Witch's Reign
Date: 2018-01-25 00:00:00+00:00
Description: They think her an underdog against impossible odds... And she will fight tooth and nail to prove them wrong. The first in the plot twisting, heart pounding, magic riddled, USA Today bestselling Desert Cursed series. The Witch's Reign...a land of eternal, unnatural winter ruled by the Ice Witch. In turn she is guarded by three supernatural creatures who wander her lands hunting for unwary souls, killing any who cross their paths. To get to the Witch's Reign, you first must pass through the Dragon's Ground. Full of dragons, who for the record, do not like trespassers. This is where I am headed,
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing
Rights: Copyright 2019 Shannon Mayer. All rights reserved.

Maze Witch

The Questing Witch Series, Book 3

Shannon Mayer

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgments

1. Pamela

2. Alex

3. Pamela

4. Pamela

5. Alex

6. Pamela

Chapter 7

8. Alex

9. Pamela

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

12. Alex

13. Pamela

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

16. Alex

Chapter 17

18. Pamela

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

21. Alex

22. Pamela

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

26. Alex

27. Pamela

Chapter 28

Afterword

Introduction

Maze Witch

A Rylee Adamson Book

The Questing Witch Series #3

My name is Pamela, and I am the most powerful witch the world has ever seen. Only my magic is completely bound away from me, rendering me next to useless.

I’m about to face a witch who makes me look like a child fighting a seasoned general in battle. A witch whose strength lies within the dead, and whose magic I unleashed during my part of destroying the world.

Now she wants me to bow to her, to give her my strength and my magic.

I’ve been stripped of my familiars. Stripped of my magic. And I must face all that lies ahead of me with only the blackest parts of my soul to keep me alive.

If I manage to survive, will I still know who I am, or will I have finally succumbed to the darkness growing inside me?

My name is Pamela, and I’m about to find out that nothing in this broken world is as it seems.

Including my magic.

Acknowledgments

This was a fun, but tough book. I felt a bit like Pam fighting my way through life to get it done. All I can say is that I wouldn’t have gotten the book done without two of my closest, dearest friends and work colleagues.

Caffeine and sugar, you bitches helped me knock this book out, and I couldn’t have done it without you. However, I’ve got to be honest, I really need to see other people now. Exercise, veggies and water are calling to me, reminding me that I really shouldn’t ignore them. But don’t worry, the next deadline that makes me want to cry….I’ll be back at your door, on my knees, begging you to help me.

And you will.

Because you and I both know…I could never truly give you up.

#AuthorTruth

😂

1

Pamela

Where was I? That was the question of the day, and not one that seemed answered anytime soon. Not in the real world I knew, that was for sure.

Panic shot through me like the burn of good whiskey rushing in my veins.

Slow down, take it in, you can figure this out. And that’s a shit metaphor. You’ve never had any fucking whiskey. My mentor’s voice was clear in my mind, even now, and my panic eased enough that I could think clearer with her no-nonsense advice. Years later, she was still with me, still making sure I didn’t fall on my face. I drew a breath. “One step at a time, Pam,” I whispered to myself. “You’ve got this.”

The compound that Stefan and his Breakers occupied had been protected by a wee tiny sorceress who also happened to be my spitting image—only much younger, and much fuller of the black magic I’d been fighting myself. She’d embraced it—apparently.

She and I fought, white magic versus dark, and she’d done something I couldn’t wrap my mind around. Mac—my familiar—and I had been shoved through a vortex. And now I was here. Wherever here was. And Mac was somewhere here too, though nowhere close to me.

“Fucking hell.” I wrinkled my nose, irritation pushing away more of the fear.

I turned slowly. Nothing like starting out your week in another dimension. Because the more I looked, the less I thought I was in the world I knew.

Big green hedges loomed well above my head on either side of me, running into the darkness both ways. There was no obvious light source, but it was illuminated enough for me to see the tiny olive leaves on the shrubberies that made a pitiful attempt to hide the three-inch-long thorns.

I leaned in close to one of the bushes. On the end of each thorn, a drop of clear fluid dangled. I watched one fall and hit the ground, a sizzle snapping through the air.

I drew another deep breath. There was the faintest hint of something burning, a taste of ash in the back of my throat.

Lovely.

The little sorceress had done this? I wasn’t fully sure. Because as powerful as she was, filled with the blackest magic, I didn’t think she was this strong. Which meant she’d likely had help from that right bastard of a warlock.

They’d tag-teamed me.

Despite everything, the image of the young sorceress kept coming into my mind. From her golden hair and blue eyes to the shape of her face and tilt of her lips, she was my spitting image, and that, almost more than anything else, freaked me out.

She could’ve been my sister. She could have been my daughter—had I ever had a child. And I knew in my heart that if I’d let the darkness in and ignored my elemental magic as a child, I could have ended up just like her. She was a perfect example of what my life would have been like had I let the evil claim me.

I paused, waiting for the black magic to comment in my head, something I’d grown used to. “What, nothing from the peanut gallery?”

I did another slow turn, my dark green cloak flaring out around me.

Shockingly, the cheeky-ass magic had nothing to say.

But someone else did, and her voice coiled through the air like a snake poised to strike.

“This place will make you one of us, Pamela. Fight all you like. You cannot beat us, and in the end, there is only one choice.”

The little witch—my doppelganger—spoke softly, but with more maturity than a fifty-year-old. Which meant she was—

“You’re a puppet, you know that? Whoever is controlling you just likes to pull strings. Yours. Mine. You need to fight whoever is doing this!”

I didn’t get the sense she was close. More like watching at a good safe distance, her voice coming amplified with her magic no doubt.

Apparently, I’d scared her enough that she didn’t want to face me. I took a few steps in one direction, and the hedges moved with me as if I were on a walking escalator. Shit. I turned and tried to go the other direction and the bushes shuffled again. As if I were standing still.

“You cannot outrun this place, Pamela. You will see. It will break you and then I will remake you.” Her voice warbled, darkening at the end, deepening. Yeah, that was definitely not the little witch on her own.

Call me paranoid, but I didn’t think it was the warlock coming through her voice either. There was something in the tone that tugged at memories, like a moment in my life I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

“Why don’t you come out and show me just how strong you are then? Or are you afraid of me?” Maybe I could get her out in the open without that warlock backing her.

But then what? Was I going to kill her? Take her down and have one less obstacle in my way?

Even I wasn’t that far gone. She was a child even if she was powerful and twisted. But with spirit once more working for me, I might be able to block her powers.

Again, that was a big fat maybe.

She sighed and a cool wind blew through the hedges, grazing my cheek. I pulled my cloak tighter around myself and shifted my weight, waiting to see if she would show herself after my taunts.

“I see great sadness for you. The more you fight, the more you will lose; the more you try to deny your blood, the hotter it will burn. The injured one will be first to go. But that is your choice. You could stop it all now.” Her voice shifted, deepening, darkening to a husky thrum that had more power in it than I could have imagined possible. Her words sunk into my bones and squeezed each drop of blood in my body until I could do nothing but stand there and shake. “I will let you out if you seal your blood to mine.” A piece of parchment paper floated through the air in front of me, and my hand lifted of its own accord.

A knife spun through the air, the tip aimed right for my thumb.

If I thought I was panicked before, it was nothing to what shot through me at the sight of that glittering blade. I tried to clench my fingers.

I tried to pull back.

But my body was not my own.

I did the only thing I could.

I reached for spirit, the one element I had left to my name, the only bracelet I’d managed to remove so far, leaving the other four. Though the cost had been heavy.

The power of spirit rushed through me, sweet and soothing as it coursed along, pushing back the panic and power that held me in its grip. There was a moment where spirit snapped through my bones, cracking against the other power with a hot rush, then unleashed me from whatever gripped me.

A hiss ripped through the air and I was released. I stumbled back and fell on my ass with a thud that jarred my teeth together. The knife clattered to the ground, bounced once and disappeared.

“Damn you! The bloody cheek of some people,” I shouted at the air. “You and that worthless warlock of yours can go to hell in a flaming handbasket of dog shit!” My pulse pounded in my head and spirit sung through my veins.

I was afraid to let it go.

I’d just gotten the one bracelet off, and the sensation of that dark force around me felt like I couldn’t reach the one element I actually could touch. I pushed onto my feet, shaking and breathing as though I’d just sprinted uphill.

The pressure in the air faded, and with it, whispered one last message.

“When you are ready to submit, this will end. Until then, you will suffer. The maze will teach you that everyone breaks. Everyone gives in to me.” That husky voice laughed and the tone changed in the middle, sliding up an octave until it was the young witch. The paper floated the rest of the way to the ground, and I left it there. I would never sign myself over to this place.

Tension flowed over my wrist where the bracelet had been that held me away from spirit and I yanked my arm up so it was eye level.

“No, NO!” I screamed as a smooth band slid around my wrist. I clawed at it, my fingers sliding through the image.

“You will not need that here.”

I almost went to my knees. Almost. I locked my legs—even shaking as they were—as I stared at the misty band. I could feel spirit still inside me, but it was far away. And there was no pain when I touched it.

My jaw ticked. “I don’t do well with ultimatums, bitch. And the last person who took my element from me died.”

No, I wasn’t calling the little witch a bitch. Not for one second did I think this was all her. There was no way. The voice, the actions, they belonged to someone else, someone darker, stronger and far more mature in their manipulations than the child I’d faced.

I just had to piece together what was going on, where I was, and how the hell I was getting me and Mac out. There was no way that little witch was powerful enough to conjure something like this. And that husky voice, that deep power that I’d felt in my bones was not her, or she would have used it against me when I’d faced her at the compound.

On her own, she could not have trapped me and Mac here in this magical maze, leaving my caravan without a witch.

That warlock had a hand in this too; I was certain. And when I got my hands on him and whoever else was in on this . . .

I didn’t finish the thought as a lance of pain shot through me and sent me to my hands and knees, gasping for breath. Not my own pain, though, but one of my familiars.

Mac’s.

The injured one will be first to go. The little witch’s threat fueled a new spurt of panic through me. Mac was injured—badly. He needed me to pull my shit together and ignore the fact that spirit had been snagged from me again. At least it wasn’t fully blocked, just . . . dulled, damped.

I had to find Mac first, and not wallow in the fear threatening to choke me.

My plan—as far as I had one—was simple.

Get to Mac and get the hell out of this place. My life was with the caravan. With the kids. Goddess, the thought of Richard and his plan to get the kids to the Haven, some mystical place of safety out east, seemed far away.

All of it seemed far away, standing in the dark, poison dripping from hedges, Mac’s pain thrumming through me. Like someone else’s life.

I reached up for the space Oka so often occupied on my shoulder, her tiny body and slight weight something I wanted more than ever. My fingers, of course, found nothing. I’d sent the sassy cat and Alex back to the caravan with the food for Richard and the others.

I was alone. Again. Not even Oka at my side where she’d been a solid, stoic friend for the last three years, and the thought brought tears to the corners of my eyes. I dashed them away and shook my head as I took a few steps, trying to figure out if I could actually head in Mac’s direction.

“You have to get going,” I said to myself.

The hedge shifted and moved with each step I took so I was always in the middle of the plants. I just kept walking, holding tightly to my connection to Mac, using it to guide me.

My mind wandered back to Oka and Alex. I shouldn’t have left them behind. But even that regret didn’t ring true—it was selfish and more than that, foolish. I didn’t want them trapped here with Mac and me. They were safe with the caravan and that was about the only silver lining I could see in this dark cloud I’d found myself in.

Could I find Oka this far away from her? Find comfort in feeling her presence? I put a hand to my heart, reaching for her, and Alex, too, and for just a brief moment, I felt them—even if it was as if they were a million miles away.

Worry flowed from them to me and . . . determination.

I blew out a shuddering breath. They were okay.

I closed my eyes. “Thank the goddess, you are safe, Oka.” The moment I said her name, there came a tugging sensation, and the images in my mind flickered. It took me a moment to grasp what was happening.

I was seeing through Oka’s eyes, from the ground, watching what was happening at the caravan.

Everyone was passing out food. Marley was helping, happily chattering next to Alex, who looked over at Oka. Her head bobbed.

“Hurry,” Oka said. “We have to get back to the compound.”

Alex’s jaw tightened and he handed off another box of food. “I know. I know.”

Oka turned her head and Jasmine came into view, just off to the side, her eyes locked on Alex. She was eating what looked like a whole chicken alongside a few of the shifters.

No surprise there. She was, as always, looking out for herself and no one else. One day that would bite her in the ass. She’d try to take something that wasn’t hers and she’d get her comeuppance.

I opened my mouth to speak to Oka and the scene shattered, breaking into a thousand glittering pieces of glass, each with a piece of the image scored on it. Like a puzzle torn apart.

The scene was gone as I opened my eyes. A flare of warmth rolled through me, my connection to Oka bright, shining, and full of comfort . . . and just as suddenly there was nothing.

“What is this?” I put my hand to my chest. There was only one other time that I’d felt this loss of connection to Oka, as if it had been cut out of me.

When she’d been turned to stone by the gargoyles.

The urge to claw at my chest was so strong, I had to clench my hands to keep from doing just that.

“We can’t have you being rescued.” The husky voice crawled through the air. “While you are here, you may not have your familiars to lean on. This is your test, not theirs.”

I clutched at my shirt. I might as well have been naked. Stripped completely of my bond to my familiars. It hurt, stinging and sharp now that I pinpointed what had been done. But how? How was she stripping me of my familiars and binding spirit, even a little bit? How was this creature so strong?

“Maybe none of this is real,” I said, forcing my feet to keep moving. “Maybe I hit my head. And I’ll wake up.”

Hell, maybe I was dead, and this place was my punishment for all the dark things I’d done in my life. I had to physically stop as that thought took root and the world spun, the blood in my body seeming to sink to my feet. Dead. Could I have been killed? Could I be in hell?

I thought about the moment when I’d been stuffed here. There had been a bright light and I’d been sucked somewhere else. My connection to those alive was gone.

Much as I didn’t like it, I had to accept that it was at least on the spectrum of possibility.

I took a deep, shuddering breath and blew it out, sending the idea of being dead with it. “Unrealistic at best, idiot,” I chastised myself. “You wouldn’t have been able to sense Mac, or Oka, even for those few minutes.” But how did I know? Maybe that was how death worked.

But the truth was there was nothing I could do but push that idea from my mind. Dead or alive, I had to keep going. I had to find Mac. I had to get us out of here.

Hope—as thin as the thread might be—was about all I had going for me.

I forced my feet to at least shuffle in the direction I’d been walking, hoping it would take me to Mac. I couldn’t sense him, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try to find him.

The caravan, Oka and Alex, they were all okay. I felt it in my bones, a certainty that I didn’t really understand but trusted. For now, everyone was safe; well, that was if you didn’t count me and Mac.

Step after step, the maze adjusted itself around me. “Mac? Can you hear me?” I called out, and the words hung heavy in the air as if they’d been damped down, just like my connection to spirit.

Whether it was this place or the witch and warlock and whatever else I was dealing with, my connection to anything that gave me strength had been hammered into nothing. I was being separated from those I loved, from those I’d fought for.

I think the maze will break you, the young witch’s voice echoed in my mind, her last words to me before she sent me and Mac here.

The leaves in the hedge moved unnaturally on my left and I whipped around to face it. Or tried. I turned and the maze turned with me, which made my head spin and my stomach roll with nausea.

“Fuckers,” I snapped, fear and frustration making me sweat. I stood still and looked to my left without moving my head. Although I felt no breeze on my skin, the hedge leaves bent as though being blown. I watched them with a wary eye, wondering just how big a pile of ogre shit I’d plowed into this time.

The rustling grew louder, and the little light around me began to dim.

“Seriously?” I growled the word as the hedge slowly disappeared, engulfed in darkness one second at a time.

Panic clawed at me. The maze should move with me, but if it didn’t, I’d be walking into the poison hedge in no time.

The darkness fell like a weighted cloak around me. I couldn’t see my hands, couldn’t so much as pretend I could see in front of me. I drew my curved zombie slayers, holding them tightly, the handles warm under my fingers. My magic and familiars might have been taken from me, but I was far from defenseless, and someone was about to get really hurt if they snuck up on me.

“Mac. If that’s you, you’d better say something, or I’ll cut you in half.” I spoke clearly, boldly.

There was the soft thud of steps. Please let it be Mac. Because if it wasn’t him, it would undoubtedly be an asshole of a monster.

My years of training, of surviving, took over as I prepared to fight, settling my body into a half crouch and holding the blades at my sides. It had been a long time since I’d fought alone—truly alone—but I could do it. I’d show that little witch, and that damn warlock, and whoever else was helping them that I was made of more than darkness and magic. I’d been trained for this by one of the best fighters this world had ever seen.

I blew a slow breath out and let my body sink into a quiet moment, waiting for whatever was coming my way.

“A simple parlor trick of turning out the lights won’t scare me,” I said out loud.

Never mind the fact that I was scared shitless and spitless, my mouth dry as a desert day. My hands were still steady, and in a fight, that’s what counted. My knuckles were probably white from how hard I gripped my blades, but without any light, no one would see that. My fear didn’t travel beyond my own mind.

A light smell of something burning tickled at my nose and in the back of my throat, but otherwise nothing stirred the darkness around me. The breeze that had shaken the hedge never reached me, bringing no clue of what—or who—was coming. No scent to tell me if it was a beast on its way to gobble me up. No clomping feet through the hedge. Nothing but movement dancing through those leaves that I couldn’t see anymore. That quiet rustle was damn unnerving.

I blew out another breath. “Come on now, don’t be shy.”

There was no answer. As though I’d been swallowed up, just like my own darkness wanted to do to me, as though I’d sunk to the bottom of the ocean and found this place of nothingness.

Thoughts of being dead rolled through me again. Because the sensation of literally being nothing, floating in nothing, was so intense, my skin broke out in beads of cold sweat.

Jaw clenched, I blinked rapidly as if that would help brush away the unnatural black.

I don’t know how long I stood there. Could have been minutes, could have been hours. I lost sense of time, and right before I went to my knees, the tiniest bit of the darkness broke. So small, I wasn’t sure I wasn’t seeing things.

A light blinked in the distance. Hesitant and small, but it was a light. I leaned forward and squinted, still keeping a firm grip on my blades. It looked like a tiny pair of lights, but they were there and gone before I could be totally sure.

“Come on,” I whispered as if I could coax them back to life.

A flash of blue—albeit a tiny flash—and the little lights were back. But this time they stayed and I could focus on them. Brilliant tiny blue lights, side by side, floating in the darkness. And then another pair next to them emerged from the shadows, only they were pink. Then a green pair, and a yellow set immediately after.

More and more until all the colors of the rainbow added to their numbers. I was utterly surrounded, at least at a distance. They didn’t come closer, and because of that, their light didn’t illuminate much of the space around me, as if they were only allowed that tiny bit of light. Were they trapped here too? Or were they here to harm me?

They danced in front of me, blinking occasionally, and I decided they looked like fireflies.

It had been ages since I’d seen a real firefly. I’d conjured the blinking bugs for the kids in the caravan, and Oka had enjoyed chasing them as much as the kids.

But the more I watched the dancing lights, the more uneasy I got.

Like a standoff, the silence stretched between us, neither making a move closer or farther away.

A pair of them, huge, green glowing orbs blinked. Not like the others, slower . . .

Like a pair of eyes and not the blinking orbs they had been only a moment before.

Movement swayed and that pair of eyes drew closer.

2

Alex

“We need to go,” I said under my breath with a quick glance at Oka. The orange tabby’s eyes narrowed and her tail lashed side to side as people from the caravan worked around her, grabbing food off the truck, laughing and talking, excited to see so much bounty.

The bottom of the ravine where the caravan sat was about two miles across with a narrow river running closer to the southern edge that provided clean water and potentially food. Trees dotted the flat bottom and the people and shifters had set up a decent home base with tents, makeshift shelters and a number of fire pits. We stood above them all on the edge of the ravine, hand bombing the goods we’d snagged down a conveyance line of people to the bottom where the rest waited.

“I know it too, wolf. But Pam asked us to return the food to Richard and the caravan. Hurry that up and we can go.” Oka closed her eyes and rubbed a paw over her head.

I handed off another box, doing exactly what she suggested. Moving faster was all I had to do. Pam was out there somewhere, and I knew in the very fibers of my existence that I—we—needed to get to her. I couldn’t say why, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Pam was in trouble. My lips twitched just a fraction of an inch. When was she not?

Of course, nothing was going as I’d planned.

Surprise, surprise, Jasmine was making things the most difficult, but not in the way I would have thought. I already knew that I’d be taking her with me. That was the smart move, to keep an eye on her. And it couldn’t hurt to have an extra set of eyes on the road to finding Pam.

Jasmine had done a complete 180. Sure, she ate a whole chicken on her own, but really, she’d stepped up after she’d finished it off.

Jasmine helped to hand out the food, made sure everyone had something to eat and then went on to take the medication we’d grabbed to our nurse. After everything she’d pulled on Pam—stabbing her, trying to turn the caravan on her, and even going so far as to hurt Marley—I didn’t trust her any farther than I could throw her. But part of me still wanted to trust the she-werewolf, and her change in attitude pushed me in that direction. We’d been through a lot together since I’d found her crying at the side of a trail the year before. And to have another ally in the fight to keep the caravan up and moving would have been ideal.

I never really regretted taking her on. Not until the moment Crimson told me she was swatting the hornet’s nest. I had ninety-nine problems and Jasmine shouldn’t have been one of them. And here she was, throwing all of us off balance yet again.

By being nice, of all things.

To be fair, she was never a joy, a sparkling light of happiness. Not like little Marley. Just thinking about that young wolf made me smile. She was hard-working, eager to please, kind to a fault—not good qualities for surviving this world, but the kind that needed to be passed on. Jasmine, on the other hand, just wanted a strong mate so she could have strong pups and secure her place in a pack. She’d glommed onto me, thinking I could be that for her, but my heart had never really been in it. I wasn’t that kind of wolf to just shack up with anyone. And besides, this wasn’t a pack. Not like Jasmine wanted. It was three wolves, a bunch of shifters, and even more humans.

I shook my head, trying not to focus on her or her motives for her new attitude. Just get to the truck, I kept reminding myself. Get to the truck, and get to Pam.

Leaving Pam behind like we’d had to do, that had about torn my heart out.

“Almost done, cat,” I muttered under my breath.

Crimson, the cougar shifter, lifted an eyebrow. “I know we are. And don’t call me cat, wolf.”

I handed her the last box. “Sorry, I meant Oka.”

Crimson nodded. “Still rude.”

I turned to see Oka perched on a rock near the truck, her face pointed in the direction we’d come, the direction we’d left Pam. “Anything?”

Oka was Pam’s first familiar. She’d been her familiar longest, so I hoped her connection was the strongest and she would be able to pinpoint our girl for us. It stood to reason she’d be the first to feel her the closer we got. Mac, of course, Pam’s second familiar, had stayed with her.

I was still new to the game, and learning what it felt like to be a familiar—if that was indeed what I was. I frowned. It seemed Pam collected familiars like some people collected strays. Every time I turned around, she had another one.

