blade and sent back to her. I wished I could’ve taken a wad of air and stuffed it in her mouth. “Afraid not. If she had a different temperament, then yes, I could work with her to hone her skills, small as they are. But that’s the real problem. Her attitude.”

What the hell was I saying? I didn’t want to teach. I wanted to be taught!

Didn’t I?

Oka was silent as Richard looked at me, and then Sage. “Wilma died suddenly. Without warning, with nothing more than a headache to give any indication she was ill.”

Oh, snap, he was a smart one. I tipped my head at him. “I’d heard that. It is strange.”

“And I found a cup of tea by our bed, drained down to a few herbs in the bottom.” His eyes hardened, and I realized that I’d been right about him and Wilma. They’d been a couple. I felt bad for his loss.

But Richard was showing me a side I liked better than what I had seen earlier and that gave me hope. Perhaps grief had him making poor decisions, depending on Sage while he hurt for his woman.

“Why would she do that? It makes no sense. We were happy to have two witches!” Richard’s incredulous question rung through the air with more energy and spunk than I’d seen in him since I’d joined the caravan.

“Only one way to know.” I turned to a pale-faced Sage. She wobbled and went to her knees. I pointed a finger at her. “Answer him.”

“Or what?” she snarled even while she struggled to stay upright. Panic lit her eyes.

I smiled at her, as I let the darkness that I worked so hard to keep down brush against the surface of my skin and creep into my own eyes. “Because you do not want to see me angry, Sage. Do you?”

She paled further, her blood draining so fast, I thought she might indeed pass out. “It was an accident, Richard. She was complaining of a headache, a bad one. She kept saying a storm was coming but there was nothing in the wind. I thought it was just … a migraine.”

Oka tensed, as did I. That had the sounds of a seer’s prophecy to it.

Richard took a step toward Sage, his hands clenched. “You killed my wife?”

She held up her hands, begging. “I’m so sorry, it was an accident! My herbs were mixed up when the trailer tipped, you remember? I thought I had them all correctly back in their cases … but I … the nightshade went into the feverfew bottle. I made her tea and sweetened it with the last of the honey. I didn’t realize what had happened until after … she was gone.” Big fat tears rolled down her cheeks as sobs rocked her body back and forth.

Richard’s hand went to the knife on his belt, shocking me. In all the time I’d been here, he’d been nothing but rational, never acting on emotion. Never violent.

I reached out and put my hand on his arm. “She’s telling the truth, Richard. It wasn’t intentional.”

He turned to me. “That isn’t going to bring Wilma back, is it?”

I shook my head as I worked my thoughts around this little revelation of Sage’s. “No, but … maybe,” goddess it was hard to be a grown-up, “maybe this is why she’s been so difficult? Guilt can do strange things to us. Perhaps she’ll let me help her now that she’s purged her confession.”

Oka purred. “There’s the girl I’ve been waiting to show back up.”

Her pride in me gave me a flush of pleasure. Richard, though, had not moved his hand from his knife.

He didn’t look at her. “Sage.”

“Yes?” she whispered.

“You are no longer our tutelary. Pamela is. You will work with her, and if at any point she deems you no longer working toward the best interest of this caravan, you will be removed.” He dropped his hand from his belt, turned and walked away. The crowd that had gathered moved out of his way silently. Chris reached out and touched his arm as he slid past her, but he gently brushed her hand away.

Well, so much for being asked to be the tutelary. I looked at Richard and the set of his shoulders. The crowd drifted away with him, I mean as much of a crowd as fewer than twenty people could be.

Richard drew them with him like a magnet. Yeah, there was some Liam in there for sure, or the same kind of man at least. I smiled to myself. A spine of steel, that was what would be needed to get this group through.

“What are you grinning about?” Oka asked. “You just had your choice taken from you.”

I watched Richard stalk away. “He reminds me of someone.”

A jingle of bracelets and beads snapped me around. But Sage had pushed to her feet, not raised a hand to throw a spell at me.

Her eyes were wary. “Why would you help me like that?”

“Because you were telling the truth about killing Wilma. That it was an accident,” I said. “I’m not going to force you to let me help you, Sage.”

She frowned and shook her head. “Wilma knew I was weak, but she kept my secret. No caravan would have hired me. She was my friend, and I …” She covered her face with her hands.

I took a mug that Richard had dropped and dumped the contents out, refilled it with water from the bubbling pot and dropped a tea bag in it. I handed the cup to her. “Here.”

She took it, cupping it to her face, breathing in the steam. “Thank you.”

“I’ve been there,” I said softly. “I’ve killed when I didn’t want to.”

Her eyes met mine. “What did you do?”

“I ran away for a time.” I took a sip of my own tea, grimacing as it had cooled. I took the teapot and refilled my mug with hot water. The next sip was much better. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”

“Do you really think you can teach me?” she asked.

I blew out a breath and made myself look at her, not with the angry eyes of someone trying to prove themselves, but with eyes that my mentor had taught me to have.

Delve her, a little thread of magic can do that. You do not have to release it all.

Damn it, the magic in me was a better teacher than I wanted it to be, considering the source.

Sweat beaded up on my face as I held out a hand. “Here. I need to delve you to see where your abilities lie.”

Her eyes widened. “Wilma couldn’t even do that.”

Discomfort flowed through me with the way she looked at me. “I have a few unique talents.”

She put her hand in mine and I fought to swallow, my mouth suddenly gone dry.

I opened myself a minuscule amount to the magic I could still touch and pushed a tendril of it through her body.

I sucked in a sharp breath as the colors lit up around her. I could see inside her power. From the deepest shade of green to the lightest wisp of sandy brown, the colors swirled through her, taking shape slowly into forms I recognized. Plants of all kinds called to her, and she should be able to work with them on instinct. She was closely tied to the earth and its softest elements. My magic surged, and I wrestled with it, my mouth in a tight line while I breathed through the internal fight.

I drew my hand back and looked at her, slamming closed my connection to the dark magic as it raged at me and left me shaken once more.

“You’re a hearth witch, Sage. Poultices, childbirth, curatives for the human body … a touch of connection to the animal kingdom. I think you’re a natural healer, which is why when you try to attack, it goes so poorly. Your magic is not meant to harm.”

Her shoulders slumped, and I frowned. “Sage, you understand that if you work within what your magic wants to do, you will get stronger? That you’ll be able to do more, heal more?”

Once more her eyes lifted to mine. “You can teach me this?”

Oka grunted. “You know less about herbs than me and I have a thing for catnip. Be careful here, Pam.”

I swirled the remaining tea in my mug, working it through in my mind.

“You can’t,” she said, a note of her previous attitude coming through loud and clear.

I made myself smile at her as the answer came to me in a rush. “I don’t want to give you a false promise. I can teach you how to learn, how to stretch your abilities, how to feel out certain things. Much of it you will have to learn on your own. We don’t have the luxury of having all the witches in the world at our disposal to learn from, if you haven’t noticed.”

And there it was, the answer to my own question.

The only person I needed in order to grow and learn was myself.

Well, that was a damn shitty turn of things if I ever saw it.

Chapter Fourteen

Sage and I agreed to begin her training—as it were—the next day, seeing as we were only looking at noon. I was exhausted and needed to sleep before any sort of training occurred. We all needed to sleep.

And that made me nervous. Less than twenty people in the caravan, dead on their feet, and we needed sentries.

Years ago, I would have erected a barrier made of spirit and air, like an early warning system. I closed my eyes, thinking about what was possible, what wasn’t.

“You have a light touch with animals, Sage. Maybe we can use that,” I said as I opened my eyes.

“What could I possibly help you with?” She frowned at me.

“Not sure, but I have an idea and I’d like to try and work together,” I said. Shit, if you’d told me the day before I’d be working with Sage on anything other than who could come up with the best insults, I’d have called you a liar.

I walked with her in a circle on the outer perimeter of the caravan, Oka still resting on my shoulder. “I’d like to set up a boundary line. As a hearth witch, you should have some abilities here. Maybe we can have a few archies around the edge. They would be the perfect warning system.”

“I’m too tired,” she said.

“We all are,” I replied, “but I’d rather not be attacked in my sleep.”

As we walked, I talked to her. “You saw the darkness in me, Sage. If I use my magic, it will come out and no one wants that, least of all me.”

“You used your magic back there,” she pointed out.

“I know, and it tried to take me over.” I looked at her. “Which means you need to step up. I can open myself to the dark magic, but only at a great cost. The smaller but no less important tasks need to be on you.”

Goddess, I hoped I was right in trusting her.

Sage stared at me. “There is something else you would have done instead of the archies, isn’t there?”

I nodded. “A barrier, clear and sensitive to supernaturals. It would go off like an alarm if it was touched.”

She drew herself up. “Can I do it?”

I raised both my eyebrows.

Oka tightened her hold on me. “If she gave you the reins of her magic, with our energy, we might be able to pull it off.”

I held a hand out to her before I changed my mind. “If you trust me to work through you, we’ll use our combined energies and I’ll see if we can pull it off.”

She put her hand in mine after only a brief hesitation. I closed my fingers around hers as we started to walk again.

“Call your magic up,” I said.

Her magic was the same colors as I’d seen in her aura and she literally handed them to me.

Sweet goddess, they were weak.

I sent my energy and Oka’s down my arm into the magic.

She gasped. “I can feel that.”

“You want to use your connection to the earth,” I said. I coaxed her magic through the steps as carefully as I could, and while it took a few tries, I managed to get a seven-foot-high barrier up.

Better than nothing, even if it took the last dredges of my energy and Oka’s.

I let Sage’s hand go and nearly fell over. I pointed to the faint blue lines emanating from the barrier that only Sage and I could see.

“That’s going to be directly connected to me. If an ugly hits the barrier, I’ll know.”

“Why did you want me to see this?” she said. “And you left me all my energy.”

I pointed at the camp. “I want you to try to make a smaller barrier around the kids in the Humvee. Before you go to sleep.”

She shook her head, fatigue written all over her. “I already said—”

I held up a hand, stopping her. “I know. You’re tired, but you saw me do it with your magic. Now is the time to push through. That’s how my training was. No chance to breathe, just survive.”

Sage stared hard at me. “You think I can.”

“I do. I could not have done it if your magic wasn’t capable,” I said, and that was the truth, even if it had been powered by my energy and Oka’s.

Sage nodded slowly, turned and walked away. Was it just me or did she stand a little taller?

“That was well handled,” Oka said as she hopped from my shoulder and stretched. “On both your parts.”

I had nothing left in me to chatter about the change in circumstances. “Time to sleep, cat, or we’re no good to anyone.”

I made my way to the edge of my new barrier. Even with it attached to me, I wanted to be close to it.

If I was going to be this caravan’s protector, then I needed to be on the frontlines.

A yawn cracked my jaws and my eyes fluttered closed for a moment. A hand dropped onto my forearm and I spun, yanking a curved blade from my side.

I had it pressed against a bare male throat before I realized who it was.

“Shit, Dick, don’t sneak up on me like that!” A shaky breath escaped me. That had been close.

“Wilma used to call me Dick when I was being an idiot.” He smiled, and it was … tired. And so sad.

He shook it off. “I only stopped to ask where you are going? We have sentries, you don’t have to be on guard.”

I brushed his hand off. “I’m going to sleep on the outskirts. Just like always.”

“No, that’s not right.”

“It’s better if something comes along. It’s where the tutelary should be,” I pointed out. “I might be able to stop whatever it is before it slams into the rest of you.” Because the thing was with this many attacks so close together, I had a feeling we weren’t done.

And that made me nervous as a sack full of heebie-jeebies. Don’t ask, it’s an English thing.

“You said I am in charge? Are you reneging on that?” He arched a brow at me.

I made him wait a moment before I answered. “No. You are in charge.”

He smiled. “We need you near the children. I would rather you were closest to them in case of any attacks.” He closed the distance between us and lowered his voice. “Please, I couldn’t bear to lose any of them or … Chris and the baby.”

His throat bobbed once, his eyes intense even in his fatigued state. I stared hard at him. “You … are you in love with Chris?”

What kind of drama had I just stumbled on? I could see it in his eyes that he cared for her more than just as a friend. Damn, he moved fast, seeing as he’d lost his wife only two months before, and Chris was way more pregnant than that. I shook my head.

He turned away. “It’s complicated.”

I stared hard at him. “Richard, don’t make me call you Dick.”

He gave a dry laugh and motioned for me to follow him. “Another time we can have that chat.”

Though the sun was high, there was little movement. Most people were crashed out wherever they could. Tents had been hastily propped up around the three vehicles and sleeping bags had been crawled into.

But unlike before, the tents were tight against one another, not spread out for personal space. For the most part, any person could reach out and touch another. It was striking after seeing things from the perspective of an outsider.

Curiosity got the better of me as it so often did. “Were Macey and I the only loners in this group?”

Richard glanced at the tight-knit tents. “No. But you know how it is. When something like this happens, commonality brings us together. If Macey were still with us, she’d be here too.”

“While the idea is heartwarming, we lost too many people for me to be glad of it,” I said.

Oka paced along next to me, her body brushing my leg here and there.

“I agree but look at the good that comes out of it,” Richard said. “Some days that’s all we can do—take what good we find.”

As we walked, I did look. Where people were asleep, they reached out to others. A hand on a leg. Arms around each other. I saw Lucy curled up with Tom, another man laying with his head on her legs and her hand on his head. Nothing sexual about it, just comfort.

Like a family.

Like a pack.

My heart twanged.

This … was what I’d been searching for all along. I stopped where I was and closed my eyes, fighting the tears and losing. Too tired to fight. Richard put a hand on my shoulder.

“Pamela?”

“Give me a second,” I whispered.

He dropped his hand and I forced a big breath of air into my lungs. I brushed a hand over my face.

He said nothing as he pointed to a tent between the Humvee and one of the other trucks. Inside was big enough for six people and there was an honest to goddess foam mattress. And a sleeping bag that didn’t have any holes in it. And a pillow. An actual pillow.

A prize for being the caravan witch. I shook my head. “Nope. It’s going to be a cold night, Richard. There are people out there who are hurt. They shouldn’t be out in this.” The nights had been cold during our travels. Not deadly by any stretch of the imagination, but still, this just wasn’t how things worked in my mind.

“That’s your call,” he said, but he smiled. “Wilma would have loved you to bits.”

I snorted. “I doubt that. I would have kept myself hidden if she’d been the witch I think she was. You wouldn’t have needed my help and I would have slipped out of your life before you even knew I’d been here.”

“Touché,” he said. “But even so, she would have wanted me to offer this to you. And if it had been her, she’d have said the same thing you just did.”

I caught movement around the front of the Humvee. Sage was walking with her fingers trailing on the vehicle, sweat on her brow as she worked to create a boundary.

Richard followed my gaze and frowned. “She is lucky you spoke for her.”

I nodded. “I know it and so does she.”

Oka patted my leg. “You’re going to fall over. Find a place to lie down first.”

I reached down and picked her up. “Fill the tent with whomever you like. Oka and I will sleep close enough. Okay?”

Richard put his hands on his hips a moment before he gave a quick nod to me. “Wait then, just a moment.” He ducked inside the tent and I shifted from one foot to the other, as I cracked another yawn.

“We haven’t had an actual bed in years,” Oka said, wistfulness in her voice.

“Don’t want you to get soft on me.” I yawned a second time. I was going down fast. “Besides, it could divide the group, make Sage hate me again. We don’t need that.”

“You aren’t their leader,” she reminded me. “Richard offered you this, and they all seem fine with it. Well, they’re all passed out, but whatever.”

“Oka,” I scolded through a third yawn.

Richard popped out of the tent, his eyes searching the area. “Who are you talking to?”

“My cat,” I said. “It’s a bad habit from being on my own so long.” The lie was not really a lie, which made it easy.

Oka let out a soft meow while she perched on my shoulder, all innocence and sunshine. He looked at her, opened his mouth to speak and then thought better of it as he snapped his mouth shut.

He thrust two things into my hands. The pillow, and two still-wrapped if well past their best-before date granola bars. Premium rations. My mouth watered as I read the words “dark chocolate and cranberry granola.”

“Richard. I can’t take these. Then I’ll be the dick.” I held them out to him. He pushed them back.

“Pamela. You’re thin even after a month with us. You need your strength. For God’s sake, or the goddess, or whoever you answer to, take them. You do no one any favors by falling over. Eat them and go to sleep.” He waved me off, that spine of his showing again.

I liked him better and better.

Or maybe I was just letting myself see people for who they really were.

“Go on, get out of here. I need to move people into your tent.” He turned me around and gave me a push on the back.

“Richard, I can help. I never meant to—”

He smiled, just a half grin really, and put a hand on my shoulder. “I know.”

“I can help.”

Oka groaned. “I just want to sleep.” But there was no real heat in her words.

His eyes locked on me a moment and then he nodded and pointed to where a tarp was set up in a mock tent, off the side of the truck farthest out of the circle. “There’s where the wounded are. Let’s start there.”

I followed him, and my feet froze as I stepped into the tent. “The injuries, who tended them?”

“Well, Sage would have,” Richard said. “But there was no time. We have Nathanda, our nurse, but many of the injuries are beyond her skills.”

“Get Sage,” I said. “Neither of us are done here.”

Richard obeyed me, allowing me to take charge as I’d allowed him.

Oka crept close. “You are on the last of your reserves. Neither of us has anything left.”

“Will you lend me some energy?” I whispered to her.

She bobbed her head, sighed and sat beside me. “Of course. You don’t have to ask, you know that.”

I ran my hand between her ears. “What would I do without you?”

“Die a horrible, slow death,” she quipped.

A laugh escaped me, but it cut off as a groan flowed from the man closest to me.

There was a flap of the tarp as Sage stepped in and dropped to her knees beside me. “I worked the boundary, it isn’t very big.” Fatigue sat heavy on her. But we weren’t done.

The nurse was quiet as she worked on those she could tend to, her blond hair a tangled mess but her movements sure and smooth despite the obvious fatigue.

“We’ll work on it, every day,” I said. She sucked in a sharp breath and I held up a hand before she could say anything else. “We need to help these people. Are your herbs straightened out yet?”

She blinked a few times and I saw the flash of irritation before it subsided under acceptance. “Yes.”

I quickly gave her instructions. She would take the lead and I would assist. We worked through the worst bleeders first. I stitched them closed and Sage used her herbs as poultices to pack the wounds.

We worked quietly together, and I saw her for the first time in her element. Her magic hummed happily as she delved wounds, healed broken bones and eased pain in her patients.

“This is where you belong, Sage,” I said as I mopped a sweaty forehead. I was next to useless without my magic here, but even before, healing was tough for me. I could do it. But I was born to do battle; I knew that in the core of my being.

Richard leaned over me. “Well done. Both of you.” He looked to the nurse. “And you too, Nathanda. We could not survive here without you.” She smiled, but it was tired.

Sage kept her head down and moved to the next patient, pointing at the first. “He’ll need water and extra rations. By tomorrow morning he’ll feel good, but drained. He’ll be back to slinging his own arrow for us in no time.”

Richard nodded. “I’ll move him out of your way.”

That was the pattern we fell into. Sage patched them up where she could, I helped, and Richard moved them.

Of the nineteen in the caravan, there were seven in the wounded tent.

By the time we were done, I was truly wrung out. I thought I couldn’t be more tired than when I’d started, but I was wrong.

I sat back on my heels, exhausted.

“Thank you,” Richard said. “To all of you.”

Sage’s head snapped up and tears shimmered in her eyes, but she said nothing.

“You’re welcome.” I pushed myself to my feet. “I’m going to bed now. I saw a nice mossy area out there. If you need me, that’s where we’ll be. Get some sleep. I think Wilma was right, a storm is coming. And we need to be ready for it.”

Sage nodded, and I stood, stiff from hunching over the wounded for so long. I stretched as I walked out of the tent. The day had waned and still most people were sleeping.

I walked to the edge of the camp, careful not to disturb anyone.

There I found a small fire already going, and a relatively hole-less sleeping bag spread out on a bed of moss along with the pillow Richard had given me earlier. I looked over my shoulder and Richard waved at me before turning away.

“Get some sleep, Richard,” I said even though he couldn’t hear me. “Or you’ll be nothing but a Dick tomorrow.”

Oka grunted. “A useless, tired Dick.”

I laughed. “Oka.”

“I’m just saying.” She leaned into me. “You did good today, Pam.” She pushed her way into the sleeping bag, her entire body disappearing.

“Ditto, cat,” I said.

She purred and was sound asleep before I was. Lucky for me, I lay there wide awake as the day slowly darkened.

I couldn’t seem to shake the sense of unease that had settled over me.

A storm was coming.

The dark magic in me was growing stronger and my reluctance to use it was fading.

And why did I feel like I was going to be right smack in the middle of something bad? I needed help. I needed someone who could see the storm and at least tell me how I could prepare for it.

“What I wouldn’t give for someone else’s insight,” I whispered to myself.

Call it a hunch, but the laughter that curled through my mind as I fell asleep told me my work for the day was far from done.

Chapter Fifteen

Dreams were a strange thing for me. Mostly because they always seemed so real, and I knew from experience, just because it was a dream didn’t mean it couldn’t be real.

I opened my eyes as if I were waking and found myself sitting on my bed in my room, all the way back in the farmhouse that I’d lived in with my mentor. With my family. I ran my fingers over the quilt, feeling the stitches and squares of different material as familiar to me as the clothes I wore.

A shout caught my ear and I stood hurrying to the window. Below me, Rylee and Alex walked toward the barn, Alex in his human form, his dark head bowed to Rylee’s flaming auburn locks.

I put my hands to my mouth, then shoved the window open and leaned out, wondering if they would hear me if I shouted.

“Rylee,” Alex’s voice reached me as if I stood next to them. “I think she’s lost.”

She put an arm around his waist. “I can’t Track her. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find her.”

It was everything I needed and wanted, my whole heart wrapped into a single image.

I just couldn’t decide if it was actually happening, or just all my hopes expressing themselves in a dream.

A knock on my door turned me away from the window.

Of all the people I’d have expected to see in a dream, he was one of the last. Why couldn’t it have been Rylee? Or Liam?

Faris’s blue eyes twinkled as he stepped over the threshold of the door. “Well, little witch. You’ve got yourself all tangled up this time, don’t you?”

“Faris, what are you doing here?” I asked. “I mean, really, why you?”

He laughed at me, flashing his bright white fangs. He’d been a vampire in life, and I’d had a few dealings with him. More often than not, he’d caused us all problems, at least until he’d fallen for Rylee. Then his heart had made him give the ultimate sacrifice to save her.

But that’s a whole other story. A rollercoaster of a story if you ask me.

He ran his hand over the top of a dresser as if looking for dust before he glanced over his shoulder at me.

“Rylee is worried about you, and that means I wanted to check in on you for her.”

“Do … you talk to her still?” I asked.

His smile softened. “Only in her dreams. Besides, I think a better question is what are you doing here?”

I lifted both hands, palms up. “Faris, I’m asleep. I didn’t choose this.”

“Didn’t you? Are you sure about that?” He tipped his head to one side, those blue eyes watching me intently.

The question I asked before I fell asleep … about the storm. “Well, shit, I didn’t think you’d be the one to answer a wildly thrown out question like that. And seriously, of all the people who could have answered, why you?”

He grinned. “Everyone is busy fighting to survive, Pam. Only the dead will answer you now.”

I swallowed hard. “Are they … okay?” They, my family, Rylee, Liam, the babies.

“They are alive,” he said. “If that’s what you mean by okay.”

Relief flowed through me. Alive, I’d take it. I mean, I guess if one of them had died, they probably would have answered my sleep-laden question.

He turned and folded his arms. “A storm that is potentially coming, that is what you are wondering about? Correct? And for the record, I hate early morning calls.”

I pointed a finger at him. “The sunlight doesn’t bother you anymore.”

“Regardless.”

He was just being a prick, like usual.

Okay, I had a chance to have some answers, and I was going to take it. One deep breath and I dove in. “Another witch saw a storm coming before her death and I can feel it too. But … it’s not weather. It’s something else.” I looked him straight in the face. “Can you help me? Can you see what it could be?”

“I’m not a seer. Giselle would have been better to help you here,” he said.

“No shit, Sherlock,” I said. “But Giselle already spoke with me in nothing but riddles. I was hoping for a straight answer.”

He grinned. “You have gotten saucy, haven’t you?”

There was a flicker in his eyes that I didn’t like because it reminded me just how dangerous he’d been when he was alive. And how much he liked women with steel spines and potty mouths. He took a step toward me, then another, and another.

I refused to back up even though my heart picked up speed that I had no doubt he could hear with those damn vampire ears of his.

He stopped, and we were eye to eye. Go me and my long legs, though at that moment, I was wishing I’d used them to back up instead of holding my ground.

“This is my guess, Pamela, based on what I’ve been seeing amongst the dead. The storm is one that has been building since the world broke,” he said softly, his voice barely above a whisper, his charisma as a vampire rolling over me, loosening my limbs. “You can survive if you are brave enough, but not all will. You cannot save them all, Pamela. Stop believing lives won’t be lost.”

I struggled to swallow as I stared into his icy blue eyes. “I can’t help it.”

“If you do not let that belief go, you will die, and when the storm comes, it will swallow you whole. I don’t have to know what it is to know that if you go into any battle unfocused, you will die. Your cat will die. The entire caravan you are protecting will be wiped out. You need to find a way to harness all the magic in you.”

His words were like a slap to the face, and I finally managed to take a deep breath and step back.