“Can you feel nothing?” Oka twitched an ear in my direction.

I shrugged. “I’m not even sure what I feel. You know what I mean?”

“I do not claim to understand the canine species.” Oka tensed. “But my concern is that my connection to Pamela is fading.”

Cold rippled down my spine. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb.” Oka turned her chartreuse eyes my way and they slowly narrowed. “Can you still sense her connection to you?”

I shook my head. “I got nothing. I was counting on you leading us to her.”

Oka shivered, and for just a second, the flash of worry and fear that shot through her danced along my own nerve endings.

I could feel Oka’s fear?

“Should I be able to sense you like this?” I said. “I mean . . .”

“Yes. Familiars tied to the same elemental can connect with one another. I can still sense Mac. He will be with her. We find Mac, we find Pam.”

Unless she was dead. Was that even possible? Was it possible that she’d died and that was why Oka couldn’t sense her?

My guts churned. “Let’s go.” I glanced back, saw Richard and gave him a wave. The leader of the caravan waved back, confusion on his face. I mouthed a single word.

Pamela.

Richard gave a slow nod, his mouth tightening into a grim line. If Pamela wasn’t here, the entire caravan was at risk. Even with as many shifters as there were, the dangers the humans had faced recently had shown just how ugly this world could be.

I bent and scooped up Oka, placing her on my shoulder just like she would have sat on Pam.

“I can walk,” she said as she lay across the back of my neck.

“Yeah, but you’re slow,” I threw back. “So, let’s get Jasmine. We’ll keep her close and that will keep her out of trouble—”

I broke off and turned as the sound of running feet tugged at my ears.

“Hey, wait up. I need to tell you something.” Our newcomer jogged up the path behind us. Wade was his name, and he’d been camping with Stefan and the Breakers until a few short hours ago.

He’d protected Oka from Stefan and helped us escape the compound. He’d shown us a way out and had jumped in to unload the truck without even being asked.

But he was still a Breaker and that meant I wasn’t trusting him, not yet at least. There was still a chance he could be a spy. More than that, it was like I could almost smell the secrets he held tightly, a smell from my past that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Those memories that tugged at me put me on edge.

Secrets in this world could get people killed, and in a damn hurry.

“Busy, Wade,” I said. “It can wait till we get back.” I took a quick look into the truck. We had enough fuel to get us to the compound and back again and that would have to be enough.

I pulled my head out and Oka’s claws dug in, her eyes closed to mere slits. “You smell that?”

I turned and lifted my nose just as the wind rushed over us.

The smell tickled the back of my throat and my mouth filled with saliva even though my belly was full for the first time in weeks. Survival over the years had taught me to eat when the food was there. And the animals that had roamed this land had been gone for over a month. A witch had bound the land with a spell, chasing the wildlife away and effectively starving the caravan, forcing us to move in the direction the witch pushed.

If we hadn’t raided the compound and brought food to our people, they would’ve died.

But now, right there, just ahead of us, the scent of food tugged my nose and eyes to the west.

A doe, plump, with two fawns at her sides flicked her oversized ears at us. Mule deer. Her eyes were on us, and she stood stock still, knowing the smell of a predator as well as I knew the smell of prey.

“The curse on the land,” Oka breathed. “Pam must’ve broken it!”

The deer bounded away, tail flicking in the air, her fawns bouncing with her.

I grinned. “Damn straight, she did!”

As soon as I spoke, my thoughts darkened. But at what cost to Pam? What did she have to do? Was she hurt, was that why the witch released the curse on the land? No. I had to keep my thoughts away from that line or I would drive myself crazy. We were leaving right now. Pam and Mac would meet us part way and tell us how they’d bested the warlock and little witch.

I clung to that lie with all my heart. Knowing it for exactly what it was.

Behind us, Wade pushed past Richard. “Alex, I need to speak with you before you leave. It’s important.”

I grimaced. “You’ll be fine here, Wade. Richard is a good man, and this is a good caravan. Pull your weight and they’ll embrace you.”

He reached for me. “No, listen—”

Jasmine sidled next to me and slipped her arm through mine, tossing a dirty look at Wade. “Go help them unload. I need to speak to my mate.”

I shook her arm off, irritation flowing through me making my words sharp. “Jasmine, you’re coming with me.”

She fluttered her eyes. “Of course, I am. Where you go, I go.”

Oka snorted. “She’s not a very good actress. What’s she up to?”

Damned if I knew.

Wade pushed himself between me and Jasmine. I held up my hands. “Look, I’ve got enough troubles right now without—”

“The animals are back,” Wade said.

“I know.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “It’s good. You can help the caravan hunt when the time comes.”

Wade sighed and ground his teeth. “I can help you, but only so much. I have to be careful with what I say. With who sees me talking to you. And you. . .” he looked at me and then at Oka, “you two need to be careful.”

“I appreciate your concern, but we’re doing our best out here.” I turned to walk away, but he grabbed my arm, fingers digging in hard.

“You don’t understand,” he insisted.

I looked down at his hand on my arm, the wolf in me rising, a low growl trickling past my lips, and slowly he let me go. But he wasn’t afraid. If anything, he locked eyes with me in a direct challenge.

I narrowed my eyes. “Either you’ve got brass balls, or you don’t deal with wolves very often.”

His body language didn’t soften, not an inch. “I know werewolves. I know shifters. And I know . . . elementals.” He finally looked away, but it was out past the caravan on the open plain above the ravine.

“Enlighten me,” I growled, a menacing edge to my voice that I didn’t try to hold back. He’d stepped over a line, so whatever he had better be worth pissing me off, and slowing me down.

“There are others watching me. Watching all of us now.”

“You mean more of Stefan’s Breakers?” I closed the distance between us using my size to push him back a step. “We trusted you to come with us to the caravan. Are they in danger?”

His expression turned serious and he didn’t step back from me. “I told you I’d keep them safe. And I’ll hold to that. I always keep my word. But we are being watched, especially me. Especially the cat.” He hesitated as if looking for the right words to explain. I shook my head. Riddles weren’t my thing, and I didn’t care to spend time on them right now. I took a step back, and turned to walk away, but Oka stopped me.

“What do you think he means?” she asked.

I started to answer. Wade beat me to it.

“I mean the elementals. They’re watching me. Us. All of us.”

That slowed me down. The elemental world was one I knew only a little about, but I did know that those who ruled it were powerful, fickle, and downright deadly. They hid in their elemental homes, a part of the world and yet separate. So why were they watching us?

Much as I hated to slow for anything, I needed to know what exactly Wade was getting at.

“Why are they watching you? And what cat?” I asked.

A bird flew overhead, and with it came a flurry of bird calls to the south. Just standing there, I could feel the world come back to life with every passing second.

I watched Wade, watched his face as he seemed to struggle with how to answer me. We didn’t need more problems, yet there was no doubt in my mind that was exactly what Wade was bringing me. Another problem. Damn it, this was exactly why secrets were bad. They came out at the worst possible time, every fucking time.

“You’re an elemental,” Oka said. “You answered me, which means you heard me.”

Secret number one. I pulled my kukri blade from the sheath on my thigh and used it to point at him. “Is that true?”

He nodded, his hands spread wide at his sides. “Things have changed. Our reluctance to be a part of this world was broken when the world shattered.”

My jaw ticked. “Any of this pertinent to me going back to get Pamela right now?”

Jasmine sidled up next to me again. “Maybe you should hear what he has to say.” Her tone was soft and disarming, which only made my guard go up more. I eyed her skeptically, wondering just what the hell she was up to, and Wade started talking again.

“No, I mean the changes are not just for you, or the caravan, or the magic here,” he insisted. “Changes occurred for everyone. The elementals have no rules anymore. They can wander at will without fear of the madness that used to come if they left their homes for too long. After the Rending, they . . . well, we, were freed from our homes, and many chose to explore this new world at will, curious how far they could push the boundaries. Turns out when there are none, you can drift a long way from home.”

I lowered the knife and with my other hand rubbed my face. I had a feeling he was working his way up to a point.

“Fine. So the elementals are free. What’s wrong with that? They’re no threat to us,” I said. “Watching is not the same as killing. They can be Peeping Toms for all I care at this point as long as they don’t try to fuck us over.”

“I know that,” Wade said. “But elementals don’t watch anything they don’t think is worth their time.”

I slid the knife back into the sheath. “I’m going to need you to get to the point. Now.”

Wade clenched his fists and then relaxed his fingers, fear pouring off him like a faint cologne. “Some elementals believe they should be in control of everything. That they should enslave the humans as they had done for generations in small batches.”

“How long do they normally do this watching business before they jump into an attack-and-destroy mode exactly?”

Wade shook his head. Oka snorted.

“That is of no help, Elemental.” She curled her lips up. “Your warning is no warning when you know the caravan would be a sitting duck for even one elemental without Pam. And you are slowing us from retrieving her.”

“I know, but—” Wade started to speak, and I interrupted him.

“The caravan is heavily armed now that we have Stefan’s stash. We have a good number of shifters and apparently an elemental in our midst.” I gave him a pointed look. “You’ll all be fine until we get back with Pam, right?” I watched him closely.

“You and I both know that elementals will make short work of the caravan should they choose,” Wade said, his voice low.

“Then don’t piss them off,” Oka said. “Lie if you have to, but don’t piss them off.”

If the elementals so chose, it wouldn’t matter how many guns our people had. Although guns were a lot more effective on supernaturals after the Rending, I would still put my money on the elementals.

The frustration rolling off Wade was nearly palpable. “The elementals want us all—all the houses of the elementals—to choose a side. We either help them restore the old ways where the elementals rule, or we die,” Wade explained.

“Not much of a choice,” Oka said.

“I always thought elementals were just a story,” Jasmine interjected, her eyes full of worry. “Maybe we should stay behind and care for the caravan.” Her words weren’t laced with sarcasm or anything else I’d come to expect from her. But maybe this was what she was driving at all along. Maybe her flip-flop in attitude was just a tactic to get us to let her stay.

“No. We go after Pamela,” I said sternly. “She’s strong enough to face elementals.”

Jasmine nodded, ever the beta, but more eager to please me than normal. “Of course, Alex. I just want to help however I can.”

I eyed her before turning back to Wade. One problem at a time. “So, a band of elementals is hunting you to make you choose a side. The reality is, if they get close, you’ll stay behind to deal with them. To choose your side.”

“No. It isn’t that simple,” he said. “I wish it were.”

“For the love of the Mother Goddess, make it simple,” I said, slamming the truck door shut and turning to face him. “We’ve wasted enough time standing here, you telling me things that may or may not happen, things I can do nothing about!”

“I’m not sure what he’s driving at either, Alex, but it seems important,” Oka said softly, her words an attempt to calm me. The truth was, her words did just that. They slowed my heart rate and helped me to push away the frustration for the moment.

“Nothing is more important than getting to Pam right now, and this is holding us up because Wade here can’t spit it the fuck out.” Okay, so maybe I’d not calmed as much as I’d thought. My voice echoed in the treetops and sent a few archies into the air. The birds that had always been so plentiful would’ve been a welcome sight if I weren’t so anxious about the holdup.

Secret number two was about to be laid on me.

“The thing is, you won’t be the only ones looking for her, for your caravan witch,” Wade said, and I caught something more in his eye. Danger I didn’t want to see. Danger and resignation.

“What do you mean?” I asked warily, not sure I wanted to hear the answer.

Oka was the one to pick up what he was throwing down, putting the pieces together faster than me. She stood on my shoulder, her body fluffing up as her hair stood on end.

“That’s ridiculous. Why would the elementals be looking for her? They bound her power. They’re the ones who got her in the spot she’s in with her magic in the first place. They’re done with her.”

But even I could hear the worry in her voice, the worry that indeed, the elementals were far from done with Pam.

Wade nodded, his eyes tired. “That’s true. They are done with her. And they know she broke one of the bands.”

“So what? She still has four others. It’s not like she’s any kind of threat to them,” Oka persisted. “Especially bound as she is.”

Wade took a step closer. “Listen to what I am saying, Oka. They won’t let her get any further with anything. They’re done with her. They’re on the hunt now. And if they don’t hunt to kill, they’ll enslave her for the rest of her life.”

Oka sucked in a sharp breath and I struggled to breathe normally. Because how the hell were we going to stop elementals, beings who could control the world around us more than any witch, any mage or wizard?

The answer was simple, we couldn’t.

But Pam could.

“Time to go.” I opened the truck door and slid in. “We’ve got to find her, and find her fast.” I paused and looked out the window. “Wade, you tell Richard what you told me. Get the caravan moving to the east. Toward the Haven.”

That was our only chance now for the group. The mythical Haven that was a respite to all those who needed it.

Let the Mother Goddess help us get there. And let her help us find Pam before the elementals.

3

Pamela

The flickering lights around me in the maze, ducking and diving, blinked on and off, disorienting me even as they gave me something to see by. Another time, I would have thought them pretty, delicate, like multicolored fireflies. Here though, they gave me little to see by, enough movement to make me dizzy.

“Little pricks,” I muttered as much to hear something in this place as to call them out. Assuming they were even sentient.

From the little light I had, I could see that the poisoned hedges had solidified into a solid wall. I stepped closer to it, squinting. The stone was etched as though the greenery had actually solidified and the leaves and thorns had become fossilized. I dared to lift my hand and run it over the stone.

Warm and smooth, the stone was just stone without a drop of poison on it.

As if I’d been imagining things.

As if the maze and those who ran it wanted me to feel crazy, wanted me to second-guess myself over and over.

“Who am I kidding? Of course, they do. Bloody arrogant buggers.” I pulled my hand back as a shiver crawled down my spine, as if someone just walked over my grave.

I peered into the darkness and blinked, not sure I’d seen what I’d seen. I blinked again, and a figure appeared, there and gone in the light of two tiny green orbs. A shadow of a person.

“Hello?” I called out even as I tightened my hands on my blades.

Movement to my right spun me around and another form appeared, only to dissolve as quickly as it had shown itself.

There was no face, no eyes, no solid image that told me if the shapes were male or female. Human, I’d say, but other than that, I couldn’t have guessed.

To my left something moved, and I did a sharp turn to try to catch it.

Again, it was there long enough for me to register a shape, then gone before I could do anything else.

“Cowards!” I yelled out. “Stand and face me!”

My shout echoed out through the darkness.

As the sound faded, the eyes that watched me disappeared, one by one, the firefly lights blinking out, leaving me in total darkness once more.

As strange and disorienting as they’d been, I wished they were still lighting the maze.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath.

I made myself reach for my connection to the fire element. Blocked by the band on my wrist, I knew it would be difficult if not near impossible to even produce the smallest of flames.

But I had to try.

As ridiculous as it was, I closed my eyes in the dark. Maybe because it gave me the sense that I’d chosen to be in the dark rather than being sent plunging into it by some nameless witch.

I reached for the fire I knew was there, somewhere deep in me, and a sharp bolt of pain cut through my middle. That bolt rippled outward as though I’d been slashed by a fiery blade and the wound blazed with heat. Mocking me with the fire I’d once had complete control over.

I gritted my teeth and reached again, pushing past the pain. “It’s mine!”

Use the darkness, you stubborn git. My black magic seemed to shake its head at me.

“I will not. That’s what they want!”

I bit the words out with difficulty, sweating as I fought to get past the band on my wrist. I knew it could be done. I knew I could if I just—

An image of the elemental who held the band floated through my mind, her smug smile and bright red hair labeling her clearly. “I think not, Pammy.”

Heat slammed into me, picked me up off my feet and threw me against the far wall. I hit the stone hard enough to rattle my teeth. My body slid to the floor and I sat there breathing hard, struggling to get past the shock of that blast.

Fear set in that I hadn’t known since I was a child when I’d been held captive by a pair of trolls hell-bent on selling me off to the highest bidder. That had been before Rylee rescued me, before I’d truly embraced my power.

With a shaking hand, I reached out for the wall behind me.

I might not have light, but I had to move. Movement meant survival in my world. Sitting still meant withering away. And I wasn’t a witch—or a girl—who withered. I took a deep breath and tried to talk myself through this.

“It will be okay, even without fire. Without light. I’ll find Mac, and together we will make our way out. Just like we have everything else.”

I’d faced worse things than phantom voices in the dark, weird blinking lights, a maze with no ending that I could see. Right?

Right.

Even I didn’t believe my inner dialogue.

I took a blind step forward, holding one hand out in front of me, the other against the wall to my left. I walked, counting the steps which gave me an idea of time.

Five minutes, three hundred steps to be exact, passed before anything happened.

The wall to my left fell away.

“Shit.” I backed up to find it. Only it was gone. No more barrier, as if I’d been walking along with nothing the whole time.

Panic and more panic warred for space in my mind. How big was this space? Weren’t there walls a moment ago? How would I ever get one step ahead when I couldn’t figure out a bloody single thing?

Light. I needed light; that was all there was to it. My fire element would’ve been excellent right about then, but that bitch holding the other end of my tether had already smacked me once.

But maybe she’d think I’d given up. Maybe if I tried again, maybe just a little tiny thread of fire.

I already knew the answer. This was not the first time I’d tried to reach an element in the last three years. Fear and the need to survive were powerful motivators, and at the same time, could make you stupid.

This was a stupid moment.

Once the seed was planted, the thought grew like a weed in my mind. As I blinked in the darkness, I wondered what exactly I had to lose besides another spanking by the elemental.

Funny how hindsight is always twenty-twenty.

“Just a little light,” I whispered. “Tiny, a flicker at the end of my finger even.”

That’s all I needed. It wouldn’t take much to cut through this thick darkness. Hell, a birthday candle would be better than what I had now which was absolutely nothing. I sucked in a breath, and tentatively reached for the warmth of my fire element for the second time.

And there it was. The fire inside me was as warm as I’d ever felt, and I carefully coaxed it, let it flow through me, and down to my hand. The warmth and power felt like home; like a piece of my very existence coming back to me. This would work, that bitch hadn’t even noticed this time. No doubt, she thought I wouldn’t try to reach my element so soon after getting my ass kicked. The thought cheered me on, so I let it grow just a little, just enough to make the tiniest little flame.

But no flame came.

The redheaded elemental came instead, her image flooding my mind, her head thrown back as she laughed. “Stupid, stupid, witch.”

Pain rocked my body and cast me to the unseen ground. Flames exploded from the bracelet and crawled over my entire body, catching the edges of my clothes on fire, then the tips of my hair. The smell reminded me of roasting Roe’s leg, the ogre who’d dared to cross me, and it turned my stomach. An animalistic scream escaped me as the heat intensified.

I was going to be burned alive by my own magic if I didn’t do something.

I blinked away tears as the heat overwhelmed me, closing my throat, making it hard to breathe. I rolled, trying to extinguish the flames. Stop, drop, and roll, right? Except magical flames were a bit more persistent than the average everyday kind.

The light from my burning body cast an eerie glow on the space, and I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye while I rolled, trying desperately to keep the flames from eating me alive.

I wrapped myself in my cloak, praying to the Mother Goddess that the magic in it would snuff the light. The cloak covered me like a cool balm and I rolled, over and over, cocooned in the material.

Slowly, the flames receded, but the pain didn’t. I lay there wrapped in my cloak as I sucked wind hard, trying to catch my breath. Every inhale lifted my chest, and made my skin tighten, the burns digging deep through all the layers of skin and fat, through the muscle to touch my bones. Tears streamed from my eyes and I held as still as I could while the whimpers leaked out of me.

I was afraid to touch my skin, fearing it would flake off in charbroiled pieces like chunks of overdone barbecue. But I couldn’t lie here forever. I had to move. I had to keep going.

Illusions. It’s all illusions. My black magic sounded tired. Like it—she—was as done with this place as I was.

“How do you know?”

Your own magic can’t truly be turned on you. You won’t burn from your own flames. But your mind could be tricked into thinking you are burning.

Eventually, curiosity got the best of me, and I rubbed my thumb along the inside of my hand. It was soft. Not crispy or charred at all.

Illusions. Just like the voice within my black magic had said. I didn’t know if I should thank it or if that would encourage it to try to take me over again.

Finally I opened my eyes and found my body unmarked by the burning. More than that, though, was the realization that the darkness had faded and I could see.

I glanced up, and then scooted backward on my ass. The fire elemental—or salamander as they were known in the elemental world—stood only a few feet from me. Unlike the spirit element I’d killed, this fire elemental didn’t look haughty or satisfied with my struggle. If anything, she looked confused.

Her confusion was enough to give me some confidence. I struggled to sit up as the pain let go of me, sloughing off like a second skin.

Could she be helping the witch who’d tossed me here? At this point, nothing was beyond possible.

I just needed to get answers from her.

Carefully I pushed to my knees, my body aching as if I’d been pummeled repeatedly with a burning stick. I locked eyes with her.

“You put me here?”

She shook her head. “No, I did not. Your arrogance put you here.”

My jaw dropped. “That’s rich coming from an elemental!”

Her face flushed and her eyes narrowed until they were barely open. “I would think that you’d learned your lesson.”

She lifted her hand and I stood, bringing up my blades, crossing them in front of me. I could catch magic with them.

Maybe I could catch magic fire too.

There was a popping noise, like a bubble bursting, and the light around us dimmed. She turned her head as if she saw something behind her and then she faded, her image disappearing.

“We are not done.” Her voice echoed across to me.

“No, we are not,” I snapped.

For just a moment, I was fearless and bold, the person I knew myself to be, and then the light was completely gone and I was plunged once more into the darkness.

I closed my eyes as panic reared its stupid ugly head.

The darkness, and more than that, the inability to get away from it, was doing the trick. That little sorceress might have been right. This place, this maze, would break me, and it wouldn’t take long at the rate I was traveling.

Real, not real, I had no idea what I was up against.

I can help you light your way, my mother’s magic said softly. There was a seductive edge to it that I knew all too well.

“And then they win. That is what they want. So forgive me for sounding stupid, but I will deny it—and you—as long as I can.”

You are too dumb to think that you can do this without me. Likely you’ll die before you realize the truth of yourself and all your abilities. She paused and muttered one final word. Idiot.

I was not an idiot, but I was scared and that would make me stupid. I sat on my knees breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth, keeping my heart slow and steady. Focus was what I needed, to draw on what I’d been taught about survival. Time was on my side in the darkness at least. I could sit there as long as necessary in order to get my composure back.

Never mind the caravan and the danger they might be in. Never mind Mac, Oka, or Alex. They could wait. The lies rolled around in my head like ocean waves, trying, and failing, to comfort me. But I had to speak the lies, if only to myself. Right now, this was about me, because until I got my shit straightened out, I was no good to anyone. Not even Mac.

“You’ve got to pull it together,” I fisted my hands at my sides, digging the nails into my palms.

What was I supposed to do? For the first time, it seemed like this situation, this place, might be something I couldn’t get myself out of. Maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t strong enough to save myself, let alone Mac.

That thought struck me hard like a poison dart straight to the heart.

How many times had my familiars come to my rescue? I’d lost count with Oka, and Mac had saved me at least twice in the short time we’d known each other.

Maybe I was not as strong as I’d always believed.

Maybe I was still that little girl hoping to be rescued by her mentor.