All the laughter in him had faded. “Before the storm hits, there are always precursors. Signs of trouble that give rise to a final blow.”

I blew out a breath. “Do multiple dead things on the road that have no reason to even exist count?”

“Yes. What else?” His demeanor had changed, and his intensity shifted from me to the problem at hand.

“A werewolf attack. Then an unprecedented horde of zombies,” I said.

He nodded. “How many dead things have you found on the road?”

“Three.”

“Then expect a third attack. You know how this world is, all that coincidence and fate lining up.” He reached up and tapped my temple with two fingers. “Think, see the threads that tie it together. Surely Rylee taught you that much?”

I flushed, but he was right. Three dead things with strange symbols, and now two attacks close together, which probably meant one more brutal attack to come … “I need to wake up.” I spun toward the door, ran out onto the upper landing and then down the stairs.

“You’re welcome!” he called after me.

I paused and looked up the stairs at him. “Thank you, Faris.”

He winked and made a shooing motion with both hands. “I’ll see if I can send you some backup.”

I stared at him. “Why?”

“Because Rylee loves you. And I would hate to see her heart broken over your death.” His words made me realize he’d just been playing games with me. Showing off, as it were.

“Again, thank you.”

He nodded. “Look for the bear. But beware his mouth.”

I turned and ran, muttering under my breath. He just had to give me a riddle at the end. Figures.

I bolted out the front door of the farmhouse and the light shifted, changing from midday to middle of the night.

I sat up hard and fast, jerking the sleeping bag off my legs as I pushed to my feet, still half asleep.

I reached for the connection to the barrier around our camp, pouring energy into it to give it what strength I could. Oka rolled out of the bed and stood on her toes, back arched and hair standing on end, making her look like some kind of puffy orange chia pet.

“What is it?” She let out a low growl. “I didn’t sense anything.”

“I don’t know. Not exactly. Faris … he said there would be a third attack before the storm broke,” I said as I slowly turned, taking in the still-sleeping camp. I glanced upward to the sky.

For once, the darkness in me was quiet, waiting. Not pushing. I didn’t know if that was worse. I suspected it knew the same thing I did.

An attack would force my hand if things got ugly.

The position of the moon and stars told me were close to the witching hour. Damn, that would be a perfect time for a blow against the camp when everyone slept the deepest.

I put my fingers into my mouth and let out three sharp, ear-shattering whistles.

Richard stumbled out of his tent first, a knife in one hand, his hair mussed over to one side, and his beard pushed in the opposite direction. He saw me and came straight to my side.

“What’s wrong?” He stared around us, his eyes searching the darkness.

I stretched my senses, trying to find a clue, something that would tell me what was coming. A precursor to a large “storm” could be anything. Goblins, more werewolves, a creature we hadn’t ever encountered.

Anything but … no. I wasn’t even going to think of that species.

“I don’t know—” A singular scream echoed through the camp, cutting me off.

Richard and I ran together, Oka on our heels as we searched for the source.

I wanted to believe it was just BJ going through her histrionics because of the noise I’d made, but I doubted it.

Through the middle of the camp and to the far side we went.

More shouts went up into the night, men and women, yelling.

For me.

“Pamela!”

I slid to a stop at the far side of the camp inside the barrier I’d set up. A group of seven or eight members of the caravan stood there, weapons drawn.

And there, just right on the other side of the barrier was a horde of motherfucking trolls.

“Crap,” Oka snarled. “I hate trolls. They stink like shit and vomit.”

I grimaced. Seriously, I would have almost gladly fought anything else. They stunk, they were dirty fighters, and I’d been kept captive as a child by two of the nastiest trolls around, which left me hating and fearing them at the same time.

One of the trolls in the front lowered his horn-covered head and ran forward with a bellow right into the barrier, thundering like a pissed off bull.

The boom of the hit rippled up through the barrier, and into me, drawing my strength to hold the protection against the trolls. My strength dropped, and my heart picked up as my body fought to feed the barrier.

I sucked in a slow breath. Somehow, they knew the barrier was connected to me. But … only a witch would be able to see this spell.

“Sage?” I called.

“I am here.” She hurried to my side, the sound of her bracelets and beads preceding her.

“They know the barrier is tied to me even though we used your magic,” I said softly, for her ears only. It wasn’t that I trusted her so much as I needed to see her reaction. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went wide.

Yeah, she was like an open book. “That could kill you!”

“Yes, which means I’m going to have to drop the barrier at some point in order for us to survive.”

The members of the caravan around us began to whisper. Did they doubt me? I shook my head. This was not the time for that.

As if following Sage’s thought process, Richard added a question. “Is it possible we could negotiate with them?”

We watched the hideous trolls beat themselves against an invisible shield for a moment and I gritted my teeth against the drain of every blow.

I flexed my hands into fists. The darkness in me whispered that I could kill all the trolls.

I knew I could.

But I’d known half-trolls that were good. Kind of. I had to offer them a chance at least. “I don’t know. Let me talk to them.”

Richard’s right-hand man, Tristan, barked a laugh. “Talk? To the trolls? You can’t reason with such mindless creatures. Even Stefan knows that!”

I found it interesting he said Stefan’s name. Very interesting.

“Maybe not,” I said. “But I may be able to discover their purpose. And I guarantee, they aren’t mindless. Right bastards, yes, but not mindless.”

Someone within the group muttered just loud enough for me to hear, “All supernaturals should be killed on sight.”

Richard stiffened, and his voice rang out over the group. “If I find out who said that, you’re out of the caravan.”

I turned from him because there were bigger fish to fry.

“Sage,” I said, “make sure the children are kept safe. Use your barrier, make it smaller if you have to, but put them in it.”

She nodded, turned and hurried back to the center of the camp.

Tristan grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. “Why would you need a second barrier? Unless you’re as weak as her?” He tipped his head toward Sage’s retreating figure.

I yanked my arm from his hand. “Because, you clodhopping fool, we don’t know who is helping the trolls. They are not mindless. But they also don’t do things without being paid. They would not have come here without direction. If there is another witch involved, this is going to get ugly fast.”

This was the third attack Faris had warned me of, I was sure of it.

“So you can’t protect us?” His eyes narrowed, and I glared at him.

“I’ll protect those who deserve it,” I snapped. “You’re on your own, asshole.”

I pushed past him, closing the distance between me and the head-ramming trolls. The barrier kept them out, but not their stench. I crinkled my nose and fought not to gag on the heavy odor of rank sweat, shit, and something I couldn’t and didn’t want to put my finger on. Acrid, the scent was, for lack of a better word—tangy.

The troll in front of the others was bigger than any of the men in our group, standing at least eight feet tall. Thank the gods he hadn’t realized the barrier was a foot shorter than him. He wasn’t muscular, just big. As in fat. Green-skinned with cloudy gray eyes, and a mouth that hung down from his face like some kind of elephant trunk. It swayed side to side and he kept stroking it as if it were … enjoyable. I fought a shudder.

I drew a careful breath and then the air whooshed out of me as a flash of white fur dashed between the trees behind the trolls. I blinked, and the white flash was gone. But for just a second, I’d been sure it was a bear.

A big, white bear.

“Look for the bear. But beware his mouth.”

I made myself look at the leader of the troll troop and not toward the flash of white here and there.

“Hey, fat boy,” I said, but he didn’t even look at me. Just kept sliding his hands up and down that leathery trunk of his. “Hey! Do that on your own time. I’m talking to you,” I snapped the words, enough to get his attention.

Those cloudy eyes swung my way finally.

“Wanderer. We don’t want trouble.” His words slurred past loose flapping lips. “We want the kids. Give them, we’ll let you live.”

I put my hands on my hips, threw my head back and laughed at him. “I was born at night, but not last night, you dumb fuck.” The members of the caravan slid away from me. I kept my eyes on the troll. “You’ll kill every human here, rape the women, and roast the leftovers for breakfast if I let you in.”

He grinned. “Smart witch.”

I drew a breath. “But that means you have to come through me first.”

The darkness in me laughed as I let it rise through me. My stomach twisted as the sensation of a slithering beast inside me increased exponentially.

The grin on the troll’s face fell.

The magic against my skin made my hair stand on end, floating the long blond strands into the air.

“You know who I am?” I asked in a soft voice I knew they could hear. They shivered, and their battering of the barrier slowed.

Anger and the darkness in me swelled. They were here to kill people I knew as family.

I let that fury spill upward and with it came a connection to the darkest of dark in my heart.

“Pam,” Oka said. “Your hair is floating.”

“I know,” I said softly. The power rose around me like hot air, lifting my cloak and hair so they hovered around me. “I’m going to kill them all, Oka. I’m going to bathe in their blood.”

She let out a low growl. “Pamela, that is dark even for you.”

I saw nothing but the trolls in front of me, cut open, their bellies spilling wide as I split them like ripe fruit.

The darkness swelled like a wave and a very tiny part of me tried to pull back, to tell me this was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

But it was too late. I’d opened the gate to that magic and it would not be held back.

Years of struggling to survive, struggling to find my way, my magic stripped from me, my family gone, those I cared for dead.

I was not going there again.

Above us, clouds gathered at a speed that was anything but natural as I called them to me. “Do you know who I am?” I asked the trolls a second time.

They stared at me as words poured from my mouth. “I was forged in fire by the Blood of the Lost. Stood on the blood plains and battled demons for possession of this world until there was nothing left in me. Endured back to back with the Destroyer as she tore this world apart to save it. And I am damn well positive that a piss-poor troop of trolls is not stopping me now.”

The barrier shimmered, and I put a single finger on it. In order to face them, the barrier had to come down.

“Richard. Pull everyone to the center of the camp. Get in the trucks and wait for my signal.”

“Pamela, we can help you,” he said, and I turned to him, just my face. He paled, and I wondered what he saw. “Your eyes are like flames.”

A smile slid over my face and I felt the harshness of it, and he paled further. “Because I’m about to show them what I’ve been holding back.”

Chapter Sixteen

The barrier I’d created with Sage’s power shimmered in front of me as Richard and the other members of the caravan ran to do as I’d told them. To take cover.

To let me do the killing.

I held a hand out to my side. “Oka, now.”

She let out a long howl as only a house cat can, that grew into a roar as she shifted into her tiger form. Her bellow shook the air, and several of the trolls stumbled backward. If I could make them run, all the better.

No, we will kill them all, and take their power for our own.

Again, behind them came that flash of white fur, the rounded curve of a bear’s back.

Whoever it was, was on their own. Even if Faris had sent him. I didn’t need the help.

I locked eyes with Elephant Nose. “Any last words?”

He slid his hands up and down his nose rapidly as he spoke. “My mistress is going to enjoy killing you. Maybe she’ll let me have you as a pet, you bossy bitch.”

Oka roared at my side and swiped at the dirt with a massive paw. “I’m going to tear his nose off and beat him to death with it!”

I laughed. “If I don’t first.”

“It’s on,” she said, and I think that more than anything unnerved the trolls. We’d just made a game of killing them and I knew why. The darkness seeped from me into Oka. I saw it in her eyes.

Reservations gone, this was going to be a literal bloodbath, and a small part of me knew it was not going to be what I thought.

The trolls didn’t look like they appreciated that.

I reached out and put my hand flat against the barrier. I drew my strength from it, pulling it back into my body until there was nothing but shimmering dust between us.

There was a moment where I just held my ground, taking in the stillness, checking myself, feeling the darkness slither through me, the power so different than my other magic.

I flexed my fingers, as if I could take the reins of this magic … and it skittered away from me, laughter echoing through my mind.

It cannot be controlled, but it must be embraced. You must accept it.

“Fuck.” I whispered the word as the shaking started because I couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to embrace the magic that spoke to me of nothing but blood and death and horror. All the bravado was gone as the magic swirled free of me. I’d invited it, and now I couldn’t control it.

Panic started a slow burn in my belly. “Oka, this is going to be bad.”

I’d fought so hard to avoid this, but now that it was here, I was looking forward to unleashing myself and all the fury of my mother’s magic.

Or so I thought.

The magic wicked out around us, faster and faster. The trolls stared at it, transfixed as a swirl of black death magic with rainbow sparkles within like a raven’s wing grew.

My energy dipped as the magic took from me and I stumbled, barely pointing my fingers at the trolls before I went to a knee.

The rolling black death hesitated and then shot toward the trolls. Everywhere it touched their skin shriveled and darkened, rotting where they stood, pieces falling off as if they’d been zombified on the spot.

The black death circled wider, and I fought to rein it in as it flowed toward the caravan. Sweat dripped down my face as I wrestled with the magic.

“Mother of God,” I heard from behind me. I think it might have been Tristan, but I wasn’t sure.

Before the troll screaming even started, a tremor rumbled under our feet. Not from me, but I’d take it. A crack cut through the earth, wide between the trolls. Behind me, the caravan members screamed. Earthquakes were common enough, but still frightening after the way the world had been destroyed.

None of the trolls fell into the mile-deep crevice. They laughed at me, pointing and jeering as those who’d not been touched by the magic started toward us.

I took a step back, holding my hands out and cringing as I did so. Suddenly I understood Sage better, why she made all the movements. I would do anything it would take to bring this magic under my control.

I didn’t step forward, or back. I held my ground. Much as I wanted to leap into the fray and kill with everything I had, I was the defense between the trolls and my people.

Oka was my defense, though, and she took her place on my right, catching those trolls that slipped past me. “Watch the magic, I can’t make it do what I want!” I said.

The black mist whipped between the trolls, slowing them down, herding them toward the crevice. They fell in, screaming as their bodies were eaten in chunks by a magic I had so little control over I wasn’t sure it wouldn’t turn on us next.

My arms shook, my belly clenched, and I didn’t think I could do this much longer.

“How many left?” I asked.

“Over fifty!” Oka snarled as she took one out, grabbing him by the leg and snapping him so hard, the bone snapped, jutting through the flesh of his upper thigh. She threw him back into his friends, toppling several more as if she were bowling.

My energy dipped further as I gritted my teeth and I dug into my reserves. The fear for my caravan was all that held me there, and I held onto it like a lifeline.

We were through about half of the troop when I caught them trying to sneak around to my left.

I had no way to stop them. “Oka, we’re being surrounded! Richard, get ready to go!”

I think he yelled back that they were ready. I don’t know for sure over the cacophony of the trolls and Oka’s roars.

Sweat poured off my face and I knew I had to finish this fast.

To my right, Oka kept the trolls from sneaking past us, crunching bones and tearing flesh. To my left came that same flash of white and this time it didn’t recede into the trees.

A bear that had to be eight hundred pounds galloped out of the forest, mowing trolls down left and right.

As he came straight for me.

Oh shit.

His teeth were stained with blood as he let out a booming roar that I felt through my chest, all the way to my spine. Oka spun and leapt across in front of me, placing herself between me and the bear.

Only, he turned at the last second and body slammed two trolls as they raced to get by me in the chaos.

This was the bear Faris had sent me? Hot damn.

“Oka, keep the right. Our new friend has the left. I’m going straight up the middle.”

A surge of energy caught me off guard, like a tiny burst of elemental magic coming up through the ground and through the soles of my feet. It wasn’t magic, but I took it and used it, feeding it into the black death that wove amongst the trolls, slower now, but still killing them.

With my energy running low, we had to get this going. I lifted my hands higher. One last push, I’d try to use the black mist to herd the trolls into the hole.

But I was too slow. Three trolls reached for Oka, grabbing her by the neck, front and back legs as they lifted her over their heads.

“Oka!” I screamed her name.

The trolls laughed as they launched her through the air, straight for the crevice.

My hand shot out as if I could still control air, as if I could still call the wind to my aid.

Pain exploded through my mind, and for just a second, I saw a Sylph, an air elemental who wore a bracelet that matched one of mine. Her eyes were wide, her long white hair done up in hundreds of braids, her face beautiful and unlined.

Someone spoke to her. “Jayla, what is it? You’re pale.”

She didn’t look away from me. “It is nothing, a bug.”

The pain ramped up and I saw nothing but the insides of my eyelids, the sound of roaring all around me.

Jayla, that was the name of the Sylph who’d taken one of my abilities.

I opened my eyes, flat on my belly, face down in the mud.

I pushed up to see the trolls surging forward, Oka in the middle of them surrounded in a flash. I don’t know how she’d ended up there, but I would take it.

“Bear, help her!” I commanded the beast to my right. He shot me a look, blue eyes flashing with what could only be irritation, and then he raced off, doing as I asked.

He barreled through the trolls and he and Oka worked back to back. Driving them away. But damn … it looked as though there were more trolls now than when we’d started!

“Pamela, they’re sweeping wide!” Richard shouted from behind me.

I pushed to my feet, and a troll came straight for me. He swung a big two-pronged sword that I barely caught on the edges of my own blades. I stepped out of his way and did a double sweep of my curved blades through his back, severing his spine. I turned back to the trolls again, counting. How many more could we take down? Fifteen?

Twenty?

It didn’t matter because there were more coming, pouring out of the forest.

The bellows of the polar bear and Oka came loud to my right.

“Stay with me now!” I shouted as I fought to light a fire with the dark magic.

“Come on, you can feed the flames, burn them to a crisp,” I whispered.

There was a pause inside of me as if the magic considered my request, and then agreed.

Thank the gods.

Different than my elemental fire, this fire was as black as the mist that had gone before it. I pushed it out through my fingers, like a black oil, and when it touched the dry grass and brush, it went up like a bloody torch. Better, though, it created a physical barrier. For a moment or two, minutes if we were lucky, I had bought us a little time. I pointed with my fingers, drawing a line around the caravan, creating a horseshoe of flames.

I lowered my hands and looked up at the sky. The morning sun rose to the east.

Oka limped up to me. “Pam. More trolls are coming, we have to go.”

I nodded, breathing hard. The polar bear drew close but stopped about fifteen feet away. “Faris?” I asked softly.

“He sent me. I owed him.” He grunted, obviously irritated with that fact. I smiled.

“Well, it’s a good thing, or we would have been overrun.”

“The day is young, witch,” he growled.

I wanted to ask him his name. I was sure he was a shifter and not a familiar like Oka.

Someone tugged on the edge of my cloak. I looked down to see two of the toddlers staring up at me. Lily and Ruby, the two girls.

They held their tiny, grubby hands up to me, and for a moment I just stared at them in utter shock. A roar from behind me as one of the trolls attempted to cross the flames snapped me out the paralysis.

“What the hell?” I scooped them up and ran with them back to the caravan. “Sage!” I yelled for her, and then Richard stepped out and took the kids.

“The trolls came around the back, two slipped through, we killed them but not before …” He shook his head.

I let him take both girls, but not before Ruby gave me a kiss on the cheek. Her little mouth felt like she had imprinted me, a brand that bound me to them as surely as any powerhouse spell.

I swallowed hard as I rounded the Humvee to find Sage on her back, her belly sliced open and her guts in her hands. She stared at the sky. “I held it, Pam. I held the barrier. Longer than I thought I could. Thank you for believing in me.”

I looked up at Richard. “Where’s Frost?”

“With Chris. Sage … she saved them. She bought us the time we needed to kill the two monsters.”

Sage smiled. “I did it, didn’t I?”

I dropped to one knee beside her, my throat tight. I couldn’t save her, I didn’t have the magic to do it. “Sage, hang on.”

Oka crept up beside me and amazingly none of the humans gasped in fear despite her size. “Can you help her at all?”

I shook my head, shocked to find the tears on my cheeks. “I can’t help you, Sage. I can physically stitch you up, but …”

She brushed my hand away from her face and her words echoed Oka’s. “No. Save your energy. Protect them. I’m just … I’m just glad I finally did something good. Maybe it will make up for the hurt I’ve caused.” She smiled, her body jerked once, and a big breath slid from her.

Just like that, she was gone, her body stilling as her hands slid from her torn-up belly.

Richard stepped in. “Get her body into the truck and wrap it. Pamela?” He turned to me and I nodded.

“Time to run.”

Chapter Seventeen

We scrambled to get everyone into the three vehicles before the trolls realized the line of fire I’d put up had an opening to the east.

Thank the gods they were just dumb enough to buy us a bit of time.

“Go!” I yelled at Richard as the trucks started, a deep rumble from the engines that cut through the air and no doubt alerted the trolls to what was happening.

Richard and the other drivers hit the gas—basically thirty miles an hour if they were lucky.

The polar bear was to my left and he swung his big head toward me. “You got a plan for the three of us?”

I nodded as I followed the trucks. They sped off and I walked. “We cover their escape for as long as we can before we have to run.”

Of course, that was assuming the magic I’d been wrestling with would give me anything more. As it was, I felt like I’d had the shit kicked out of me repeatedly, and that was with just a little usage. And the magic hadn’t even done what I’d wanted with the exception of the fire. But what witch had to convince her magic to work for her? That was ridiculous.

He gave a low grunt. “Damn it, you’re going to get me killed. Faris was right, you are trouble.”

I reached out and put a hand on his back, as I did so often with Oka, a gesture of comfort that I did without thinking. His fur was thick and silky, which was unexpected, but the heat flowing off him was what made my breath catch.

Hot, and the sharp tang of ice on the wind slid up my arm and made me shiver in a not unpleasant way. Those pale blue eyes of his swung my way, but he said nothing as way too much rippled between us for a single touch.

Oka nudged me. “You were saying?”

Shit, was I saying something? The heat and ice that flowed from the bear into me had done something to my brain, obviously, but it was reminiscent of that burst of energy that I’d drawn from in the fight. There was a touch of something elemental to him, which made me that much more curious about him.

The trucks were well ahead of us now and the trolls were just figuring out they were losing their prey as they roared their displeasure.

“We aren’t dead yet,” I said. Sure, my reply was delayed, but I had reasons. Fatigue being at the front. Nothing to do with the bear to my left nor the sensations I picked up from him. I tipped my head from side to side and stretched my back. It was going to be a long fucking day at this rate.

I made myself break into a jog, to get to the opening between the flames. Maybe we could stay far enough ahead, maybe I could somehow get the flames to follow us?

Laughter from deep inside me said it all. My magic was done with helping me. But why?

Embrace me.

Fuck off was my response to that.

A wash of guilt tugged at me. What if the caravan was wiped out because of this day? Because I’d said I could help and they listened to me? Because of my stupid magic that was really like an asshole just waiting for me to break?

I wasn’t sure my soul could survive another beating like that.

The shouts and snarls of the trolls grew louder, and with the sound, my heart picked up its pace. We could not let them cut us off.

“Here’s the plan,” I said. “We put our backs to the east and keep the trolls in front of us no matter what. Soon as we can, when the caravan has had enough time, we make a break for it.”

The polar bear grunted but kept up with me. Oka’s emotions, determination, fear, and pride in what we were doing, flowed into me and with them came a pulse of strength.

“Stop that,” I said to her. “You’re going to make me cry.”

“You are my charge. Do not tell me how to take care of you,” she said without an ounce of heat in her voice. To her, she was just stating fact.

“Shut up, both of you,” the bear grumbled.

I wanted to twist around and ask him how the hell he could hear Oka, but we stepped outside the circle of the flames and were hit with the stench of the trolls.

Along with the stench came several swinging clubs that were tipped with rusted iron spikes. I dropped to one knee; Oka and the bear bounded ahead of me, jaws and claws snapping troll limbs, gutting them, tearing them down.

The darkness deep inside of me whispered. Kill them all, we can do it. We can take them down. Let me help you.

Panic cut through me. Not because it spoke, but because I felt myself waver.

I had to save the caravan, no matter the cost.

Shaking, I called that dark magic up. Embrace it, no, I didn’t do that. I let it go.

I pushed to my feet and flung my hands to my right, pouring my strength into the magic that I slammed into the oncoming trolls. Flesh burst, heads rolled from shoulders, the scene turned into one of blood and flames, of death incarnate.

The laughter inside me slipped out of my mouth and I barely bit it back.

I kept at it, stepping east one foot at a time, trusting the two shifters to hold my back as I slammed the trolls with every last ounce of power I had in me.

My breath came in gasps as I struggled to keep up with the beating of my heart, the darkness pulling me down.

Oka tried to give me some of her strength again, but I blocked her. I didn’t want this filth to touch her.

The darkness whispered again. Well done, daughter.

I screamed, fear spiking through me like nothing I’d ever felt before. The darkness was not my mother, it was not. Distantly I knew Oka was trying to get my attention, but it took all I had to keep my eyes on the trolls, to keep them in my sights while I worked with the last of my strength to keep them at bay. The magic was out of control, and I knew it.

The trolls surged forward, their numbers seemingly undiminished despite all we’d done. The two at the front each held a large globe the size of a watermelon, and behind them was a pale troll that I knew as one of their mages.

“Fuck, shit, damn! Get ready to run!” I yelled at Oka and the bear.

The trolls at the front launched the globes and I threw a hand up, sending a bolt of black magic into them.

The trolls laughed.

The globes exploded with witch fire. I scrambled back as the blue-green flames lit up the air and landed all around us.

“Don’t let it touch you!” I yelled. “Nothing can put it out except the death of the witch who created it.”

The three of us backed away as hot summer wind blew in our faces … pushing the blue-green flames toward us.

I stumbled sideways, partially blacking out from exhaustion, and a paw reached up around my waist and then I was on the bear’s back.

“I got her, cat. Let’s move,” he growled.

I fought the sleep that came for me, because I needed to be ready to fight again. I knew it in my belly that we weren’t done. Three times the caravan had faced death, but that felt off. Like we’d missed something.

Or maybe it was just the dark part of me that wanted more death? That thought horrified me, but I couldn’t stay awake even for that.

I sunk into the thick fur of the polar bear, his wide back holding me easily as he galloped down the road, the movements of his stride rocking me to sleep.

I didn’t dream, but there were voices I couldn’t block out. Oka’s. The bear’s.

“She’s asleep,” Oka said. “How can you hear me, bear?”

“Polar bear shifters were created by elementals. I was meant to be a familiar.”

“You have another shape then?”

“Yes,” he grunted.

“Why are you really protecting her? Because I don’t believe you for an instant that it’s just because of Faris,” Oka said.

Underneath me, he tensed, and I dug my fingers into that thick silky fur.

“Because she is important, Oka. Or did you not figure that out yet?”

“Do not sass me!” she hissed.

He laughed. “I’ve been a familiar before, Oka. I can show you the ropes if you like.”

She was quiet. “Why would you do that?”

“Because I believe I may be about to become her second familiar.” He breathed those words and there was a heavy amount of irritation with them. “She needs our help. She’s young and wildly powerful but blocked from her elemental magic and forced to face the darkest parts of her heart and soul. And her fear makes her more dangerous than anything else.”

“Yes,” she said softly, “she has a right to that fear.”

“Never said she didn’t.” A rumble slid out of him. “The fire is going to keep coming for us.”

And then I was deeper into the sleep of pure exhaustion and I didn’t try to hold myself out of it even a little. So, the bear thought he was going to be my new familiar?

We’d have to see about that.

*_*_*_*

They woke me two hours later.

“Pam, the caravan is ahead.” Oka’s voice was more inside my head than out and that was likely the only reason I woke.

I blinked, seeing nothing but white fur floating in front of my face. It reminded me of a book I’d read when I was a child. The Truffula trees from The Lorax. What was the name of the author?

“Dr. Seuss,” the bear said.

Oh, shit. He was in my head?

“Only a little. It’s filled with that cat of yours.” He laughed. The bear laughed at me. All I could think about was how horrifying it was to have a man inside my head. One thing to share my head space with Oka, I trusted her, but a man?

Jesus Roosevelt Christ.

His laugh rumbled through his back and under my skin and my thoughts immediately went in a direction I didn’t like.

What happened when you were attracted to a familiar? How the hell could I feel attracted to a bear? What was wrong with me?

Oka choked and burst out laughing and my face flamed hot. “Stop. I need to walk,” I said.

Oka kept on laughing and I could feel the bear’s confusion. Shit, I could feel him and his emotions already.

“I’ll bet you like that,” Oka snickered.

I put my hands over my face. “Stop it. I literally don’t have the energy to deal with this right now.” I slid off the bear’s back and looked behind us. I wish I could say the flames were nowhere to be seen, but that was not the case.

They were only a few hundred yards back. Less than the length of football field. A proper football field, not that Americanized version.

I did a slow spin, knowing it was eating up time. But I had to see just what we were dealing with. The flames weren’t just behind us but curling to our right.

“South, they’re pushing us south,” I said. I stumbled into a slow jog, waving at the caravan.

The drivers slowed, and Richard was the first to leap from the truck. He ran back and caught me up in a big hug, ignoring the fact that I was walking with a tiger on one side and a bear on the other.

“Pamela!” Just my name, that’s all he said. But it was enough.

“Think you got room for three hitchhikers?” I asked.

“Not if they are staying this size.” Richard let me go and glanced at Oka, then the bear.

Oka shifted down to her house cat form and leapt up, not into my arms, but a very surprised Richard’s.

I smiled. “She knows I’m tired. She’s going to make you carry her.”

We started toward the trucks, hurrying, but not running. I glanced at the bear. Curiosity rolled through me. What would his smaller form be? A teddy bear?

He took a mock swipe at my leg. “Insolent.”

And then he shifted.

Not into another animal … but into a man.

And not an old man as I’d thought, but a man closer to my age than Richard’s. His hair was a light blond with a chunk of white in his bangs that hung over his face, partially hiding those blue eyes of his. He was, to say the least, a well put-together giant of a man. For the first time in how long I didn’t know, I was looking up into someone’s face. His shoulders were broad, and despite his size, he looked to be nothing but muscle.

“Wow, you’re a big one,” Richard said, clasping the bear-man’s hand. “Glad to have you with us. Thank you for helping Pamela.”

“Mac,” the bear shifter said. “And Pamela is my reason for being here.”

Richard’s eyebrows went up and again my face flamed hot. Damn it, this was not how things were supposed to go, were they?

Oka made herself comfortable on Richard’s shoulder and I saw the way her lips quirked to one side. Amusement flowed through our bond.

“We need to move,” I said, breaking through all the other stuff going on. “We have to go until we find water. It’s our only chance.”

We loaded up into the back of the slowest truck. I sat on the tailgate and Mac sat beside me, quiet as we watched the witch fire consume everything in its path.

“Who put those bracelets on you?” Mac asked after about ten minutes.

“A troop of elementals. I … the Sylph’s name is Jayla.” I didn’t look at him but stared at the bracelet with the clear diamond in it. The pain that had erupted in my head as I’d tried to connect with air and use it was still there, an ache in the back of my skull.

“How … did Oka avoid the pit?” I asked.

“You caught her and tossed her aside,” he said. “You don’t remember?”

A chill swept down my spine. “I don’t. I tried to connect with air, tried to catch her and the pain just overtook me, and I saw the Sylph.”

He grunted. “This is old magic they used on you.” He touched one of the bracelets. “A dark elemental magic. They must be very afraid of you to use it.”

He wasn’t really telling me anything I hadn’t guessed. I just had never put it into words before.

I wrapped my hands around my wrists. “Any chance you can take them off?”

“If I could, I would.” He shook his head.

“Any idea who might be able to?”

His blue eyes lifted to mine. “No, I don’t. I’m sorry.”

I nodded and looked toward the blue and green flames. Really, I hadn’t expected a different answer.

The flames were relentless and drove us farther south with each passing hour, much farther south than we wanted to go. All day they drove us onward, southward. My fingers itched to do exactly what Mac suggested and use wind to hold the flames back. But I couldn’t, of course.

The trolls, and whoever their master was, were driving us, but to what?

I checked those who’d taken some bumps and bruises when the trolls attacked, but by some miracle, no one was badly injured. Except for Sage.

More than once, I snuck a glance at the man sitting close enough to me that his thigh brushed mine. It took me two hours to drum up the courage to ask him the question I couldn’t figure out on my own.

“I thought familiars were only ever animals? How is it that you are … a true shifter?” I asked.

Mac turned and looked at me through his bangs. “Elementals liked their slaves. And some of their slaves turned out to be shifters, who turned out to be great familiars for those the Mother Goddess had not gifted with a real familiar.”

I blinked a few times as that new piece of information sunk in. Familiars tended to be gifted only to the strongest elementals, to help guide and strengthen them. But if a weaker elemental could have a familiar connected to them … no doubt they would do it.

“Is that why you seem … distant when you speak inside my head?” I asked.

Behind us, a spate of whispers started up. Right, the idea that I could be somewhat telepathic would freak people out.

Mac shrugged. “That, and Oka has the first position as your familiar. I’ve connected to you, but it’s … different.”

That was an understatement. “What did you owe Faris that you had to become my familiar?” The only thing I could think was that Faris had saved his life. How else could he owe the vampire such a big favor? And the truth was, Faris didn’t save anyone for nothing.

He shook his head and his broad shoulders tensed. “That’s not a story I am going to be sharing anytime soon.”

So much for that line of questioning. I opened my mouth to ask him another question and he put his hand over my mouth. I frowned and shoved it off.

“Hey—” I said, and he cut me off again, this time by the look in his eyes.

He tipped his head to the side. “You hear that?”

A distant rumble, like thunder, almost, but not quite.

Oka climbed out of the back window of the truck and bounced over to me. “There’s a river ahead.”

Perfect, that was exactly what we needed. The witch fire could burn on the top of the water, but only if there was an accelerant. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to cross.

If we could get across it—that was the key. If it wasn’t too deep. The trucks rumbled to a stop and I jumped out. My legs wobbled, worn-out even with the rest in the truck, even with the sleep on Mac’s back.

That bloody black magic literally sucked the life out of me. Which was one more reason not to use it.

Yet I knew if I had to, to protect these people I would. Just thinking about it made my stomach twist and my skin bead with a cold, nervous sweat.

I hurried to the front of the caravan, my cloak swirling out around me, pushing in front of me with the wind at my back.

I bent down on the banks of the river and strode in, despite the ice cold against my legs. Mac was beside me in a flash.

“Shit, this is cold,” he grumbled.

I laughed. “You’re a polar bear and this water is too cold?”

He shrugged. “I’m not without an awareness to ‘cold as a witch’s tit’ ice water.”

My eyebrows shot up. “That’s an incorrect statement. Just so you know.”

From the truck behind us, I felt Oka’s mirth, and my lips tipped up slowly as Mac closed his eyes, his face paling.

“Sorry, old habits.”

We stood in the middle of the river. While wide, it wasn’t deep, the level coming up just above my knees. I waved my hand for Richard to get moving.

Richard driving the lead truck gunned it, kicking up some dust on the banks. The Humvee with the kids in it—their noses pressed to the glass as they stared down at the water—was next. The final truck was the slowest.

I stared at the flames as they visibly picked up speed. “Make them hurry,” I yelled.

Mac yelled at them to gun it, again. But they couldn’t go any faster and I knew it.

I stood in the river and stared as the flames took form, dancing into the shape of a woman.

She raised her hands and the flames were fanned to life. If they touched the back of the truck, all the occupants would be consumed. I snapped my hands up and screamed as the black magic ripped out of me, like a wound being torn open.

It took everything I had to direct it to the blue and green flames. The dark magic was like a wall and it slammed into the flames with a tremendous boom that rippled the air.

Oka was suddenly there in her tiger form. “Breathe, Pamela. Breathe. You’ve got this.”

“I can’t hold it. It won’t listen to me!” I cried out. Pain and fear undulated and danced through me like thousand knives slashing at me all at once. Tears tracked my cheeks, hot and then gone with the waves of heat.

“You have to,” she said. “And you will.”

I locked eyes with her and did as she said. I focused on my breathing and Oka’s chartreuse eyes. With her at my side, I could do anything. The muscles in my upper chest began to spasm, my fingers went numb, and I was panting for air.

The flames beat against the black wall of magic I held onto by the skin of my teeth.

“I’ll tell you when,” Oka said. “You are strong enough, never doubt it, Pamela.”

Mac was still yelling at them to go, and then there was a roar as he shifted into his polar bear form.

A rush of heat blew in from behind me and with it the sound of grass burning, of the crinkle of dried brush eaten up in flames.

Oka looked behind me. “Hold the wall, Pam, we’ve got time.”

Mac splashed to a stop beside us and let out a snarl. “Now, let go of your magic!”

Oka shook her head. “The last truck hasn’t cleared.”

All I could do was hang on to the wall as the magic fought me, the flames pushing toward that last truck, edging across water, and then dying out a foot in.

And that’s when I knew for sure … “There’s another witch,” I whispered. “She’s in the flames. She’s directing them. She’s the one who wants us to go south.”

Oka and Mac spun, each facing a different direction, but the witch was nowhere near. I let my eyes finally lift to see the final truck spin out once and then power up the far slope of the river.

Safe.

There was nothing fancy about it, I let go of my connection to the wall and the magic whipped back to me, hitting me so hard I flew back into the water.

Mac took hold of my cloak and dragged me through the river.

I went under, spluttering as he towed me the first ten feet. I came up and rolled to my belly, barely able to keep my head above the water even though it wasn’t all that deep.

“Oka!”

“I’m here!” She splashed along beside me. We were swept downstream a hundred feet or so before Mac dragged me out of the water and onto the bank.

I looked back upstream. The blue-green flames twinkled and danced at the water’s edge, but they didn’t cross.

Mac shifted back to his human form, leaned over and helped me stand. I stumbled a little and he caught me up in his arms. Steadying me.

He smiled down at me, blue eyes sparkling under the shag of white bangs. “Good work, witch.”

“Mac, what’s your real name?” I asked.

Oka shifted back to her house cat form and butted her head against my leg. Mac let me go, the warmth of his arms a literal sense of loss. I bent and picked up Oka.

“Short for Macmahon. It’s an old Scots name. My mom was a stickler for the old way of doing things.”

I started toward the back of the caravan. “Thank you. For … everything. You’ve saved my life twice now.”

“That’s my job.”

“For how long?” The question popped out of me, catching us both off guard.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. He really was a big guy. But a polar bear shifter would be big, wouldn’t they? “I don’t know. Faris didn’t give me a time limit. And I’ll be honest, you intrigue me. He said I would be helping a witch. I just didn’t realize …” It was apparently his turn to trail off. Mac shrugged again. “I’ll go see what I can do to help the others. Try not to get killed while I’m gone?”

Oka rubbed her cheek against mine. “I’ve kept her alive this long. I don’t really need your help, you know.”

He reached out and grabbed the tip of her tail and gave it a tug. She hissed at him and he walked away, laughing.

Oka growled. “Oh, he—”

“Just yanked your chain?” I smiled.

She grunted. “You’ve got the hots for him.”

My jaw dropped. “Totally inappropriate, incorrect, unfounded.”

“Sure thing, but I’m inside your head. He intrigues you, first man to do so in three years. You could do worse. Then again, you’ve not had much choice, have you?”

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. “I could do worse is the meme for our new world when it comes to choosing men.”

We laughed together, because it was ridiculous, and the stress of the day lent itself to laughter, uncontrolled and full of the realization that we’d survived again. If barely.

I urged the caravan to move on from the river and around the next bend in the road before I let them stop.

I was not the only one exhausted, and when we stopped, there was a physical sagging of every person I saw.

Even with that, they muttered to each other, unable to stay still as they looked around. Their nerves were showing, and after the last few days, I couldn’t blame them. It certainly felt like the world had turned on them. First the wolves, then the zombies, now the trolls and the fire. What next?

I approached a small group that contained Tristan and a few others. Tristan gave me a nod. “Good job.”

“Thanks.”

I didn’t give them any platitudes that it would be okay. There was no knowing what would happen next.

I worked my way through the groups, checking to make sure there were no injuries and doing my best to calm them. The fire is stopped, and the fire will keep anything from coming up behind us; you can rest now was my mantra to them.

When I passed Mac, he was off to my left, helping two women set up their tent. I wasn’t sure if they needed the help or just wanted Mac to stand a little closer, seeing as they kept touching his biceps, which made me laugh.

He lifted his head as I went by and gave me a wink.

Cue the instant flush of heat in my face. Damn it, Oka was right. I did kind of have the hots for him. I slowed my feet, listening in on Mac’s conversation with the two women.

“But Richard didn’t tell us we were staying here,” I heard one of them argue with him. “Are you sure we should set up a tent? Do you have a tent? You could stay with us.”

I choked a bit. Holy hand grenades, that was hardly subtle.

Mac cleared his throat. “I think Richard is a bit indisposed, at the moment. The tent breaks down easy enough if he wants to move.” Mac’s voice was calm, but the women still seemed unsure. I lifted a hand to the women, catching their eyes.

“I’m going to check on Richard now. The fire is stopped so we’ll stay here for a bit,” I told them.

One of the women glanced across the river, the fear clear in her eyes. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep here tonight.”

I glanced at Mac, who just shook his head. “You’re safe now, I promise. The witch and I will keep it that way.”

Her eyes bounced between Mac and me until they landed on Oka, who purred and sidled up next to one of the ladies. “She’s a tiger, huh?”

I nodded. “She’s got some bite behind her purr, that’s for sure.”

Oka leaned into the woman’s leg, offering her some comfort, and it worked. She visibly relaxed, and even set to gathering sticks for a fire, although I wasn’t sure we’d need it. I, for one, had had enough fire for one day. I wanted nothing more than a bed and two solid days of sleep.

Maybe a cheeseburger too.

Mac grunted. “I’ll take a double order of that.”

I blinked and then smiled. “Milkshake?”

“Done.”

The women were confused, if the look on their faces said anything, but Oka just shook her head.

“Idiots.”

I nodded to Mac, and he nodded back, raising the tent high in one swift motion. I raised my brows. Impressive.

He winked at me again. “It’s not my first time.”

Cue the second instant heat flush. I turned away. Everyone was asking about Richard like …

“Shit, Oka, was Richard injured?”

“There was blood on him, but I didn’t think it was his,” she said.

I picked up my pace, searching the caravan until I found the nurse.

“Her name is Nathanda,” Oka said softly.

Nathanda waved me over to her. “Pamela, Richard is in trouble. He was fine, standing next to me and then he went down. A complete crash.”

Her blond and gray hair stuck across her forehead, mingled with a swath of wide dirt smear. Her shirt was covered in blood, but I couldn’t tell if it was old or new, or who it belonged to originally. “His breathing is shallow, heartrate is dropping, and his blood pressure is falling. I think he’s bleeding internally.”

The few people around us watched as I went to my knees beside him. His face was pale, and his eyes closed. Worse, his chest didn’t rise and fall.

“Is he breathing?” I laid my hands on his chest. This was not the time to hold back, no matter that I didn’t think I had anything left to give, or that the black magic wouldn’t listen. We couldn’t lose Richard. I knew that with every instinct I had. He held the caravan together in a way no one else would. Without him, the humans would turn to Tristan, and I already knew that would be a total and complete clusterfuck.

Nausea rose through my belly as I realized what I had to do.

I would have to battle my way through the bracelet that connected me to spirit, the same way I’d done with air to save Oka. And pray I could hold it through the pain long enough to help him.

“What happened?” I looked to Nathanda, stalling.

She dropped to her knees beside me. “We aren’t sure. We’ve gotten conflicting accounts. But we think he jumped in front of one of the trolls that charged Sage and the kids. We think he was stepped on.”

Stepped on. Internal injuries for sure then.

His breaths were shallow and far apart, as was his heartbeat.

“Here we go.” I bit my lower lip. “Richard, this is going to hurt.” And I didn’t mean only him, either.

I took one deep breath and blew it out as I closed my eyes. I made myself reach for spirit, felt the first twinge of pain and then went for it.

Pain blasted through me and I groaned, barely holding the sounds back as I focused on what I had to do. I had to heal Richard. That was my only thought, heal Richard, save the caravan.

Someone was screaming.

It might have been me.

My mind blanked out and the images in front of me blurred. A man with dark brown hair had his back to me, a bracelet matching my own with a pink stone set in it. There was no sound, but he stiffened and turned to face me.

A snarl twisted his lips and then I was blasted away.

“Is she alive? What happened?” Oka’s panicked voice filled my right ear. The left was jammed into the floor of the tent.

My body hurt like nothing I’d ever felt, as if my limbs had all been shattered and put back together poorly, my insides twisted, and a sour taste lined my mouth. Vomit, I’d been sick?

“She had her hands on him and then they both started screaming,” Nathanda said quietly. “But he’s stabilized. Whatever she did, it healed him.”

I was done.

The wolves. The zombies. The trolls. The fire. The healing. My body had had enough. I’d survived everything, and now I was at the end. Oka’s panic snapped through our bond, her thoughts crashing into my mind.

“Pamela,” she cried.

My words were slurred. I’m not even sure anyone would be able to decipher them but her. My body was done in.

“I’m sorry, Oka. I can’t. I tried. Richard is good. And see what you think of Mac. He’ll stick with you, teach you.”

She was freaking out like I was doing more than passing out. I should have been more worried, but I couldn’t care. I had no fucks left to give.

Oka’s face pressed into mine, those eyes of hers snagging my own, holding me while my body sunk. “No. I won’t let this happen.”

And then Mac was there, his blue eyes full of irritation. “I got her this time, cat.”

He put his hand to my chest, over my heart, and a shot of energy like someone had given me a jolt of caffeine snapped through me. It was nothing like the power Oka fed me, this was raw and wild, and it pumped through me with the icy tang of the Arctic wind.

Oka curled up on me. “Maybe we can keep him.”

I blinked a few times and then passed out, grateful for the oblivion.

Chapter Eighteen

How long I slept, I don’t know. I only know it wasn’t enough and I woke still feeling like shit.

The thing was, I would have slept longer but something tugged at me. I woke with a startled jerk, my heart racing and my brain on high alert, my body aching like I’d had the crap kicked out of me. Repeatedly. Just for shits and giggles.

It took me far too long to put together where I had woken. Inside a canvas tent that smelled of mold, lying on an air mattress that had half deflated, so I felt rocks under my butt.

I hadn’t had such comfort in years.

“Oka?” I whispered her name as I reached under the covers. Our connection was there, but more than that was the tiny warm bundle of fur pressed up against my hip that told me where she was.

I dropped a hand to her and relaxed as I felt the rise and fall of her deep, even breathing. She was as exhausted as me and didn’t stir even while I rubbed my fingers over her ears.

“I owe you, little house cat. You and that bear of ours.” I bent and buried my face in her fur, breathing in the scent of her—fire and a summer wind, the smell of cherry blossoms. All uniquely her.

I needed to find Mac and thank him too. I reached for that connection that tied him to me. He wasn’t far at all.

The flap of the tent flipped open and he stuck his head in.

There were no dark circles under his eyes, no singed edges of his hair. A grin slid over his face. “You’re irritated that I don’t look like I’ve had a rough day?”

My lips twitched. “You’ve got to admit, you could at least have like a day’s stubble or something.”

He shrugged. “I’ll work on that after the next battle.”

I couldn’t look away from him and I didn’t know how I felt about that. He let himself in my tent and made himself comfortable, sitting beside me.

I turned a little to him. “Thank you, for saving me.”

“Ah, you wouldn’t have died. But it would take more than a few hours’ sleep to get you going again if I didn’t give you some juice.” He leaned back on his elbows and crossed his long legs at the ankle.

“Do you hate that you’re helping me?” I blurted the question before I could stop myself.

He tipped his head to one side and squinted one eye at me. “No. I was pissed at first that Faris would yank me around like this, but … you’ve changed my mind. Ignore me if I’m grumpy. It’s just a bear’s nature. Why didn’t you just use your connection to me to answer that question?”

“Because that’s damn intrusive and I’d hope you wouldn’t do anything like that to me either,” I said.

“You … are not like the others,” he murmured. “That makes you dangerous.”

I wasn’t sure just what he meant by that seeing as I was dangerous. I frowned. “Thank you, Mac. I’m glad you’re with us.”

“Funny enough, so am I.” His eyes locked with mine and suddenly my heart rate picked up for all sorts of other reasons. Mac sat up, and brushed a finger across my cheek, then tucked a stray strand of my long hair behind one ear.

I didn’t move. Couldn’t.

Because I didn’t know what to do. I mean, I knew what was coming; he wanted to kiss me.

“The last guy I kissed is dead,” I said as he leaned toward me.

Mac’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you kill him?”

“No, but … because he was close to me, and—”

I got nothing else out as he closed the distance and pressed his lips to mine. The connection between us flared to life like never before. He lifted a hand, cupped one side of my face, and I realized I’d never really been kissed before.

Not like this.

Not with a man who knew what he was doing.

Firm and gentle, warm and everything I had ever dreamed a kiss would be. Only I thought it would be with someone else.

I pulled back with a gasp. “I should check on Richard.”

Mac leaned back again. “Good idea. I’ll stay with Oka.”

I was out of the tent like an arrow from a crossbow, the flap closing behind me. I pressed my hands to my cheeks. I made myself walk, finding my way through the caravan.

What the hell had just happened?

I kissed you. Mac’s thoughts rumbled through me and I shut them down hard. I had to. I needed a moment or two by myself.

But I didn’t even get that.

Richard strode toward me. His grin was wide and there was no evidence that he’d ever been injured.

“Pamela!” He caught me up in a hug that I let happen because it was easier than fighting it. “Come, we have food cooking.”

He led me away from my tent to a setup near the Humvee, seemingly unbothered by my messy sleep hair, and what I felt like were wide startled eyes.

Richard pointed to a fire that burned with a decent-sized rabbit roasting on a spit.

He sat me down and cut some of the rabbit off, handing it to me on a cracked blue plate. I took it, forcing it down. To get my strength back, I needed to eat, and rest. Even in the last two days I’d lost weight that I didn’t have to lose. My pants were loose, and my shirt hung even more from my shoulders. I took a bite, and then another, and another, of the charred meat.

It was gone in a flash and more meat was put in front of me. I realized as I ate and ate that Richard knew what he was doing. Of course, he’d been married to a witch.

“Wilma always said food and sleep were the best things to help her bounce back,” he said as he spooned some sort of stew into a bowl for me. I didn’t even blink, I just kept eating. Finally, I handed the plate back and shook my head. “I’m going be sick if I eat anything else.”

Richard smiled and offered me a mug of steaming hot tea. “Honey tea. Drink up, the sugar will help.”

I took a sip, the honey so thick, it was almost hard to tell there was tea in the mug. I didn’t care, he was right. The tea warmed me from the inside and the honey hit my bloodstream like a good dose of sugar was wont to do.

“How long have we been here?” I held the mug to my chest.

“Twelve hours,” he said. “I’d like to stay a few days if we can. Get everyone back on their feet. What do you think?” Concern etched deep lines in his forehead as he chewed the meat.

Before I could answer, there was the sweet sound of children’s laughter. Chris stepped out from the other side of the Humvee, the kids hanging off her limbs. Relief washed over her face when she saw me. “My goodness. The kids have been begging nonstop to see you. And I didn’t want them to disturb you.”

I smiled, doing my best to not let it look as tired as I felt. “All good now.”