Tears sprang to my eyes at the thought, and I wondered what would happen to everyone when they realized I wasn’t coming back.

Oka, Alex, and Mac. Mac, goddess, would he be okay? Would he find a way out of this maze? But I knew that answer. As long as he thought I was alive, he’d keep trying to find me in here. He’d keep going.

Then again, our connection was gone.

Dead, he’s likely dead if you can’t feel him, my magic said, lazily, as if she were bored of my worry and fears.

“You, shut up!” I yelled. “You, shut the fuck up. He is not dead!”

I fisted my hands and pressed them to my mouth to keep my words in. Screaming into the darkness helped me not one bit, and the echo of my words bouncing back to me made my skin twitch.

I was going to die in this place, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

A small part of me knew I wasn’t invincible; I wasn’t that foolish. But I guessed I always pictured myself going out more heroically. Saving the kids, saving Frost. Protecting the caravan from some creature who got the best of me. So my life would mean something after I was gone.

But this, drowning in darkness completely alone without the ability to even fight back . . . my body heaved and I threw up, shaking as the horror bit into me.

Worse than the darkness. Worse than the lights dancing around me. Worse than the feeling of being burned alive.

Dying for nothing with no one to even mourn me. Alone. Who I was and what I could do wasted here in this maze.

“I don’t want to go out this way,” I whispered through tears that trickled down my cheeks. “Please, goddess, do not let me go out this way.”

A rumble under my knees sent a vibration through me, warmth and the comfort of a mother I’d never known.

The sensation of a presence I’d felt before calmed me as it flowed through my veins like waves on the sand. Calm, gentle calm, and my breathing and breaking heart eased.

“Thank you.” I knew the Mother Goddess’s touch, and though her voice was silent, her power was sure, and it gave me the burst of strength I needed. I was not alone. She’d not forsaken me even though I could not touch the elements derived from her power.

Something brushed against me, and I immediately tried to put my guard up, weak as I was. I glanced around for one of the shadow figures, but saw nothing.

“Goddess, what now?” I was shaking, so much taken out of me that I couldn’t stop even if I’d had the energy to try.

A soft scuff of something on the stone footing turned my head.

There again it came, sounding distinctly like padded feet on a rock’s surface. Was my mind playing tricks on me? There weren’t any rocks in this darkness. There wasn’t anything here. Just . . . darkness. I’d longed so badly for my familiars. Had I conjured one of them?

My heart skipped a beat. It was too much to hope for, but the word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Oka?” It was barely more than a whisper, and I held my breath, waiting for the response.

“No,” a voice answered. “I am not your cat. But I am a cat. The Mother Goddess directed me to you, Pamela. She has cut my bindings to this place a little so I could come to you.”

The voice was familiar, the rasp of a cat’s voice, but it wasn’t my Oka. I struggled to fight my disappointment and held my hand out in the darkness, searching for answers. My fingers found a thick, silky coat, rich with the smell of freshly fallen snow and mountain winds. No, this wasn’t my cat, but I still knew her and relief washed through me as I dug my hands into her fur, dragging myself to her.

“Peta?” I choked out a sob I could hold back no more. “How are you here?”

A snow leopard and a familiar to the only elemental I truly trusted, Peta had been my friend when I’d felt I had none. She’d comforted me and stood by me when I’d been in the darkest part of my young life. And here she was again, once more finding me when the darkness was too much.

The correlation was not lost on me.

“Well, that is a bit of a story, young Pamela. Hold onto me and I will guide you until there is light. I only have a little time here with you.” Her voice was strong and sure.

The last time I’d seen her, she’d been at Larkspur’s side and they—no, we—were breaking the world.

“You called me by another name,” Peta said. “This Oka is your cat?”

“She’s my familiar,” I said. “A shifter like you.”

“There are none like me.” Her words were gentle with a hint of laughing arrogance behind them and it made me smile.

Peta was Oka’s idol, and she would flip her lid if she were here. She was the one who told me Peta was famous, or maybe infamous was the better word, among familiars. Oka wanted only to be as loyal, strong, and helpful as Peta was to her own charge someday. She couldn’t see she was already there.

The thought made me ache for her familiar presence even more.

I clung to that as much as I clung to Peta’s thick coat of fur. “Peta, where are we? What is this place? How are you here?”

I’d thought that when the world broke, she’d died. There had been a moment where I was sure of it, actually. But I didn’t want to ask her that. Mostly because the thought of Peta dead made my eyes well up and my heart hurt. Because if Peta was dead, then that meant Lark was alone. What had happened to her? How would she go on without her familiar? I’d heard stories of losing your familiar, and it wasn’t pretty. Like having your soul torn in half.

Peta sighed. “Oh, it’s complicated, like so much of life.” A ripple went through her body, a shiver all the way to the tip of her tail. “The Rending of the world left Lark and me physically ended, as were so many creatures, so many people. A terrible thing, terrible thing, but necessary, as you know. There was too much power running through Lark, and she gave her life to stop the madness that was coming for our world. I chose to be with her so we would never be apart.” Her words were heavy, as if even she regretted the magnitude of them.

Despite the truth I heard in them, I had a difficult time accepting them. “Was there no possible way to survive? This world needs you still—needs Lark still!”

Peta’s body shook, I imagined she’d shaken her head. “There was no fixing it, Pamela, and no way for her to survive. The slate had to be wiped clean, and a new world rebuilt from the ashes. You of all people know that. We needed you to take the steps you did to open the path for Lark.”

I did know that, and I still ached for the part I’d taken in destroying the world we’d all known. No matter that the logical part of my brain knew exactly what she was saying.

“Peta, how are you here if you’re dead? Am I dead?” That last slipped out before I could catch it and I held my breath for fear of what she would say.

“We are still guardians of this world, me, Larkspur, and the others who died fighting to protect our home. We are still watching over it, still helping where we can. Just like you are doing now.” She bumped me with her shoulder, but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t me stumbling into her in the dark. “You are young and have much to learn. And no, you’re not dead.”

Relief flowed through me followed by a sharp hurt that she thought so little of me.

“I’m not the little girl crying over not being able to help her mentor,” I said. “I’m not running off to find Raven to see if he’ll teach me. I’ve grown up.”

She chuckled, a deep rumble rolling from her chest. “Don’t misunderstand me, Pamela. I don’t mean you’ve not come a long way. But there is always something to learn in this world, especially when you carry as much power as you do. Lark never stopped learning about who she was, and what her place in this world was and how she could affect it. Even now in death, we go where we’re needed, and learn as we go. That’s the hallmark of wisdom, Pamela. That you never stop learning.”

“Learning is fine. It’s the pain that comes with learning I don’t like,” I muttered.

She bobbed her head and I realized I could just make out some of her spots. She was leading me to the light.

But once there, I wondered if I would ever be strong enough to do what had to be done. No, Peta was right. Wisdom was knowing there was always more to learn. More to become. More work to do, unfortunately, and more people to look after.

“Where is Lark then? If you are here, is she here too? And if I’m not dead . . . how are we together?” I asked, circling back to the situation at hand.

“First, Lark had business elsewhere to attend to, business of the Mother Goddess.”

“Sounds like Raven.” The words popped out of me and Peta snorted.

“They were raised as siblings.” Peta slowed her steps, sniffing at the air. “And to the other question, she does not know that I am trapped at the moment. That is complicated.”

I hadn’t thought of Raven since he’d helped me save Oka from being nearly killed in the gargoyles’ stone. He’d suggested he was in his own heap of trouble with the elementals and hadn’t been able to do more than direct me on how to bring Oka back from certain death.

“So, where are we?” I asked again, needing something concrete.

“Right now, we are in a place between spaces. A kind of limbo as the humans would call it.” Peta turned her head and a glimmer of those emerald eyes locked onto mine. “A pocket of the Veil between the human world and the supernatural that was created, rather than born, by a very powerful witch. This is her world, and she controls it completely. It opens to other places.”

I tried to process that idea and wasn’t sure I could. Alex had come through the Veil—the layers between the real world and the world of the dead—but that had been destroyed when the world had shattered.

But if Alex could cross through the Veil and escape, then there had to be a way out of this place if it was similar. The question was how, especially when I was blocked from most of my magic.

I chewed the problem over, trying to wrap my head around it.

Peta cut into my thoughts. “Think of it like a bubble tied to Earth by a string. The witch holds the string, and she created the bubble. The bubble touches other places too, places that were supposed to be gone forever.”

Her words gave me an image that I wasn’t sure I liked.

Funny thing about bubbles, there was always a way to pop them. I just had to find something sharp enough to do the job. I shook my head.

“I’m in a damn balloon? Really?”

Peta laughed, soft and low. “Something like that. If the souls of the dead could live in a balloon.”

4

Pamela

If what Peta said was true, the shadows I’d seen were . . . what exactly? They sure as hell weren’t figments of my imagination like I’d hoped, but actual dead people?

“What do you mean, if the dead lived in a balloon?” The dead didn’t live in a balloon. That was just plain silly.

Then again, now that the Veil was destroyed, I didn’t quite know where they went after they died. But it certainly wasn’t a place like this, trapped in a hell they couldn’t move on from. And Peta had said that the bubble touched other places that had been destroyed . . . that thought tugged at me, begging for me to follow that thread of an idea.

But what if this was it? What if my actions had made this place happen by helping Lark remake the world? My stomach rolled with the horror of trapping the dead away from eternal rest or being with those who had passed before them.

“Peta, tell me that this isn’t it. That this isn’t what happens to the dead now,” I said, fighting to keep the fear from my voice.

She sighed. “Normally, the dead would’ve moved through this place, a land of limbo, on to the next levels of the Veil when it was still intact. The rules are a bit different now with the Veil destroyed, but still, they wouldn’t be trapped here.”

I noted that she didn’t put herself in the same category as the other dead. As if she were separate from them.

“So what are they doing here then?” I asked, blinking in the darkness, wondering if we would ever find a source of light in this dead balloon.

A low growl rumbled out of her. “A power stronger than we’ve seen in many years captured them and is siphoning off their energy. It is a dark power that was born when the elementals were young and trapped by the same containment that held the elementals to their homes. When the world broke, that dark power was freed.

“Now, the strength of the dead is boosting that old power. It’s drawing from them like a leech. A leech with a never-ending supply of energy in the souls of the dead.” Peta’s voice held an edge I knew all too well—raw anger. “It’s truly a black, dark magic that’s been unleashed.”

The young witch sprang to my mind, her blank eyes, and the power radiating off her in waves as she’d flung me into this place. She’d tapped into that black power to best me.

You have the same connection to that well of power, you stubborn fool.

I wasn’t sure if that was my own darkness speaking or just my thoughts. Either way, it wasn’t incorrect. I did have the same connection whether I liked it or not.

But if I used it here, they’d win.

I forced my mind back to the young witch. Despite her power, I didn’t see her or the warlock being the masterminds behind this. That voice with the husky tones who’d spoken through the young witch, that was my nemesis. I was sure of it.

“Peta, who is wielding this power?”

Peta looked up at me with those bright green eyes. “I don’t know. We have no choice but to do as it commands, to stay here in every continuing circle.” She looked over her shoulder before turning to me. “It takes a great deal just to be here, helping you. But the Mother Goddess released me from my bonds to the dark in order to come to you for a bit of time. I was in the world, in another form, when Lark asked me to come here. She said only that I would be needed and that I was to gather information on what was happening to the dead.” Peta gave me a pointed look. “But she does not know I am unable to leave.”

She turned to me, her eyes catching the meager light that continued to grow. “You must help us, Pamela. It is up to you to free those of us trapped here. The darkness made a mistake bringing you here if it thought you would break. But that mistake will allow the dead to be free, and me to go to Lark and get her the information I’ve gathered.”

“Will you tell me—”

“No. That is not for you to know. Another story, another time.” Her green eyes gave away nothing.

Crap on a cracker. How was I supposed to do what she said? I couldn’t even find my way out of the dark in this stupid place. Let alone find my wayward bear and free a bunch of souls. I couldn’t help it. I reached for Mac through the connection to him—still nothing.

I tightened my hand in Peta’s fur. Despite all my worries, there was no way I could leave Peta, my friend, the strongest familiar the world had seen, trapped in some kind of limbo for all eternity, her life force feeding a black magic forever and ever.

I reached out with my other hand and circled my arms around her neck. “I promise, Peta, I will help you. I will help all of you. If the power was released when the world broke, then it is on me to shut this Pandora’s box.”

“And I will do all I can to help you.” She purred the words.

We walked on for I don’t know how long. Finally, in the distance I spotted a pinprick of light, and with it came a small bit of hope. Peta could lead me out of this darkness. I blinked to make sure my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me again. There was something blocking the light, something casting a shadow that angled toward us, threatening to keep us in the darkness forever.

“What is that?” I asked.

“A challenge,” she said. “You will face many in this place.”

The light was so dim, it was difficult to make out anything in detail, but it looked like a body dangled in midair. Had someone been hanged?

“You’re sure about it being a challenge?” I tightened my hand on her.

The maze will break you. That was what the little witch had said, and I had no doubt they were going to keep trying until either I escaped, or the maze indeed broke me.

Peta didn’t respond, and I found my feet dragging as she towed me toward the obstacle. As the light grew, I could see more of the object, and I kinda wished that the darkness had remained.

The thing blocking the light was human—or had been at some point. It looked like the body had been stripped completely of its skin with nothing but muscle left behind. The single body flopped like a marionette on a string, its arms and legs jerking and jumping as it was joined by a few friends. One by one, more of the same skinned bodies dropped from above as if descending from the sky. Together the group blocked the way to the light source. They were making what looked like an army. An army of meat bags.

They dropped to the ground, limbs akimbo, and then stood slowly, still in weird flailing movements that seemed as though they were being controlled rather than being aware themselves. Slowly they settled, each one widening their stance, arms wide as if they meant to come at us.

“Here we go.” I let go of Peta and went for my blades, ready to fight, the snow leopard beside me. But she stepped to the side. I looked at her, more shocked by what she’d done than by the freakishly strange bodies in front of me. She couldn’t abandon me. Not now.

“I can’t fight here, in this place. It’s one of the rules. I’m afraid you must face them alone.” Her brow dipped down and she bared her teeth as though she fought whatever bound her. “I’m sorry, Pamela. I can only be your guide.” She shivered and dropped to the ground as if her knees had been taken out.

“YOU WILL NOT HELP HER,” the voice boomed all around us.

I flinched as the sound reverberated through me.

“That’s just perfect,” I muttered. “This place that is as twisted as they come with no seeming rules as to how it is laid out, suddenly has a rule I understand. Fan-fucking-tastic.”

I turned back to the advancing mass of muscle, their fingers making grabbing motions in the air.

I gripped my blades tightly and settled into a fighting stance. “Any pointers?”

“Don’t die. If you do, your soul will be as trapped as ours with no one to save us,” Peta said.

“Perfect. Don’t die. I can do that.” I nodded to myself. “This will be no different than cutting down zombies. It’ll be a walk in the park. If the park was full of creepy skinless monsters . . .”

I took a deep breath as the first group made their silent, freakishly weird advance. I would’ve thought their feet would slap against the floor, like sort of a wet skin on cement sound, but they made no noise as they approached, giving them an advantage over me. They moved to surround me, still giving me a wide enough berth that there was no way I could strike just yet.

They mumbled, the whispers just low enough that I couldn’t make out the words, but enough that they skittered across my skin, making me want to rub my arms.

Seven of them, three to the front, four to the back of me. When I fought, I relied heavily on hearing where my opponents were when out of my line of sight. I did a slow turn, doing what I could to keep eyes on them.

There was nothing between us but the remainder of the darkness and the shadows the doorway of light cast. No obstacles, no barriers, nothing for me to use to my advantage, or to trip over. Just the light source ahead, and darkness everywhere else.

The bodies cast eerie shadows as I watched them, and waited, feeling the need for them to make the first move. Let them show me what they could do, then maybe I’d find a weakness.

I beckoned them with the tips of my blades. “Come on then, show me what you buggers have got.”

I felt rather than heard the ones behind me, the air pressure around them shifting. They came at me rather uncoordinated, still flopping and flailing as if they weren’t supported from within. I caught the one closest to me on the tip of my blade, slashing through the muscle on its chest, cracking the bones with the blow. A quick spin to the right and I booted another in the hip, driving it back. My cloak swirled, and in the shadows of dark and light, there was a familiar rhythm I knew all the way to my core.

A dance of death.

Over and over, I landed blows.

“Incoming!” Peta yelled, and then a snarl ripped from her as if she’d been hit.

I turned to see her pinned to the ground, chin all the way to the dirt, even her ears smooshed to her head as if a giant hand had pushed on her to hold her there.

“PETA!”

She shook her head, minuscule, but enough that I saw it. Keep fighting. A pair of skinned arms wrapped around me and I snapped my head back, driving my skull into its face.

Pain bloomed through my head, but it was enough to at least free me from the arms.

A bite landed on my calf and I snarled, lifted my other leg and kicked the creature in the head, flipping it over.

Peta wasn’t kidding about the incoming. The seven had turned into four or five times that, the bodies swinging my way. They weren’t fast, but they didn’t need to be.

“Shit,” I muttered even while the fear made my throat tight. I didn’t want to die, but more than that, I didn’t want to die here.

I slashed at the arms and faces that flailed my direction, but they healed instantly as if they’d never even been cut. Over and over, I sliced through the mass of muscle, unable to make any forward progress. For every arm I cut off, two more sets of hands replaced it, and the original creature pulled itself back up, healed itself, and jumped back into the game immediately.

It was horrifically ridiculous and another time it might have been amusing to see such creatures causing me grief. They were clumsy and floppy, but there were so many of them that I knew it was only a matter of time if I didn’t figure this out.

Strangely, the blows I landed made no sound as I slashed into their bodies, but I felt them, felt the resistance against my blade as I dragged it across the nearest floppy arm. They were real, but they weren’t dying. Maybe because they were already dead? The zombies I’d dealt with needed head blows.

I drove my blade into the eye socket of the meat bag next to me. It didn’t so much as slow. With a stumble, I drew to the side, trying to get my back against something solid that I could fight from. “Peta, how do I kill them?” I shouted across to her, hoping she’d be able to answer.

“Heart blow,” Peta called to me through gritted teeth. I couldn’t even see her anymore over the mass of muscle that surrounded me.

I wasn’t about to argue with her. The heart it was then. My crescent-shaped blades weren’t ideal for stabbing, but with a well-timed jab, I could do it, slide them through the fourth and fifth rib and pierce the heart. Maybe.

The bite wound in my leg ached, and I limped as I circled, refocused, and zeroed in on the closest meat bag. I’d drawn them back enough that they were mostly in front of me. One lumbered my direction and I leapt forward and jabbed it in the chest. My blade sunk in to the handle, my knuckles warm and wet against the raw tissue. The body jerked like a fish on the line then went limp.

“Success!” I yelled, but I couldn’t get my blade free so easily. The meat bag fell and dragged me with it while the other bodies made their advance.

“Behind,” Peta called out and a snarl of pain followed that one word. I turned without question and drove my second blade up into its heart as the body fell on me, hitting it square in the chest.

“Off me, you bugger!”

Finally, I yanked my first blade free, and shoved the second body aside. The momentum of it pulled my second blade free with a slurping pop, the first sound one of my blows made. I climbed to my feet, ready to face the next one.

“Left,” Peta called out and it cost her yet again.

The meat bags came at me faster now, as if they were picking up steam. But with Peta guiding me, I managed to stay just ahead of them. “Right! Duck! Strike!” She let out a snarl of pain that cut the air.

With each body that fell at my feet, my confidence slowly returned. I still hadn’t made any forward progress toward the light, but I would once the meat bags were dead. There would be an end to them. I had to believe it. One slammed into me from behind, knocking me to my knees. I spun on the ground, striking upward, piercing its heart with a quick strike.

Without warning, an image of Mac, alone and injured, fighting his way through his own mass of muscle monster meat bags flashed in my mind. A crimson smear marred the side of his white coat as he swept his paws into the creatures, driving them back. They climbed onto him, trying to weigh him down, trying to pin him to the ground. Biting and grabbing, they began to overwhelm him.

The image vanished and fear slammed into its place. Mac was already hurt when we were separated, I’d felt that. He couldn’t fight his way through something like this alone and injured.

“Mac.” I said his name and took a step toward the light, pushing a meat bag out of my way.

A limp arm smacked me in the back again and I tripped over the body at my feet. I fell flat on my stomach. I rolled and kicked out, trying to buy myself time.

Focus or you aren’t going to make it out of here, the darkness in me sighed. I’d offer to help, but I know when I’m not wanted.

“Shut the fuck up!” I was no good to Mac with my head ripped off by one of these things and my own magic was distracting me with its advice. Although I wasn’t entirely convinced the meat bags had the dexterity for pulling my head from my shoulders.

I rolled to my knees, and another mass of muscle threw itself at me, knocking me sideways and taking the wind out of me. Good gods, the thing was heavy.

Dead weight, it was a dead weight. The irony was not lost on me.

I struggled to scramble out from under it, but another one came at me and added itself to the pile, pinning me down. More and more threw themselves on top until I was buried under a dog pile of open flesh, muscle, and grasping hands. The whispers from their skinned lips getting louder.

“Help, help, help, help,” they were saying. And they were right, I needed help.

“Peta.” I whispered her name. All I could manage. But she wasn’t coming to my rescue, I already knew that.

I had to get out of this on my own.

No familiar.

No friends.

No magic.

Just me and my blades.

5

Alex

Despite Wade, Richard, and Jasmine slowing us down, I actually made it into the truck, Oka sitting on the dash, and Jasmine in the passenger seat in under five minutes.

Jasmine cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say that I’m trying, Alex. I really am trying to be better at being the kind of person you want me to be.”

Horror flickered through me. Snowballs had a better chance in hell than I did at navigating this conversation. But I would make an effort.

“Look, you need to be you. Just not—”

“A bitch. I know.” She shrugged and looked out the window. “No one has ever looked out for me before, and you know that I trust you. And then I saw how you look at Pam, and how she looks at you.” She shrugged again and there was a hitch in her voice that tugged at my heart even though I tried to harden myself against it. I shot a pleading look to Oka as the truck bounced along on through the dips and dives in the road.

The cat rolled her eyes. “Codswallop, if you ask me. She’s saying all the right things, Alex. But that doesn’t mean she’s changed.”

I cleared my throat. “I do care for Pam. But she’s with Mac, Jas.” She turned to me.

“You haven’t called me Jas since we got here.”

My turn to shrug. “I don’t love you the way you want me to, but you are a part of my pack and I will look out for you. Just like I look out for Pam, for Marley, for the others.”

I thought maybe there was a flash of anger in her eyes, but it was gone so quickly that I could have been imagining things. Especially when the smell rolling off her was sadness, not anger.

“Sure.” She said the one word and then fell silent.

Better that than screeching at me. But at least when she was angry, I could meet her head on. This sadness left me stumbling as to how to deal with her. Too much kindness shown to her and she thought I loved her, and I didn’t.

Oka lay on the dash, her tail hanging down by the stick shift, the tip of it flicking back and forth over my knuckles. “She knows you, and she’s got you by the short hairs. You’re a sucker for a sob story.”

“Not true, Oka. Not true,” I said.

Jasmine didn’t so much as look at me. Guilt traveled freely up my spine to tighten its way around my lungs. Maybe Oka was a little bit right.

Fifteen minutes passed before the cat said anything else. “I still can’t feel Pam the way I should be able to. But it’s not like she’s gone, dead. More like I can’t pinpoint her.”

Relief flowed through me and I didn’t realize just how tight I’d been holding onto the steering wheel until I relaxed my grip.

“The cat said something to you, didn’t she?” Jasmine asked.

“She can sense that Pam is alive.”

The she-wolf took a deep breath and an obviously forced smile crossed her face. “Well, that’s good. As long as we have Oka, we can find Pam. Just don’t lose the cat.”

Oka was right. No matter that Jasmine was trying, I couldn’t trust her.

“Yes, that’s the plan.” I shot her a sideways glance, caught the edge of a smile and then she was looking out the window again.

An hour ticked by in relative silence. Okay, silence between me and Jasmine. Oka kept up a running commentary.

“There, ahead of us, birds! Damn, I can’t wait to get my mouth on an archie!”

“Are you sure you are headed the right way?”

“Can you scratch my back, right between my shoulder blades? I can’t reach.”

I lifted my hand and scratched her, but she whipped around and bit me.

“What the hell?” I snatched my hand back, rubbing the tiny puncture wounds.

“Not so hard, wolf.”

She went back to flicking her tail, and a sense of unease rolled from her to me. Almost like I could sense her feelings and concern.

“Relax, we’re almost there. We’ll find Pam and we’ll . . .”

The engine of the truck sputtered and coughed. I pumped the gas and shifted into a lower gear, but that didn’t help.

Another grumble from the engine and it died completely. I shifted into neutral, hoping we were on a slope that would take us a ways farther.

“What now?” Jasmine asked. “Is it far?”

I set the parking brake and got out of the truck. “We walk from here. It’s another couple hours by foot, I’d guess. I think it’s best if we shift. We’ll cover the distance better.” I stripped down and stuffed my clothes into a small backpack along with my kukri blade and the knife’s sheath. Once in my wolf form, I hoped things would be simpler.

I grabbed the pack in my mouth. That at least would keep me from having to speak to either of them.

God save me from the females in my life.

The little orange cat watched me with a smirk on her face.

“You know, if you’d learn to shift with your clothes on, you wouldn’t have to do that stripping down, packing your own bag with you, business,” she said.

“I’ve been busy. There’s been a lot going on, if you haven’t noticed,” I mumbled around the pack’s strap.

She snorted. “You should’ve been practicing these last three years.” She paused and eyed me, those chartreuse orbs seemingly looking into me. “I think you like Pamela seeing you naked.”

I shot a horrified look at Jasmine, forgetting for a brief second she couldn’t hear Oka.

Jasmine though, of course, knew nothing of the exchange, and just frowned as she walked over and took the pack from me. She slid it over her shoulders and shifted into her wolf form. The bag remained on her back, fitting her far better than me.

If I’d been human, there was no doubt I would’ve turned six shades of red from my feet all the way to my forehead from Oka’s words. I mean, of course I liked the way Pam looked at me when I was naked. What red-blooded man wouldn’t want a beautiful girl to look at him like he was the finest thing she’d ever seen?

But that didn’t mean I did it on purpose. I drew myself up and arched a brow at her. “I can’t tell people where to look, Oka. That isn’t my job.”

Oka grimaced. “She belongs with Mac; he’s her familiar. I’m still not fully sure what you are to her. That is what you need to get through your thick skull. Once we find her, I think you need to move on. Because I’m in her head, and I feel how much it hurts her to hurt you by being with Mac.”

I frowned at her, opened my mouth and then slammed it shut, my teeth clicking hard.

I’d loved Pam almost since we first met what felt like a lifetime ago when I’d been trapped in a very broken, very unwieldy, wolf body. And I thought she loved me too. When I’d come over the ridge after searching for her the last three years, and saw how much had changed, I knew I had to roll with those changes, or walk out of Pam’s life. The second option wasn’t even an option—she had too much of my heart. “She’s family. And you don’t give up on family.” I said.

“You already have a family. And a mate,” Jasmine said, hurt running thick through her voice.

You know how mistakes can really bite you in the ass? This one was really going to make it tough for me to sit in the morning. I should’ve told Jasmine to make her own way long ago. But I thought two adults were better than one when it came to protecting Marley. My logic seemed sound at the time, but that proximity meant I’d made other mistakes. Like sleeping with her. Like letting her believe what she wanted and never correcting her because it was easier than the fight I knew would come.

I took a deep breath and looked at her, unable to decide if this whole new attitude thing was an act or not. Oka was far less unsure.

“Don’t let her suck you in. You and Pam might not be right for each other, but you and Jasmine are so far off that you could be on different continents.” The cat sashayed between us and I watched as Jasmine glared at the feline.

“I know she’s talking.”

“She’s giving me good advice for this situation,” I said.

Jasmine’s eyes rose to mine. “You know what, I’ll wait as long as it takes for you to figure out what the reality of this life is. Soon enough, you’ll see I’m the best mate for you. I’ll do whatever I have to do to show you that.” She shot a look at Oka, eyes narrowed and teeth partially bared.

The peachy orange cat lifted her tail high in the air, showing off her butthole straight at Jasmine. “I’m going to drop a turd upstream from her when we stop to drink. Don’t tell her.”

I sighed.

These two were going to be the death of me.

Time to step up and be the Alpha. I closed the distance between Jasmine and me and put my nose in her face. I kept my voice low, controlled, without a hint of emotion.

“Jasmine, I am not your mate. Just because I slept with you a handful of times doesn’t make you my mate. And that last time, I was drunk and barely recall anything.” I shuddered at the way I’d felt after that time, waking up naked next to her, the smell of sex on both of us, her satisfied smile enough to make my balls shrink.

“Oooh, didn’t get consent, huh?” Oka said, stirring the pot a bit.

Jasmine, of course, couldn’t hear her, and stared up at me with pleading eyes. “You’ll see, Alex. You need a mate. A wolf mate, not a witch. You were born to be an Alpha. My Alpha. Besides, being a mate isn’t all about sex. It’s about connection, and we have one. We have Marley together, and while she’s not our child, I think you can see I could be a good mom.” She turned her eyes up to me, and I knew she was playing on things she thought I wanted. This would’ve worked on me before. Before we found Pam and her caravan. But now . . . after all I’d seen her do, she was shit out of luck.

“Jasmine, don’t. I saw clearly how you treated Marley, and if that’s what you think is okay, there isn’t a chance in hell I’d have a child with you.” So maybe that last was not very diplomatic, but if she thought I’d forget her actions, she was out of her mind.

“Oh, burn,” Oka said, and I glared at her. Enough drama. We were taking too long as it was.

“Let’s go,” I said and took off running at a slow, ground-covering lope, not bothering to see if the two ladies were with me or not.

Trees zipped by us as we ran, traveling almost as fast as we did in the truck. We wouldn’t be able to keep the pace up the whole way, but it was better than walking on two legs.

Jasmine eased up next to me and glanced over her shoulder, more than a little disgust in her eye. The old Jasmine back in full force, apparently. “Do you think you’d better carry the cat? She’s going to slow us down, Alpha. And that will keep us from our Pam.”

Our Pam? Jesus, she was laying it on thick.

“Oka can keep up,” I said without looking back. I could feel the peachy orange cat there, about twenty feet behind us, running easily. This connection thing between familiars was weird, but handy too. Again, assuming I was indeed becoming one of Pamela’s familiars. Oka didn’t seem so sure. Maybe she was just becoming part of my pack. That thought made me grin. Oka would hate being part of a wolf’s pack.

“I hope so,” Jasmine said. “I would hate for anything to happen to her. Pamela would be distraught.”

“Enough with the bullshit, Jasmine. You hate Pam, you detest Oka, you want me, and I’m not stupid enough to let a few pretty words win me back and be blinded to the bitch you really are.” I didn’t look at her as I spoke, irritation making my words harder than I’d intended. “So knock it the hell off.”

A gasping sob cut through the air, as if I’d stabbed her for real and not just smacked her with the truth. My barb hit the mark, if her tears were any indication.

Perhaps I’d hit the bullseye a little too well.

She turned her head, her body shuddering as a whimper slid from between her teeth. As if she were holding back tears. She shook her head, auburn fur catching the wind and ruffling it around her ears. Her shoulders shook as if she were sobbing and then she veered off to the right, taking my backpack with her.

Relief. That’s all I felt. Finally, she’d decided to leave me alone.

“You can’t let her go, Alex,” Oka said. Her words slowed me, and I turned to look back at her. If I’d been in human form, I would have thrown my hands up in the air.

“Why not? She’s been nothing but a thorn in my side, and I’m glad to be rid of her,” I said as I circled around and got in the little cat’s face.

Oka fluffed up, irritation flowing between us, the distinct thought that she felt I was being stupid. “Because, you fool of a wolf, if she goes back to the caravan, she’ll stir the pot. She’ll turn them against us if she can, and if she can’t, she’ll hurt the one person she knows you care about there. That was the whole reason you wanted her to tag along. How are you not seeing this?” She shook her head like I was indeed an idiot. I couldn’t blame her.

“Because I’m a big dumb wolf?”

Oka smiled. “Now we’re getting somewhere. Besides, she has your pack. Unless you want Pam to ogle you again?”

I rolled my eyes, the urge to howl bubbling up in the back of my throat, but it came out as a low growl. “Fine, cats rule and dogs drool. Happy?” I said through gritted teeth.

“Immensely happy. But you still shouldn’t have said what you said to her,” Oka said as we turned to the right. Jasmine had bolted off the main trail and into a narrow band of trees that led to the east.

“What?” My mind was only half on what Oka was saying, the other half was busy tracking Jasmine’s scent.

“All of it. About Pam and me and Jasmine being a bitch. It was an asshole thing to say.”

I skidded to a stop. “You’re seriously taking her side?”

Oka turned and blinked up at me. “We need to keep her with us, Alex. And we’re chasing her because of you and what you said to her.”

“We’re chasing her because she’s a self-centered drama queen. If she was a true beta, she wouldn’t have stirred the pot to begin with. Pam helped me see that.” I couldn’t keep the sadness out of my voice. “And now Jasmine is keeping us from finding her. Excuse me for feeling like she isn’t worth my time. I can get more clothes. I’m sure there are some at the compound.”

Oka just looked at me for a moment, and I thought she’d back down. But damn that little cat, she couldn’t let it go. “A true Alpha knows how to manage his pack, to keep them all in line. Even the difficult members.”

“Like you?” I said.

Oka snorted. “I’m a cat. I don’t belong to a pack. I mean, like Jasmine.”

“I never wanted to be an Alpha, Oka. She just glued herself to me and Marley. I wanted to find Pam.” We trotted through the thickening woods, pushing our way through dense undergrowth. My ears swiveled as I tried to pinpoint Jasmine. The temptation to leave her here was so strong, I struggled to keep going.

But Oka wasn’t wrong. The first chance Jasmine had, she’d make trouble. Oka leapt onto a downed log so we were at eye level. “We will find Pam. I am as eager as you are. But first, the wayward wolf.” She paused, her ears twitching. “Who knows? She might have a place with us yet. Perhaps she will save one of us.”

Now it was my turn to snort. “Yeah, when pigs fly.”

Oka laughed out loud as the foliage cleared some and we picked up speed once more, following Jasmine’s scent as we went. “Hold your tongue in this broken world. You might just have some pig shit land on your shoulder.”

The woods cleared further, opening up a vista I wouldn’t have expected.

Sand under the pads of my feet and the sprawling scenery brought us to the edge of a lake. If I wasn’t so torn between worry for Pam and anger at Jasmine, I might have paused to appreciate how pretty the spot was. The river dumped into it, making the water look cool and clear in the shallows, darkening to a near jet black the farther out I looked.

Deep, that was my one thought. The banks were grassy, begging someone to come closer, but I knew better. The rivers and lakes usually had things with nasty teeth in them. The world had given us more than archies and the piranha-like fish that were such good eating.

Oka nudged me. “There,” she said, and I looked where she pointed.

Jasmine sat by the water’s edge far to our left, next to a big rock.

More than the she-wolf, my eyes were drawn to movement in the water, wide, huge ripples of something swimming fast for sure.

Apparently she didn’t see the ripples that were now mere feet from her, because she bent down to get a drink. The ripples picked up even more, the dark shape in the water unrecognizable even in the shallows.

Good gods.

“Jasmine,” I yelled as I took off running toward her, trying to close the distance, knowing exactly what was coming. Or at least, I thought I did.

A huge crocodile-type creature sprang out of the water, scales glittering solid black, moving at a speed no croc before the breaking of the world could match.

And I was proven wrong. I’d had no idea what was coming.

The croc’s jaws were at least as long as Jasmine’s body, and she scrambled back, landing on her haunches, but she wasn’t quick enough. It managed to clamp down hard on her hind leg, the sound of bone snapping cutting through the air.

She let out a howl as the powerful animal with legs twice as long as a crocodile’s legs should’ve been dragged her into the water. The thing was massive, and while it had crocodilian features, it was obviously some sort of mutation.

Because that was just what we needed in this world.

Jasmine floundered, fighting to get purchase on the water, her eyes wide with fear as I reached her. She was up to her chest, flailing. “Alex, help me!”

I didn’t think, just reacted. I leapt into the water, past Jasmine, jamming my claws into the reptile’s eye closest to me. The crystal-clear shallows gave me the perfect shot as I jabbed my claws over and over, raking them down the croc’s face, forcing them into its one weak spot.

The tip of one claw hit something that felt suspiciously like a firm tomato, then slid through the soft material.

A bloom of red swelled up under us from my blow, and Jasmine was released. The water around us turned red, darkening it, hiding the big-ass croc creature as it dropped below the water. Jasmine tried to climb onto my back.

“No, go to shore,” I ordered, but still, she tried to climb on top of me, anything to get out of the water, shoving my head under more than once.

I searched for the creature, but the bloody water made it impossible to see anything. We needed to move and move now before it snapped down on one of us.

We were belly deep in the water, Jasmine was sobbing, panic making her stupid as she continued to climb on me.

“Get out of the fucking water!” I finally snapped, startling her. But she headed for shore, dragging her back leg.

Oka shifted, and bounded into the water, took Jasmine by the scruff, and dragged her away from me, and the rest of the way out of the water.

I stayed between them and the danger, backing out as fast as I could, eyes locked on the water as it stilled. Seconds passed and my gut instincts said we weren’t done with this beast, not yet.

I hated being right.

Slowly the water rippled revealing those jet-black scales as the croc surfaced. One eye was completely ruined, dripping fluids. The other was far too intelligent as it eyed me up.

My hackles rose and I let out a deep rumbling growl, snapped my teeth and even took a mock charge at the croc so my toes touched the edge of the water again.

It didn’t so much as blink.

I kept snarling, feeling Oka as she dragged Jasmine up and into the woods.

The massive jaws of the croc opened and it let out a bellow that made me think the world had given us another dinosaur, screeching, booming, like tearing metal. The sound pushed me back.

The croc’s muscles bunched, clawed toes digging into the sand and a realization hit me.

I was far too close to that set of teeth.

6

Pamela

Bodies were damn well everywhere. They crushed me with their . . . well, with their dead weight. No matter what I did, I couldn’t throw them off me. Hell, I couldn’t do more than twitch my fingers, or move my eyes. The meat bags were too heavy. Too many. I struggled to even draw breath, the effort of my chest rising and falling taking everything I had.

“Help, help, help, help, help, help.” Their words were as heavy as their bodies.

But I didn’t stop trying, the weight on me didn’t stop me from fighting back. A knee here, an elbow there. I turned my head, shaking it as if that alone would throw them off.

Of all the ways I’d nearly been killed, being crushed under boneless blobs of muscle wasn’t what I’d expected would do me in. But with each second, the ability to breathe lessened.

Peta let out a pain-filled roar, a single word with it. “Relax!”

Relax. The cat was telling me to relax as I was being crushed to death. How the fuck was I supposed to do that?

Everything in me wanted to fight, and fight I did in whatever way I could until the sweat poured from me and I was gasping for each breath.

“Relax!” Peta shouted again and there was a pitiful mew that followed.

I could barely hear her over the bodies as they squished and squirmed around me, piling on. The only good thing was that they seemed to have forgotten about biting me. But each time another added their number to the pile on top of me, it sounded like a raw steak being thrown onto a butcher block. And I was just lying there waiting for the knife to come down.

Relax. That’s what Peta had said. Right. I could do that. I focused on myself, making the task smaller than it seemed. First, I concentrated on my toes. Wiggled them, then relaxed. Breathe. Then my calves. Then my thighs. All the way up my body. By the time I got to my head, my ability to breathe was down to short and shallow. Which made it exceedingly difficult to complete the task at hand and relax when I felt like I was dying, thank you very much.

But I did it. I calmed my body and went as still as I could. My mind wasn’t quite there but my body was an oasis of relaxation, if I do say so myself.

A sound cut through the fleshy meat bags. Like that steak falling onto the butcher block only in reverse now, to the floor instead of onto me. More and more fell off the pile, and with each one, I was able to take deeper breaths.

The meat bags directly on top of me groped blindly, unable to distinguish where I was now that I was no longer fighting. I’d let my body go limp and they couldn’t tell me from one of their buddies.

I didn’t say a thing, although I wanted to yell at Peta that it was actually working. It had cost her, but it was working. I lay still until I was more certain I wasn’t going to get mobbed again. With each deep breath, I relaxed more, giving oxygen to my muscles, letting them grow stronger, before I rolled away, still as relaxed as I could be. Floppy, just like the meat bags. There were only two left in the pile when I decided it was time to act. The hands that gripped me loosened, and let go, groping for something more solid.

Something that was fighting back.

Movement. All I needed was just a little bit of movement, and as soon as I was free, I had it. My blade felt good in my hand as I swung it toward the nearest body, putting as much power behind it as I could.

Angling the blade so the corner drove deep into the meat bag’s chest, I sank the knife. Right in front of me a pair of those freaky floating eyes returned, bright yellow, watching me as I took down the fleshy body.

When had they returned? It didn’t matter really. What mattered was that they were no longer emotionless, just watching me from a distance. More and more of the eyes appeared, all different colors, the same as before. But they were different now. They seemed to be impacted by what I’d done—by me surviving the meat bags. Some of the eyes seemed angry, as they narrowed while watching me, but others seemed truly happy.

I blinked away from them, trying to stay focused on the task at hand, cutting the few remaining bodies down one by one.

What had been a mob of uncountable proportions had shrunk back to the original seven. Seven I could handle. Seven sets of eyes watched me as I swung the blade and with each blow, one set of eyes would blink out of existence. So they were connected?

The last body faced me, seeming unwilling to fight. It stood there, as if waiting for me to end it.

One last set of eyes remained, watching, wide and almost . . . hopeful. “Help,” it said.

Exhaustion washed over me, and I almost didn’t have the energy to finish the job. I could outrun the last meat bag, no doubt making it to the still-open door well ahead of it. But as the eyes watched me, I knew I had to end what had begun here in the dark.

Was it some kind of release for them when I drove my blade into the heart? Or was it just my mind giving me a way to relieve any guilt I might’ve had for the pile of goo I left in my wake?

It felt like I should say something as I approached the body, some final thing that would make this all seem meaningful. But there were no words for what was happening. Nothing I could say to explain the prison, or the ancient power we were all trapped by, in this shit storm that had happened to this world. I had nothing for this ending but the tip of my blade.

So, I gave it the end that was needed. Swiftly, and without flourish, I drove the blade up hard, piercing the heart with ease. The final pair of eyes that watched me filled with tears of gratitude, blinked once as if thanking me, and then blinked out.

I slid down to my knees and sat on the cold ground. Bruised from the battle, I just wanted to rest, to breathe for a minute.

“Peta?”

“I am here.” She sounded as tired as I felt.

I reached for my connection to spirit, my only comfort in this trap, wanting to feel the warmth of a magic that wasn’t trying to control me.

I sat there, shuddering as I mentally put my hand out to it. Spirit was inside me, but it was muted to the point that it was nearly transparent. As if it faded from existence.

Tears slid down my face as I tried to hold on to what was left of the person I thought I was.

Maybe that is the problem. Maybe you aren’t who you think you are, the black magic said.

I didn’t like that the words echoed my own thoughts, my own real thoughts.

“How many times will my power be taken from me? What the hell am I supposed to be learning? That I’m weak without it? That I can be killed? I fucking well know that!” That last came out as a yell that echoed around the darkened room.

I dashed away my tears. No answer came from my questions. Not from my black magic, and not even from Peta.

“Peta?” The snow leopard’s name didn’t echo in the darkness but died as soon as it left my lips. “Peta?” I said a little louder, but still no answer came. Her time allowed with me was over. I was alone again.

I sucked in a shuddering breath and tried to stop my tears.

Distraction, that’s what I needed. I pushed to my feet, wobbling as if I’d been drinking a plum țuică all night instead of fighting meat bags. With the edge of my cloak, I cleaned both blades as I walked.

I couldn’t bear to dwell on a singular truth staring me in the face. What if my black magic was the only thing I could rely on to get me and the others out of this place?

You wouldn’t be wrong.

“Shut the hell up!” I wiped the last bit of gore off my blades and secured them in place, making sure I could reach them easily if needed. I’d use them over my magic every time.

But I’d felt it there, under that pile of bodies, the urge to reach for the magic that was my mother’s curse. The magic that came from my mother, and a voice that was not hers, but somehow attached to that magic. Frustrating was too small a word for the whole situation.

If Peta hadn’t coached me through the meat bags, I would have allowed the black magic to do its thing, and the damn creature holding me and the dead here would be on her way to winning.

No. I couldn’t think about that. The black magic was a last resort, and it was as simple, and as hard, as that.

I was nearly to the door when a whisper stopped me.

“Pamela.”

The voice, my name was so faint, I wasn’t sure I’d even heard anything. I stepped through the door, the dim light showing me walls like those I’d left behind in the maze. Only I could see these.

I went still, straining to hear if the voice came again. Was it just that my heart wanted it so badly, I’d made myself hear what I’d wanted? Had this place created an illusion to lure me into another trap? Either option was rather plausible. Still, I listened, keeping my body quiet, trying to breathe evenly but it was no good.

All I could hear was the hammering of my own heart.

“Pamela.” Louder this time. Distinctly louder and a voice I knew. Mac, he was calling me!

“Mac?” I called back, but there was no answer. I shook my head and did a slow turn. The doorway behind me was gone, showing only more maze, more walls.

Maybe it really was my imagination.

But hope springs eternal, damned bitch that she was, so I called out one more time. “Mac, answer me!”

“Pamela?” This time his voice was stronger, and didn’t seem to be coming from behind me, but I couldn’t exactly pinpoint where. I forced myself into a jog, working my way deeper into this maze, one hand on the wall.

“Mac,” I called again, but again he didn’t answer. “Damn it!”

After moving a good twenty feet from the door, I stopped. There was no sky above me, just straight up walls as far as I could see and turns and break-offs in all directions.