The three toddlers ran to me in unison. I handed my mug of tea to Richard right before they barreled into me, knocking me back off my seat.

Ruby reached up to me and patted my face. “I like your tiger. Can I ride her?”

I laughed. “Maybe another time. Not today.”

Then it was Frost’s turn. He pushed Ruby out of the way and climbed into my lap. Like a king on a throne.

“Frost, you’re getting heavy! How poor Chris picks you up at all is beyond me.”

He laughed. “I’m a big boy now.”

Ruby and Lily shoved him off and he hit the dirt hard. “We’re big girls too, you know,” Ruby said.

They tussled at my feet, like nothing more than a trio of puppies.

But there wasn’t the normal joy in their play. They’d had that stolen from them the last few days. Even while they wrestled, fear danced in their eyes as they looked to the forest around us. Looking for the monsters.

I frowned, their fear hurting me. Their childhoods were rough enough as it was.

“Hey, you three.” They stopped and looked at me. I held my hands out to them. “Don’t be scared. You are safe now, and there is so much magic in this world. It’s not all scary, I promise.”

But it felt like a hollow promise. I remembered being that small and feeling that helpless. I remembered sitting in that room, held captive by trolls who thought to sell me to the highest bidder. I could still taste the bitter fear on the back of my tongue as I swallowed hard, looking at each and every one of their faces. Making myself smile for their benefit.

I slid off the log and sat with my legs crossed on the ground. Ruby took up residence on my lap as Frost and Lily sat close to me. What could I tell them to make it better? How could I make them see it wasn’t all dark and scary?

“You know, I’ve been scared before,” I said. A quiet gasp rippled through the three kids. Chris lowered herself next to Richard and I tried not to look hard at them as he reached over and took her hand. Seriously, what was going on there?

I cleared my throat. “A few years ago, I wasn’t as strong as I am now. And there were lots of things that scared me. But the biggest? When I rode on the back of a dragon. Can you believe that?” They all shook their heads in unison. Their eyes were as wide as the moon rising, so I continued, keeping my voice low as if I shared a secret only with them. “I didn’t care much for flying at first. I like my feet firmly on the ground. But on the back of that dragon, I got to see things more beautiful than I could ever imagine. Once I was brave enough to actually open my eyes and look around, that is.”

Ruby giggled, and the other two kids followed her. A bit more of the fear slid away.

“So, really, being in scary spots isn’t all bad. We must be brave enough to keep our eyes open and see the beauty too.”

They all nodded, and I lifted Ruby off my lap.

Chris stood. “Thank you, Pamela.” She held her hands out to the kids. “Come on, my three angels. Let’s get you into bed. Give our caravan witch a hug goodnight.”

They each came to me, tiny arms held out and then wrapped around my neck for a tight squeeze.

Goddess above and below, let me keep my promise to these babies.

Let me keep them safe.

Chapter Nineteen

Chris hustled the three kids toward the Humvee, and they climbed in between protestations of not being tired, and yawning too wide, they tipped their heads back.

Richard stood next to me. “You’re good with them.”

I shrugged. “I like kids. They deserve to feel safe.”

He tucked his hands behind his back. “I know I told you that you were our tutelary … I hope that—”

“It’s fine, Richard. It was what I needed. A kick in the ass.” I smiled at him. “Besides, Dick, you make a fine cup of tea, which begs that I forgive you your many flaws.”

He grinned down at me. “Good, I’ll be sure to keep the tea coming.”

“You remind me of someone,” I said suddenly, wanting to connect him to my past.

“A good man, I hope.” He sat next to the fire.

I nodded. “One of the best. He … was like a big brother to me. Looked out for me, kicked my ass when I needed it.”

Richard took a stick and poked at the fire, little embers floating into the night sky. “Then perhaps I can fill that space for you. For a little while.”

A sense of peace settled on my shoulders and I nodded. “You already have.”

I motioned for him to give me back my tea, then I sat across from him. The fire was warm, the night was quiet, the tea was lovely, and for just a few moments I was going to take it for what it was.

Silence hung companionably between us for several minutes.

A soft meow turned my head. Oka sauntered over, looking a bit disheveled. “’Bout time you crawled out of the sleeping bag. It’s good to see you.”

She flicked her tail twice, cracked a yawn that showed off her teeth and then hopped onto my lap.

“I could sleep for days,” she said.

I nodded. “Me too.”

I looked at Richard. He looked at me. I shrugged. “She can speak, but only I can hear her.”

“I’ve been wondering.” He took a sip from his own mug. But he said nothing else on the subject. “You and Oka have saved us more than once now. She is as welcome here as the bear, Mac, is. I do not think we can do this without you three.”

Oka bobbed her head once, agreeing with him. He smiled at her. “Oka agrees?”

“Yes, I do!” she said, yelling the words.

I laughed. “He can’t hear you even if you yell, cat. You know that.”

She sighed. “It was worth trying. I like him.”

Richard lifted an eyebrow. I smiled. “She says she likes you and wishes you could hear her.”

He lifted his mug to her. “I like you too, cat.”

It was like a damn love fest, all mushy and squishy, full of good feelings and peace. And the thing was, I should have still been enjoying it. But I wasn’t. My nerves suddenly ratcheted up a few notches.

I grimaced and made myself drink my tea. I was tired. I should probably try to get more sleep.

“Tomorrow, do we stay or go?” Richard asked.

I lifted my eyes to the stars, considering them.

A sound of a foot in the grass turned my face to the left. Tristan stood there, a grimace on his face. “Why is she in on that decision? I’m your second, aren’t I?”

Richard looked at Tristan, fatigue washing over his features. “Not anymore, you aren’t. Pamela is.”

Tristan snorted. “I thought you’d say that. She’s going to take this caravan over, with that tiger of hers. You need to put a leash on them both now. Or better yet, get rid of her.”

“Hey,” Oka grumbled, “what about that tiger of hers?”

I put a hand on her back. This was not my fight. This was for Richard to deal with.

“Tristan,” Richard didn’t even bother to stand, “we would have died three times over without all of their help. How is it that you can’t see the truth? She is not our enemy.”

“She is!” he snapped, and there was a glimmer in his eyes I didn’t like. Like a flicker of blue-green flames. I did not have the magic or the energy to delve him, but …

“I think he’s been spelled,” I said.

Whoever that witch was, she had some serious pull if she could snag one of our humans at a distance. I wanted to groan at the thought of using my magic, but there was obviously going to be no choice. Which was the point of this … holy shit, that was the point of all this.

The witch was forcing me to drain my own abilities. Well, fuck that shit.

“She needs to die.” Tristan pulled a handgun from the back of his belt and pointed it at me.

I lifted an eyebrow, doing my best to stay calm as Oka let out a series of long low growls. “And you expect me to believe there is ammo in there?”

He cocked the hammer. “You want to take the chance?”

A shadow moved behind Tristan and an arm snaked around his neck so fast that I was not sure he even realized what happened. He was standing one minute and out cold the next, the gun in his limp hand.

Mac lowered him to the ground and scooped up the gun, opening the chamber. “Two bullets.”

Richard and Mac flipped Tristan over and had him tied up in a matter of seconds. “It’s not his fault,” I said.

“How could he be spelled? Wouldn’t the witch have to touch him?” Oka asked.

I waited until Mac drew closer. Another time the memory of our kiss would have made me squirm, but we were back to surviving. Something I was very good at.

“The witch, whoever she is, is targeting us not to kill us, but to force me to drain myself,” I said. “I’m certain. She had to know that Tristan could get close to me and injure or possibly even kill me. Even with a familiar at my side.” Oka and Mac were silent as they looked at me, but I could feel the agreement flowing from both.

“She’s driving us,” Mac said softly. He drew some lines in the dirt at our feet. Richard joined us. Mac pointed at a few places. “We’re being pushed south. If we move quick enough, we might be able to put the distance between us and her that we need. More than that, we need to buy you time to recuperate.” His eyes lifted to mine and I nodded.

“How can we move faster?” Richard said. “With so many on foot, it’s hard to go more than a few miles an hour.”

“Everyone climbed in when the fire was on you,” Mac pointed out.

“Desperation,” Richard said.

I stared at the lines Mac had drawn, my mind ticking over the possibilities.

“We organize better, so we can move faster.”

“What do you mean?” Richard asked.

“I mean, people shouldn’t be out walking behind the trucks. Reorganize the supplies, and fit people in the two truck beds. Arm them as best we can and have one on the hood of the cab to scout ahead.”

Richard shook his head. “The trucks can’t handle the extra weight of everyone for an extended period. We’re already running low on fuel, worse after that run from the fire. I didn’t think the trucks would make it more than ten miles.”

I looked at Oka and then Mac. They were shaking their heads, but what choice did I have? “You know what, let me take a look at the trucks.”

“In the morning. After a good sleep,” Oka said.

“And a full breakfast,” Mac added.

Two, I had two babysitters now. I smiled. “Exactly what I was going to say.”

Richard smiled, scratching at his beard. “Sage was never able to get the mix quite right, to keep the trucks working efficiently. Not like Wilma did. She said it was tricky.”

“I’ve done it before,” I said. “Back in the beginning.” I didn’t want to tell him I was one of the first to figure out that mixing magic with the remaining fuel made it last longer. Look at me—saving the caravan and the environment one tank at a time.

Of course, that would mean using the magic that did whatever the fuck it wanted. I sighed. For all I knew, I would end up blowing the tanks. But they were right, I would deal with it in the morning.

“It would be nice to have someone scouting ahead of us,” Mac said.

I turned my face to him. “Yeah, but how do we do that?”

He smiled and winked at me. “I have a couple bikes just south of here. We can use those. I can get them in the morning.”

“That seems convenient,” I said. “I mean, you just happen to have some bikes?”

He shrugged. “I’ve learned to stash things around my territory at intervals. Even if I don’t have much fuel for them. If we were farther to the north, I’ve got an ATV stashed.” He shrugged. “I like to have options.”

“After breakfast, then,” I said.

Oka snickered. “Yeah, after breakfast, bear.”

He leaned down and tweaked her one ear between two fingers and she took a swing at him. Playing, they were playing. I shook my head and stood, lifting Oka to my shoulder. “I’ll fill up the trucks first. In the morning, I’ll go with Mac to get his bikes.”

Richard’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. One, for the two of you to be out on your own when you think you are being targeted.” Damn, he had good hearing. “And two, it leaves the caravan completely unprotected.”

Double damn. I was so tired I wasn’t thinking straight. “Good points. Change of plans then. Mac, will you take one of the other men with you to get the bikes?”

Mac nodded. “Sure. Thing is, they need fuel. They’ll have to be walked back here. And I’m afraid it’s a bit of a hike, easily three hours at a walk.”

I sighed. “Of course it is.”

I thought for a moment. What we needed was another shifter like Mac who could move faster and not run out of energy.

He picked up on my thoughts. “There is a pack of shifters not far from here. Last time I came through, anyway. A hodgepodge mix. Want me to see if I can find them?”

“Are they safe?”

He shrugged. “Safe as any shifters. But if you mean will they come and attack the caravan? No. They aren’t that kind. They stick to their own.”

“Okay. Yes, do that. How far is it?”

“Maybe three hours for me to run and find one of the shifters. Less than an hour on the return trip with the bikes. If I carry a jerry can, that will be enough to get us back to the caravan.” The glint in his eyes told me he was looking forward to the rush of being back on a bike. Or maybe I was picking up on it from our bond.

The plan probably had holes in it. I just couldn’t see them. “Oka, what do you think?”

“That we don’t have a lot of choice. Whatever the storm is, it’s coming faster now. I feel like … this is the final quiet before it crashes over us.”

“Agreed,” I said softly. “Mac, I’ll get you that fuel, and you leave now. The sooner you’re back, the better.”

“What’s the rush, Pamela?” Richard asked.

I debated telling him the truth and then just spit it out. He needed to know.

“Wilma told Sage a storm was coming. I have been shown similar things the last few days. Until the storm breaks, we won’t know what we’re facing, not really,” I said. Richard’s face was a mask, his emotions covered in part by that big beard of his. “The sooner we get the caravan to the Haven, the better.”

Richard stood. “I don’t disagree with going faster. The sooner we get to the Haven, the sooner we can enjoy some peace.”

Assuming the Haven was a real place, assuming it was within reach at all. But I kept that thought to myself.

Mac and Oka picked up on my thoughts, though. How could they not?

Richard frowned as if he heard my unspoken words anyway. “Get some rest tonight. You need it.” He turned and went to the Humvee, sitting in the front seat and leaning back. Chris’s hand snaked up and landed on his shoulder.

At least they had each other.

“The fuel, are you sure you want to do that tonight?” Oka asked. “After how the magic behaved earlier, I’m wondering if you should.”

Mac walked with us as we headed to the back of the truck that carried the jerry cans. “If we get hit suddenly, I’ll be too busy defending and wrestling with it to be able to fuel the trucks, and if we stop moving, we’ll all die.”

Mac nodded and pulled the cans down for me. He cracked one and gave it a sniff. “Yeah, that other witch was off in her ratios. It smells like rotting cheese.”

The alcohol/magic mix wasn’t hard really. Even an amateur witch could’ve done it.

“Here we go,” I whispered to myself as I brought the magic up to my fingertips. Just a little, I didn’t need a lot for this, but even so it bucked against me. With teeth gritted and sweat already pouring down the sides of my face, I started.

Using the fuel already in the cans, I stripped the magic within and replaced it with my own.

It took me about three seconds to get the mix right, swirling the magic in, sniffing it every twenty seconds to make sure it held. Tangy, yes, rotten cheese, no.

Mac took the full can and fueled up the first truck. We repeated the process three more times, fueling the trucks, and me taking a break in between.

Even so, I was covered in that tangy smell by the end as it stuck to my glistening skin. I’d never be free of it now that I was responsible for keeping the trucks running.

Fear laced my heart, though. This was good, but by far the hardest I’d ever had to work for such a small amount of magic. My whole life, my magic had come to me with ease, like second nature. This was like pulling teeth with slippery pliers.

If I hadn’t been broken by my lack of magic before, having to fight for this little bit was curing me of any pride I might have had left.

“You stink,” Oka said.

Mac leaned in and kissed me on the cheek as he scooped up the last jerry can. “I kind of like it.”

Oka’s shock couldn’t have been more like a bolt of lightning. Of course, she didn’t know that Mac had kissed me earlier.

He shifted into his bear form and picked up the jerry can by its handle. There were no more goodbyes as he took off at a run, his bright white fur marking him even at a distance.

“He kissed you?” Oka yelled at me. “How could you not tell me? I thought you were waiting for Alex?”

I covered my eyes with one hand. “He caught me off guard. And … maybe Alex isn’t coming for me. Maybe he’s … gone. Back to Rylee. Or …” I cleared my throat. “I like Mac. I think he’s a good match for me. For both of us.”

“I like him too,” Oka said. “I just don’t want you to get hurt is all.”

“Me either.” We walked back to the tent I’d woken in. The rest of the camp was sleeping except for three sentries. Richard was upping his game, and that was good.

I tossed back the cover on the tent and flopped down on the half-filled air mattress. Even that felt like sleeping on a cloud compared to the hard ground.

Oka hopped up behind me and quickly burrowed under the sleeping bag.

We’d gone south a bit, and it didn’t feel like there was quite the bite in the air that there was before. But, that could also be because we were sheltered more than I had been in years. I was so used to sleeping under the stars, this protection felt foreign to me. I snuggled down into the sleeping bag, not bothering to get undressed. Everything was already dirty, with the exception of my boots.

As I settled in, listening to Oka’s steady breathing, sleep came for me hard, fast and restless. Through all my dreams, I ran from something, fear driving me.

A scaly hand swiped at me constantly, and I barely managed to stay out of reach of the claw tips. Flames cornered me, and there was nothing I could do to escape as they ate at my clothes and hair. Wolves snapped at my feet, snatching at my limbs every time their jaws slammed shut.

The zombies were the worst. They claimed me just before sunrise. The worst, because the zombie that came for me was Macey, and she was relentless.

“You let me diiiiiiiiiiiieeeee,” she moaned. “My death is your fault.”

She dogged me for days in that dream. I cut off her arms and legs, sobbing as I did so, and they’d regrow. I just couldn’t bring myself to behead her again. I begged her to return to her body, for her soul to come back. But she wouldn’t listen. Her desire to kill me was too overwhelming.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to save you!” I fell to my knees in front of her sobbing. “I’m so sorry, Macey.”

There was the crux of it. I wasn’t strong enough. And whoever the witch was who chased the caravan, she wanted the kids and she knew I couldn’t stop her.

Macey swayed in front of me and then slowly she transformed, covered in shimmering green scales, that I thought I knew, but was sure I’d never seen before.

I blinked at her, and she laughed as long red hair fluttered behind her.

I startled awake but could still hear the laugh echoing in the back of my mind, and it sent goose bumps running up my arms, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

“What?” Oka came to attention as suddenly as I did.

“I don’t know. But I think we have to move,” I said.

Oka nodded. “Well, then let’s go.”

I rolled up the sleeping bag and deflated the air mattress, rolling that into a tight bundle. The sun was rising in the east as I folded the tent down as small as I could make it and jammed it into the little pouch that was staked near the flap of the tent.

I drew a slow breath and reached for my connection to Mac. I realized now that was some of my restlessness the night before.

I was worried about him.

“Nice to know you care,” Mac said as he leaned against one of the trucks. Two bikes stood beside him.

I looked around. “The shifter you borrowed?”

“Hawk. He’s taken off already.” Mac frowned and through our bond I picked up a thread of unease.

“What?” I asked.

“Something with the pack is off … they are different than the last time I dealt with them.” He ran a hand through his bangs, knocking them out of his eyes. “It’s probably nothing.”

Richard waved us over to the main fire before we could continue the conversation. The entire caravan was there, eating breakfast. My stomach rumbled, and I followed the smell of meat and warm fresh bread, a bloody delicacy at this point. I slid in and grabbed two plates, filled them and handed one to Mac without a word. The other I held up so Oka could take a mouthful of the still-hot rabbit.

Richard lifted a hand. “We are going to move today. Pamela has filled the fuel tanks. There will be no walking.” He quickly divided up the trucks and what went where. The three kids, Richard, Chris, and the nurse Nathanda would ride in the Humvee. The supplies would all be moved to the slowest of the three vehicles and would have Tristan tied up in the back with a guard and a single driver. The remaining members of the caravan would ride in the final truck.

“Mac, Oka, and I will ride in the back with Tristan,” I said suddenly. I wanted to see if I could get any information out of him about the witch who chased us. Who chased me.

Richard nodded. “Let’s move, people.”

The humans scattered, hurrying to their tents. I filled my plate a second time, ignoring the looks I got from a couple of the men. The food went down fast, and I followed it with a cup of cold water.

“You okay, Pam?” Mac asked. I didn’t have a great answer for that question.

“Yeah, just … jittery,” I said.

“It will be okay. The pack said if we stayed east, the road smooths out, no dead ground, nothing too ugly for a hundred miles.”

That sounded almost too good to be true. “They don’t mind us going through their territory?”

He shook his head. “No, I spoke with the Alpha. She said it was fine.”

Oh, how those words would come to haunt us.

Chapter Twenty

It took less than an hour to pack the caravan, and even with that short time, I was sure we were going to get hit hard with something else. What would it be this time? More zombies? The werewolves again? I cringed thinking of the options this world could offer in terms of terror.

We put the second bike into the back of one of the trucks. No point using it until we had to; wasting fuel was not something we needed.

There were nineteen in the caravan, and if we wanted to keep that number high, we had to get moving.

For the most part, everyone smiled at me as they passed, and a few even clapped me on the back, or reached out to shake my hand. They wanted me here. They even shook hands with Mac. They wanted us both. Now that Tristan was bound, all the hate talk about supernaturals had died down.

Richard checked the suspension on the truck with the majority of the people where the second bike was. “We need to space this out more. Let’s pull the bike down and get someone else to ride it.”

“Pamela will,” Mac said. A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth and he tipped his head in my direction.

Oka spluttered. “I’m sorry, I must’ve misunderstood you. Did you just say we were riding the second bike?”

Mac grinned at her. “I did. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.”

“No, I most certainly will not see. We’re not riding one of those death traps,” she insisted. The pickups fired up, and as the drivers gave them a bit of gas, waking them up, they were louder than normal, as if they had more energy than all of us combined. At least I knew the mixture was good.

Something occurred to me as I thought about that mixture and I hopped off Mac’s bike. That mixture was with a magic I really didn’t understand. For all I knew, too much heat would make things go boom.

I went to the window of the pickup and knocked. Richard rolled it down, eyebrows raised.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Take it easy at first. The mixture could feel rich to the truck. You don’t want to push them too hard and have us lose one or both of them blowing the engines.” He nodded in agreement and used an old CB radio to tell the other truck our plan. “Keep it around thirty-five to start. If the road looks good, we’ll move it up. We’ll still make better progress than we have before.”

Richard gave me a thumbs-up and I went back to the bike. Oka dug her claws deeper and deeper into my shoulder as she huddled down into my cloak.

“No. We’re not doing this. We’re not riding a motorcycle. You’ll die. And I can’t allow that,” she insisted.

Mac was laughing to himself. “Scaredy cat? I would not have guessed.”

“Shut up, you big fat teddy bear!” she yelled.

“Fat? Who you calling fat, fluffy bottom?” he threw back. I nearly laughed but thought better of it as Oka dug her claws deeper into me.

I lifted a hand and pressed it on her back. “Easy. We won’t go too fast.” The thing was, I was more peeved about not being able to question Tristan. I wasn’t sure I could get past the spell he had on him, but it would be worth trying.

“Oka, do you want to go with Richard? I’m sure he won’t mind.” I knew she wouldn’t. She was way too protective of me to let me ride a death trap, as she described it, by myself. “It would be a lot easier if you weren’t digging your claws into me like that though.”

“Have you ridden on a motorcycle before?” Mac asked me.

“No.”

He shrugged. “No problem. It’s not hard. The throttle is on the handle there, gear shift on your right foot, brakes are on both handles. We’re going slow, so you should be good. Like riding a pedal bike really. Just more power.”

“Should be? No. No way in hell. Get off this bike immediately, Pamela. I demand it.” Oka spoke like I was walking straight into the witch fire with my eyes closed.

I laughed out loud. She was all puffed up, and her fur tickled my neck. Her tail whipped back and forth, smacking me in the nose and eyes for good measure.

“Oka, calm yourself. It’s not like we’re going down into the Pit for the hell of it. We’re riding a bike. It’ll be fine. I bet you’ll even enjoy it. Like a ride on the back of a dragon.”

“Also, not on my to-do list,” she said.

Mac fired up his bike, and I followed suit. The bike responded beautifully, the engine purring.

I leaned it to one side and knocked the kickstand back, hoping Oka would relax a bit, but knowing I’d have to ignore those tiny little razor blades digging into my shoulder for the duration of the ride.

“Ready?” Mac asked.

“I am,” I said. “Not so sure about Oka.”

“Last chance to ride in the truck, fluff bottom,” he offered.

She dug her claws in even farther. “Mac, I will make you pay for this,” she said, but there was no heat to her words. Not really.

“I look forward to seeing what you got.” He grinned at her and she stuck her tongue out at him. What a pair they were!

I turned the throttle on the handle and shifted the bike into gear with my foot. It lurched forward, but there was no danger of Oka falling off. She’d basically become one with my shoulder. I knew she was drawing blood, but I wasn’t going to kick her off. I gritted my teeth against the pain and tried to focus on the bike. It lurched again when I shifted, but after that, it was smooth sailing, or as smooth as a newbie like me was going to get.

As long as we didn’t have to stop and start a lot, I’d be fine.

We drove like that for about twenty-five miles, covering the distance we’d normally cover in a day in less than an hour. Heading due east as much as we could, Richard drove the lead truck, and he kept us going right into the sun.

We rode, and the wind felt good on my face, and for a little while I was just a girl on a bike. Just a girl with no responsibilities, and no worries.

It didn’t last.

Around noon, the sky darkened. Mac and I on the bikes were ahead of the trucks and were forced to slow. I held up a hand stopping the trucks behind us.

“Shit, Mac, you see that?”

“Yeah, I do. Those fuckers, they wouldn’t dare,” he muttered as he got off the bike and went to inspect our newest obstacle.

Across the road as far as I could see south and north, there was a ditch that had been dug, deep and about ten feet wide. Just enough that the trucks couldn’t pass. The dirt was fresh enough that it was obvious the ditch was new.

My skin prickled, but my warning system said it was too late.

“What are those?” Oka stared with me at the strange things in the sky. I blinked and realized what they were, the shape familiar to me from all my reading.

“Arrows!” I yelled.

A hailstorm of arrows rained down on us from the sky.

“Take cover,” Mac shouted as he ran for the trucks. He grabbed me off the bike and dragged me with him.

Except there was nowhere safe to take cover. Thick evergreens flanked us on either side, and the arrows rained down from all directions.

We were trapped.

“Everyone out of the back of the trucks and get under them! Go! Now!” I ordered. Richard and the other drivers leapt out, directing the others while I searched for our attackers.

“Mac, you said ‘those fuckers,’ so do you know who it might be?” I turned to him. His face was grim. We were surrounded by thick trees; our attackers could be anywhere. I knew we shouldn’t linger but we didn’t have a choice.

I scooted across the ground to the Humvee as the arrows kept coming. I put my hands to it and sealed it shut. “Do not open the doors or window for anything!” I yelled. Richard nodded. Chris’s face was pale and the three kids … they stared at me. I gave them double thumbs-up and smiled. They mimicked me.