A true maze now, not just a block of darkness.

What if the person calling me wasn’t really Mac? What if it was a trap? And what if Peta didn’t show up to help me fight my way out of it again? How could I risk leaving him if it wasn’t a trap? What if they were using him as bait?

“Damn it all to hell and back,” I whispered.

I clenched my hands.

I could help you find him.

The darkness was not as pushy as before, more like it was trying to convince me, but all it did was remind me that magic could still be the answer.

My connection to spirit was dim, but it was there. Maybe I could use it to jump the Veil and find him. Jumping the Veil was something I’d done before—the ability to go to wherever another person was in the world, no matter how far. But could I do it with such a small connection to spirit? I doubted it, but I still closed my eyes, and beckoned spirit to flow through me.

My magic surged even with the bracelet on, and I couldn’t help but smile. This might work. Urging spirit forward, I tried to pin Mac down, so I could jump to him, but the magic slithered away, and died out just as suddenly as it whipped through me.

Frowning, I doubled down, crushing my eyes closed, and grabbing hold of spirit by its figurative balls. I forced it out around me harder than I ever had before. “You will find him, damn it,” I said through gritted teeth.

But over and over again it happened. My magic would surge and die. Every. Single. Time.

Like covering a flame. My hand went to the new bracelet on me. Almost worse than the others, I knew suddenly what it did.

I could reach spirit, even weave it the way I wanted to, and right before I used it, the power was capped.

Bewildered, I opened my eyes slowly. Maybe it was a trick of this place. I couldn’t use spirit to travel, or find anyone, in this space, but I didn’t truly think so. Despair threatened to overwhelm me as I wondered again how many times I’d be separated from my power in this life.

“Looks like it’ll be the old-fashioned way of searching,” I said to no one in particular. It felt good to speak out loud. Like I was still human. Like maybe I wasn’t so alone.

I couldn’t figure out where Mac’s voice had come from, so I just headed off in the direction I’d been going and called out again. “Mac?”

Shockingly, he answered louder than ever, and straight out ahead of me. “Pamela!”

I hurried forward, running with my hand still against the wall. “I’m coming!”

A natural curve in the maze brought me to a sudden standstill. A massive dead-end wall stretched out in either direction as far as the eye could see. Made of some kind of metal, it was cool to the touch. I ran my fingers over it, looking for the lip of a doorway, an entrance of some sort.

“Mac, can you hear me?”

“Pamela,” he said. Always repeating my name. Nothing more, nothing less. Was he hurt? Delirious? Again, I wondered if this was nothing more than a trick of this place. An illusion to lure me deeper inside so I could never find my way out. I mean, it wasn’t a particularly clever trick, but it would work. I would follow Mac anywhere.

“Pamela.” He called from the other side of the wall. So close, and yet so far.

I shook my head. Only one way to find out. I had to get through that wall. But how? I thought of my fire element, and how it had burned my skin to a crisp in this place, backfiring on me in a spectacular way—even if it was all an illusion. No, that wouldn’t do. Because there was no way of knowing if the next round of pain would be real or not.

What if I make a deal with you?

That slowed me down. “What do you mean a deal?”

I will help you get your Mac, and you will let me have a teeny tiny thing that I want?

I damn well knew it would not be a teeny tiny anything, and I snorted. “Please, I’m no fool.”

A fool for love.

I’d give it that. I was a fool for love. For Mac.

“Shit, fuck, damn.” I fisted my hands above my head. “Fine, what’s the deal?”

My black magic chuckled. Oh, you’ll love what I’ve got to offer you.

Somehow, I doubted that very much.

7

I opened myself to my black magic, willing it to melt the metal wall between Mac and me in this damn maze.

A deal first.

“No, you do as I say, you shit!” I threw the words down, a challenge. And the magic receded. My eyes widened.

“Oh what, so now that you can’t call the shots, you don’t want to play? You’re like a damned toddler!”

Laughter rumbled through the air, that deep husky voice that spoke to me when I’d first arrived. “Your magic doesn’t want to share you.”

“Just like a damned toddler,” I said again. This was ridiculous. “And what the hell do you care if my magic listens to me or not? You want to break me, remember?”

The voice ignored me and went on. “That’s why when you were younger and you embraced your elemental magic, you saw nothing of your dark magic. The darkness in your soul was there, yes, but the magic stayed away.” The voice whispered along my skin, making it crawl, making me itch to move. “Your elemental magic isn’t necessarily stronger, it’s just that you are drawn to it, and it to you. Your urge to be . . .” the voice paused as if choosing her words carefully, “good, means you connect with that side of your magic easily. But we see who you really are. And who you could be, if you would fully give yourself to the black magic. The darkness is always stronger than the light, young witch. Always.”

I turned around and looked up, searching for the source, but of course, nothing was above me, nothing around me. I half expected the woman to laugh at me, but she didn’t. In fact, she said nothing more, leaving me alone. This time I was glad to be left to my own devices. The last thing I needed, while I essentially argued with a piece of myself, was a damn audience.

Fine, so I had magic that acted like a two-year-old inside me, and it was strong enough to kill without any sort of remorse. Awesome. How did I deal with a toddler with that kind of power?

I thought of Frost and the other kids in the caravan. How did I get them to do what I needed? Negotiate. I’d have to give the magic something it wanted.

A deal, just like it wanted.

I rubbed a hand over my face. “All right. All right, I’ll strike that deal with you. What do you want?”

All of you, the magic answered.

“Yeah, well, aim lower,” I said, tired and cranky, the bite in my leg still hurting. “This isn’t a winner-take-all moment. It’s a compromise. I just want to get through to Mac. I don’t want to use you again if I don’t have to.”

Silence reigned between the two of us and I wondered if there was another way through the wall. I looked up at the surface, shiny and gray, smooth like a polished stone and far too slick to just climb. Too strong to dig a hole in with my blades. I even scratched at it with one of them, just to be sure, and there was nothing, not a single mar on the pristine blocks. As far as I could see, there was no way around or over.

Somehow, deep down, I knew there wasn’t. That this was designed to force me to make a truce with my magic, to use the darkness. This was what the maze was for. To turn me into a witch they could use, the little witch and her master. Shit. And I was doing it willingly.

No, no, I had to focus on the problem at hand. Get the magic to work with me for this one thing and worry about the rest later. Or at least, that’s what I told myself.

“Time is ticking. I will give you one boon, one thing you want. Not all of me,” I said.

There was a pause and then the voice popped loud in my head like a broken speaker suddenly coming on.

Let me kill the next creature you encounter.

That was remarkably easy to agree to. I could see no downside. Maybe because I was tired, maybe because I just didn’t care as long as I got to Mac.

“Fine. The next creature is yours. Now, let’s break down this wall.”

Creatures it could have. Maybe it would take out whatever was attacking Mac, and I’d kill two birds with one stone. Hell, maybe we could work together, this black magic and me.

I embraced the dark magic and this time it slid through me, like a sweet-smelling, slick oil on my skin, coating me all the way to the center of my bones. Thick and dark-honeyed, I breathed it in, tasted it on my tongue and held it for a moment before I reached out and traced a design on the wall that I didn’t know and yet I knew wholly that it was a dark, destructive symbol pulled from the depths of my bloodline.

The oily black magic slid off my fingers and dug into the wall, pulsing as if with a heartbeat of its own.

Bright red flared wherever I touched, the wall heating and melting like lava as it slid down the wall. Dripping, white-hot metal dropped onto the ground, pooling at my feet, the hole in the wall opening inch by inch.

The black magic was strength, power, safety, and it rocketed through me. Triumphant.

I took a step back, waiting for the last of the liquid metal to drop. “Mac?”

“Pam? I’m here!” He stepped into view, every inch of him. He was leaning on a far wall, one leg obviously injured. A slow grin I knew too well slid over his face, promising all sorts of things the minute he got his hands on me. Making my toes curl and my breath hitch.

I smiled back, my heart pounding now for very different reasons.

And now I take my pound of flesh, the magic said gleefully, cutting through my little fantasy I had going in my head. The magic ripped from me like a horse snatching away its reins as it poured through the hole, straight for Mac, slamming into him and knocking him off his feet.

He let out a bellow that nearly stopped my heart. My magic was trying to kill him.

The next creature it saw, that was the deal. And that creature was Mac.

“Mac!” I scrambled through the hole in the wall, burning one hand on the edge, limping from the bite on my leg.

He was on the ground, writhing under a bloom of darkness.

“No!” I commanded my magic. Sweat beaded on my forehead as I struggled to rein the black magic in. “I said no! Not Mac!”

We had a deal! I trusted you, and you need to trust me! Anger fueled its power, and I fought with all I had to pull it into me. Sweat coated my skin in a split second as I wrestled with the darkness.

“No! You can have a creature, but not Mac!” I said again, maybe more to myself than anything else. I was in control here, not the magic. With a last effort, I yanked it away from Mac, and it bucked against me, threatening to turn on me, writhing around my legs, digging into me as though it had teeth and claws.

I laughed. “Without me, you’re nothing at all. You cease to exist. You can’t kill me.”

Rage rippled through it, making me shudder, and I knew I’d won. At least for now.

I will have my pound of flesh, it repeated. You will see, I am in the right. He is mine to take!

“Not him,” I said as I tightened my grip on it. I was soaked to the skin with sweat, and my neck ached from the strain of keeping the magic from killing the man I loved. But I would succeed or die trying.

Distantly, part of me cheered. I’d just admitted that I loved him. Mac. I loved Mac.

An offshoot of power got away from me. “Mac! Look out!”

He ducked out of the way as the tendril reached for him and exploded, rocking the darkening space. I couldn’t even take in where we were, or what was on the other side of the wall. All I could do was keep the magic from killing him.

But that was not the worst of it. Of course not.

Something was stirring, something I’d woken up. A scuttling, creeping noise cut through the silence after the explosion.

“We’re not alone,” Mac called, but his voice sounded distant, like my magic was keeping me from him.

“Don’t you dare,” I told it.

I swear I heard it growl as it lurched forward, trying again to get to him. “You are relentless. Behave yourself, you can kill the other monsters that are coming!”

The magic didn’t respond as I yanked back on it, trying desperately to keep it back. My nose filled with the stench of death and decay, and I knew this was it. My magic’s last stand. Mac would die, or I would.

“You want your pound of flesh, take the other monsters instead.” I took out one of my blades and held it over my arm. “Because if you take him, I end it. That’s it.”

The air around us stilled for just a moment, and that’s all I needed to gain the upper hand. I pulled my magic from him completely, and buttoned it up tightly inside me. It roared angrily beneath my skin, sending waves of agitation through me as it cursed me out in several languages. I rubbed my arms, but knew it was better than watching it kill my familiar.

“Pamela.” Mac’s voice was oddly muffled, and that scuttling sound was louder than I thought it had been a moment ago. I looked, and a wave of brown fur moved as one toward us. Long leathery tails, clawed feet, sharp chittering teeth in numbers that made the ground look as though it were made of them.

“What the hell . . .” I trailed off as I watched. Beady eyes looked back at me, apparently drawn by all the noise. They looked at me, then they looked at Mac on the ground, his wound open and bleeding.

The horde of rats went for him in a wave and overpowered Mac in an instant, his body disappearing under their brown fur. He snarled, and I panicked. I didn’t save him from my magic just to watch him be eaten alive by a pack of creatures that were at the bottom of the food chain.

“Take them!” I yelled at my magic as I ran into the fray. “There’s a hell of a lot more than a pound of flesh here.”

I will have the bear, or nothing, it responded. You should thank me, you spoiled brat. You need to learn to trust me!

“You’re acting like an entitled two-year-old.” It didn’t respond, so I went to work, yanking my second blade free. Rylee taught me you couldn’t always rely on your magic to save your ass, a lesson I’d leaned on heavily the last three years.

A huge roar rocked the room and Mac exploded as a bear from underneath the pile, sending rats flying in all directions. If I hadn’t been fighting for my life, I might have laughed at the way they flew off, their beady eyes wide and legs outstretched as if they would actually fly.

The problem was the damned things were so small, it was hard to be efficient with killing them. Yes, I could cut them down with each swipe of my blade, but the sheer volume of them made the fight . . . impractical, at best.

The rats would surge forward, get in a few bites on my legs and I’d swipe my blades through those close enough to reach.

There was a steady crunching of bones as Mac chomped down hard on those that got too close and stepped on others. Seemed like he was being more effective than I was.

I had no idea how long we fought, but exhaustion crept into the back of my head, reminding me this was not my first fight of the day, darkening the edges of my vision. Like a terrible waltz, we danced back and forth, cutting through the rats, but they were getting more aggressive the longer we went on. Brassier.

If you’d let me have him, you wouldn’t be in this spot, the magic cooed.

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Good to see you too, beautiful,” Mac called, but I couldn’t correct him.

I had to ignore him and my cheeky-assed magic. I needed to concentrate if we were going to have any kind of hope of getting out of there.

But it was like fighting a tsunami by holding out your two hands, the water just spilling through my fingers. The rats kept coming, and my strength kept waning as if something was siphoning it off.

I looked inside myself, and the black magic curled through me, taking my energy.

I gritted my teeth. “If I die, you can’t take him, remember?”

A surge of energy buoyed me and I took out three rats with one swipe. “That’s better.”

Then one of the damned little bastards bit me. Well, let’s be honest, a lot of them had already bitten me. But this particular one latched on and wouldn’t let go. I couldn’t get my blade to him without slicing myself. I tried to ignore it, but he kept wiggling around, digging his teeth in deeper and deeper, as if trying to get under my skin.

“Mac, a little help?”

“A bit busy at the moment, love,” he called back. I glanced over and found him just as covered in rats as I was. I tried to make my way to him, but let me tell you, wading through a mess of rats, some alive, some dead, their bodies wobbling under your boots, isn’t the easiest thing in the world. They were up to my shins, forcing me to drag my feet as they tried to climb up and pile on my back. I swung my blades, doing my best to keep them away as I gained on Mac.

“I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine,” I said. He grunted and I started pulling rats off and tossing them aside, slicing at the most stubborn ones. The more progress I made, the more the one on my own back dug into my skin and I screamed.

“Goddess, damn you, you little shit.” I sliced into the line of rats on Mac’s back so deeply, I nearly made contact with his flesh. As it was, I just gave him a slight haircut.

“Hey, I liked my hair the way it was, thank you.”

“Maybe I didn’t,” I said, and he turned and grabbed at the one on my back, crushing it with his massive paw.

But it wouldn’t let go, not even in death. So he grabbed hold with his mouth and tried to shake it loose. I cried out as he shook it free and felt the blood dripping down my back.

“Thanks, I think.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said as we turned, my back to his back end, ready to face the next wave.

Back to back, we fought more efficiently, and started to make some headway in the horde of rats, and eventually we whittled them down to a more manageable number. But they didn’t flee like any sensible group of rats would. They kept coming at us. So, we kept killing them.

My body and head said hours passed, hours where we fought and bled together once more. Like fighting the zombies in the canyon. There was no end to these rats.

And then just when I thought there would be another wave, we were done.

With a thick crunch, Mac stepped on the last rat, and we sank down, leaning against each other. He shifted back to two legs and draped an arm across my shoulders.

“Well,” Mac said. “I can think of a better reunion than being covered in rat guts and so tired I could sleep for a week. But this will have to do.”

I turned to face him, and he was already looking at me, a twinkle in those blue eyes I’d missed so deeply.

“Mac. I thought—”

He cut me off as he reached up and took my face in his hand, rubbing my cheek with his thumb. “Shh. I’m here now, and you’re with me. Where you’re meant to be.”

He leaned in and kissed me hard, different than he had before. It was more urgent, almost desperate. I responded in kind, trying to soothe him, but the more I kissed, the more ravenous he got. A hunger I didn’t know and didn’t understand took hold of me.

Part of me said it was damn foolish, the other part told the first part to shut up.

Fool, my magic whispered angrily.

I climbed into Mac’s lap and let my lips trace his while my hands slid under his shirt, feeling his hot skin against my fingertips.

My magic surged within me. I felt it tickling the back of my mouth, and I swallowed, struggling to keep it down like a mouthful of bile. My lips tingled, and I shoved him away. Tried not to see the confusion in his face.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

Don’t be sorry. I’m just trying to help you. He’ll kill you first, my magic whispered.

Well, that was new, my magic wanting to help me. And I didn’t believe it for a second. “You’re a lying, manipulative sack of shit,” I snapped.

“Good to see you too,” Mac said, that twinkle in his eye never wavering.

“Not you, my magic.” I rubbed a hand over my face. He blinked at me, and I sighed. “It wants to kill you.”

“Well, that complicates things a bit.”

Yeah, that was putting it mildly.

8

Alex

Snap decisions had always gotten me into trouble, and that day was no different. But I didn’t have a lot of options as I stared down the jaws of the massive croc beast as it lunged out of the lake, straight for me.

Maybe Oka was right; maybe I shouldn’t have been so brutally honest with Jasmine.

I dove to the right, away from the girls, drawing the big croc toward me. Its teeth snapped closed, just missing the tip of my tail. I tore off across the loose sandy beach. “Go! Get out of here,” I shouted. I knew Oka wouldn’t need to be told twice and didn’t look back to make sure she’d listened. I had to keep my eyes ahead of me or get eaten by the monstrosity hot on my tail.

I ran at an angle, trying to stick to the shallower waters while keeping its attention on me.

I was nearly at top speed, and I wasn’t losing the beast. Those longer legs were serving it far better than I’d hoped.

But wouldn’t you know, something new popped out of the water in front of me. Croc-like, but not a croc. A shorter snout and a body that was sinuous, more like a snake, and a half dozen limbs that I could see. Almost twenty feet long if what I was seeing was all of it.

Smaller than the first croc, its face was so ridiculously colorful, it looked like a clown escaped from the circus. Bright red hues accentuated its eyes and neon blue colored inside the nostrils, making it hardly intimidating, like a hooker who’d put her makeup on in the dark. A really ugly hooker.

But when it opened its mouth, I rethought my assessment of its ferocity. Teeth two inches long glinted back at me in a jaw that gaped wide enough that I could have stepped inside and had headroom. I hit the brakes and backed up on sheer instinct, forgetting for half a second that the big croc was behind me and coming full speed.

The thunder of its feet on the sand spun me around to face him as the croc swung its open chops toward me. I dropped to the ground and it bit into the smaller creature.

“Well, clowny, I’d like you to meet my friend big croc. I’ll let you two get acquainted.” I scrambled out from under them and bolted toward the far tree line like a shot.

Oka and Jasmine were there waiting for me.

“What are you doing? Run,” I shouted at them.

But Jasmine was a mess, sobbing hard, her pace slow. The beasts behind us roared hungrily, making her scream, and sob even harder.

I leaned into her, trying to comfort her, give her strength, whatever she needed so we wouldn’t all die right then.

Oka scoffed. “We’d have a better chance if we left her behind. She’s going to die, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea now. She won’t survive.”

I couldn’t believe we were suddenly on opposite sides of the discussion. First, she said we had to get Jasmine and I’d wanted to leave her. Now she wanted to leave her behind and I . . .

“No one gets left behind,” I said through gritted teeth. Gods, there had to be a lesson here.

Oka was right, and I knew it. We both knew that leaving Jasmine behind was the smart decision. I didn’t even like Jasmine. Hell, I’d wanted to leave her behind first. But she was part of my pack whether I wanted it or not. And it was my fault she’d run off.

That was the core of it. This was my fault. And I had to deal with it as the Alpha.

So, I’d protect her. If it came down to her life or mine . . . Nope. I didn’t want to think about that scenario. I had to stay alive for Pam. And right now, that meant propping up the drama queen, so we could hightail it out of there.

We worked our way through the trees and there was a moment where I thought the beasts would ease off. But the thunder of breaking branches, of shit falling, was all too loud to think they’d given up.

“I think I pissed him off when I took his eye,” I muttered. That was the only reason for them to keep on coming. We were far from easy prey now. We busted out of the trees, way off track from where we were headed.

A narrow ravine opened in front of us, shrubby trees and bushes dotting the area. I headed straight for it, a crazy idea giving me hope. “We’ll lose them in there. Drop down, climb the other side. Crocs can’t climb for shit.”

Neither of my companions argued. Jasmine just kept on crying, limping along as best she could. I didn’t know how bad her leg injury was. I was hoping for straight up punctures. We’d be able to wrap it and then be on our way again.

Assuming I was right about the ravine and we lost our new friends there.

The three of us leapt down, sliding with the loose dirt, rocks, and stones tumbling ahead of us. I glanced back in time to see the croc crest the top of the ravine. It let out another of those weird bellowing, trumpet, metal-tearing sounds and Jasmine whimpered.

“Hurry!” I yelled. Oka was still in her tiger form and we pinned Jasmine between our bodies, all but carrying her across the ravine bottom.

The sound of scree cascading down the ravine wall was all I needed to know that we hadn’t lost the reptiles, not yet at least.

As we climbed the other side, Jasmine struggled to find her footing, and Oka leaned into her more. We kept her pinned between us until we reached the top.

One last heave and we were over the edge as one of the croc things snapped at my tail.

“Jasmine, if I lose my tail for this, I’m taking yours,” I swore as I shoved her farther from the edge. I scrambled up behind her and drew in a big breath, a total sigh of relief. I turned and the sigh turned into a choke.

The damned croc scrambled up the side behind me like some kind of humongous gecko, clinging to the wall, its belly pressed hard to the dirt, one good eye locked on me.

“Are you kidding me?” I shouted in my exasperation. This broken world wouldn’t throw me a bone for nothing.

Oka, still in tiger form, pushed past me. “I’ve got this. Watch how it’s done, wolf.”

As the croc’s head came over the top of the ravine edge, the huge tiger lunged forward. Faster than even I could move, she clamped her mouth on the big croc’s jaws, holding them closed. A low rumbling growl flowed from her, and as before, I could feel her emotions, feel her anger at these animals coming after us.

They were eye to eye, and I thought for a moment I could see fear ripple across the reptile’s remaining orb.

A thought from Oka rang through me.

Take the other eye.

I didn’t second-guess her or why I was hearing her in my head, I just sprang at the beast, going for its remaining eye. The damned thing fought, seeing me coming. Oka dug in her back feet, muscles bunching as she bit down harder.

“Hold it!” I snarled.

She growled at me, but bit down harder on the beast’s jaws, digging her back feet in and dragging it farther up onto our side. In that moment, I knew that I would never win should I have to fight the cat. There was no way I would have been able to do what she was doing.

Cats rule and dogs drool. No fucking shit.

Beads of blood dripped from her teeth, and the big croc went still for an instant. I took that chance to claw its good eye, popping it like an overripe melon. The beast convulsed, and its buddy—hooker clown face—grabbed onto its tail as if it would scale its friend like a ladder.

“Oka, let it go!” I said. We tucked under its lower jaw, shoved the massive and now-blind creature back. It flailed in the air, the clown-faced reptile digging into it, but that wouldn’t save either of them.

The combined weight tumbled them both ass over teakettle into the ravine, slamming into the ground. I watched for a minute while hooker clown face eyed up its now-blind friend. Maybe they would fight. Maybe one would eat the other. Either way, it should buy us some time.