It was the best I could do for them.

Another wave of arrows rained down on us. One of them thunked into the leg of Marcia, one of the women. She screamed and clutched at her leg. Her screaming hit a high pitch and I stared as her body slowly stiffened. A patch of stone spread out from the tip of the arrow, turning the flesh from soft and malleable, to rock, spreading like a disease.

“Gargoyles,” I whispered the word.

“That was not what I was thinking,” Mac said. “We’re trapped.”

A sharp southerly blowing wind came up in our favor as it blew the worst of the arrows away from us. We stopped getting pincushioned, which was good because half the food stores and two other members of the group had been hit. I stood and checked the area as the wind whipped around us.

“Shove all the stone shit off the trucks, now!” I yelled. They scrambled to do as I said, and Mac helped them.

“We’re going to go south, the ditch can’t be that long,” I said. At least I was hoping that was the case.

I ran for the bike as I searched the skies. The gargoyles were not in view yet, but it wouldn’t be long. The arrows couldn’t have come from more than a hundred yards away.

Three years ago, I’d have them blown out of the sky in no time.

Now … well, now I wasn’t so sure how I was going to handle this.

Death is my touch; you should know that. Use this magic, Pamela. Embrace it.

There was that word again. Embrace. As in welcome that dark magic.

“No,” I growled as I turned to the south. There they were. Gargoyles individually were a pain, but they rarely came in such a large group. Just like the wolves. Our witch friend was using her entire arsenal.

I really hated her.

Anger made me rough as I yanked—not invited—the dark magic and held it in my hands. I needed wind. A big wind.

With a snarl, I forced the magic toward the stone creatures. It shoved against them, driving them away. Kinda. They were blown back maybe a hundred yards, but that was it. They were too strong.

I got the bike back up. “You fuckers are going to die.”

“Pam, what are you doing?” Oka yelled. She dug her claws into my shoulder again, but this time it was for an entirely different reason. The darkness was seeping between us again.

“Shit,” I snapped. “I need to use it, Oka, but it makes me crazy!”

“I know. What can we do?” Oka asked.

I squeezed my eyes shut for just a second before I popped them open, understanding what we had to do.

“They’re after the kids. Just like all the others.” It was a certainty I felt deep in my bones. “The witch knows I’ll be tired, but she doesn’t know how fucking pissed I am.”

I knew her game now—to drive us into the ground until we were defenseless. Then, take the children as easily as stealing candy from a baby.

“Not while I draw breath,” I promised as I kicked the bike into gear and whipped around to Richard’s truck.

“Pamela, we need to move!” he demanded, as one of the gargoyles swooped low and took aim.

The creature was gray with wings that looked too small to be keeping him aloft. His features seemed exaggerated, large nose, pointed chin, protruding cheeks, like he was a villain straight out of some comic book I read as a kid. I threw up my hand and let the black magic rip from me in a blast of power that sent him tumbling into the tree behind him, his wings cracking.

Instead of responding to Richard, I threw open the back door on the driver’s side and pulled Frost out of the seat belt. “Pammy?” he questioned.

“Frost, I need your help. We’re going to save everyone, together. You with me?” I asked him. Not exactly consent, but what else could I do? I needed the only bait the gargoyles would take if I was going to save this caravan.

Resolve hardened his three-year-old face, and it broke my heart. Either we’d save everyone, or I would sentence him to death.

I slammed the door shut and turned to Richard. His face was ghostly white.

“What are you doing?”

Chris screamed at me from the passenger’s side, but I ignored her. She scrambled to get out of the car, but Richard had the locks engaged, and she couldn’t get out.

“Goddamn it, Richard, let me out. She’s taking him. Just like I said she would,” she screamed again. Ruby and Lily began to cry. Frost, however, was calm as could be. As if he was committed to whatever my plan was. He trusted me, and that scared the shit out of me.

“Not what you think,” I said as I looked at Chris. “Frost and I will lead them away. They’re after the kids. Go. As fast as you can south until you can turn east. I will drive the opposite direction. We’ll meet back up when I can kill them all.”

I turned to Mac. “Stay with them. Protect them as best you can.”

“You are my charge, not them,” he said.

I nodded. “I don’t have time to argue, and I can’t be worried about blowing you into the sky while I’m trying to blow the gargoyles out.”

“How do you know it isn’t like the trolls?” he argued. “There could be a thousand of them!”

“Well,” I turned the bike and revved the engine. “I can’t save anyone from a thousand, so if that’s the case, then this hail Mary is worth it.”

“Goddamn it,” Mac snarled and turned the bike the other way. His anger came through the bond loud and clear, but I could do nothing about it, at the moment. My instincts were screaming at me to move.

“Ready?” I asked Frost.

He gave me a solemn nod as he clung to me. I tried to keep him stable between my arms as I gunned the motorcycle. “Hang on, kid.”

He turned to face me and wrapped his arms around my middle.

“Frost, this will be fun. Like a race,” I said as the bike peeled out and we shot forward. The wind snarled through my hair.

He nodded but buried his face in my chest. I glanced over my shoulder as I pushed the bike faster and faster. The trees on either side of us became a blur.

“What’s the plan?” Oka yelled in my ear over the wind whipping by our faces.

“Draw them away, then take them out.” Simple enough in theory. But how far was far enough? And did I have enough of the black magic in me to do it?

The ditch to our left was still going, but already I could see the end of it.

I glanced over my shoulder. An even dozen of the stone bastards closed in on us, swooping dangerously low below the tree line, and taking aim with their crossbows.

Time to fight.

“Hang on, kid.”

I whipped the bike around, and it wobbled before I righted it. Frost let out a muffled high-pitched shriek and held me tighter as my knee grazed the ground, tearing open my jeans. I ignored the sting of the road rash and gunned the bike toward the gargoyles. Arrows landed on either side of me in rapid succession as I plowed toward them.

Fear kissed at my heels. This was madness, nothing more, nothing less. I had no control over this magic I was cursed with, and I was depending on it to save the caravan again. And I’d put little Frost right in the line of fire to do it.

But I knew one thing. If I didn’t stop them here, Frost would die with the caravan.

I bit my lip, tasted blood and reached hard for the darkness in me. Let it seep into me in a way I hadn’t before. I let it come roaring to the surface of my skin and held it there with all the strength I had.

“What are you doing?” Oka yelled, this time not because it was windy. Genuine fear seeped through our connection, which worried me. I probably should have been afraid, but for just a moment, I felt as though my mentor was with me. Cheering me on to be bold. That fortune favored the bold.

That was enough to keep me steady, to hold back the worst of the fear, to give me a little belief that I could pull this off.

I needed to put myself between the caravan and the gargoyles. Then it would be safe to lay the bastards out. At least, that was my plan.

The three of us barreled under the gargoyles as they screeched, their roars the sound of rock grinding at a rapid pace as they fought to turn around and give chase again.

I glanced over my shoulder as the group of them swooped around and came after us.

“One more time, Frost, hang on.”

I whipped the bike around once more. Frost clung to me, his tears soaking my shirt, but I forced myself to ignore it.

If I was going to save them all, there had to be a cost.

I’d deal with any fallout later.

As I lifted my head to face them, five gargoyles led the way, out in front of the other seven. A perfect attack formation if I ever saw one.

I revved the engine as I called the power of all that was death and destruction to me. It felt as though lightning cut through me, slashing my insides as the power built.

The pain was intense, and my eyes narrowed as I struggled to breathe through it.

I had to do this.

“Oka, down between me and Frost,” I bit the words out. She slid down, and Frost gripped her as I wrapped an arm around him. The gargoyles were thirty feet away.

“Close enough, rock heads,” I snarled.

The one in the middle lifted his hand and the troop slowed their approach. That being said, they had their arrows ready in the crossbows. Not really comforting.

The commander in front opened his mouth wide, showing off teeth made of shimmering stone. “Give us the child, and we will make your death quick.”

He was fat with tiny horns on his head that looked underdeveloped and huge wings, likely in order to hold that fat rock body aloft.

“I’m going to say no to that, fat boy. You can suck on this.” I unleashed the darkness, having no idea what would happen when I did.

Like before, mist poured from my hands and raced toward the gargoyles, flooding around them so fast they were gone, as if swallowed by a black cloud. Lightning lit up the miniscule thunderstorm and booms echoed from within it.

I kept my hands up and the flashes of light showed me what was happening, as if in still pictures.

Gargoyle bodies torn apart, shattered, wrenched to pieces by the magic of my mother’s bloodline. Holy hell, it was nothing like the elemental magic, there was nothing of beauty about it, just … fuck, it was awful.

I sweated and shook as the magic drew my energy like a powerful siphon.

Frost clung to me with all his strength, as did Oka, and I soaked in their warmth as my own body cooled.

The gargoyles didn’t give up easily, even as the magic roared, slamming them into one another. Arrows shot out at us still, but they were all wild, shot as the gargoyles were torn apart.

In the end, it didn’t matter. One of the gargoyles smashed into a buddy of his and he broke into a thousand tiny shards of shrapnel that spun out in every direction. I curled around Oka and Frost, protecting them with my body.

Something grazed my shoulder, one of the rocks from the broken gargoyle.

I held my breath as I watched the power I’d called up shred them.

The sound and chaos were awesome and terrifying, but it wasn’t over until the last fat rock head was gone.

I counted down until there were none left that I could see. Oka looked up at me, her thoughts coming through loud and clear. “Pamela. End it. Frost is terrified.”

I nodded once and tried to pull the magic back.

It spun in a lazy loop and headed toward me. Us.

And I didn’t mean that magic was being obedient.

I pushed Oka off my lap. “Shift, take Frost and GO!”

She didn’t hesitate but did as I asked, shifting so fast there was nothing but a blur as she scooped Frost up onto her now-broad back. He clung to her as she raced away, her body a sleek missile through the forest.

I stood there and stared down my own magic as it swept toward me, as bloodthirsty as before.

“No, you are not in charge here!” I yelled, a mixture of fear and anger making the words shake.

You must embrace the darkness, Pamela. Only then will you understand.

“I will not! I am not that person!” I snapped as the magic swirled around me, tightening the circle until it brushed against my skin. Like burn marks, it hissed and crackled.

And then it rammed itself into me, swept me off my feet and threw me into the air. I couldn’t breathe. My eyes sought the sky and there was nothing but gray and black.

I hit the ground hard enough to knock what air I had left out of me. I lay there a moment, then pushed to my feet.

My body … hurt. Everywhere. Tears crept down my cheeks as I groaned, pushing first to my knees, then slower to my feet.

“Whatever you are, you’re a fucking asshole,” I whispered.

I am you.

Yeah, that was what I was afraid of. What if this was some sort of split personality? A side of me that would grow stronger until I couldn’t control it at all?

Sweet baby goddess, like I needed that added to my plate.

“I’ve had enough of this bullshit,” I whispered.

I sagged under the exhaustion of the day.

“Is it safe?”

I turned to see Oka creeping out from a chunk of trees. I nodded. She bounded back to me, Frost still on her back. He reached for me as they drew close and though I could barely lift him, I did, and he clung to me. That was all I needed to know the cost was worth it.

My shoulder ached where the rock had hit me, and I rolled it a bit as I pried Frost from me, so I could see into his eyes. “Hey, we’re safe. Everything is fine. Wasn’t that an adventure?”

“No. That was scary. I didn’t like all that dark stuff.” He looked up at me with those clear blue eyes, and I pulled him close, resting my chin on his head. Well, shit, talk about a perfect guilt trip I totally deserved.

“I’m sorry, Frost. I’m sorry I put you through that. But you know what?” I pulled him away again, so I could look down at him and wipe the tears from his cheeks. “You helped me save everyone.”

He smiled at that. A small one, but it was something.

“That’s a big deal. You’re a hero now,” I said, hoping I could build on that smile.

But instead, his smile fell, and the fear returned to his eyes. “What’s wrong with you?” he pointed to my shoulder.

“Just a bruise. It’s nothing.” I looked over to where he pointed. My cloak was torn, and the shoulder of my shirt was ripped away from the rock.

That wasn’t the shit part.

Beneath that tear, my skin was hard and gray. Stone.

Chapter Twenty-One

My shoulder had been hit by the chunk of gargoyle flesh and now my flesh was turning to stone. Just like the woman in the caravan.

And there was no one to help me counteract it, no witch. No mage. Nothing.

Well shit, there went the rest of my day.

I peeled off my cloak and got off the bike, setting Frost on the ground. “Stick close,” I said, and he gave me a solemn nod.

“Pamela, what can you do?” Oka asked, more than a little panic in her trembling voice.

“I don’t know. I can’t heal myself even if I had access to all my abilities. And this magic isn’t something I know how to fight.” I probed a finger over the shoulder. The stone now spread in both directions. “Even if we took my arm, it’s past that.”

I found myself just staring at the wound for a full twenty or thirty seconds, realizing what this meant. Stone. I was going to be turned into stone.

“Han Solo survived being stone, surely I can,” I quipped.

Frost and Oka both gave me a blank look and I shook my head. “Never mind.”

“We need to go back to the caravan. Now,” Oka said. “Mac will have some ideas. He’s older than both of us.”

She was right. I got back on the bike, put Frost in front of me again. “He’s not a mage, wizard, or witch.”

“Pamela, you need help and he’s all we’ve got,” she whispered. “I’m tied to your body as well as your soul; I feel the infection growing.”

“Well, that’s comforting.” I barely got my bad arm onto the handlebars. It was seizing up already.

I couldn’t argue with her, nor did I want to. She wasn’t wrong, but neither was I. I knew they wouldn’t be able to help.

I was, in short—screwed.

But maybe I’d saved the caravan. Maybe that witch would give up. Maybe I could make Richard enough fuel to get through the next hundred miles that was supposed to be clear.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

As we rode the short distance back to the caravan I thought about Raven. He was the only one who could help me, and right now he was as bound as I was. Just touching me had been enough to shock us both when he’d tried.

I tried not to think about what would happen when I was stone.

How it would feel. Or more accurately, how it wouldn’t. There would be no warmth, no kiss from Mac, no small bundle of Oka cuddled against me at night.

We sped north, and quickly came to the ditch again. With it on our right, we continued north until we found the place, a small bridge, where the caravan had crossed. I cranked the bike’s speed with my good hand, fear driving me. If nothing else, I had to get Oka and Frost back to the caravan before I … froze up.

“There!” Oka yelled.

The tail end of the caravan came into view as we rounded a corner in the road.

The group came to a slow stop. But it was Mac who came flying toward us, his face tight with fear. Of course, he was picking up on my fear.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked.

I showed him my shoulder, the wound having already doubled in size on the short journey.

“Well, that’s a fine pile of shit.” He shook his head. “Can you reverse it?”

I climbed off the bike and handed Frost off to Chris. She glared at me as she snatched the boy from me, and showered him in kisses, crushing him with her hug.

“I need help,” I said. “I can’t fix this.”

Everyone else was setting up camp, not realizing that I was being killed right in front of them. I knelt on the ground, holding my stone arm. It wasn’t spreading fast enough to make it a painless death, but it was going to kill me within the next few hours. Slower than a human taking an arrow—I suppose that was an upside to being a witch. If a slow, painful death could be looked at as an upside.

The weight of the arm pulled me down and the pain with it was strange, throbbing as if it were sucking on my heart.

Oka watched me with deep concern in her eyes and a fear that bounced to me even though I knew she was trying to hold it back. Mac knelt in front of me, lifted a hand and brushed it against my cheek. No words, but I could feel the sorrow flowing from them. They knew I was dying.

Oka looked at Mac. “You have to know a way to save her. You’ve been a familiar before. What can we do?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Cat, it isn’t that easy.”

Richard strode toward us, interrupting my two familiars. “Pamela, are you injured?”

“Listen, Dick, you’ll need a new tutelary. I have no idea where to tell you to search. If I did, I’d be calling her to fix my damned arm.” A dry cough escaped me as my lungs began to seize. Yeah, this was going to get ugly fast. “I’m sorry. We know that someone is after the kids, a witch. This was a series of calculated attacks to take me out. And it worked. Keep them safe. Go underground. Whatever you have to do until whoever’s behind this stops targeting you.” He knelt in front of me, and I clutched his shoulder with my good arm. “Oka and Mac will stay with you until you find someone new.”

Richard grabbed my shoulder, mimicking me, and we held each other up like that for a bit. “Pamela, is there nothing at all we can do?”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I failed you.”

He frowned and shook his head. “You’ve kept us going this far. We all owe you our lives. I wish there was something we could do to help.”

I laughed, but there was a bitterness in it that stole any joy from the moment. “Me too, Dick. Me too.”

Oka got in between us, a sense of determination rolling from her into me. “Enough. This ends now.”

“I believe you’re right, little cat. I’m sorry I couldn’t be with you longer, but I love you, and I thank you for—” I stopped talking when I noticed she was doing something strange. She’d closed her eyes and curled up into my lap. Her breath came in deep, even waves, and I reached for her automatically with my right hand. The one turning to stone. But my hand wasn’t stone anymore. I looked at it, flexing my fingers, opening and closing my fist. I turned my hand over and noticed the flesh was restored up my wrist, and beyond.

“It’s what she was willing to do, to save you,” Mac said.

“No,” I whispered as I scooped Oka up. But she was already stiff, her tiny body taking it on far faster than my larger one. Her body maintained its shape as her ears began to turn to stone. Her little nose turned gray. “No,” I screamed as my heart tore itself apart. I hugged her close to me as her fur turned hard and cold against my skin. I curled myself around her, falling to the ground. Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, and I didn’t even fight it. I had nothing left to fight for.

Half of my soul had been turned to stone.

Chapter Twenty-Two

I woke slowly in the tent, hovering in that space between wakefulness and sleep for several minutes. The caravan was quiet in the early hours of the morning. In that emptiness, the dream came back to me in full force. The gargoyles. The wound. The stone. Oka. Everything. Only it wasn’t a dream. That had happened. Oka was gone and there wasn’t a fucking thing I could do about it.

There was a heavy arm across my middle and my connection to Mac was stronger than ever as he slept behind me. Holding me as Oka had always done in her own way.

My eyes felt as though they had lead weights on them. As if the burden of what had happened kept them closed. If I opened them it would make Oka’s death true. As long as I kept them closed, I wouldn’t have to face the fact that she wasn’t here.

It had to have been a dream. A terrible, terrible dream. When I opened my eyes, Oka would be there, ready to face our day together. I wouldn’t be alone.

“You’re a terrible fake sleeper.” Mac’s voice intruded on my denial, and I squeezed my eyes shut even harder, clutching the hard, tiny rock that was now Oka in front of me. Mac’s other arm slid under my neck and he spooned me, our clothes and blankets between us. But he was still warm. Still something that was not the cold, rough stone that was my little cat.

“Oka,” I breathed, as I could no longer fight the instinct to see. But I regretted it the second I saw her. My little cat. My familiar. Nothing more than a stone statue, curled up, sleeping eternally as though a silly garden decoration. Tears flowed freely from my eyes as I held her close.

“I’m sorry, I … she asked me what she could do, and I told her that she could take on your wounds as her own,” Mac said. I didn’t have it in me to be angry with him.

“If you hadn’t told her,” I hiccupped. “She would have figured it out for herself. She’s my heart …” I couldn’t say anything more. I couldn’t bring myself to speak about her in the past tense.

Mac said nothing, just held me tighter, and I let him, leaning into his strength. Not because I wasn’t strong, but because I hurt so badly. I might be alive, but the wound in me now was as horrible as the wound to my shoulder had been.

“She may not be dead,” Mac said, his words careful. “I don’t know how being turned to stone works, but there is a chance she is still alive.”

I nodded, my grief literally choking the life from me. “How?”

“Your connection to her should still be intact, but she’ll feel like she’s a long way away, I think.” He was careful about his word choice and kept his tone light. Hopeful.

The thought hadn’t even occurred to me that she could still be alive. Could she still be in the stone?

I laid my hand flat on her stone back and searched for her, reaching for that connection that I’d taken for granted the last three years. Desperation drove me, more so even than when I’d searched for Raven. She had to be there. Mac had given me a hope and I wanted to believe him.

For a split second, I thought I heard her voice, but it was there and gone so fast I wasn’t sure I wasn’t fooling myself. I let out a frustrated breath.

“I don’t know,” I finally answered. “I thought for a minute, but then she was gone.”

Mac sighed. “It’s never easy to lose a familiar, any more than we want to lose our charges. Doesn’t matter how often it happens.”

I rolled, burying my face into the crook of his neck as I sobbed. His arms were all that held me together, that and his quiet voice as he spoke softly to me. The words meant nothing, but he was doing his best to soothe me, and it worked a little. I wasn’t completely alone. I still had Mac.

I cried until my tears dried, not because there was no sorrow left, but because my body couldn’t give me any more. My eyes were hot and hurt, the lids swollen.

His body was warm and strong against my broken one. As much as I was used to my aimless, lonely existence, it felt good to be held and let someone else keep the shit together for a few minutes.

A head pushed into the tent, and Richard’s bearded face appeared.

“Pamela? We’ve cleared some space in the back of the truck for you. If you want to ride for a bit. We should keep moving,” he said.

He was right. Survival in this world meant you kept moving. One foot in front of the other no matter what happened. Until the absolute worst happened, and you died, and there was no need to do it anymore.

I looked up at him and made myself nod. “I’m not leaving her.” I knew that dead weight wasn’t acceptable in the trucks, but there was no way I was leaving her behind. I’d walk and carry her if I had to.

Richard’s eyes went to Oka, laying between me and Mac.

Mac came to the rescue, though. “I’ll help you get settled. Both of you.”

Richard nodded, and I burrowed deep into Mac’s chest again as I clung to Oka. He smelled of grass, and fire. He sat up and easily scooped me into his arms, my body still recovering from the battle with the gargoyles, Oka on my lap. He carried the two of us toward the truck.

There were others in the back of the truck, and they looked away from me. I didn’t blame them, I probably looked like shit with my puffy eyes and red blotchy face. There was no hiding that I’d been crying. I slid down with my back against the box rail of the truck.

I made myself keep my eyes open. Because even though Oka was gone, I was still here. The caravan was still here. I could almost hear her chastising me for not paying attention. What if we stumbled on another patch of dead ground and I was too out of it to notice? I’d be no better at helping than Sage at that point.

“Keep your eyes peeled,” I said to the people in the truck bed with me. “The ones coming after the kids believe I’m dead now.”

Mac jumped into the back of the truck and sat next to me, his arm curling over my shoulders. “You should sleep more. After this.” He shoved a granola bar into my hands.

I opened my mouth to respond but changed my mind and ripped open the granola bar. Stale, it was hardly gourmet, but I ate it anyway, struggling to get it down my grief-choked throat.

“She did what was needed, not just because she loved you, but because she understands her role as your familiar. She—and I—will always put our lives on the line for you first. You need to accept that.” Mac’s voice was loud, and it took me a moment to realize he was speaking directly to my mind.

“That isn’t helping right now. I can’t think about losing you too.”

“That is my job. You need protectors. Even if Faris sent me, I’m staying now because it’s where I belong. Where I am needed the most.” He kissed the side of my head and once more I leaned into him.

That one word was such a perfect answer. Need … it was the reason I did most everything. Because I saw a need. It was the reason I was with this caravan, helping Richard, helping Chris and the kids. And it was the reason Oka had been turned to stone. Because there was a need to keep me alive, so I could keep more people alive.

I closed my eyes and for a few hours the real word faded, giving my aching heart the respite it so desperately needed.

I would do what was needed, no matter the cost. Oka’s sacrifice deserved that.

Even if it meant embracing the darkness.

*_*_*

The sun was warm on my face when I woke, but the golden color on the other side of my eyelids told me it was late in the day. Mac still held me curled tightly against his side. He had to be getting stiff.

Shit, Oka would have had a field day with that one.

I straightened and sat up reluctantly, holding on to Oka as tightly as ever.

“Morning, lovely witch,” he said. I looked around. The humans had dispersed. He saw me looking.

“We’ve slowed again, running low on fuel so most are walking.” He answered my unspoken question. “We’re at the back and the walkers are keeping between the lead truck and the Humvee.”

I nodded, unsure of my voice, so I cleared my throat, needing to take my thoughts away from Oka for a little while. “So, talk to me. Help me understand you a bit more. Who are you, Macmahon?”

“Well, that’s a loaded question isn’t it? Who are you, Pamela?” he parried with a light teasing tone.

“I don’t know.” It had never been truer than in that moment, without Oka sitting on my shoulder. I thought I had no tears left, but I was wrong. A single, silent drop escaped and fell beside me onto the truck bed.

“I don’t know about that,” he said, as he wiped away the track the tear left on my face with his thumb. “You’re damned powerful. Sexy. Smart-mouthed.” He thought for a moment. “You know what you are? You’re an ally. Someone anyone with half a brain would want at their back. Or maybe even their front.” He winked at me and if not for my grief, I knew I would have blushed. I managed a smile, weak, but there.

“No, I meant, where did you come from?”

“Oh. Well, we lived north. Way north. In the frozen tundra of Canada, deep in the Northwest Territories. Now, there isn’t much left up there, scattered as it is. I took to wandering after the Rending.”

“What happened to your family?”

He looked away, his eyes fogging with an old pain. “To be honest, I’m not sure. I woke up alone when the shaking finally stopped. My elemental master had been killed, and I was free.”

I frowned. “Did you … look for your family?” I asked softly.