I took off running at a slow lope. Jasmine would follow or she would not. I wanted to circle around and push her from behind, the Alpha in me wanting to protect the wounded. I wouldn’t put my life on the line for her. She’d not made a single effort to help fight the croc. And that was what a pack member did: hurt or not, you helped each other.

Oka was at my side in an instant, staying in her tiger form. I glanced at her, feeling her emotions under my skin.

Slowly it dawned on me what was happening. “I don’t think I’m Pam’s familiar.”

“No?” The big cat tipped her head toward me. “You can feel her emotions and mine.”

“But I can’t feel Mac. Because he and I are both Alphas,” I pointed out. “I think . . .” Gods, this was going to sound weird. “I think you and Pam are becoming part of my pack. I think that’s why I’m feeling a connection to you and vice versa.”

“You love Pam,” Oka said. “You don’t love me.”

I gave her a wolfy grin. “Maybe not the same way. But you just proved yourself back there. Only packmates work together so seamlessly. Get over it, cat. You’re a wolf now.”

Her jaw dropped and I laughed.

Maybe something good had come out of this little side jaunt after all. A bond with the tiger was not a bad thing, not at all. And I, more than most, knew a pack didn’t have to be all shifters, or even all wolves. It was family, pure and simple.

And Oka and Pam were family, no matter what. A rush of warmth slid through me and Oka gave a low, satisfied purr.

I looked back at Jasmine. Her ears were sideways and she panted heavily. There was nothing from her, no connection, no love.

All this had proven was that Jasmine was never meant to be part of my pack. No matter how long she stayed with me.

“We’ll stop as soon as we can and look at your leg, when I’m sure we’re clear of the crocs,” I said.

She didn’t so much as grunt an affirmative.

The three of us ran until we didn’t have any energy left, and then we ran a bit farther to be sure. We stopped briefly to eat and check Jasmine’s leg. I shifted to two legs, slipped on a pair of pants and then used a spare shirt to wrap Jasmine’s leg even though the puncture wounds were healing already.

“You’ll be fine by morning,” I said. “I’m going to get us something to eat.”

“No,” Oka said. “I will. You stay here and keep an eye on her. Alpha.” She rolled her eyes at me, but I was sure there was a grin there and her emotions were of good humor.

Jasmine curled around herself, and even though I couldn’t feel her emotions, I could see them written on her face.

“Look, I’m sorry if what I said hurt you. I am. I should have kept it to myself.” I bent over, gathering up wood as I spoke. A fire would be good, even if it was just for a few hours. The heat would help her heal faster.

Jasmine sniffled. “You should have left me there.”

I fought not to roll my eyes. Because Jasmine was, if nothing else, the least sacrificial of all the people I’d ever met in my life. She could talk the talk, but she’d always hide when the time came to fight for your pack. As was clear with the crocs back there. Her injuries wouldn’t have held her back from helping us push the croc over.

I didn’t disagree with her, though, and that seemed to upset her all over again. A few minutes later, Oka dragged a midsized deer back. She tore off the hindquarters for herself.

Using a knife from my pack, I cut off a few chunks of meat for Jasmine, then for myself, setting them over the fire.

Jasmine sniffed and hiccupped even as she ate an hour later. I knew it was traumatic what she’d been through, but that shit happened to everyone now. Everyone. At least she was healing, something not every person would be able to do from a blow like she’d had.

“I can’t eat with all that noise,” Oka finally said as she took her portion of the deer she’d taken down and stalked off.

Jasmine said nothing as she nibbled her share of the deer, wiping away tears as she ate, her eyes darting to me now and again.

Pitiful, the whole situation and Jasmine were pitiful. She wanted to be seen as an Alpha, but ultimately, she wanted me to carry her.

A thought hit me, and the pieces locked together in my head. She’d told me she’d been a werewolf for years before the breaking of the world. But she didn’t say where she’d been in the pack. “How long were you trapped as a submissive?”

Her eyes flew to mine and her lips trembled. “A long time. When the world broke, I was able to shift again . . . I didn’t know why.”

And there it was. Prior to the breaking of the world, when a werewolf was created, they were either strong enough to shift back and forth from two legs to four, or they weren’t, which meant they’d be trapped somewhere between wolf and human. Ugly. Cast out. Hunted by their own kind. And usually killed.

The fact that she’d survived years like that on her own was a testament to her instincts for survival. But also what she would have had to do to make it on her own. I’d been trapped the same way, only I’d had Pam, Rylee, Liam and all the others that had become a makeshift pack for me, the only family I’d had. My bonds with them had allowed me to grow, to become the Alpha I was now.

And now here I was, creating my own pack the same way. Even though I didn’t think Jasmine would make the cut, I still had to try.

“Jasmine, you aren’t that submissive any longer. And these games you play with me, with everyone, they are going to get you killed.”

Her big eyes filled with tears and they leaked down her face. “I . . . you would kill me?”

I took my knife and cut off another chunk of meat, roasting it over the fire, understanding filling me. “No, but I won’t protect you again if you put others in danger. You run off like that, you’re on your own. I’m enforcing the rules of a pack from here on out—for you, Marley and any other soul that groups in with us.”

She bit her lower lip. “You mean you’d let me die then.”

I locked eyes with her, but kept my voice low, putting a bit of my energy behind it. “If you put others in danger, deliberately, to try to get your way—” I drew a breath and slowly nodded. “Yeah. I won’t save you again. These games wouldn’t be dangerous if we weren’t in a broken world. But here? They will get everyone killed. I won’t allow it. Not anymore. If I give you a direct order, it will be for your own good. You need to honor that.”

Jasmine stared into her lap, nodding. “I understand.”

I wondered if she did. But it didn’t matter. I’d drawn the line in the sand and either she would toe it or try again. I honestly didn’t care which she did because for the first time, I felt the mantle of an Alpha as a comfort. I doubted, too, that I would ever connect with Jasmine the way I had with Oka or Pam.

We finished our meal. I kicked dirt over the fire. Oka came back to us in her tabby cat form.

She looked from Jasmine who was still eating slowly, to me. “She’s quiet. What did you say?”

“Later.” I pulled my sweats off and stuffed them in the backpack and slid it over my shoulders as I shifted. The straps dug into my back a bit, but it worked. “Right now, we’ve got ground to cover.”

Jasmine stuffed the last bit of food in her mouth but said nothing. Not a single protest about the fact that we weren’t stopping for the night. Her leg was almost fully healed, and she didn’t even limp when we took off.

Oka bounded along beside me, tail in the air. “I still can’t pinpoint Pam, Alex. I mean, she’s not dead, but there is no direction.”

I loped along a moment. “Doesn’t matter. We know she and Mac are at the compound. I should be able to track them from there.”

“I can help too. With that,” Jasmine said.

I didn’t look at her, just bobbed my head once. “Good. We’ll cover ground quicker that way.”

Oka snorted. “What did you do? What did you threaten her with?”

“Later,” I said again. Whatever good my words had done would be ruined completely if I told Oka in front of Jasmine.

We ran for two hours, well into darkness before the land started to look familiar. The scent of oil and smoke caught at my nose. “There, up the hill.”

Jasmine slowed. “Do you think it’s a good idea to go in there exhausted? I mean, if we have to fight, wouldn’t it be better to rest?”

“They don’t know we’re coming. Surprise will be on our side,” I said, but I did slow as we jogged up that final hill.

Jasmine followed and Oka stuck close to my side, dropping to her belly, and army crawling up the last ten feet or so. I did the same. Just in case snipers were waiting.

At the crest of the hill, I stared at the open valley below us, my brows wrinkling. There was no compound. Nothing but more hills and trees beyond. I drew in a breath, tasting smoke at the back of my throat.

“What do you think?” Oka asked. I didn’t know what to think, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit that out loud. I was sure by the smells that the compound should have been down there.

In fact, I would have bet my life on it. As it was, Pam’s and Mac’s lives were already on the scale. I looked over my shoulder. Jasmine waited part way down the hill, watching us.

“We must’ve gotten turned around when we got tangled up with those crocs.” I didn’t think that was the case at all. But making a snap decision this time wouldn’t help us at this point.

“Let’s get some rest and reorient ourselves in the morning.”

Oka and I jogged down the hill toward the thin forest we’d used for cover when we’d first come to the compound. Yeah, this was the right place. Damn it. Something was up, and it could only mean one thing.

Magic. And that sort of trap we did not want to walk into in the dark. Who knew what kind of spell we could set off?

There was a stand of trees that made a tighter circle than the others, and I chose that for camp.

“Try to sleep,” I said to them both. “I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be harder than today.”

“You don’t think facing giant crocs that can run as fast as horses was hard?” Oka flicked her left ear at me.

I snorted. “If the other side of the hill is where the compound was, and I’m pretty sure it is, that means we’re dealing with some sort of spell. Something not any one of us has any ability to deal with.”

Oh, how those words would come back to haunt me.

I sat, putting my back against a tree before lowering to my belly.

Jasmine snuggled up next to me, tucked her nose against my side and was asleep in minutes. Her breath hitched in and out in little hiccupping sobs, slowing quickly until she was out cold.

I could have pushed her away, but with her asleep, Oka and I could speak freely.

Oka picked up her head, eyes glowing by the light of the stars and crescent moon.

“What if we don’t find her, Alex? What if the sorceress . . . did kill her? What if what I feel is just my need to still be connected to her?” The worry in her voice was enough to unleash the rising panic in my own heart. I dropped my nose to press it against Oka’s side, nudging her closer to me so she curled up between my front legs.

Her emotions tangled with my own and I had to work to keep them separate.

“If she’s dead, then we find the body. If we can’t find a body . . . then we keep looking, Oka. We keep looking.” I stared out at the night, the creatures singing their songs to the moon and knew in the marrow of my bones that Pam was out there somewhere.

I’d crossed the broken world and found her once. I’d do it again if I had to.

Or die trying.

9

Pamela

“I’ve never kissed someone who wanted to kill me before. Takes the relationship to another level, don’t you think?” Mac asked, cheekier than ever. He leaned in for another kiss and I shoved him back hard enough that he bumped against the wall of the maze. The stink of dead rats turned my stomach.

“Mac, take this seriously. You’ve seen what this bloody magic of mine can do. Cool your jets if you don’t want it to suck the life out of you.” I wrapped my arms around myself as if I could keep the black magic in. I didn’t want to be afraid to touch him, but I was. I was terrified.

“Pam, that magic is part of you, and I trust you,” he said as he leaned in again, and I shoved him away a second time.

That one will kill you. Let me kill him first. Take him now while his guard is down. You need to trust me!

There it was again, that demand for trust from an entity that had tried to take control of me from the beginning.

All I wanted was for Mac to wrap his arms around me and just hold me a moment. To feel safe. Yet my magic wouldn’t even allow me that much. I could feel it waiting as close to the surface as it was able, ready to lash out at Mac.

“Well, you shouldn’t trust me, not right now.” I choked out the words and shook my head. That last little blow shattered my emotional defenses, cracking the façade I’d been hanging onto since I’d opened my eyes in this place.

The tears came fast and hard. I loved him. I’d given him my heart. Why would my magic think he was going to kill me? The Mac I knew would give his life for me and he’d proved that time and again.

Dangerous, he’s dangerous to you. Much as I hate that you won’t use me, I don’t really want you to die.

“Of course, you don’t. I die, you die,” I said under my breath as I fought to stop crying.

Mac just watched me, not responding to my whispered words. “Are you okay, love?”

Mentally I reached for him but couldn’t feel our connection. Not surprising, though. The voice of the one controlling this place had said she’d cut me off from my familiars. I shook my head. “No, no, I’m not okay.”

“Pam.” Mac said my name gently as he scooped me into his arms. I sobbed into his chest, repeating over and over in my mind that it wasn’t fair as I held onto my black magic as tightly as I could. I needed this moment. This man loved me. He wouldn’t hurt me. I just couldn’t accept what my magic was saying.

Yet part of me worried my magic knew things I did not. What if this place had a hold on Mac? It was possible that he’d been twisted here, that he wasn’t himself.

Whether or not you accept my words is irrelevant. The truth remains, my magic insisted.

“Shut the fuck up. No one cares about your truth,” I said bitterly.

Mac ignored me as he held me close. I let him curl me to his chest, feeling the strength in his arms. This was my home. This was where I belonged. And my magic could be damned even if I had to work to keep it away from him. Mac would never hurt me, no matter what this place did to him. Besides, if he’d wanted to kill me, why hadn’t he just let the rats have me?

It didn’t make sense. None of it did. The place of limbo that held the souls of the dead, Peta disappearing, my magic, Mac. None of it. And I was too tired to puzzle it all out. There was a thread I wasn’t picking up on, and in my exhaustion, I couldn’t find it.

“I need to get some sleep, Mac,” I said. The fatigue from fighting the rats and the meat bags finally took me. It was easier than facing the thoughts swirling in my mind. But if I fell asleep, what then? Would the darkness in me rise and kill Mac?

“Agreed. We both should. A few hours rest, and we can figure this out.” Still holding me, he turned and a door appeared in the wall. A dark rust-colored wood with metal hinges and a thick heavy knob with a skeleton key dangling from it.

Well, there was a trap if ever there was one. “What do you think?” I asked.

Be wary. He won’t ignore his chance like you did, my magic warned.

“Do we have a choice? I mean, we could lie down on the dead rats, but I’m not much interested in waiting for another horde of them,” Mac said.

I knew no matter what we chose, it would be dangerous, but not for the same reasons my magic thought. This place was nothing but a giant spring trap waiting to snap my neck at every turn as if I were the rat.

And I had no illusions about this place trying to separate us again.

Without waiting for me to say yay or nay, Mac carried me to the door. He jammed the skeleton key in with one hand and turned it with a loud click. The door slowly opened inward and he stepped across the threshold.

I had to blink a few times to get a good look at where we were. A large but simple room with four corners, a bright fireplace crackling nicely across the way. I looked over my shoulder and the door shut with a soft click.

“Almost too good to be true,” he muttered.

I didn’t disagree with him. He set me on what felt like a cloud under my feet. Carpet, thick as a mattress, rolled in every direction. Right in front of my eyes, a table filled with food appeared, more food than the two of us could eat in a week. Roasted meat, steaming bowls of soup, fresh warm bread if my nose wasn’t lying to me, mugs of drinks that curled with heat, huge serving platters of vegetables, fruit, pasta and even a rack of lamb. The smell of the food filled my mouth with saliva. Even before the maze, we’d not been getting much food with the caravan on rations.

This was a veritable feast.

But I was no fool.

“Mac . . .” I trailed off, warning him, but he’d already sat down and dug in without reservation.

I grabbed his hand that wasn’t full of food. “What are you doing? It could be poisoned.”

“I don’t smell anything.” He held up a particularly buttery looking biscuit right under my nose, and my mouth immediately filled with saliva once again. When was the last time I ate, never mind had real butter in my mouth? I shook my head even as I wanted to open my mouth and stuff the biscuit in.

“No. This place is a giant trap. You should know that by now. Trust nothing.”

He shrugged and took another bite of the biscuit. “Suit yourself. But you really should get your strength up. We have to be ready for what comes next. Right?”

He kept chewing, stuffing his mouth, and all I could do was watch. Was this how he would die? I waited for the seizing to start, for his body to go into pain-filled spasms, but there was nothing. Not so much as a rank fart left his body.

He finished the biscuit and moved on to a handful of grapes. Then, he cut into a steak. An actual steak. He dipped the bite into some sort of sauce that had a hint of garlic and spice to it. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t sure I could go on not eating.

“You’re missing out,” he said as he pointed at me with a piece of meat on the end of his fork. “The reality is, this place wants to break you. But it also wants your magic, right?”

I nodded, unable to look away from the food.

“Right.”

“Can’t have your magic if you’re starved to death.” He waved a hand at the food. “Eat, Pam. Get your strength up while you can. Be ready for the next test that will come.”

Except for his stomach filling, nothing had happened to him. I had to admit, if I didn’t eat something soon, I’d be in a world of hurt. Starving myself to death wasn’t going to do anyone a lick of good. And he made a good point about what this place wanted from me.

So, I threw caution to the wind and grabbed a chunk of the warm bread and slathered it in fresh churned butter. The first bite had me moaning, slowly chewing the bread.

I think my toes actually curled from the sheer pleasure of eating. After the biscuit, I went for the pasta, eating mouthfuls of the cheese-covered carbs I thought I’d never have again. Each bite was better than the last until I wasn’t sure I could eat any more.

“Here, wash it down.” Mac handed me a golden chalice, and I eyed it. Red liquid swirled inside.

“What is it?”

“Wine. Don’t tell me my best girl doesn’t care for wine.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever had it.” I was so young when the world broke, I’d never had an opportunity for it.

“Well, no time like the present,” Mac said, and I swear he almost winked at me. I watched him as I brought the chalice to my lips and the smell hit me first. Fruit with a sharp note to it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I hesitated. Had I seen him drink anything? I couldn’t remember. I was so full of food, and so damn tired, and everything looked so good. Even Mac.

Before I could think better of it, the red liquid passed over my lips, tart and sweet, but I liked it. It was smooth sliding down my throat, so I took another sip before setting the cup on the table and digging back into the food in front of me.

I wasn’t sure if it was just the sugar from the fruit wine, or the fact that I wasn’t running for my life, but a tingling sensation started to whisper all over my body. Sensual and deep, it reminded me that there were hungers other than food.

Mac watched me closely, a serious light in his eyes.

“Do you feel that?” I asked, wondering if it was the food, or the room, or just my proximity to him that made me want to peel out of my clothes and rub my skin over his. I squirmed in my seat.

“I always feel that when I’m with you, Pamela.”

Mac leaned over, and nibbled at my neck, careful to avoid my lips this time. The magic rolled inside me, but I kept it down easily. Maybe the food had been just what I needed to find my strength again.

Push him away, fool!

He tugged at the ties of my cloak, and let it fall behind me, my blades quickly following. I felt naked without all that, but I wasn’t truly naked—at least not yet. Mac made short work of my clothes. I blinked and he was as naked as me.

Like magic. That thought made me smile. What man wouldn’t want that magical ability to take his and his woman’s clothes off with a mere thought?

I shook my head, that tingling sensation tightening through my lower regions. None of it mattered anymore. All I needed was this place, this moment. His hands on my body. His breath and teeth on my neck.

Across from us the fire flared, lighting up the recesses of the room, showing off a large canopied bed covered in blankets and more pillows than I could count. Mac turned his head, saw the bed and then turned back to me, a grin spreading over his face. “Well, that’s rather convenient, don’t you think?”

Part of me said it was too much, too much of what we both wanted. Why would the maze give us this moment?

To take it away. That thought rattled me, because of the truth of it.

“Tell me you love me, Pam. That you’d fight for me.”

“Always, I’ll always fight for you,” I said. He scooped me up and carried me to the bed.

He laid me out, his eyes sweeping over me, his gaze like a physical touch, roving from my toes slowly up my legs, across my belly to my breasts, neck and arms. The trembling that started, I couldn’t stop. Didn’t want it to stop.

He lay next to me, and I let his hands explore my body, tracing the path his eyes had taken, running them over my breasts, drawing little gasps from my lips.

His mouth followed the trail his hands blazed, sliding lower, kissing, nipping, licking. “Mac, don’t stop,” I groaned as I arched my back to meet him as he settled his mouth over my nipple, sending shivers down my spine.

His hand drifted lower in slow, methodical circles. “I didn’t plan on it.”

Ecstasy washed over me in those moments, driving my body into a writhing, hot bundle of desire and need.

Not a pile of rats. Or horde of meat bags. No darkness. No spells taking my power. Nothing but pure bliss, connection to a man that I needed more than anything.

And it was exactly what my soul craved, this connection.

Fool, you are a damn fool. You see only what you want to see. What he wants you to see!

My magic buzzed like a nest of angry hornets under my skin. I pushed it away and grabbed at Mac’s shoulders, holding him to me.

A scar puckered under my left hand. One that ran from his shoulder, up and around his neck. When had he gotten this scar? I made my eyes open. Made them look.

The scarred ring around his neck was new. I was sure of it.

His hand slid between my legs, fingers dipping and pressing, rubbing against my flesh. I gasped, my eyes rolling back in my head, hips thrusting up without any conscious thought.

As I climbed toward a peak I’d never felt before, my black magic tugged at the back of my mind.

You will regret this. Listen to me, damn it! I’m trying to keep you alive!

“Shut it.” I groaned the words, Mac ignoring me. My hand was still on that scar, though, and it heated under my fingers. I opened my eyes, forced them open. No, it shouldn’t be that difficult to open my eyes.

His mouth slid back to my neck and collarbone as his hands worked their own kind of magic between my legs. I groaned and sucked in a breath, biting at my lower lip, holding it tight. But I couldn’t take my eyes off the scar. Couldn’t stop feeling it.

It meant something. I was sure of it.

A wave of pleasure caught at me, sucked me under and I couldn’t breathe around it as the pressure grew between my legs.

I wanted this. I wanted Mac. I pulled him closer, burying my nose against his neck, wanting to taste him.

Bitter, acrid sulfur poured off his skin.

Sulfur. Not the snow, trees, and wild wind he usually smelled like. But sulfur, dark and suffocating and made of shadows and secrets.

Let me show you, foolish girl. He is not who you think!

In my state of desire, my magic slipped the hold I had on it and it cascaded over not only me, but Mac too.

“No!” I yelled the word, terrified it would kill him. But it did not.

It lit him up, and the image that was Mac slid away. In that instant, the naked man with his hands on me transformed into a complete stranger.

Dark hair, dark eyes, he was stunning, gorgeous, and looked disturbingly like . . . “Alex?”

He grinned. “It’s my boy that you love then?”

I scrambled back but he reached out and snagged my hand. A wave of pleasure cascaded over me and his image shifted. No longer Mac. No longer the stranger.

Alex leaned toward me, golden eyes and dark hair. I froze, staring at him. “Alex.”

“Hey.” His voice was soft. “I’ve been looking for you.” The hold on my wrist softened but I moved forward, wanting him.

Needing him.

It’s his power! He’s a fucking incubus, you idiot!

Why the hell hadn’t my magic said that earlier?

How can you not see it? I thought you’d recognize a stranger wearing the skin of the men you love.

His power wrapped around me like the noose that had scarred his neck. “Damn you,” I whispered both to the incubus and to my magic. I lifted a hand and called the black magic forward. “I’m sorry.”

He tipped his head and raised an eyebrow, a move so like Alex that tears leaked from my eyes as I let the magic fly.

A snarl ripped the air as he dove to the side, still holding my arm. A sharp twist and the bone snapped, breaking the wrist in one swift movement.

I cried out, and he merely grunted.

“You are not him. You are neither of them!” I yelled, unable to pull back without putting strain on my wrist. The incubus stood, still wearing Alex’s face and body.

“No. I’m not. Think of it this way. At least you can taste him before you die.” He pulled, not very hard, and I had to go to him, the pain driving me forward. He lifted his other hand and brushed it across my cheek. “I see why he loves you. He told me he was fighting to get to you. You know how an incubus is made, don’t you?”

I shook my head, prepping my black magic. “No, I don’t.”

His eyes were . . . sad. “You’re about to. But maybe this moment will show you what you need to fight for, yes?”

That didn’t make sense and I didn’t waste time trying to figure it out.

I screamed as my magic ripped out of me, the black tendrils striking from my free hand.

At my cry, the door burst open, and from the corner of my eye I saw a bloodied and furious Mac, his face a mass of bruises. A strange breeze blew in behind him, sending his scent straight to my nose, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it was him. And here I was, naked as the day I was born, with a stranger. No, worse than a stranger. As far as he was concerned, I was with Alex.

“I knew that bear would be bad for you,” the incubus said. “He’s not the one, Pammy. He’ll end up getting you killed if you let your heart follow him.”

10

My magic slammed into the incubus with Alex’s face in this room filled with carnal temptations. Food, warmth, comfort. Damn this fucking maze.

Tear him a new one, I will. Only a witch’s magic is powerful enough to withstand the soul-sucking power of an incubus.

The black tendrils drove into his body, and I raised my good hand, lifting him so he floated above the bed. His body shook and the image of Alex faded, flicked to Mac, and then settled on the visage I thought was his true look.

Still like Alex, but older. More dangerous.

I kept my back to Mac, putting myself between him and the incubus. The incubus eyed me up, even as my magic cut through him. “Say hello to my boy for me. Tell him—”

I clenched my good hand into a fist and the black magic shrieked through me, driving into every part of his body, cutting him down, taking his life in a blast of black writhing magic that all but laughed as it ate him down. His power flooded backward into me, his thoughts opening to me as spirit wove through the black magic as if on its own accord.

Voices, a conversation overheard filled my ears.

“Set her up. Put her at odds with her familiar. Force her to use her magic on him. Fuck her if you must. I know you.”

“Yes, my lady.” He took a knee, his back stiff as if it frustrated him. There was an echo of his own thoughts, though.

I’ll give her a tool to face this bitch in the end. I’ll show the girl what a heart is made of.

He turned his head, dark eyes and darker hair. His face echoing the lines of Alex’s face. The image made it hard to deny any connection between them. He closed his eyes and a picture from his memories flowed over me.

A picture of him in a time before this place, before this trap. He was with a woman he loved more than life itself, her eyes sparkling as she turned to him, her smile exactly the same as Alex’s, tipping up more on one side than the other.

I was seeing his parents’ last moments together.

The incubus ran for her, shoved her away from a falling building, but was trapped under the rubble himself.

“Finish this,” he snarled, and for a moment, I felt his hands on my body again and I screamed, a rage I didn’t know I had in me lashing out, using the black magic as a weapon of death.

The gurgle of his last breaths were all I heard as he died. There was no final moment of apology, only pure and final retribution.

I fisted my good hand as if I held his heart in it, stopping the beats from coming.

The incubus—Alex’s father—died, or died again, I wasn’t sure which. I went to my knees.

My clothes were on my body once more as if everything I’d experienced was a dream. Only it wasn’t a dream.

“Mac?” I couldn’t even turn to look at him. “What . . . did you see?”

A low growl rumbled from him. “You. With Alex. Is he the one you want?”

Gods above and below, as if this were the time for a heartfelt chat. I covered my eyes with my good hand. I could lie to him. Could tell him what I thought was best.

“No.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Yes. Maybe.”

Mac sighed and I finally turned to look at him. He was as beat up as I felt.

“He . . . he was you, first.” I kept my eyes to the floor, shuddering, still feeling the incubus on top of me. The residual power . . . was still there, still humming under my skin.

“An incubus can do that, find your deepest desires and imitate it.” His voice was rough.

Tears slid down my cheeks. “I feel filthy, Mac, he . . .”

He was beside me in an instant, arms around me, crushing me to his chest, his was my entire world wrapped around me. “Not your fault, little witch. Not your fault at all. He used your own heart against you. That’s what they do. I can’t fault you for loving us both. I won’t.”

I turned in his arms, breathing him in. “I’m—”

Tears choked me, and I swallowed hard. I didn’t want him to see my pain, to see how deep the cut went.

Because I wasn’t sure if it was just that a stranger had touched me.

That some of it was how seeing Alex look at me like that . . . like he couldn’t breathe without me at his side had sparked what I’d been stuffing down all along.

Mac held me so tightly, I could barely breathe myself, but I didn’t care. Not really. At least here in this moment, I could pretend I was safe.

False illusions. And you didn’t thank me yet.

“Thank you, but you could have said something earlier,” I whispered. Mac kissed my hair.

You should be able to recognize a threat. I assumed you did. It felt as though she shrugged inside me.

I held my wrist in my good hand, doing what I could to keep it still, to ignore the pain.

Mac shifted his hold on me and I whimpered.

“Are you hurt?”

I nodded against him. “My wrist, he snapped it when I tried to get away.”

He held me out from him a bit and gently lifted my arm. My wrist hung at an awkward, unnatural angle. A bump protruded under the skin, pushing up where it should not.

“That bone is far out of place.” He didn’t touch it. “Can your magic heal it?”

I shook my head, wincing at how even that small movement rippled down my arm. “I’ll have to just grin and bear it.”

“Bear it.” He laughed, a grin twitching across his lips. “Funny girl.”

Those ice blue eyes I thought I knew so well were watching my face. “I think I can fix it. But before I do that, I think you should really look at it.”

I frowned and stared at my wrist. “What?”

“He broke not only your wrist, but something inside your hand. I can see it in the lines here.” Mac ran a finger down the middle of my hand, and I sucked in a sharp gasp.

“Okay, so two breaks.”

“I think we could get one of the bracelets off.”

His words took a moment to penetrate. “What?” I stared at my hand. How many times had I wondered what it would take to get a bracelet off that blocked my elemental power?

“The bracelet. It’ll hurt like a motherfucker, but I can get it off. At least, we should try.”

I knew which bracelet it was. Air.

I shook my head. “Tried that once. Right after it happened.”

His face fell. “Shit, of course you did.”

The pain of breaking my own hand, shattering the bones so I could slide the bracelets off was not as distant a memory as I would have liked. “It’s more than just being on my wrist. There is something that holds them to me, part of the binding.”

“Then we’ll heal it up, get you going again.”

He cupped my wrist with his hands, his thumbs resting on top of the broken bone. I gritted my teeth, knowing there was no way this would go easily.

He rubbed his thumbs over the bump and sent his energy into my bone. Warm and then cold, fire and then ice pulsed through it, and then he pushed hard with both thumbs as he lifted my hand.

I cried out but bit the sound back as quickly as it escaped. There was a second pop and then the bones knitted together, the same way I felt when I was healing him, as if we were one soul.

We were one soul. I loved him.

But my heart did not belong wholly to him.

A wave of nausea washed over me, and I swayed on my feet. The nausea, was it from my understanding or the pain?

Both.

I looked up him at him, at the bruises, dried blood and scratches over his face and arms. The maze had been no gentler to him than it had been to me. I leaned into his chest to keep from falling, putting my head on him.

“How did you find me?” I whispered, not feeling strong enough to lend much more to my voice.

He kept rubbing his thumbs over the wrist. “I followed your scent. It was faint, but it was there and I knew that at least was real. Whoever put us here seemed to have forgotten some of my abilities.”

Mac let my hand go and curled me into his arms, and I breathed in his scent, completely right this time. Completely home. “I will always find you, Pam. I will always come when you call.”

I didn’t ask what he meant by that. We’d been apart. And he’d found me. That’s all I needed, all I could handle.

My stomach rolled with the food I’d eaten, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it had gone rotten. “We should get moving.”

Mac nodded and let me lead, but I didn’t get very far. I walked through the door that had been every bit as dangerous as my magic had warned, and into the maze.

A step over the threshold and I bent over and puked everything I’d eaten and then some. As if my body was trying to purge itself of the whole incident. But I still couldn’t get the feeling of a stranger’s hands on my naked body out of my head. I shivered, and Mac put his hand on my back, warm and steady. I had to work not to flinch. Because if I could be fooled once, how could I believe I couldn’t be fooled again?

“Who originally sent you to me?” I turned to him. “Who sent you to help me?”

He blinked and then nodded, a smile of understanding there. “Faris.”

A breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding slid out of me. “Okay.”

He said before shifting into his bear form, “Hop on. You sleep. I’ll carry you.”

I wanted to cry. With humiliation. With gratitude. I wasn’t sure which. But in the end, it didn’t matter. I climbed on, and buried my face in his fur, drew in his strength and safety. He forgave me without question and was ready to be what I needed immediately. What had I done to deserve him? The question didn’t last long in my mind. Sleep overcame it, washing over me hard and fast.

The dream came on just as quickly. I was in the wilderness again, the rolling hills and dotted forests recognizable. But there were animals now. Archies screeched in the trees above. A deer sniffed at a bush nearby. The air was clean, a cool breeze bringing me the smell of the land.

But something was not right. I did a slow turn. I was near the compound.

A snarl cut the air and I was running before I thought better of it. Because that was Oka.

I burst through a small cluster of trees to see Oka in her tiger form protecting Jasmine. They were pinned against two trees as Alex writhed on the ground, not as a wolf, but as a man.

His eyes rolled back in his head as he screamed, as though his body were on fire. Snarls ripped out of him, part man, part wolf. Goddess, don’t let him be trapped in between forms again!

“Oka!” I yelled her name and her head snapped around to face me.

“Pam?”

She’d heard me. Was this a dream? Was it real? Alex was on his hands and knees now, heaving for breath, his fingers digging into the soil.

I opened my mouth to ask Oka what was happening, was he hurt?

Then I was swept away to another dream. I blinked, and Oka was gone along with Alex and Jasmine.

A slow turn showed me a landscape I didn’t recognize. The woods were thicker here. Was this Lark’s old stomping grounds of the redwoods, or what was left of them? I couldn’t be sure with the world as broken as it was. Nothing was the same, not even the elementals’ realms.

A massive crack split the air, the sound of a huge tree coming down, and I braced myself for the crash, but it never came.

I pulled my blades out and took a step forward, then another, and another as I followed the sound. Another crack rippled out, hitting me in the chest like a sonic wave. Ahead of me a bright orange light lit up the woods, flickering between the trees. I dropped to a crouch and kept moving, kept sliding forward.

“Your time is up,” a voice said. A woman, her voice familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

“Not quite,” another voice answered. That one I recognized, and I pushed ahead, moving as quickly as I could.

Through the trees was a clearing where Raven, my father, fought four other elementals. They threw their power at him, and he was working hard to keep them at bay. Sweat beaded on his forehead, his black hair stuck to his face. I wanted to step in and help, but if I distracted him now, it could be fatal.

I clutched my blades and found myself reaching for my black magic. I started to step out into the fray, and the dream shifted again.

“No! Let me help him!” I said.

Questions rolled through me. Who was Raven fighting? Were they the ones responsible for binding my magic? What had he done this time to piss off the other elementals?

Knowing him, it could’ve been deserved. But that didn’t mean I wanted to see him die. If anything, I understood why he did what he did. What he had to do, no matter the cost to himself.

Finally, the dreamscape settled, and when I blinked, I was in the canyon where we’d left the caravan. Laughter filled the air, and I turned to see Frost and the other children splashing in the creek that ran through the middle of the canyon. Frost slowed, and then glanced my way. He looked right at me, smiled, and waved, before Crimson came for him, her arms swinging wide. “Time for bed, you monkey!” He let out a squeal, gave me one last wave and then took off running.

I looked around at the others. There was a glow of health on them all. Rosy cheeks, and their faces were no longer gaunt.

I walked through the caravan. Some people were eating, others playing cards, others tending the animals, still others working on the trucks. Everyone seemed happy. Even Richard, who was bouncing a little girl I didn’t recognize on his knee. Chris’s baby? Had she finally forgiven him?

Just behind him, Wade wiped his hands with a cloth. He tipped his head to the side and then turned and looked at me. Really looked at me.

He gave me a slow nod. How the hell could he see me?

I shook the question off. Whatever the reason, they were okay. Dream or not, the caravan was safe. For now. All I had to do was find my way back to them.

“Hey, there, sleeping beauty.” Mac’s voice was distant as I tried to shake the dreams and what they could mean. I came to, slowly, and then shot up to a sitting position as I remembered where I was.

“I think we’ve found the next challenge,” Mac said softly.

“What the hell are you talking about? Hasn’t all this been challenging enough?”

He looked over his shoulder at me, his icy blue eyes full of concern, then looked ahead of us once more.

I followed his gaze and could only gasp at what lay ahead.

11

The scene spread out in front of us, this new twist to the maze. And I felt like I’d seen it before when I was younger and far more naïve.

A cold blow of winter circled us, snow on the ground, ice hanging from the trees, pines cracking with the deep cold that could only be found far to the north as the sap froze and trees exploded. But all that was distant to what was front and center.

A small clearing in the woods with a fire burning high. It looked exactly like the place Raven had shown me what seemed like so long ago. The place where he’d met my mother.

The maze was very good at finding the darkest and most wounded parts of my life.

We will break you. That is what they said. They will use everything they can against you to accomplish that goal. My dark magic reminded me of that particular tidbit. It wasn’t wrong.

The snow blew and a billow of flakes obscured my vision for a split second, and where there had been no one, now three witches made a triangle around the flames. Their voices carried incantations I didn’t understand, but even so, I felt them all the way to my bones . . . and they tugged at me.

“I can’t go any closer. Something is stopping me,” Mac said as he came to a halt at the edge of the clearing. He shook his head.

I slid off his back and tested the space. I had no trouble going ahead of him. I wasn’t bound by the same magic he was, and again, those words, they called to me.

Just like the incubus had. I froze where I was, as if I’d been hit by a blast of arctic wind.

Mac narrowed his eyes, not understanding what I was feeling, being disconnected as we were. A low grumble escaped him. “No. I don’t want you going ahead without me.”

I came back to him. My bear, the one who had saved me over and over. I put a hand on him, so incredibly grateful.

“This test is for me. It’s about forcing me to use my black magic.” I slid my arms around his neck. “I have to do this. There is only one way out of this maze.”

He bowed his head. “To go through it.”

“Yes, to go through it.”

To get back to the others, I would suffer whatever I had to suffer, whatever violation came my way. I straightened.

I could almost hear Rylee in my ear. Time to put your big girl panties on, Pam. We don’t always get to choose the path, but we can always choose how we handle it.

Something moved at the edge of the clearing, and I caught my breath. Little lights, little pairs of eyes in multiple colors blinked on and off. The eyes were back, watching me. Shadows of all shapes and sizes gathered around.

“Souls of the dead,” one of the witches said from the fire. “They wait to see their fate, to see if the witch will free them or become one of them.”

Before I could answer her, a flash of black and white passed between the trees and shadows, and I thought, just for a moment . . . “Peta?” I called out.

No answer came, and the flash of black and white was gone just as quickly as it had appeared. I smiled to myself. Peta was here, watching along with the shadows, waiting for me to save her too.

I started to move forward and Mac stopped me, curling a big paw around my legs.

“I know this is a test, and they’re trying to break you. You’re stronger than even you know, Pam. No matter what happens . . .”

I swallowed hard. “You don’t know that.”

“I do. I’ve seen inside your soul. I know you. And you can beat this. You can beat the darkness. You don’t have to use your black magic and have its filth on you.”

I drew a breath and a little confidence from his words as I turned and looked at the three women around the fire. One of them had blonde hair to her waist, and for a second, I thought it was my young lookalike who’d put me here. But no, it was worse and better at the same time.

Mac called to me as I walked toward the women in front of me. He roared my name, and I kept walking. The call to the woman was different than with the incubus.

This felt like I faced my past, present, and future all at once.

Two of the women kept chanting and dancing around the flames, but the blonde had stopped and was openly watching me. I stared back. She was young, only a little older than me.

She resembled me so closely, she could have been my sister, but I knew with every part of me that she wasn’t related to me that way. I tipped my head, seeing the subtle differences between us. She was harder in places. Her cheekbones were higher and more defined. She had a stronger jaw line and looked ready to face anything that came at her. The way she stood with her dark burgundy cloak billowing out behind her, I knew that if I crossed her, I would be in for a brutal fight.

To be fair, I hadn’t seen a mirror in quite a while. Maybe I did look just like her now. Maybe I was just as hard, and just as worn. Just as shaped by the life I’d led so far.

“Daughter. Lovely of you to join me. Finally.” Her voice was soothing and didn’t sound like my magic at all. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or not. If it wasn’t her speaking through my black magic, who was it? Maybe it didn’t have to be anyone. Maybe it was its own entity. Which felt even weirder, that I could be housing some sentient magic inside.

She held out a hand to me as I drew closer to her. “Let me teach you.”

And there it was. The words I’d waited so long to hear. Lark had said she would, but then she destroyed the world and disappeared, or I guess now I knew that she was gone, killed in the breaking. Raven tried to teach me too, but he seemed always tangled up in something else, fighting for his life at every turn. Maybe that’s where I got that particular trait. Even Rylee’s training had been cut short.

“What will it cost me?”

Her smile spread over her face. “Good girl, the pain has taught you as it taught me. This will be no cost to you. This moment is the only place outside of the power that trapped you here. I want to help you.”

I frowned. “How can you help me when you are trapped here too?”

“Take my hand, and I will show you.”

She continued to hold her hand out and I stared at it. This moment was everything I’d ever wanted. To learn, and in that knowledge, be strong enough to protect those I loved.

I took her hand and let her lead me away from the fire and the other two witches. Mac watched anxiously from the other side of the woods, and I tried to tell him with a smile that I was fine.

I followed her and we sat on a fallen tree near the far edge of the clearing, close enough to have some light, but far enough that the others couldn’t hear.

“I’ve missed you,” she said as she tucked a wild hair behind my ear. “You were so small when I was taken.” She shook her head. “But maybe that was for the best. I don’t think you would have come this far without all those who’ve helped teach you. I believe you are stronger than we could have ever hoped.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. Was she real or a trick of this place? Did it matter? Here she was in front of me, ready for me to say everything I’d always wanted to all these years.

“Are you . . . inside me?”

Her eyes crinkled. “Your magic speaks, right?”

I nodded.

“A quirk of our family line. I suspect one of our early forebears, believing she could do best by us, imbued her soul into the very magic itself.”

Holy shit. I blinked a few times, feeling the truth of her words.

She looked past me and smiled. “The bear loves you. He’s good for you. Doesn’t let you walk all over him.”

“I would never,” I started, but she held up a hand.

“You need a strong man. And it seems you’ve gathered more than one around you. That’s good. You’ll need them before this is over. Though I can’t see who you will stay with.”

“Mac,” I said, maybe a little too quickly.

She shrugged. “I turned your father away more than once before he won me over. Not because he wasn’t a good fit, but it felt too good to be real. And I was afraid to lose him.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that.

“This world has been hard on you,” my mother—shit, my mother was sitting here with me—said, sympathy in her eyes. “I’m sorry. Sorry that I wasn’t there to protect you from it. I did all I could before I died to give you what I could.”

Tears sprang to my eyes and I dashed them away quickly. “Like you said, maybe better this way to be trained by so many.”

“You know that I had another name for you before you were taken?” she said.

I don’t know why I was surprised, but it caught me off guard.

She lifted a hand. “Thorn. Raven wanted an elemental name and I agreed. I knew you would pierce this world, that you would be beautiful and deadly.”

Thorn. A shiver of a strange recognition ran through me and I shook it off.

Her hand tightened over mine. “Your fight with your magic is making things worse on you,” she said plainly, and I pulled my hand away from her. Here it was, the test.

I arched a brow at her and snorted. “You think? You think the black magic trying to take me over might cause me grief?”

She ignored my sass and shifted to face me. We sat cross-legged, and she took my hands in hers. It felt natural, and I fought not to cling to her. To take strength from having my hands in hers.

This was all a lie, all a test, despite what she’d said about it being apart from the rest.

“It’s not about embracing the darkness or letting it in. It’s about realizing that in order for the light to be brilliant, it must be set against the night.” She tightened her hands on mine.

I shook my head, trying to take that in, and failing. “But what happens when the night drowns out the light? What happens when the light is devoured, and you can’t find it any longer?”

She shook her head, a sad smile on her lips. “That isn’t how magic works. The sun is always stronger than the night. And it always rises. Even now that the world is broken. A new day is something you can always count on as long as you draw breath.”

I wanted to agree with what she said. It sounded so hopeful. But the death and darkness my magic held didn’t hold an ounce of hope. All it held was an endless night for those it swallowed.

Her eyes searched mine. “Pamela, the power in the darkness will help strengthen all your abilities, so that you’ll never be caged again. I know you don’t want to be tied down, and have all your magic kept from you, do you?”

Well, that was an obvious answer, so I shook my head. I looked down at my bracelets, and thought of this place and how it dulled my connection to spirit with a mock bracelet. I was empty without my magic. And I was so tired. Tired of being controlled. Attacked. Tired of fighting the black magic every step of the way.

It was a very tempting thought to just let it run wild, but how did my inner darkness bring balance? Death wasn’t balance. It was death. It took everything and left nothing in its wake.

She turned my hands over, looking down at my wrists. The bracelets clanged together and she frowned. “This will never do. I am not strong enough to help with more than one, but one is better than none,” she said, and rubbed her thumb along the closest one. A tendril of black wrapped around the bracelet, tightening, so cold that the bracelet groaned and then there was a crack of metal.

“Goddess, how did you do that?” I jerked my hand away and looked closely, seeing the crack run all the way around the bracelet that bound my earth element. Through the crack I could feel the slightest tremor of the earth through me, simple, and yet there without any backlash of pain. How was that even possible?

That black tendril of magic. I knew what it was.

The same magic I held.

Could it be so simple, so straightforward as to use my black magic to free myself from the bracelets?

“Though I appreciate the name, I am no goddess,” she teased lightly, a laugh in her voice. Her hands caught mine again. “Do you see? There must always be darkness if the light is to shine through. The world is about balance. And you hold that in you. I knew it when you were a babe, and I know it now.”

She was so sure. Even as she watched me, I knew all the way to the center of my bones that she believed her words with her whole heart. But what if she was wrong? What if all I did was tip the scales in the wrong direction? Like with Lark, like breaking the world?

“The world is already so dark. So broken. If I add my dark magic to the mix, how does that bring balance? Doesn’t that just make the world even worse off?” My voice was small and quiet.

“What does it matter if you are alive? Your life is the light, Pamela. I did not embrace my true darkness, and I believe I am better for it, even if others would tell me I died for that belief.” Her eyes narrowed, and a million questions bubbled up through me. She didn’t give me a chance to let them out. “Now I’m trapped here, by the very source of my power, but you have it in you to free us all.”

“You know,” she went on. “I was not much older than you are now when you were born. And it wasn’t much after that when I died. But my death had meaning, Pamela, never forget that.”

None of it made sense. Raven hadn’t told me much about how my mother died other than that she’d been killed. I felt at the crack she’d made in my bracelet and longed for her to crack the rest, so I could be reunited with all my magic.

“What happened—” I started to ask, wanting to delve into her past, my past, and find out what had befallen her, how had I ended up in England, why, why, why?