He nodded, and his fingers slid up and down my bare arm. “I did, actually. For a long time. Maybe I never stopped. But, in all likelihood they were killed, and I was spared. No rhyme or reason to it.”

I tried to imagine him in a family setting but couldn’t quite picture it. “How many of them were there?”

“Just my mother, who was old, and my three siblings. Two brothers and a sister. We took care of Mom. She had us all late in life. I was the classic middle child. She didn’t like that we took care of her, you know? She was always trying to do things for herself. One time, I caught her climbing into the attic, after some photo albums or something. You know what she used for a ladder? One of those office chairs that spins. She was all wobbly and reaching over her head as the chair went sideways when I found her.

“I about had her hide. Then she had mine for yelling at her. She said she was the Alpha of our family still, and no one told her what she could and couldn’t do. Boy, was that right on the money.” He smiled sadly at the memory. “That was before …” He trailed off, and I picked up on what he hadn’t said. All before he was a slave to the elemental. Before he’d been a familiar.

“Sounds like a woman I would have liked.” I squeezed one of his hands and he laced our fingers together. That was … nice.

“Yes.” He looked at me with those blue eyes, as if he could see my broken soul. “I believe you would’ve. And I think she would’ve liked you.”

For just a heartbeat, I thought he would lean in and kiss me, but he looked away. “Damn it, you make it hard to think straight. I’m supposed to be looking out for you and I’m staring at your mouth like a starving man eyes a buffet.”

I groaned softly. “Don’t talk about an all you can eat place. They were my favorite.”

“Pasta bar with garlic bread and Caesar salads,” he said.

I grimaced. “No way, Chinese buffet with deep fried everything, all the way.”

“Oh, yeah. Talk foody to me,” he whispered right in my ear.

I laughed, and it shocked me. I swallowed it and he turned his face to me. “I know it’s too soon, but it will be okay. You’ll find your way back from the grief. Maybe over a large cheesecake covered in chocolate sauce and fresh strawberries.”

I put my head on his shoulder. “That sounds really good right now. Think you can make me one?”

“Not that kind of familiar.” He laughed. I didn’t laugh with him, but I did smile.

He was right. Too soon for just rolling with the punches, but I knew Oka would not want me to wallow. I had a job to do.

She would not want me to let the caravan down, to let the kids down.

They needed me still.

The truck came to an abrupt halt, and Mac and I slid sideways. I clutched Oka to me, terrified that a single bump would shatter the stone. Any chance I would have to bring her back meant I had to keep her intact now.

Richard hopped out of the Humvee ahead of us and cupped his hands to his mouth. “All right, everyone. Time to make camp.”

He glanced our way. I didn’t miss the way he looked at me, eyes filled with concern, not only for me but for his troupe of people. Could I keep them safe? The questions so plain on his face, he was like an open book.

I gave him a nod. I was still here. I was still with them.

Mac stood and held out a hand to me.

He crouched and tapped Oka on top of her head. “Bring her with you. No one expects you to leave her behind. It’ll be painless. I promise. I mean other than thinking about a Chinese buffet while we eat questionable canned goods and old rice.”

“You can’t make that promise to me.” I looked down at my little stone cat. “It could be dog food in those cans.”

What we were both avoiding was the obvious fact that taking Oka with me, as much as it was understandable, would weird the humans out.

He wiggled his fingers at me, beckoning me to stand. “I know, dog food is the worst. But all the people out there have had loss in their lives. I think they’ll understand. This is your tribe. Your pack, if you will.”

My pack.

That single word resonated through me and I embraced it far easier than I’d been able to embrace the word caravan, or tribe. A pack I understood.

There was a hierarchy, and everyone looked out for everyone.

Finally, I looked at him and found that damn charm-filled smile looking back at me. More than that, I felt him in my head. He knew the second I decided to go to the fire, before I said anything.

“Good, I didn’t want to drag you out there kicking and screaming,” he said.

“Fuck you,” I said with absolutely no heart behind it.

“Give me time.” He winked as he pulled me up to my feet, and out to greet my pack.

Chapter Twenty-Three

The group ate dinner around a large central fire, huddled against the dark of the night.

I sat with Oka in my lap because I wasn’t used to not feeling her weight on me in some capacity. Her stone figure didn’t fit on my shoulder. So, my lap it was.

It was a fight not to keep reaching for the bond between us, and I finally gave up and just let myself do it. I kept calling to her in my mind, kept a hand on her back and ate carefully with the other. Maybe if I kept up a running commentary to her, she’d hear me and be able to answer.

Oka, you won’t believe it. Tristan is still unconscious, we can’t wake him up so no getting information from him. Whatever spell is on him is heavy, and one I don’t recognize. Then there’s Chris. She’s watching me like I’m a fucking snake ready to swallow one of the kids whole. I know she doesn’t trust me now after using Frost as bait. But what else could I have done? He would have died for sure if I’d tried to fight the gargoyles with the caravan there to be used as bait. There was no other option. But it hurts more than I want to admit, you know? Oka, talk to me. Please. Talk to me.

“Do you agree, Pamela?” Richard asked, snapping me out of my one-sided conversation.

I stared hard at him but couldn’t recall what he’d been talking about. “What?”

He smiled, kindly. “I think our best bet is to continue north for the next few days. Mac pointed out as did you that we are being driven south, so going north would be the best bet before we head east again, toward the Haven.”

The plan was a fine one. I managed a smile. “Sounds good. Sensible,” I said.

“How do you know it’s good and sensible when you’ve not even been listening?” Chris said, her tone sharp. The three kids were sleeping in the Humvee and she sat next to Richard.

“Christiane,” Richard said her name with only a small amount of rebuke.

There was no way she understood about familiars, but anyone with eyes could see I was upset. Besides, Oka had shown her true colors as she’d fought to protect them all as a tiger, so they knew she was special. Never mind that she had given up her life for mine.

Chris gave him tired, angry eyes. “We’re trying to survive here and she’s crying over a cat. We lost people, and she’s torn up over a ten-dollar animal.”

Carefully, I set Oka on the ground near my feet and stood, my cloak billowing out behind me, caught in a well-timed breeze. Chris shrank away from me, but I didn’t care. A line was crossed. And she was on the wrong side of it.

“That cat kept herself alive. She fought for this caravan multiple times, if you recall. And in the end, she gave her life for me. I would be dead right now if it wasn’t for her. If it wasn’t for her, you’d be without your protector. You’d be like fish in a goddamned barrel right now.”

The darkness inside me laughed.

Kill them, and you would be free of the responsibility. The other witch would stop chasing you.

For a split second that thought ruled my mind. My magic crackled along my fingertips, and I twitched, itching to let it loose. If it weren’t for them, Oka would still be here. She wouldn’t have had to offer her life for mine.

Yes, they are the cause of the pain.

We’d never have been in contact with those damned gargoyles.

Embrace me, Pamela.

Mac laid a hand on my arm, and a sense of calm cut through the words in my mind. I whirled around, wild-eyed and breathing hard, the rage flowing through me with every beat of my heart.

His eyes locked with mine and I slowly came down from the anger.

“Pamela, she meant nothing by it. She doesn’t understand, you know that.”

He was right, and he was wrong. The rage slowed, and grief filled its place. My jaw trembled as I spoke.

“She meant everything by it. Oka’s life cannot be demeaned that way. Oka saved every last one of them more than once. And she’d just cast her aside. Does that mean because at some point you, Chris,” I turned to face her, “when you have a new baby and can’t do much but take care of him or her, we should cast you aside?”

Not fair, maybe, but she’d struck a chord with me that I couldn’t get past.

Chris held her chin high. “That’s different. A child’s life is worth fighting for.”

I nodded. “Exactly, and that is exactly what Oka did. She fought for those three kids, and for your unborn child more than she fought for anyone else here.”

Richard put a hand on Chris’s thigh. “I know you’re afraid. We all are. But we chose to see the children to the Haven. We all did, knowing that there would be dangers along the way we couldn’t foresee.”

Chris shook her head as she pushed to her feet. “Goodnight.”

I watched her go and slowly lowered to my own seat again. The rest of the group was silent, and I knew I had to say something. “I will continue to protect this group, my new pack, with my life if I must. I will die for you if it is called of me. But do not begrudge me the grief from losing my best friend. Please.”

There was continued silence and then one at a time, they came to me. Nathanda was first. She hugged me around my shoulders and whispered in my ear. “We know. Your cat was amazing. What I wouldn’t give to see her chasing the archies again.”

One at a time, they came to me, touched my shoulder or dared a hug, giving me words of comfort. Caring for me, as I fought to keep them alive. I had to bite my lower lip to keep from crying in big ugly sobs.

I’d forgotten what it was to have more than one person give a shit about me, to have them love me, even just a little.

When they’d all gone to their respective tents, it was just me, Richard, and Mac.

“Pamela, I do think we should talk about something you mentioned to me earlier,” Richard said.

I didn’t say anything as I lifted Oka back onto my lap. Mac put a hand against the small of my back, warm and solid. I looked at him and let my own emotions run through the bond to him. Gratitude. If I didn’t have him here, I knew I could hold up, but surely not as well.

Richard stood and moved to sit closer to me. “You really think another witch is organizing the attacks on our group? That they are targeting you, in order to leave us vulnerable?”

I nodded. “Yes, I believe so. The spell on Tristan is not one I can crack, but it reeks of a powerful witch.”

“For the children,” he said softly, with a shake of his head. “I understand that, but why us? There are caravans all over this broken world. Surely more have children than just us? I cannot believe they are the last children in the world.”

He made good points, and I forced myself to consider what possibilities lay in front of us.

“I’m not sure, Richard. Whoever it is, I’d lay money they are attacking more than just us. Maybe it’s proximity. We’re here and we crossed their path in some cruel twist of fate. But the kids are Immune, and we know that makes them alternately valuable and dangerous.” I said the words but didn’t fully believe them. Call it a hunch, but whoever was chasing us wasn’t just chasing the kids anymore, I was almost sure of it. I glanced at Mac and he gave me a slow nod.

“Agreed,” he said.

Richard looked from me to Mac and back again. “Did I miss something?”

Mac leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his face lit on one side from the fire. “Pamela is an exceptionally strong witch. Her power—if another witch could capture her—would be a way to control even more of the world.”

My blood ran cold. “So now I’m bringing danger here?”

Mac shook his head. “Even if you left now, they wouldn’t stop coming for the kids. You’re better off to stay here and fight on a single front. In my opinion.”

Richard sat up, dragging his hand over his mouth, and down through his beard. “This is a problem, but I agree. We can’t separate, not now.”

I wondered what Oka would say about all this. Probably that we should keep moving and get out of range. I could sneak away, but even as I thought it, I rejected the idea. No, that wasn’t me.

When it came down to the crux of the situation, I would not let the witch and her cronies have any of my pack. No, that wouldn’t happen. Time to dig deep, set my grief aside and put on my big girl panties. The caravan—my pack—needed me to be strong.

“Pamela, I see the change in your eyes. What have you decided?” Richard asked, his voice a bit quieter, approaching me with caution.

“I agree with both of you. We need to keep moving and if we can, find more protectors. That would be ideal. I can’t do it all, no one witch could.” Even if she wasn’t terrified of her own power.

Mac grunted. “That shifter pack … they aren’t far from here. Maybe we could hire them?”

I let the question hang in the air for more than a few beats, thinking. “What do we offer them?”

“The same thing we want from them. Safety, food, friendships. They might go for it,” Mac said.

Richard rubbed his hands over his face. “You think more shifters would be a good idea?”

Mac answered for both of us. “They’re strong, and hard to kill. They don’t need as much sleep. They could act as both protectors and providers seeing as they can hunt in their animal forms.”

The idea was solid, and in theory, was good. Almost too good to be true.

“Can you lead us to them?” Richard asked.

Mac blew out a breath. “Yeah, I can. But … I have no idea how this will go. They could turn us down.”

“Or attack us,” I pointed out.

Mac looked at me. “True, but I know them. They won’t attack me.”

“Lucky for you,” I said, my voice dry. “What about the rest of us?”

“Probably not?” he said.

I snorted and even Richard laughed. “Not exactly comforting,” I said.

“The others will be scared,” Richard said. “Many of them have been attacked by shifters at one point or another. The fact that they’ve taken to Mac so well is a good sign but … they have reason to be afraid.”

He was right. And he was wrong. I picked at my food. “No one in this camp has the luxury of letting fear rule their actions any longer. We live in a frightening world. You need as many allies as you can get. Even if they are supernaturals. Even if they are shifters.”

“I am with you on that. It will be getting the rest of them to trust us,” Richard said. “For my part, you’ve demonstrated yourself time and time again to this group. I will do what I can to get them to see the value in more protectors. I trust your judgment.”

I nodded and looked at him. “Thank you.”

Richard stood and stretched. “I’ll leave you two to the fire. We have three sentries on watch now. They will rotate with three more before morning. Try to get some rest.” He dropped a hand on my shoulder and then it was just me and Mac.

And Oka.

I kept a hand on her and tried once more to reach her spirit trapped in the stone. Nothing, there was nothing, not even a flicker of her soul. She weighed heavily on my lap in more than one sense. “Do you really think we can fix this?”

Mac reached out and touched the tip of one of her ears. “I don’t know. But we certainly won’t turn our backs on her. We won’t stop trying to bring her back.”

He smiled then. “Anyway, she’s smaller than you are. Easier to transport. You, if you’d been turned to stone. I would’ve left right where you sat.” He winked at me, and I shook my head.

“Smart ass.”

“Smart bear,” he corrected me and then slung an arm over my shoulders. Better, I felt better.

Maybe this was why Faris sent Mac to me. Could he have somehow seen, or suspected that I would lose Oka, that I would need another familiar so soon?

I bent my head to her back and the tears started up again, running in tiny rivers over her stone body.

In the depths of my heart, I wondered if I would ever be whole again.

I’d spent my entire life as part of a whole. Oka had been the one to show me what whole was, and I didn’t know how to go back.

Mac’s hand swept up to my neck. “I’ll help you find your way again, Pam. That’s what I’m here for.”

I sat up and looked at him, really looked at him. Solid, strong, dependable, all the things I needed. I leaned over and kissed him. “I’m counting on it.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

The night passed in peace and quiet. Before we went to bed, I wrestled with my fucking magic and fueled all the trucks and the two bikes again. Just in case. Even that small amount left me wrung out, bruises blooming all over my arms and legs. I looked like I’d been beaten with a stick.

Repeatedly.

I suspected it was just one price of using my mother’s magic.

After that, I slept until the morning sun cut across my face, waking me. Mac had his back to me and I was curled close to him, enjoying his warmth. Even under the open stars, I was far from cold. He all but radiated heat like a furnace.

Already the sounds of the caravan packing broke through the sounds of birds singing. I yawned and stretched.

Mac flicked a hand back and swatted at me, his voice slurred. “Five more minutes.”

I pushed his hand back and grabbed at my boots, yanking them on. Oka was, of course, still stone, curled tightly beside me. I put a hand to her. “You’d be glad to be stone today, I’m riding the bike again.”

I pushed to my feet and scooped her into my arms.

I took her to Richard. “Can she ride with you in the Humvee? There’s still a chance we could find a way to reverse this, and I don’t want to risk breaking her.”

He took Oka and put her on the middle seat, beside him. “You got it. You and Mac going to lead on the bikes?”

“That’s the plan. He’ll take us to the shifters, and we’ll go from there. Fingers crossed they aren’t total assholes.”

Richard grunted a laugh. “If we are banking on fingers crossed, I think we might be in trouble.”

I smiled, not a big one, but still a smile. “You have a point.”

I made my way back to Mac and the two bikes.

“You okay?” he asked. I shook my head and then shrugged. Mac nodded and drew me close to him, pressing our foreheads together. “I know. Trust me, I know.”

I believed him. If he was a trained familiar, then he’d lost at least one charge. The bonds between familiars and their charges was like nothing else in this world.

How much harder would it be if I fell for Mac, and then lost him too? The horror of it cut through me and he held me closer.

“I’m not going anywhere. You’ve got me, Pamela. Hook, line, and sinker.”

“That sounds terrible,” I said.

“Nah, it’s only bad if you try to take the hook out sideways.” He winked, and I rolled my eyes at the bad joke.

“Let’s go find your friends.” I took a step back and grabbed the handle of my bike.

I took a deep breath as I mounted, then fired it up. Mac followed suit, as did the trucks. Richard nodded once to me as we took the lead, followed by the three trucks.

Mac led us straight east. We weren’t going too fast, so he shouted across to me. “The shifters’ range is pretty big, but there’s a few places I know they have members of their pack hang out as checkpoints. We’ll head for the closest one.”

I managed to give him a thumbs-up.

We drove in peace, making our way north and east for about three hours. The sun was high in the sky when Mac lifted his hand and brought the caravan to a slow stop.

Ahead of us was a wooden bridge, barely wide enough for the trucks to cross. The ditch to either side of it was steep and too deep for the trucks to go through without getting stuck. But at least it wasn’t a freshly dug ditch.

Mac shot me a grin, picking up on my thoughts. “No shit, right?”

Richard strode up beside me. “What’s going on?”

I pointed at Mac. “That’s his department.”

“This is one of their haunts,” he said. “We might have to wait a bit to see if any of them come by. The process could be slow, you understand? By the time they get the message back to their Alpha, and then she comes here, we could be two days sitting still.”

Two days. My skin twitched just thinking about how we’d be sitting ducks for that period of time.

“We wait then,” Richard said before I could voice my concern. “Looks a bit like a bridge you’d find a troll under, doesn’t it? Straight out of what was that story? The one about the goats?”

“Yeah, I know the one you mean. Good catch, Dick.” I eyed the bridge, and he wasn’t wrong. A shadow cast under it, and I thought I saw movement, but I blinked, and it was gone. “Maybe we don’t have to wait as long as we thought.”

I pointed for Richard and the caravan to wait.

“Let’s go,” I said to Mac, hoping I was just being paranoid.

He started forward with the bike, and I stopped him at the last second, feeling something, I couldn’t identify. Something that told me to proceed with care. “Mac, I think we should leave the bikes. I’m not sure they are going to be as friendly as we hoped.”

We both propped our bikes on their kickstands and started forward on foot.

I wished I had my elemental magic at hand. Again.

We walked ahead slowly, but purposefully. I held my hands loose at my sides, ready to defend us if needed. My fingers brushed against the handles of my blades, a comforting weight against my hips. I resisted the urge to get one of them out.

Mac took a deep breath. “Yeah, someone is there. Let me talk first.”

I wanted to caution him, and did so through our bond, but he didn’t slow down. He walked right up to the bridge and stood on top of it.

“Pack of Crimson, I would like to have a chat about a business arrangement.” He bounced on the bridge a bit, and it didn’t move even if the wood creaked. From under the bridge came the chittering of animals of every sort and it was followed by a flood of creatures.

Birds, cougars, bears, even a badger and a wolverine. No wolves.

One by one they shifted to their human forms and stood in front of me. It was the largest, mish-mashed pack of shifters I’d ever seen. One woman stood out front, her eyes flashing, and her body lean with muscle. The other shifters stayed a step behind her.

The Alpha. She had to be. She stood tall with long, straight blond hair. She was slim, but far from scrawny. Her biceps were a testament to that. And I was sure her legs were just as muscular, hidden underneath a pair of bulky cargo pants. “Macmahon. It’s good to see you again,” she said. Her eyes went to Mac as he strolled off the bridge, cool as a cucumber salad.

“Crimson. We are looking to hire a pack of shifters as protectors for a caravan,” he said. Talk about cutting to the chase.

He moved until he was at my side and he put an arm over my shoulders. Claiming me.

I fought not to roll my eyes, because I knew how this worked. Shifter packs were all about hierarchy, and this one would be no different.

She arched an eyebrow. “Well, that’s a pity, isn’t it? Seeing as I have orders to kill that witch,” she pointed at me, “on sight.”

Mac let out a low growl. “Crimson, I will tear your head from your shoulders before you lay a hand on her.”

But I had a leg up—I knew pack rules. My ace in the hole was that I was ready to do whatever I had to do to get my pack safe.

I took a step forward and put an arm out to block Mac.

“Crimson, you want to kill me? You want to kill my pack?”

She smiled. “Yes, to both, little girl.”

I laughed at her. “So full of your shit, it’s coming out your mouth. I know the rules of packs. I’m the Alpha female here. I challenge you. Whoever wins takes control of both packs.”

Richard would never agree to a deal like that.

Behind me, Mac let out a growl. “Fuck.” I kept my eyes on the woman in front of me.

“No magic then, witch,” Crimson said.

I inclined my head a fraction of an inch. “Fine. No shifting.”

“Agreed.” I turned to Richard and gave him a wave. I had this under control. As well as I could, anyway. He left the truck running, which was probably a good idea.

Fuck, this was a bad idea.

Crimson pointed to the ditch. “That is where we will fight.”

Like an arena.

Did I already say this was a bad idea? Yeah, it was a bad, bad idea. But it was the best chance we had at gaining the allies we needed.

Need, it all came down to need and what I was willing to do to fill that need.

Eyes watched me from all sides as the pack surrounded me, cutting off any escape I might have had in mind. I hopped down into the ditch, Mac behind me.

They sat on the edges of the ditch, filling the gap between, and created a bit of a rectangle. An arena indeed.

Mac stood closest to us. I looked at him. “You the ref?”

His face was grim, and through the bond his concern was barely kept from me.

“On your toes, Pamela. Don’t trust her for a minute. She will win at all costs,” Mac said.

“Quiet, you,” Crimson said.

He let out a snarl. “You aren’t my Alpha. And if Pamela somehow loses here, you’ll face me next.”

The crowd of shifters oohed and aahed. Crimson laughed. “You? Become an Alpha? The wandering bear who has no roots? I think not.”

I wanted to ask what that meant exactly after his story about his family, but she pulled out some interesting weapons that caught my attention and stilled my questions.

From behind her she drew a long, leather whip with metal spikes at the end, and out of her pocket at the base of her leg, a handful of throwing stars. Actual throwing stars. They gleamed in the sun as she turned one of them over in her hand.

Well, shit. Both of my weapons were short range, and here this woman was with two long-range weapons. She could take me out right where I stood before I could even get in close enough to even nick her.

No, I couldn’t think like that. I only had to get in close and from there, the bitch would be mine. It would be a cakewalk.

Right. Bravado was not really my forte.

“You ready, witch?” She grinned at me as she dropped to a crouch.

I nodded, and she cracked the whip at her side, sending an echo through the ditch. A group of archies hidden in the bushes above us took to the sky and I thought of Oka. She would’ve been handy to have around at that moment. My tiger would’ve made short work of that cocky Alpha.

But then, that would have broken the rules.

Mac nodded to us both, a burst of energy flowing from him to me through our bond. I blocked it and his mouth tightened. I wouldn’t forfeit this for anything. He nodded at me again. “Begin!”

Crimson wasted no time. She snapped her whip forward and grabbed me around the ankle, pulling me off my feet. I hit the ground hard on the flat of my back and the wind whooshed out of me. Her other arm snapped back and the stars glimmered in the air.

Shit. Fuck. Damn.

They came at me fast. I deflected the first two with my blades, knocking them away and rolled to avoid the third. It hit right where the middle of my forehead had been a split second before. I shot forward, my blade aimed for the leather whip still wrapped around my leg.

She flicked her wrist and it unlatched from me before I could cut it off.

I brushed myself off as I stood. My leg was bleeding, and the cuts stung like motherfucking poison darts. “You done being a peacock?”

She raised a single eyebrow and altered her stance a bit, widening her legs and holding her last two stars in her left hand.

“Fine. Let’s see what you’ve got,” she said. “Show me how tough you are, little witch.”

I already had my blades in hand and held them tightly as I matched her stance.

Get in close. That was my goal. I took off running, my cloak billowing out behind me as I went, creating a wide circle. She unleashed a star at me but ended up missing me by quite a bit. The spectators parted as the star flashed between them. Her eyes flicked as she turned with me.

“Quick on your feet, good. I like to play with my food,” she growled.

Well, that was a comforting thought.

I ran the inside of the rectangle the pack had created, working my way closer to her with each pass.

Her whip snapped forward and missed me and I watched her for the other star. One left, but I couldn’t keep this up. I’d tire myself out before the real fight even started. I had to make my move. I slowed and ducked in closer to her, spinning out of her way as she slashed at me with the remaining star.

“Stop that,” she yelled as I drew inside an arm’s length and I laughed. I was too close for her to use the whip. Just what I wanted. I snapped my right hand out and cut across her hip, slicing her flesh open wide.

She roared and dropped her weapons.

“Well, that’s stupid,” I said. I settled onto my heels and then spun into a roundhouse kick, driving the flat of my foot into her solar plexus.

The crowd oohed.

“Keep at her!” Mac yelled. “She’ll cheat!”

I followed my kick with another that I snapped upward, booting her right in the chin.

She fell backward in what looked like slow motion. Not so much.

She shifted into a huge, golden cougar that twisted around and landed on all four feet. The wound I’d given her in the hip was healed already.

“You’re a fucking cheater!” I yelled at her. She didn’t answer me, she only growled as she kept her head low as she stalked toward me.

“Don’t use your magic!” Mac coached. “You can do this. You wrestled with Oka. She told me you beat her!”

Damn. He was right. How would I beat a hundred-pound cat? The same way I’d beat Oka when she’d been six hundred pounds. Which, to be fair, had only happened once, twice if I counted that draw. I could take the Alpha out easily with magic, but I believed I could do it fair and square—I needed this pack to respect me. I wouldn’t beat her and have any of them say I cheated.

The pack’s allegiance was on the line here. I, for one, would play by the rules, even if she didn’t.

“Come on, you big pussy. See if you can catch me.” I bolted from her, down the length of the ditch. I needed to get her running at me. Let her build up some momentum and then use it against her.

She let out a snarling roar and then she was after me. She swiped at my heels as I ran. Damn, she was fast.

I twisted at the edge of the rectangle and let my momentum pull me backward into a fall. Crimson’s eyes lit up and she leapt for me.

Bingo.

As I fell, I grabbed her front legs and pulled her head to me, then snapped both feet up into her gut, flipping her over my head hard. Before she even fully landed, I was moving again.

I drew my blades in a flash and held them to her neck hard enough that blood trickled from the tips.

“Yield,” I said, “or I’ll take your head right now.”

She growled and shifted beneath me, her hands up in surrender.

A cheer rang out among the shifters, filling the air. I frowned, and she grinned up at me.

What the hell was going on? Why were they so excited I’d overthrown their Alpha? I put my blades away and held out a hand for her.

“Were you that bitchy that they’d take a witch over you?” I asked her as I eyed the cheering group.

Crimson shook her head, still smiling like she’d won the fucking lottery. “No, you just saved us.”

I shook my head, frowning at her. “That doesn’t help with the confusion.”

Mac ran over and caught me up in a hug. “You were amazing.”

“You sound surprised.” I laughed at him.

He kissed me once and then put me down. “Try not to do that again, though. I’m not sure my heart can take it.”

Crimson watched us as the other shifters drew closer. “Mac, I’m surprised. You really do care for her?”

He stared hard at her. “This is not the time for that. What did you mean she saved you?”

Crimson slumped where she stood. “We were captives. Our allegiance tied to a maniac we could not fight. Now, though, we are tied to you. It’s exactly what I hoped for. I could not even throw the fight, the compulsion on me was so strong. You truly beat me.”

I had a bad feeling about what she was saying. Compulsions were a witch trick. The only witch other than me was being a total fucking douche …

“Well, you aren’t captives now,” I said. “We want your help, but I won’t hold those who aren’t willing to help.”

Crimson gave a bitter laugh. “You don’t understand. She will look for us now. We belong to you, which means she will come here.”

I went very still, keeping my hands at my side. “Wait, what?”

What the hell had I just inherited?

“You know the rules of shifter packs, do you not? You picked me out easily enough as the Alpha,” Crimson said. I nodded, so she continued. “Madeline became our puppeteer, for lack of a better term, because she defeated our Alpha, the same way you defeated me. Except, when our old Alpha yielded, she murdered him horribly rather than just make him submit. Then she had us carry his head around for weeks.” Crimson shuddered, her revulsion clear.

“So, wait. That doesn’t make any sense. She is your Alpha then. She would be the one I had to defeat to take over the pack.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, struggling to get my mind around what had just happened. “How is this working at all?”

“Well, you have taken my spot. We need you to defeat her completely if we are to be free,” Crimson said. “You need to challenge the Alpha. And she will come now that she has felt the bonds shift from me to you.”

Even as she spoke there was a tingle along my spine, an awareness that I did not like. “Fuck. That means she could have some control over me!”

Oh, I wouldn’t say that. My magic coursed along my spine and for lack of a better word, ate at the connection, severing any hold this Madeline might have on me. I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”

Still, this was literally the worst possible outcome to this fight. The. Worst. Fucking. Thing. Other than being dead.

Mac grabbed at his head. “Crimson, this is bullshit!”

“They are not my rules,” she whined. “You think I wanted to carry my mate’s head with me while it rotted? You think I wanted to bring those children to the witch? I did not. But I have no choice. I am not an Alpha by nature!”

Oh, how I wished for Oka’s thoughts on this. “Okay, let’s take this a piece at a time.”

Crimson and Mac nodded. I looked hard at Crimson. “Tell me what she wants.”

“She believes the Immune children will end the supernatural realm forever. It is her life’s mission to end them first. Her driving force is to keep the supernatural race pure, and the first step to doing that is to eliminate the Immunes. Then the humans who won’t allow themselves to be turned.”

The last puzzle piece clicked into place. It was as I suspected. “The same witch we are dealing with. It has to be.” I kept my eyes on Crimson’s. “She’s the one that’s been dogging us this whole time. Well, that’s a fine pile of troll shit.”

I turned my back to the shifters, my mind racing. There was only one way we were going to deal with this now, and I knew it right to the bottom of my feet.

All out war.

Chapter Twenty-Five

In the end, we added fifteen shifters to our nineteen souls already in the caravan, nearly doubling our size in one swift move.

Crimson happily settled into her role as my beta. I set her and the other shifters to getting food first as we were running low on supplies, having lost some to the gargoyles. Mac helped smooth things over with the few men who gave the new shifters hairy eyeballs.

All those bad feelings were smoothed over, though, when the shifters brought down a large elk with enough meat on it to feed the caravan for a week.

We circled the trucks, and got two fires going, and set the meat to cooking. Everyone was in high spirits, laughing and talking while they worked. It was … weird.

“I can’t believe this is going as smoothly as it is,” I said quietly to Mac.

“Don’t jinx it.” He grimaced. “They are behaving right now in part because they aren’t sure what to make of you. Or if the witch is going to show up and take us all out while we sleep.”

“Thanks, that was exactly what I needed,” I said. “On that note. I need to speak to Crimson about her previous master.”

I found Crimson at the second fire. I crooked a finger at her and she hurried toward me. “Yes?”

I cringed. “Seriously, don’t start acting all submissive. I need you strong, okay?”

She straightened a little. “Sorry, it is ingrained in me. What do you need?”

“Tell me about the witch. You said her name was Madeline? Did you ever see her work her magic? Does she have a weakness you know about?”

Crimson drew a slow breath. “Yes, Madeline is her name, or at least the name she gave us. She is powerful. I’ve seen her destroy shifters with the flick of her hands.”

I frowned, working through the spells I knew. Nothing that would kill a shifter like that. I swallowed hard. Shit.

There weren’t many witches out there that could match me for strength before I was bound, that was what I had been led to believe … but what if my mentors had been wrong?

And now, all I had was my freaking black magic that would do whatever the hell it wanted. Although, it had removed the control aspect of Madeline’s bonds.

Survival, it whispered. Of course. If I died, the magic died with me.

Nausea rolled through me at the thought of going face to face with a witch who, when I was at my strongest, I would struggle to hold my own against. I tamped the fear down. No, I was a fighter. I would find a way to deal with Madeline.

“I’m sorry, we spent as little time with her as possible,” Crimson said. “If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.”

I nodded, and she went back to the fire.

Mac came up beside me. “Anything helpful?”

I shook my head. “If you call finding out I’m probably going to have the floor mopped with my face, sure.”

He took my hand and led me to the fire. “Then you better fuel up.” He held a hand out and a plate piled high with a slab of meat, and a pile of wild greens called to me. I took it.

He was right. There was nothing we could do but be as ready as we could.

*_*_*_*

By the morning, I had the rudiments of a plan worked out. I called everyone together, shifters and humans alike. They were bleary-eyed and there were more than a few jaws cracked wide with yawns.

I held a hand up, drawing their attention. “We know the name of the witch who has been coming after the children, after me, and after the shifters. One problem for all of us. Madeline will just keep coming at us if we don’t do something. Agreed?”

Crimson nodded, as did the other shifters. The humans, on the other hand, looked confused. Richard, though, closed his eyes. He wasn’t stupid, he knew where I was going with this.

I drew a breath, committing us to a path there would be no coming back from, but I knew in my belly it was the only way.

From the back of the supply truck came a ragged scream. We all spun but it was one of the shifters that was closest. He reached in and held Tristan up by his hair as the man writhed against his bonds, awake for the first time in days. The voice that tore out of his throat was not his, but a woman’s.

“I’m coming for you, Pamela. You and your little cat too!” He screeched a peal of laughter that went into octaves his throat couldn’t possibly make on its own. His body began to seize and shake, foam spilling out of his mouth and down his front. I stared, unable to look away as Tristan died right in front of us.

The shifter lowered his limp body to the truck bed. “That’s Madeline for you.”

Chris pushed past Richard, clutching at her belly. “Why chase after this evil? She’s clearly powerful with more allies than we have. We should run.”

The fear in her was clear to see and reflected in more than one pair of human eyes. I shook my head. “No matter how far we run, she’s just going to keep coming at us, attack after attack. Wearing us down until she has what she wants. Chris, she doesn’t want the kids just for shits and giggles. She wants their blood.”

She gasped and went pale. Richard slid an arm around her waist, holding her up. I turned back to the group as a whole.

“The only way to protect ourselves from further attacks, from losing all our lives, is to face her. If we let this go, and try to outrun her, which by the way we’ve already proven we can’t do, she’ll whittle away at our numbers until there’s nothing left of us. We’ve been lucky so far, but it’s time we make our own luck.”

I caught Mac’s eyes and he gave me a smile and a nod of encouragement.

Here we go, time to throw the dice. “My plan is simple. We send one of our birds to her with a message. Let’s end this now. She can no longer find me. The bond that switched from Crimson to me that held the pack to Madeline is gone.”

Yay for black magic.

“What kind of message?” Crimson asked as she gestured toward one of the thinner men in the group. He had dark hair and eyes, and a beak of a nose. If he hadn’t been a bird shifter I would have been shocked.

He put a hand to his chest. “I am Paul. I will gladly relay the message.”

I turned to the man. “Tell her I’m done playing. If she wants the children, me, and the shifters, then she has to fight for us. And be careful. No doubt she’ll try to kill you right there.”

He nodded. “I will be careful, my Alpha.” He spun and shifted, turning into a dark brown hawk that climbed high into the sky before I could change my mind.

“What, no,” Chris shouted. “That’s a terrible idea. Don’t draw the demon right to us!”

Crimson turned and looked at her, and I thought I saw a bit of pity in her eyes. “She cannot win against Pamela. I trust our Alpha and so should you. Your fear is unnecessary.”

Her words only served to fuel Chris’s anger. “This is outrageous. Richard. You can’t turn our entire caravan over to a bunch of supernatural creatures who would rather see us dead. We’ve seen what the shifters are capable of. They can’t be trusted. We can’t align ourselves with them. What we need to do is keep moving. Lie low, and we will escape this Madeline person on our own. Send Pamela and the shifters away, use them as bait for the other witch.”

My eyebrows shot up. Damn, I didn’t think she’d go that far.

Richard turned to her, anger plain on his bearded face. Fire burned in his eyes that I’d never seen before. Clearly, he’d had enough of her insubordination.

“Because that’s worked out so well for us in the past, Chris? Why are you so eager to be trapped in that truck again, with wolves throwing themselves at the window? Why are you so anxious to be facing down full-sized trolls with nothing but three scared toddlers to defend yourself with?”

It was harsh. But her attitude pulled down the morale of everyone.

Chris wasn’t going down without a fight, though. “So, you would throw our children away as some kind of sacrifice to your new supernatural friends? To prove you are worthy of their love?” She spat at his feet. “You disgust me, Richard. I wish to God this child was someone else’s.” She turned and stormed off, back to the tent where the kids were.

Shock filtered through me, and I realized it wasn’t just mine, but Mac’s too. Fuck me sideways, that was harsh. Even for Chris.

I opened my mouth to say something, but Richard waved a hand at me. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll calm down. I’m going to blame this on the hormones.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt about her feelings being dismissed that way, but he wasn’t wrong about not worrying. We had bigger problems to deal with than a single upset member of the caravan.

“This place is as good as any. I will wait for her on top of the bridge, in plain sight with the shifters at the edge of the clearing. In sight, but not too close.” I pointed at the bridge. “I want two of the trucks here, visible, but most of the caravan will be waiting on foot up the road with the third truck.”

Richard shifted. “What about the kids?”

I swallowed hard before I answered, because the truth made me queasy. “I will need at least one of them close enough to be seen.”

Richard again closed his eyes. “Frost has risked his life once. We will leave Ruby with the group closest to the battle.”

Crimson stepped forward. “I will protect the child personally. She will not be harmed while I live and breathe.”

My throat tightened. This was how a pack worked; this was how a family worked. My emotions got the better of me, and I had to take a second to keep the tears at bay.

Oka would have been so happy to see this change. Not only in me, but in those around us—that we were working together. Let’s hope we could make it last beyond the day.

“Then it’s decided. We set up now. Get things laid out. We don’t know how long it will be before the bitch shows up for her ass whooping.”

Crimson laughed and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I like you better every day.”

“Thanks?” I said. I waited for the humans to disperse before I called Mac and Crimson back to me.

“If it looks like I’m going to lose, you need to haul ass. She will reclaim you and decimate the caravan and kill the kids. Don’t let that happen,” I said. “Do you understand?”

“But if we stay close, we could fight with you. Help you. Keep the caravan safe,” Crimson argued.

I looked over my shoulder, feeling that itch down my spine that I was sure was Madeline trying to find me. My magic chuckled and wove up and down my spine, keeping it clear of her touch. “This will need to be handled witch to witch, I’m afraid.”

“Why? Honor needs to be cast aside here. There’s no place for it where survival is in play. You are too young to understand.” Crimson shook her head.

I laughed at her. “I’ve seen more battles in my eighteen years than you, I guarantee it. Trust me that I know how to win a fight.”

Goddess, I was being cocky, and I knew it, but they had to believe me, they had to trust me. Even if I didn’t think for a second I was going to survive what was coming.

She kept her eyes on the ground, her head lowered. But she didn’t argue, which was good. I drew a breath and went on. “It’s not about honor, Crimson. It’s about distractions. I know Madeline would take those I care about out first. She will use you against me. Maybe even force you to fight me, and I won’t kill my friends. Let’s be real, you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself if she gets her claws into you again. As your Alpha, I am keeping her from taking the pack. But if she gets close to one of you? Then all bets are off, and I can’t let that possibility play out. Stay at the edge of the road, let her see you but no closer. She cannot be allowed to reclaim your pack. That’s not a request.”

Crimson lifted her head, a frown etched on her mouth, but she gave me a nod, relenting.

Around me, the caravan and the shifters ran to get themselves in place.

“An hour or two at best,” Crimson said before she left my side. “If Paul survives, he will be back soon, and then she will be hot on his tail feathers.”

She held her hand out to me and I took it, clasping my fingers around her wrist as she did the same. “You can take her out,” Crimson said. “I believe we were brought to you for this reason.”

I wanted to tell her she was right, but I knew my own abilities and they were not up to this. I was going to die. I kept those thoughts held tight to me, so Mac wouldn’t see them. He’d try to save me and then he’d die too, and I couldn’t let that happen. The caravan needed him. I nodded at Crimson but didn’t actually agree. “Go.”

I had no idea how powerful this witch was, but clearly, she was no slouch to earn a pack of shifters to her name, hold down a troupe of gargoyles, and a full pack of werewolves. Fuck me, the more I thought about it, the more Chris’s idea to run seemed like the better option.

“May the Mother Goddess be with us all,” I whispered under my breath as I turned and walked toward the bridge and the death I was sure waited for me.

Chapter Twenty-Six

The bridge creaked as I stepped onto it, the wood worn from years of passage. I opened my senses to the world around me, picking up on not only the elements, but the shifters ranged around me.

They were mine now. I was their Alpha. I snorted and turned as I felt Mac approach.

His eyes were deadly serious. “I cannot leave you to fight her alone.”

I smiled, though it was tough. “It will be magic on magic. If anything, I will need to draw on your strength. Which means you need to stay back with everyone else.”

Magic on magic.

Laughter curled through me, up my spine. My magic knew it was going to be loosed again.

Embrace me.

He frowned. “Would Oka let you boss her around like this?”

My heart twanged. “Oh, she would argue, but it is only logic I’m pointing out.”

“I’ll split the difference,” he said. “I’ll be between you and the trucks. Close enough to help if you need me, not so close I will get in the way.”

I reached a hand out to him and he tangled his fingers with mine. I stepped off the bridge and he caught me in his arms without asking. He pressed his mouth against my head. “She’ll try to use you against me,” I said into his shirt.

“Maybe. But she can’t cut the bond we have. Anyone outside the elemental world doesn’t understand how it works with familiars.”

I leaned back and looked into his eyes. Questions swirled through me, catching me off guard. Had he loved his charge that he’d cared for before me? Were these emotions I felt from him based solely on the bond of familiar and elemental? Or was there something real here, something more than what he had to do?

He smiled. “Ask me all of that after this, okay?”

The screech of a hawk cut my answer short.

A whoosh of wings and the brown hawk landed on the bridge railing, then hopped down and shifted back onto two legs. Paul stood from a crouch, blood trickling from his nose. “She’s coming. But it’ll be on her own time. She’ll keep you waiting, I think.”

I reached a hand to him. “Are you okay?”

He bobbed his head once. “She hit me with a rock as I winged away. Could have been worse.”

He was right. It could have been. I put hand on his shoulder. “Good job. Go to Crimson. Stay back as much as possible.”

I waited for Paul to leave before I spoke. “On her own time … that could be hours. Days even.”

Mac grunted. “It’s to be expected, I suppose. She knows we are waiting.”

“Stay with me until she shows,” I asked softly. “And if … if I go down, will you try to help Oka?” When, that was the truth. When I went down, if he could help Oka, that would be everything.

Funny how knowing I was walking into a battle that would end with me dead I was calmer than any of the other fights.

Mac kept an arm around my waist. “You aren’t going down, but to ease your mind, yes. I’ll help that sassy cat if the worst should happen.”

Relief flowed through me and I lowered myself to the ground. Mac raised an eyebrow. I shrugged, unable to explain what I was doing. Because they couldn’t know.

Using spirit to travel was, in the past, something I could do with no problem. Now, it would rock me to the core and leave me defenseless against Madeline. But it was the only way to keep her away from my pack.

I drew a breath, prepping myself. This was going to get ugly fast.

“Get them moving, right away, okay?” I smiled up at him, knowing the edges of my mouth trembled, fighting to keep what I was doing from him until the last second.

He frowned and then understanding flashed through those blue eyes. “Wait, no!”

I drew another breath as he reached for me and I pulled spirit through my body like nails on a chalkboard. I screamed as the pain blasted me from all sides. Like being sent down a set of river rapids, bouncing across the rocks, fighting to breathe through it long enough that I could focus on Madeline’s name. I had her name, and I could find her anywhere she was.

I could protect them all by going to her and surprising the shit out of her. If I hadn’t been hurting so much, I would have smiled.

“Madeline,” I whispered as I rode spirit through the ether. I didn’t close my eyes, I didn’t dare.

I caught an image of the elemental who held my power. “How is she doing this?” he roared, pointing at me and then he was gone, and the world wavered around me.

As it settled, and I released spirit and slumped to the side, barely able to stay sitting up, my hands blooming with bruises and two fingers crooked—broken. Well, that was a nice addition.

I took in my surroundings as fast as I could—I needed my bearings to know where the first hit would come from—ignoring the throbbing in my hands.

A forest surrounded me, the trees and fauna not unlike that in the clearing I’d just left. Only these trees and plants were blackened with fire that still sent smoke curling into the air. Even the ground was hot with residual heat.

“Pamela,” a voice traveled on the breeze, tickling the back of my neck, making my hair stand on end.

“Well, shit, I hoped to surprise you,” I said.

Laughter bounced around me, coming from every direction. Twatwaffle was playing with me already.

“Did you really think you could stop me?” Her voice was louder, coming from all around me like her laughter, as if she was the wind whipping through the treetops.

“Actually, stop isn’t the right word.” I slowly turned in a full circle as I spoke. “Annihilate is closer to my goal.”

“You and your little pussy cat, oh, wait … she’s not with us anymore, is she? What about that bear of yours? I would keep him as a pet. One that would nicely match my own, I think.” She was right behind me.

I whipped around, and snapped my blades up as she launched two balls of pure power at me, the glittering orbs a deep red. I caught one on the tip of each blade and threw them back at her.

Madeline raised a hand and cast them aside as if I’d tossed a water balloon at her.

They both exploded about thirty feet away, taking out two huge evergreens, and leaving a massive crater behind. She didn’t retaliate, not right away other than to raise her eyebrows, which gave me a chance to get a good look at her.

Taller than me, and thin as a damned beanpole. I wondered if she’d been starving, or if she was just built like that. Maybe both. The breeze caught her bright red hair, and swept it away from her face, showing off the pitch-black eyes that held no white. Doll’s eyes, or shark’s eyes. Dead eyes.

She was the figure I’d seen in the flames, and the one from my dreams.

Of all the things she wore, I never would have guessed on black jeans, and a long-sleeved black shirt. It seemed so … common for an evil witch.

She watched me shift my weight from one foot to the other as I settled into a fighting stance. The blows would come fast and hard once we really started. I knew enough not to push it at the beginning.

“So. We finally meet,” she said. “And you are my … Alpha? Very clever of you. I must ask, how are you keeping me out of your head? My other Alphas were easily controlled. I heard a rumor you have your magic blocked.” She motioned to my arms as she smiled.

Fuckity damn bitch witch. This was bad, worse than bad. She knew my weakness and I still had no idea what hers was.

I made myself smile at her. No need to tell her about my other magic. “Good genetics, I guess. To be clear, I can’t say it’s much of a pleasure. Dealing with your bullshit, that is.”

She waved a single finger in the air that made me tense, as she tssked. “Manners, Pamela. They’re still important.”

“Not so much. Once you try to kill me, my familiars, my pack, you don’t get the nice Pamela. You get the Pamela soaked in darkness.” I hadn’t meant to say that, but the words flowed from my mouth. Madeline’s eyebrows went up.

“Darkness? I sense nothing but a young girl pretending she is something she is not. As so often is the case.” She dusted her hands together. “Shall we move this along, weakling?”

“In a hurry?” I asked.

Embrace me.

“As a matter of fact, I’m tired of playing this game with you. I’d like to move on to another caravan. You know there is one a little ahead of you with four children. Four under four … delicious.”

I rolled my wrists, the bracelets jingling lightly as I brought my blades up again. For as long as I could, I would use her own magic against her.

Maybe I could tire her out.

“You have to go through me first.”

She laughed, and the sound sent a flock of archies hunched at the edges of the burnt valley into the air as it echoed unnaturally around us.

The world was quiet as her laughter died away and I flexed my hands, waiting, as hard as it was to be patient.

Her mouth twisted, and hands snapped toward me with a flick of her wrists as she launched a power bomb, sending it sailing over my head in a high arch. It exploded behind me, bigger than the one the troll dropped. Bright blue and green flames erupted roaring to life as if they were alive even on the already burned material.

Witch fire.

I gritted my teeth and pulled my cloak around me tightly, not wanting to drop it.

I had no way to disappear. To get away from the fire.

There was only one thing I could do that I could see. I ran straight for Madeline, my blades out. Her eyes widened and then she flicked her fingers at me, rolling balls of magic that glittered red with blood shooting straight for me.

I spun to the right, reached up and caught one of them on the tip of my blade, kept spinning until I faced her again and threw it right back at her. She screeched as the red globe kissed along the edge of her face, searing her skin.

Unfortunately, it did nothing but piss her off. “You are not the only one with a familiar. Would you like to meet mine? I do have a penchant for bears.”

Oh … fuck. A roar echoed through the air and sent shivers racing down my spine. I partially turned, afraid to take my eyes fully from Madeline. From the other side of the valley came a grizzly bear, running at full speed, his jowls hanging, teeth bared, eyes wild.

But a second roar cut the air. Madeline and I both spun as a bear even bigger than the grizzly raced to intersect him, his fur as white as snow.

“Mac.” I whispered his name as he slammed into the grizzly. The two bears went down roaring and snarling, tumbling over and over as they fought for dominance. No, not dominance. A kill.

I took the distraction and used it, leaping at Madeline. Her eyes widened. This was my edge. She might be stronger, she might have more magic than me, but I would fight with everything I had. I crashed into her, mimicking the bears as I took her to the ground. She put her hands against my chest and the wind was sucked right out of my lungs so fast, if they hadn’t been injured before, I knew they would be now.

Embrace me, and we will have her dead. You will be safe.

Panic clawed at me. To embrace the darkness now was suicide—I felt it all the way to my bones. But without the magic helping me, my death was a sure thing.

I fought to breathe, and even then, I didn’t slow my attack, but she was already out from under me, laughter ringing in my ears as the sounds of the bears roaring in the distance told me that if I didn’t win, Mac would be hers. I could feel him, he was close to killing the grizzly.

I stared up at her from my knees. She approached me, reached out and cupped my chin with her fingers. “So much potential, if not for those bands. I would have liked to face you at your full strength. Someone like me. A half-breed bastard.”

My mouth was open as if that would help me breathe. My heart was beating wildly and then it began to slow.

Mac made his killing blow, and then he was coming for me, giving me his energy. Only all the energy in the world wouldn’t help me break through this.

My eyes rolled up as I fell forward, face down in the turf.

Embrace …

And for just a moment, I thought I heard Oka’s voice echo the word. Embrace the magic. Do what you must to survive.

For Oka, I let down every barrier I had as death crawled through me. So did my magic, and the full power of it shocked me. There was nothing of life in this magic, nothing good, or clean, or of beauty.

I saw it in its fullness as it blended into my bones, seeped into my skin, finally having my consent to do so. Black oil, the color of Raven’s hair, the darkness of a grave, the black of old blood.

Death magic. And it was mine to use.

I dug my fingers into the soil and sent a surge of power through the earth until I found Madeline’s feet. The magic crawled up her boots, up her legs, she had no idea until I drove it into her belly, like a sharp knife she couldn’t see, or pull out.

The wind came back to me in a rush and I sucked in a huge breath with flecks of dirt that left me wobbly and light-headed. I pushed up to see what I’d done to her.

Madeline stared down at her belly, at the wound there. Not just any wound, but one that gaped and flapped, her innards spilling out into her hands, like I’d clawed her with Oka’s tiger’s claws.

Her eyes lifted to mine and I knew that the reprieve on my lungs was temporary.

The magic sung in my veins as I leapt to my feet and crossed the short distance between her and me.

She flicked a hand at me and I dodged the blow, catching it on my right wrist. Bone snapped, but my hand remained.

With a scream, I tackled her to the ground, knowing I had to work fast. The air rushed out of her as we landed, and blood flecked my face.

I drove an elbow into the hollow of her throat. I drove it in as hard as I could, powered in part by lust for her blood that the magic fed. Something cracked, and her eyes bugged out as she grabbed at her neck.

She gargled something at me. I looked her in the face and whispered, “Cat got your tongue?”

Oka would have loved it.

Madeline swung a red glowing hand at me. Death magic if I ever saw it. I lifted an arm, blocking her as she reached for me. I used my other hand to grab the handle of my blade and slash at her arm.

The red in her hand faded as the lower half of her arm fell.

“One down,” I snarled.

She screamed, and the sound amplified, booming in my ears. I screamed with her as I fell backward, grabbing at my head. I rolled on the ground away from her, fighting to stay awake as the pain smashed between my ears.

As fast as it had come on, it was over. I rolled to my knees. The scene in front of me was about as bad as it could have gotten.

Mac ran flat out at Madeline, his fur tinged with blood in multiple places. Behind him the grizzly lay dead.

From the ground, her stumped arm holding her guts, she raised her other hand. She looked over her shoulder at me, blood on her lips. “Say goodbye to your teddy bear.”

The red tendrils spread out from her hand once more and shot toward Mac as he barreled toward her.

“Mac!” I screamed his name, but he stayed focused on his target.

I sent the magic through the ground again, but this time she’d set a shield around her body, repelling the magic.

She wove her own magic faster until the tendrils reached Mac, wrapping around him like a living vine of death. Faster and faster she wove them over and under each other, until his fluffy white fur was barely visible.

He ran harder, until she caught him around his legs.

She dropped him. I reached her and grabbed an ankle.

Mac’s blue eyes met mine and his sorrow fed through our bond as clear as day. I shook my head. “Nope. Not losing two of you.”

Magic was not going to work on her shield. Fine, I’d settle for smashing the shit out of her.

My fist connected hard and my knuckles split, the broken fingers screaming, but I got the desired effect and the vines around Mac eased off. Her attention was once more on me.

It was only then I noticed her wounds were healed.

“That’s not possible.” I stared at her belly, her skin smooth and scar-free. If she could heal that fast, there was no way I’d kill her.

Hell, and for a moment there, I’d thought I had a chance.

“She drew all the energy from her familiar,” Mac roared.

Leaving him … helpless.

“You’re a monster,” I said as I punched her again, before she could get her magic focused on me. Her head snapped back with a perfect undercut. My mentor would be proud. I kept punching, working her over as if she were bag at the gym. Kidney, belly, head, rinse and repeat.

I ignored the ache in my ribs, the breaks in my fingers and wrist, ignored that her shield was down.

The darkness in me rose as the smell of blood filled my nostrils and the magic … fucking giggled.

She’d hurt Mac. She’d turned Oka to stone. She’d killed members of my pack.

Take her magic, Pamela. Absorb it for your own, so you will never be weak again. The whispered words called to me and I grabbed Madeline’s face with my hand, digging my fingers into her skin. She was screaming, I heard her but there was nothing in the void with me but that voice.

My mother’s voice.

I am your mother. I am the witch who bore you. I am the one who makes you strong. I am the darkness that will save you. Take her power, Pamela. And I will train you. You are ready now to learn the truth of your blood. To be the death witch you were meant to be.

I held her face, the words humming along in me, like truths of my soul that I’d ignored for my whole life. I was death. How had I not seen it before? I’d been killing for years, why would this surprise me? It didn’t.

No … Oka’s voice cut through it, grounding me. That’s not who you are. You are not a killer, not like that. You are a protector, Pamela, do not believe these lies.

I let go of Madeline’s face and stumbled back from her, fear shaking me to the core. “No, no, I am not that person.”

I clutched at my own head as if I could block out the words, the noise, the seduction of what the darkness sung to me. I craved strength, to protect those I loved, but not at that cost.

I’d embraced the darkness, and here was the cost. To see the true colors of my heart.

Madeline’s laughter caught me off guard. “So, you are tormented, are you? Better then that I take your power. We’re done here, little witch. And I will take the children too now, thank you very much.”

I blinked a few times as I fought to get my shaking under control. But she was forgetting one thing above all else.

I was a survivor. And I’d been surviving for years without any magic.

Madeline stood over me, her power circling her, crackling through the air. My hands found one of my blades on the ground beside me. I grabbed it and launched forward.

In one bold swipe, I sliced her foot off while she stood on it. She screamed, a high-pitched noise that sounded like a pig at the slaughterhouse as she fell to the ground.

I stumbled to my feet, breathing hard as Madeline bled out, more worried about her life now than me standing over her. I could feel Mac … injured but alive.

Shaking, I stared down at her. It was almost over.

“Who are you?” I asked. “What elementals are you born from?”

She gave me no intelligible answer. Nope, she just hissed at me. Yeah, actually hissed.

I took a few steps back, because I was no fool when it came to a fight. The magic in me swirled outward in a thick mist and she rolled away, dodging its touch.

“No, I will do this without you!” I snarled at the magic.

Madeline stared at me. “Broken, you are broken and that makes you weak.” A forked tongue flicked out of her mouth and large fangs dropped from the roof of her mouth.

“You’re fucking kidding me, right?”

Before my eyes, she transformed into a huge, green-scaled snake easily fifteen feet long. I tightened my hold on the one blade. But she didn’t face me, no, she spun and slithered away.

“Don’t you know it’s not polite to leave without being excused? Remember your manners, bitch.” I leapt forward, landing on the back end of her tail and pinned her down. She bled from a squared-off stump from her tail, which apparently was where her foot had been, as she struggled to get away from me.

Fear drove her, and in her fear, her magic fled. Panic was never pretty.

Mac stumbled to my side, bleeding and bruised but alive and on two feet. He dropped next to me and grabbed her middle. “She isn’t a shifter.”

“Agreed. Some elementals can shift,” I said as I wrestled with the writhing muscles. She swung her face around and Mac caught her behind her head with one hand. Her eyes bugged out and her fangs dripped with venom.

“Look at her eyes,” Mac said.

I did and shivered. Her eyes were one of the most haunting things about her. Dark as her heart. It was as if the night swam in them. They were the complete opposite of any shifter I’d ever known. Mac’s eyes were blue, but … he was special. He wasn’t a true shifter, but a familiar.

“Pamela, finish this,” Mac grunted, as he fought to hold her. She’d managed to get a loop of her body around one of Mac’s legs, was squeezing him. Hard.

“I need to ask her one more question,” I said. I pressed my hands hard into her flesh, blocking her from connecting to her elemental magic. Her eyes bugged further.

“Who owns you, Madeline?”

She screeched and writhed, her body slamming into me, and throwing me hard to the ground, a thick chunk of her tail hitting me in the back, knocking the wind out of me again. I managed to avoid a second blow and stared up at where Mac still held her.

He twisted her around as he fought to keep her under control. She faced me and her eyes rolled, her mouth opened … and her neck snapped sideways.

Mac let her go. “That wasn’t me.”

“What happened?” I didn’t understand.

He stared down at her. “Broken from within. Some magic I don’t understand did this.”

Her body went limp and shifted partway back to her human form.

Part human, part snake was not a good look. I pushed what was left of her tail away from me.

I let myself just breathe for a good two minutes before I looked at Mac. “How did you get here so fast?”

He smiled. “Paul was a double agent. I smelled the lie on him when you asked how long it would be. I beat the shit out of him the second you were gone. He told me she was far closer than we realized so I … followed you.”

He lifted a hand and rubbed a knuckle over my cheek. “You’re pretty beat up.”

My throat tightened. “But alive. You saved me.”

“Comes with the territory. And if I recall, you saved me too.” He smiled but it was tired.

The sun slid a few more inches in the sky before I sat forward, my last question for Madeline still heavy in my mind.

“Why did you ask her that?” Mac said.

I shrugged, and tucked my broken wrist under my good arm, as I picked up her remaining arm, looking it over. “A hunch. Nothing … solid.”

And there it was, exactly what I was looking for.

I pointed at a brand high under her arm, almost in the pit.

“It’s that damned mark,” I said. The same one I’d seen on the creature Sage declared a griffin. The open circle, connected by a line to the closed circle, with three small dots at the edge was emblazoned defiantly on a green scale that looked a hell of a lot like a dragon’s scale. Two pieces fit together while about a thousand more were piled on and scattered around.

I shook my head, wishing I wasn’t so tired. I loved a good puzzle, but these pieces made no sense to me. A mystery I couldn’t pin down. At least not yet.

“What does it mean?” Mac asked. “You think there is someone out there orchestrating this on a larger scale?”

“I hope not,” I said.

The witch fire she’d lit had already died, but I wanted to burn her body. Another witch could potentially use parts of her body in their spells, and that was the last kind of shit we needed.

Mac nodded, picking up on my thoughts. But before I could do anything, her body burst into flames.

Orange and purple flames that were as unnatural as anything I’d ever seen. Mac grabbed my arm and helped me scoot back.

“I need to make sure she’s gone. Whoever owned her is smart, smart enough to want her body and all that power gone from anyone else,” I said.

Mac sat beside me on the charred ground. “You said some elementals can shift, do you think that was the case for her?”

I frowned. “It’s a possibility. Everything I’ve read about shifting forms is one of two things. A natural inherency, either shifter or elemental, or some sort of spell or curse. She didn’t seem overly bothered by it, so I doubt it was a curse.”

The thing was … all the books I’d ever read about magic and being a witch stated that shifting forms via a spell was one of the most dangerous things to do. And the biggest cost to one’s power, a drain like no other. Which explained why she didn’t fight me once she’d shifted—she’d used the last of her power to change forms. Cutting off her foot had forced her hand. She couldn’t run from me, but she could slither. At least, that was my guess.

The symbol burned into her skin flashed in my mind, adding to my questions. And that green scale. Madeline was certainly something I’d never encountered before in all my readings and wanderings.

“Many new creatures have been born out of the broken earth, and the tearing of the Veil,” Mac said. “Perhaps she is one of them.”

“But is she the only one?” The symbol told me she wasn’t. There were others. And each one was probably stronger, and more horrible than the last. At least with my luck.

“Let’s hope,” he said.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Mac found my cloak flung into one of the trees, fetched it down, then found my second blade before he carried me back to the caravan. Seeing as I was nearly dead on my feet, my ribs, wrist, and some fingers broken, body battered and my heart sore, I didn’t have it in me to argue with him. Besides, it was kinda nice being snuggled against his chest.

“I could get used to this,” I said.

He laughed and tightened his arms around me a little.

I should have been jubilant; we’d done it. But I was missing something. Or more accurately, someone.

Oka.

Mac looked down at me. “We’ll focus on her. Now that we aren’t fighting to stay alive.”

“Yes,” I said. Except I knew no power would turn stone to flesh.

When we stepped into the clearing with the bridge, the shifters were the first to spot us. They rushed us, chattering, trying to find out what happened.

“Wait till we’re all here,” I said.

All of us. Humans and shifters.

Crimson held Ruby on her hip and I smiled, thinking of how their names were so closely linked. Ruby leaned into Crimson and smiled as she played with the cougar shifter’s long blond hair.

Crimson smiled at me. “I am wrapped around her little finger already.”

Intuition flowed through me and I followed it. “Then I name you her protector, her personal guardian.”

The shifters let out a low gasp, as did Chris as she approached. “No. I am—”

I held up a hand. “Chris, I know you love that little girl. But what will you do when you have your own child? Let those who also love these kids help protect them.”

Chris’s lips trembled, and she turned away.

Lily and Frost came running next. There was no obvious connection between them and one of the other shifters, but I had a feeling it would happen.

When everyone was present, I kept it simple. “Madeline is dead.”

A cheer rose through the air filled with shouts and howls of joy.

Richard wrapped me in a gentle hug until Nathanda pushed him out of the way. “She’s hurt, let me get her settled. Jesus, look at your hands!”

Richard laughed, and I smiled at the suddenly bossy nurse. “Yes, ma’am.”

She set my wrist and I passed out for a moment from the sharp pain, but it was not as bad as the fingers being set which woke me back up and drew screams from me no matter how hard I tried to bite them back.

I was sweating and whimpering by the time she got to my ribs. Those she wrapped with tensor bandages, over my shirt. “No wrestling.” Her eyes flicked to Mac and I nearly choked.

“We’re not … you … oh my goddess,” I whispered and lowered my head as the embarrassment shot through me hotter than ever before, for the moment cutting through the pain. Mac laughed as he crouched beside me.

“I’ll keep my hands to myself. For now.”

I covered my face with my hands while everyone laughed. Not mean, not cruel, just laughter that warmed me as surely as any fire. This was my pack, and for the first time in forever, I felt like I wasn’t alone. Like I had a family again.

A tiny hand touched my knee and I looked up to see Frost in front of me. Behind him, Lily carried Oka close to her chest. I reached out, but Mac reached her first, took her and set her gently on my lap.

“Thank you for looking after her for me,” I whispered, touching them both gently on the cheeks.

Frost nodded. “I like her. Is she coming back?”

I bit the inside of my cheek. “I don’t know.”

Behind us was a stirring of the crowd and they parted, not unlike how I’d separated the river so we could pass.

My eyes landed on a figure I knew all too well.

I pushed to my feet, trembling, holding Oka to my chest. “Raven. You’ve missed the party.”

He smiled and a few of the women sighed. Yes, he was a handsome man with his jet-black hair and blue eyes.

But I was not swayed. “I was dying, and you left me to die, you bastard,” I snarled, holding Oka closer to me. “And she paid the price, you fucking heartless bastard!”

My father held up his hands. “Peace, Pamela. I was unable to come to you until now, and you know that I cannot help you. Not without hurting us both.”

He was right, I did know that, but in the heat of the moment it was easy to forget … he turned his wrists for me. They were ringed with red as though he’d been … “Were you captured again?”

“Temporarily.” He grimaced. “It was in a place that spirit cannot penetrate. I am here now. Will you let me help your familiar?”

My anger fell away from me in a whoosh. “You … can help her?”

It was too good to be true.

He smiled. “I can. And once you see how it is done, you will be able to heal those who are attacked by gargoyles. A lesson, as you keep asking me.”

“A fucking hard one,” I said.

“Such language,” he winked. “You take after your auntie and mentor more than me.”

“My familiar,” I said, feeling like we were the only people in the world. Then again, everyone else had scattered and now stood as far away as they could.

Raven stepped closer. “The blood of an Immune is part of the spell.” Before I could protest he lifted his hands again. “Not all of it, only a little, a few drops.”

He looked past me, and I followed his gaze to where Frost stood watching us, the two of them with their eyes locked. “That boy, he is not Immune.”

I blinked a few times, not sure I heard him right. “He’s not?”

“No. But the girl the shifter holds is.” He tipped his head toward Crimson.

I motioned for Crimson to come closer. Ruby was comfortable in her arms, totally unbothered by my display of power.

Crimson slowed. “What is it?”

Ah, fuck, how did you ask a kid if they minded you taking some of their blood?

“Ruby,” I said, “I need to ask you something.” She nodded quickly, a frown forming on her face. “This man can help Oka. He can bring her back to us. But I need your help.”

Crimson frowned but said nothing. Ruby looked at me and then to Raven. “Will it hurt?”

Damn kids and their perceptiveness.

“A little, yes,” I said.

Again, Crimson said nothing, but I saw the war in her eyes.

“Crimson, I would not ask it if there were any other way.” I held up my hand and she glared at me. “Ruby, you don’t have to do this. I can ask Lily if you are too afraid.”

She looked at me and her eyes narrowed. “I’m braver than Lily.”

I had to fight the smile. “Well, we shouldn’t go around bragging, right, Crimson?”

Crimson nodded. “Nobody likes a braggart.”

Ruby sobered. She looked down at Oka and rubbed her head with her tiny hand, and in that moment, I knew she’d do it. She nodded a single time.

I pulled her and Crimson into a one-armed hug. “Thank you.”

“I like when she’s a tiger. She protects us,” Ruby said. “Like Crimson.”

I motioned for Crimson to follow me. I realized then that things had worked out the only way that would have allowed me this hope. If Chris had still been Ruby’s guardian, they never would have agreed to this.

We stopped in front of Raven. Ruby tipped her chin up in a nod of defiance. Raven smiled at her. “So, you are the brave one today?”

“Yes. I’m brave,” Ruby said. “I’m going to save Oka.”

“For sure you are,” he said, holding his hand to her. She put her fingers against his and I just watched, soaking it all in. If we needed to save someone from a gargoyle again, this would be my only chance to learn how to do it.

I held Oka up in front of Ruby, between her and Raven.

The little girl leaned over, and stage whispered to the stone cat, “It’ll be okay, Oka. I’ll bring you back.” Only a three-year-old could have made that both sweet and hilarious.

The crowd of shifters circled around us. Curious.

Ruby was as calm as a summer’s day as she sat in Crimson’s arms, her hand in Raven’s.

He spoke directly to her. “My name is Raven, and I have a bit of magic, like Pamela here. I can help your friend. Would you like that?”

Ruby nodded, her eyes solemn. “How will you get my blood?”

Raven smiled. “To the point, I see.”

“How?” Ruby asked, louder this time. There was a quiver of fear on her face.

Raven took a small dagger from inside his cloak. It was a beautiful blade and looked sharp enough to shave with it.

Crimson tightened her hold on Ruby. “I’m right here, my girl. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She nodded. “I’m brave, braver than the others.”

Raven held the knife out to me. I stared at him. “I’m holding Oka.”

He took her from me and settled the blade handle against my palm. “You’ll need to be the one to do it. You are her charge. You need to be the one calling her back. The blade must always be wielded by the one closest to the victim,” he said.

“Remember,” Crimson whispered in Ruby’s ear, “you can stop this any time.”

She nodded. “But I won’t.”

A breeze picked up from behind us, blowing my hair around my face, and disturbing the leaves at our feet. They swirled and danced as magic sparkled in Raven’s eyes.

“I will weave the spell for you to see. You can do both if you must,” Raven said as he began.

I watched closely as he wove the spell, lines of pink snaking out from his hands. He used spirit to make the spell stronger. To find Oka. My heart raced as hope ignited in my chest for the first time since I felt her little stone body in my arms.

“Now, Pamela, the blood, and you must call to her,” his voice circled me, echoing the command.

I held the dagger against Ruby’s thumb. “Ready?”

She only nodded and then closed her eyes.

I pressed just the tip of the blade as gently as I could into the tip of her thumb, drawing the tiniest drop of blood. She didn’t even flinch. Her eyes opened, and she stared at the red drop of blood growing on her finger.

“Smear it on the cat,” Raven instructed.

Ruby startled, as if she’d forgotten what we were doing, then pressed her thumb onto Oka’s forehead.

“Her fur is very soft right there,” Ruby said.

Raven’s pink lines of spirit wrapped around Oka as she sat in in his hands. I looked at him, the sweat beading on his head.

I wanted to ask him a question, but thought better of it as he flinched, his face tight with exertion. What the hell had happened to him? Had they bound his connection to spirit as well? I glanced at his wrists, but there was no fourth bracelet.

I gritted my teeth and reached for spirit. It would hurt, but I would do anything to help Oka.

I braced myself for the pain, but none came. I didn’t question it, just intertwined my own threads with his, creating a beautiful pink blanket around my little cat. And that’s when I felt her.

She was there. Small, barely a blip on the radar of my mind, but she was there.

“Hold onto the spell. Do you feel her?” Raven asked.

I couldn’t speak, so I nodded. She was there.

“Send her strength if you can,” Raven said.

Mac came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. “Take my strength too.”

I didn’t question either of them. I drew from Mac and sent her all the strength the two of us could spare.

Slowly, her presence grew, the connection between us pulsing, like adrenaline coursing through me.

“Mac?”

“I’ve got more, take it,” he breathed into my ear. I drank in his energy and fed it through to her.

I wove more of spirit around her, dragging her out of the darkness of the stone, helping her find her way back to the surface, giving her a light to follow.

The minutes ticked by and the sweat poured from both Raven and me.

I don’t know how long we stood there, feeding Oka the energy she needed to come back to us.

I dared to put a hand on her body. Under my fingers the stone softened and warmed, more with each moment passed, as the breeze gently danced around us.

Ruby had her eyes closed, her thumb tracing lines over her body, the blood sinking into the stone.

Where she touched, her soft peachy orange coat peeked through. Fur fluffed up behind her hand.

I gasped as she did it, slowly, deliberately, uninstructed.

“Begin to pull back,” Raven whispered to me.

I carefully untangled my side of spirit. It took at least another fifteen minutes, but by the time we were done, Ruby had brought every part of her back to life except one spot.

The button of her nose. She hated having her nose bopped.

I wanted to laugh, knowing it was just what she needed to bring her back around.

“Go ahead, Ruby. Give her that one last touch,” I nudged. I was scared to see if she would take a breath. She had to be okay.

I felt her and the connection between us was as strong as ever, but her mind was quiet. She was here. With us. No longer trapped in that stone prison.

Slowly, Ruby reached out with her thumb extended, the one I’d drawn blood from, and smeared it on her nose.

The pink returned, and she sneezed. She actually sneezed, her yellow-green eyes blinking up at us.

“What’s going on?”

She looked up at who was holding her and let out a hiss. “What are you doing touching me, Blackbird?”

I scooped her out of Raven’s hands and held her to my face. She put her paw against my nose, pushing away from me.

“Pamela. What are you doing? Get off me. What happened? Why is Raven here?”

“Oka!” I yelled and crushed her against me again, ignoring her squirming, ignoring the pain in my ribs. Mac leaned over me and pinched one of her ears.

“Welcome back, cat.”

“Can’t breathe here,” she said, but I didn’t relax my hold. Ruby leaned over and added herself to the hug fest, until Oka got squirmy and wriggled away from me. She perched herself neatly on my shoulder, her skin twitching and her fur mussed.

“What happened?” she asked and then her shock hit me. “And why are we surrounded by shifters?”

“You don’t remember what happened?” I asked.

“Not really. I remember the gargoyles.” She held completely still. “You’d been hit …” she trailed off. “And I …”

“You took the wound into yourself. You turned to stone. You saved my life,” I said. She blinked at me and shivered. “Thank you, my friend.”

“I am your familiar. It’s what we do,” she said nonchalantly, but I could feel the love behind it and the empty space in my heart filling. I reached up and pressed her against the side of my face, hugging her awkwardly.

Raven took a step back and brushed his hands together. “Well, my work is done here. Try to stay out of trouble, daughter.”

“Thank you, Raven,” I whispered.

He spun his cloak over his body, and with that, rode spirit away.

I couldn’t believe what we’d just done. That I’d connected with spirit so easily. I looked to my wrist where the bracelet still sat … with a large crack running through it.

Aside from seeing Oka wake from the stone, I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A full week we stayed in the valley. The shifters and the humans fell to working together as easily as if they’d done it for years. Crimson followed Ruby around and in turn ended up watching the other two toddlers.

The crack in my bracelet allowed me some connection to spirit, but not my full power. Enough that I wasn’t completely without it. I would take that, a small prize for all we’d suffered.

Chris had her baby, a little boy.

I wasn’t allowed near him.

That hurt.

Then again, Richard wasn’t allowed near the child either. I saw him outside Chris’s tent.

“Hey, Dick,” I called to him and he glared at me. I smiled. “I’m at least in good company, don’t you think?”

He sighed. “Yes, I suppose we are.”

I left him there because relationships were not my strong suit, as evidenced by my now uncertainty with Mac.

I cared for him, deeply. But what the hell did that mean long term? I did my best not to let my questions get the better of me. I tried to enjoy the peace, enjoy the knowledge that for the moment we were safe, let my body heal once more.

The day we departed, everyone was in high spirits. The next day too. But the third day … the wind shifted and brought with it a bite of cold air that should not have existed this early in the summer months.

We crested a hill, the valley ahead of us wild with the broken road beckoning us forward.

The wind curled around me, as if tugging me backward, and that’s when I heard it.

A long, low howl carried on the wind.

I turned, looking for the source.

“A wolf pack?” Mac asked.

I shook my head. “A lone wolf.”

The sound, though … it was a howl I knew as well as my own voice. My heart knew who it belonged to, but my head was not willing to put the pieces together. We watched as there, at the crest of the hill, a large, lean black wolf with golden eyes appeared.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Mostly because he was no longer twisted, his body no longer stuck between human and wolf.

“Impossible,” I whispered.

But I was wrong.

He was there. Watching us. And he was every bit as frozen as I.

“Who is that?” Oka asked from her perch on my shoulder.

All I could do was breathe his name.

“Alex.”

Afterword

Caravan Witch

Questing Witch Book 2

October 2018!

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Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Contents
- Copyright
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- 4. Three Years Later
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- Chapter 28
- Afterword