But I wouldn’t get answers to those questions. At least not right then.

She turned and looked over her shoulder at the witches near the fire, then turned back to me, cutting my question short. Her eyes were wild with desperation. She grabbed my hands and pulled me closer, making me lean forward into her.

“Pamela, listen to me. You must be strong, stronger than me, if you are to be the guardian you were meant to be. The guardian your father believes you to be. A child of light and dark, an elemental witch. But strength isn’t just about how well you fight, or how much power you have.”

Guardian? Like Peta and Lark? What did that mean? Questions piled on top of themselves in my mind as a screech cut through the air and I bowed my head, unwilling to let go of her now that I had her in my hands. My mother draped herself over me protectively, her arms tight.

“You’re not playing by the rules. That will cost you both,” the voice boomed around us, bouncing as though we were in an echo chamber, angry this time. Fury rippling through it. The same voice that had come through the young witch’s mouth.

I stood, pushing my mom off me, rage rolling through me as I fought to stand up, to face the witch. “No, don’t you touch her!” Losing my mom now, even though I knew she was dead was a cruel blow.

Laughter followed, and I was picked up by an unseen force and dragged away from my mom. I reached for her, and her for me.

Mac bellowed out a roar and I was yanked away from them both.

And there it was, the cost for defying this place. I would lose my mother and Mac once more.

12

Alex

The dream that rolled through me wasn’t really a dream and I knew it right away. My eyes were open, and I was on two legs facing a man I’d not seen in years. Three years, to be exact.

“Dad?”

My father walked toward me. We could have been brothers with the way he was put together, the line of his jaw, the dark hair on his head, the breadth of his shoulders. Especially now that I’d filled out.

“Alex. I’d hoped this would be longer in coming,” he said, his eyes sad. Not an emotion I was used to seeing from a man who was an incubus by nature. A master manipulator. Which meant seeing how “sad” his eyes were made me suspicious.

“What do you mean?”

“This moment, I thought it would be longer from now.” He sighed. “But perhaps it is for the best. You are not the weak kid you were once. Maybe by holding it away from you as long as I have, you’ll have a better chance at not letting it rule you.”

He stopped a few feet from me. I held my face still, not giving him any emotion to play off. “You keep saying ‘it,’ but that means nothing to me.”

“The powers of an incubus. They are passed from father to son. Usually early on, but I chose to keep it from you. I didn’t think you could handle it.”

His words took a moment to sink in, and when they did, a spurt of panic made my knees weak. I locked them and stayed upright. Barely. “Incubus.”

“Yes,” he answered as if that one word had been a question. “The power to seduce and manipulate anyone, and to be able to take their power or life source to feed your own. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?”

I took a step back. Only that wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t move. “I don’t want it.”

“I know. I figured being an incubus would break you.” Again, those sad eyes of his locked onto mine. “You have your mother’s heart and I thought, well, I thought I would keep the power from you as long as possible. But you went on to become a werewolf. So I’m honestly not quite sure what’s going to happen here.”

He reached for me and I threw myself back as hard as I could against whatever force held me. I gained a few inches at best, not enough to fully avoid his hand as he put his palm over my heart. I looked down at my chest, now bare, the muscles and scars on my torso clearly visible. His hand splayed wide over my left pec.

“You can’t do this.” I growled the words, as I tried to shift to four legs. Only there was no shift, no movement still. My father sighed.

“It is not a choice. I am well and truly dead this time. There will be no coming back for me. A witch is one of the few people who can kill an incubus and resist his power; you’d best remember that. A witch gave me the final death blow, not one only of the body but of spirit too. Though there was a Tracker who killed an incubus I knew.” He shook his head. “That is another story, though.”

His words snapped through my brain and I leaned into him. “What witch?”

“The blonde one who is in love with you.” He smiled, this time with a decided spark to his dark eyes. “She’s got quite the kiss on her. Quite the body.”

Pam. He’d seen Pam.

And kissed her. And done what else to her?

I snarled and tried to lunge forward, to grab him around the neck and strangle what was left of his life out of him. The frustration of not being able to move ripped a howl out of my throat.

My father laughed. “Gods, Alex. Calm your tits. She thought I was the bear at first. But then I realized who she was. You talked about her when we escaped the Veil. If you must know when I shifted to look like you . . . well . . . there were definite fireworks in her.”

A lance of pain cut through the anger, the tips of his fingers digging into the muscle of my chest. I groaned and looked down. His fingers had sunk into the flesh, my skin swallowing each digit until there was nothing left but his wrist.

All the anger fled as panic reared its head. Instead of pushing forward, I was pulling back once more.

The sensation of his hand going deeper, of the fingers parting the muscles, pushing between my ribs was too much. I whipped my head from side to side, frantic to free myself from this.

“It will only hurt a minute,” my father said. “And then you will be free of me. But your sister still needs you. And your witch does too, though I don’t recommend pissing her off.”

My insides were being tugged apart, pulled and torn so his fingers could slip through to my heart. “Fuck off!”

“Not this time, my boy.” His voice was still weirdly sad. Weird because in my entire childhood, he’d not shown me compassion. Nor had he shown any concern for my welfare.

“I was protecting you,” he said. “You and your sister, I was doing all I could with the skills I had. Both of you carry your mother’s light. She was my angel. And you two . . . you shone like she did. That draws the darkness to you, Alex.”

Two fingers dug between my ribs and my heart pumped harder as he got closer to it. “You’ll kill me!” I tried again to pull away but there was no escaping his fingers, the way they dug into me.

“Well, it might feel like you’re dying.” He laughed. “But you won’t actually die. Probably a lot of screaming, a lot of anger, the usual begging for mercy, and then just as suddenly as it started it will be over and you’ll have my abilities.”

“I DON’T WANT THEM!”

“Not a choice. You’re my son. And trust me, you don’t want them to slam into you the way they did to me. That kind of transfer takes days of pain. This will take a few hours at most.” He sighed. “I’ll do what I can to teach you before I fade.”

His hand wrapped around my heart and squeezed, and I let out a strangled yell. He held the muscle still. “Just need to give you a new rhythm.”

My eyes bugged out as my heart fought to beat but couldn’t. I twitched and shook and then he squeezed harder, forcing my heart to beat off kilter. I gasped and my body . . . goddess, my body felt like it was on fire, and not in a bad way. Each new beat shot energy through my limbs, through my skin.

“Not so bad, right? Being an incubus, it’s a powerful thing. Not many of us left now, I think. But any child you have will be given this power, so remember that. Boys will take your power, girls will be bestowed with the power of a succubus. So don’t fuck without protection.”

I groaned as my chin dropped to my chest, my skin slickened with sweat. “I don’t want it.”

“Yup, heard you the first time. You’ll be able to absorb most magic now. Use it to fuel your own abilities. Be careful around witches; as I mentioned, if they know what you are, you’ll get fried.”

My body was reacting to the power in a very bad way.

“Pants getting tight, I know. That’s the shits about being an incubus. Pain will turn you on like nothing else, especially your own.” Again, he laughed as I stared at the ground that wasn’t ground of the world around us, but just a white fog. A place of nowhere.

“Can I get rid of it?”

“No. You can’t.” His voice was again a little sad and I made myself look up at him, bits and pieces of my childhood floating through my mind.

“Mom tried to get you to free yourself, didn’t she?”

He nodded and his fingers flexed around my heart, stuttering it once more. I closed my eyes, absorbing the pain, and with it the power rolling from him into me. Down his arm to his fingertips, straight into my heart.

“She did. She was an elemental, you know. Not full-blooded, of course, a child of a child of a child, but still a child of the earth. A heady power I could drink from and not hurt.” He sighed. “But regardless. She wanted me to be free. I knew it wouldn’t happen, but I indulged her and that’s what got her killed. Ultimately.”

I wasn’t sure I believed him. There was some truth to his words but a hint of a lie too that smelled like soured milk. I blew out a breath and my knees crumpled until I was kneeling on the ground.

Alex, Alex, wake up!

“Who’s the pussy cat?” My father looked past me and I tried to turn, but my head wouldn’t go.

“Oka. She belongs to Pam.”

“Ah, there is something you should know. I saw the ties between you and the witch and the cat.” He lifted his eyebrows. “I’m not sure how being a wolf Alpha and an incubus will work, but my guess is poorly. Your direct connection to the others would allow you to draw from them, unintentionally even. And if I can give you some advice—”

“No.”

“You should really let her go. She has the bear and the cat. She doesn’t need you.” My father was crouched in front of me, and I realized that his body was no longer solid. I could see the fog through him. “Let her go, Alex.”

My jaw ticked. “I tried.”

“Try harder. Fuck that wolf waiting for you, drink her life down and be done with her. Then move on. The world out there is waiting for you.” With his free hand, he swept it outward, indicating everything.

“Are you already forgetting my sister?”

“Well, of course not. But you’ll find her, I’m sure. Especially now that you’ll be a full incubus. Ties that bind are the powers that you two hold.”

He began to draw his hand out of my chest, slowly, pushing my muscles and bones back into place, and yeah, it hurt as much coming out as going in. Strange when the reality was he was almost transparent. Almost gone.

“You can look like anyone once you have some practice. Their fantasy anyway.” He shrugged. “Fantasy isn’t always what people think it is either, so get ready for some weird shit.”

Alex! Wake up, please, wake up!

That was Jasmine.

My breath came in short gasps as his fingers slid out of my chest, not dripping with blood or bits of my flesh as they should have been.

“You’re going to feel like shit,” he said, “unless you feed right away. You may not be able to stop yourself either.” A shrug and his body faded until there was nothing but his face floating in the fog around us. “You’re like a vampire now, boy. You need to eat what your power wants. So it will either be the she-wolf or your Pamela’s cat. You decide.”

His hold on me was gone and I fell forward onto my hands and knees. With the worst of the pain fading, I could think straight, and I only had one goal. “You saw Pam. Where is she?”

“Trapped. She’s trapped with the souls of the dead. They will change her. They will make her dark. She will lose. I tried to help her, tried to get her to see who she loved was worth fighting for, but I’m not sure it will be enough.”

A gust of wind blew around me, swirling the fog, and my father’s soul, or whatever it was pushed into me, through me and out the other side, pushing me hard enough that I fell backward through the fog, falling, falling until I hit something solid.

The ground was cold and hard under my back, warm spots here and there where my blood flowed if my nose was correct.

“Alex?” Oka’s voice reached me first. “What the hell?”

Sobbing rippled from someone else. Jasmine. She was crying.

I opened my eyes to see Oka peering at me, only upside down and in her tiger form. She squinted her yellowy green eyes at me. “Something is different. What happened? You were screaming, arching your back and then you just dropped to the ground.”

My mouth tasted like copper pennies and there was no doubt I’d bitten my tongue. I blew out a slow breath and sat up with a groan. A flurry of movement and then Jasmine tackled me hard.

Her body was soft and curvy and smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg, of . . . food. Her arms were around my neck and she was kissing me, Oka was growling behind me, and I was doing all I could to just hang on, to not move. Because something inside me was waking up.

Something that was not a wolf and didn’t care that I didn’t want to drink down Jasmine.

Something that was hungry as only an incubus could be.

“Jasmine. Get off me. Do as I say right now!” I snapped.

“Alex, you’re okay. I was so scared. I thought you were going to die!” She clung to me hard, hugging me to her soft body, ignoring my command as her Alpha once more.

“She tried to smother you,” Oka snarled. “To keep you quiet.”

Was that what I’d felt then when my heart had tried to stop. Not my father doing it.

Jasmine.

“Get off me now! Last warning!” Gods, get her away from me.

She sobbed and stuck her hands into my shirt. “I would never hurt you. I love you.”

Sour milk, she smelled like sour milk. So different than being able to smell a lie as a wolf.

There was no question, the power in me was hungry and my father was right—it was Jasmine or Oka.

I grabbed her head and drew her mouth to mine, kissing her deeply. She melted into me, moaning as I opened to that dark spot in me. No, not in me, part of me.

My power poured itself through her mouth, down and into her belly, swirling and taking from her. She moaned again and behind us, Oka snarled.

“Alex, what the hell?”

I lifted a single finger at her as I called my power back to me. And with it came Jasmine’s life force. She tasted good, I’d give her that. Cinnamon and spice and something dark like a rich wine that poured over the tongue and down my throat, filling me in a way that food never had. As though the blood in my veins was fueled by her life.

Part of me said stop, the part that had always been fearful of getting in trouble, of doing the wrong thing. But the Alpha in me knew better. Jasmine was beyond saving. She’d proven it too many times.

This was the price she’d pay to help her pack survive.

I drew away from her as she slumped in my arms, head lolling against my bicep.

Not quite dead but dying. Falling asleep and never waking as her heart slowly stopped. I couldn’t finish her off. Maybe that made me weak like my father thought. But did I really care what he thought of me now that I was a monster just like him? I put a hand to my head, not liking how my mind spun, how the power of Jasmine’s life force filled me, easing the aches and pains, giving me more energy than if I’d eaten an entire deer on my own and taken a week of rest.

“Alex, look at me.” The warning in Oka’s voice was clear and I turned to her.

“I know. I should have killed her.” I pushed Jasmine off my lap, her body rolling away from me, limp and nearly lifeless. Her heartbeat slowed as I stood there, and there was no way to stop it. I could speed it up, but I couldn’t give back the power I had taken from her.

“What the hell?” Oka repeated. “You . . . she . . . I don’t understand.” She shook her big head and tried to push into my hand, looking for comfort. I jerked away from her, took steps back to make sure I was not touching her. Just in case.

I held my palms up, stopping her in her tracks. “Don’t touch me, not yet. I’m not sure I can control it.”

“It?”

The fact that she mimicked my own question made me laugh. Hysterical, wild laughter that ended in a sob that I couldn’t quite catch. “Incubus. My father was an incubus and he came to me in a dream as he was dying. I think Pam killed him and he . . .”

“And he gave you his power. That’s what they do. They gift their power to their children before they die.” Oka shook her head again. “Sweet goddess of fire and flame, Alex. I don’t know if this is good or not.”

“How can it be good? There is no way this is good!” I said, all the fight leaving me. I might have had energy, but I’d just sucked the life out of Jasmine. As I stood there, shaking, her heart stopped. One last thump and she died with a smile on her face. Did it matter that she’d deserved it? That she was a lying, manipulative girl? She was broken. We all were. Surviving the only way we knew how. And I’d killed her.

I closed my eyes. “How can this be good?”

“If you hadn’t sucked the life out of her, you would have killed me,” Oka said. “Jasmine was here for a reason, whether you like it or not. She was here to save me. And to give you the strength to save Pam. And let us be straight with one another. She would have died a thousand times over if not for you. She died in peace, Alex. With far more peace than you or I can be sure we will have.”

I stared at the peachy orange stripe-less tiger. She was right, but that didn’t make it any easier on my conscience. Make me want to vomit any less. Could I have drawn from Jasmine less? Could I have taken only some of her life force?

Somehow, I didn’t think so. Which made me dangerous to anyone who ever touched me. And that included Pam.

I turned from Oka and started packing rocks around where Jasmine lay. It took the rest of the night, but I covered her body completely, the best I could do for a burial. I put my hand on the final flat rock. I probably should have thanked her. Maybe for being a bitch, making it easier to suck her life down. “Good luck in your next life, Jas. I hope you can find a little more bravery, a little more heart, and a little more integrity.”

“That was a very nice way of saying thanks for being a bitch in this life, good luck changing it next time around,” Oka said.

I shrugged. “I didn’t lie.”

“No, you didn’t.” Her eyes locked on mine. “But we are not done here. Pam is still waiting for us.”

“We are not done.” I looked out of the copse of trees toward the hill and the place that had been the compound. “My father said Pam is trapped with the souls of the dead. I don’t know how that is possible with the Veil being torn apart, but I know that if we find the little sorceress, we’ll get our answer.”

“And when we find her?” Oka walked beside me, close enough that I could feel her warmth. I dared to put a hand on her back, needing to feel her there, needing to know I was not alone. The power in me was quiet and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Then I will do what I must to get the information we need. To save Pam, I would do anything.” I stared straight ahead, knowing just how true that was. I would sell my soul to the devil and walk a path darker than any I’d known to save her.

13

Pamela

I was alone again in this maze, but some of the fear had left me. Maybe I was just numb to the fear; that was quite possible. Being torn from Mac and the ghost of my mother tossed me deep into the maze, deeper than ever before.

Yet again I stood in what could only be a labyrinth, yet it was not metal or darkness this time. I stood with wooden walls that curved in an arch above my head so there was no possibility of climbing over them. Smooth, and with a distinct smell of fresh-cut wood, and earth, they reminded me of the inside of a log cabin. If a cabin could go on and on and on in an unending tunnel. Chunks of the logs were lit up every fifteen feet or so, low burning globes of light that were dull at best, but I was not complaining. I had no doubt that they would at some point flicker off.

All that was peripheral as my mind tumbled over and over my moments with my mother.

Something had changed when I’d been speaking to her. Like she’d unlocked a part of me that I’d barely understood.

I always liked your mother best.

My magic spoke quietly. Subdued.

I frowned. “What do you mean you liked her best?”

She trusted me. And in that trust, we found power and strength. If she’d listened to me, she never would have died, and I never would have been passed onto you.

I stopped in my tracks with a sharp intake of breath. I pressed a fist to my chest as if I could feel the dark magic I carried under the skin. “You warned her?”

Just like I warned you about that incubus. You could have avoided that whole scene if you’d just listen.

“Don’t act like you don’t have a part in this!” I said. The thing about finally speaking to the dark magic was that I knew I was slipping, my mind going down a slope I wasn’t really prepared for. But there was no one else to talk to. And I wasn’t about to be a scapegoat for an entity that was kind of an asshole.

I had no part in this. If the magic had been a person, I was sure that line would have been delivered with a condescending sniff.

“Bullshit. You’ve given me every reason not to trust you. Trying to take the reins from me in situations where I was protecting others! You’ve tried to force me to bend to your will and the only reason you’re behaving now is that I have some minor connection back with spirit!” I held up my one wrist, showing off the mock bracelet that had been placed on me.

I’ve been trying to protect you all along! the magic snapped back. I don’t give a shit about anyone else. You are my host, and without a child from you, I have nowhere to go should you die, so believe you me it is in my best interest to keep your lily-white ass alive!

My jaw dropped and I spluttered as a ghost passed by me, a smirk on his stupidly handsome face, a bright light in those familiar blue eyes.

“Faris?”

He tipped his head to one side and I followed him.

And now what? You’re following a dead vampire? Brilliant, just fucking brilliant. We’ll both be dead within the day.

With any other vampire, I would have agreed. And maybe even at one time with Faris, too, I would have been more cautious. But the reality was he’d sent me Mac when I’d needed him the most.

“Little witch. Why is it that you find yourself in so much trouble all the time?” He looked over his shoulder at me and I shrugged.

“Because Rylee was my mentor and trouble and Trackers go hand in hand?”

He barked a laugh. “Perhaps, but I think you find your own trouble too. All by yourself, even if she’d never trained you.”

I shrugged and then he was gone, disappeared between one step and the next.

“Wait!” I held a hand out, blinked and looked at where he’d led me. A piece of weathered stone stood tall in front of me in the shape of a small t.

The light began to dim, and I hurried forward, boots tapping the stone, to see why Faris had brought me here. Etched into the rock was a circle with many circles inside it.

“Like a Russian nesting doll.” I put my hand on the outermost circle, knowing in my gut that was the layer between us and the outside world. But how to get there?

I let my fingers trace the circles like the rings of a tree. Seven rings including the exterior one.

Was it a coincidence that the Veil, before it had been shattered, held seven levels? I didn’t think so.

I put a hand to my forehead, thinking. Each level of the Veil held different kinds of souls. The third level held ghosts, if my memory served me right. I ran my fingers over the rings again as my mind began to race along with my heart. Maybe I was in not just a bubble of the dead as Peta had thought, but a place that mimicked the Veil. Which meant if I could get to the sixth level . . . “The heroes of the world will be waiting for me there.”

All those friends we’d lost. If I could get there, maybe I could find help . . . but what was between here and there? And would the sixth level be where I thought it should be?

This will not be easy. The old witch lied. This is no maze.

“Old witch?” I questioned the magic’s words half-heartedly because I believed what I was seeing was exactly what I’d been looking for. A way out. Because there was a doorway within the seventh level of the Veil that led into the real world. Mind you, the seventh level was the realm of the demons, so no small feat getting there. Which meant there was a possibility of finding my way out. I just had to get there.

My plan, the hope I had suddenly bursting through me, was based on a hell of a lot of assumptions. This place might not follow the Veil. It might be turned upside down. It might not even have a connection to the demon realm at the center. But the Veil was something I’d dealt with. Something I understood, to a degree.

The old witch. Would you listen to me? There was a snap of my magic through me as if I’d been cracked on the ass with a wet towel.

I jumped and put a hand to one cheek. “Ease off, I thought we were on the same side.”

I’m filling you in. Showing that you can trust me. The old witch is the one who brought you here, the one who controls the younger witch child.

“Is the old one an elemental witch like me?”

No, she is far worse than that. She is the First Witch. I do not know if she was born or created, but she is the first dark witch and her blood is in your veins, as it was in your mother’s and is in the young witch’s. She is powerful beyond belief. She is the magic, the magic is her.

My throat tightened. “Then how can I ever trust you?”

The dark magic snorted. It’s complicated. There was a time that she could control me, but no longer. Because your mother found a way to separate me from the First Witch in order to protect you. That is why your mother died.

I wasn’t sure that I believed what the magic was saying, but seeing as I had nothing else to go on, I was going to run with it. For now.

The light around the tall stone marker faded more. I was going to be plunged back into darkness, dependent on whatever light those creepy-ass eyes were willing to give me. I couldn’t do it. Not again.

I held up my hand, calling my black magic forward before I could change my mind. “If we’re going to get out of here, I’m going to use you.”

About damn time.

Like diving into the deep end that you knew would be ice-cold water worthy of stealing the very breath out of your lungs, I called the magic to my hand to create a light above my palm. Not true fire like when I used my elemental magic. No, this glowed bright purple and spun in an orb. The dark magic slid through me, oily against my insides and I swallowed hard not to fight it.

“Behave yourself. Light only, right now.”

Of course. The magic all but purred the words. No matter what I did, or how I managed this darkness in me, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to trust it.

I leaned close to the circles etched into the stone illuminated only by the purple orb. Each circle was the same width around except for one spot. A thickened edge was raised in only one place in each circle, none of them lining up. But all of them there.

“Doorways.”

That would be my assumption. But if so, why not go back the way we came in?

Yes, the way we came in. Only I had no doubt about where Mac was now. The First Witch was a crafty bitch. I pressed a finger to the center of the maze. “Because that is where she wants us. The other doorways, the ones leading out will be locked. But she doesn’t know something about me.”

You have been inside the seventh level of the Veil! How could I forget that? My magic all but crowed. Do you think it will be as you recall?

I shook my head. “No idea. And don’t you go sharing what you know with your maker.”

That bitch is about to get schooled! And as I said, she cannot control me any longer. That is why she needs you to give yourself over to her. She needs you to let her take control again.

The darkness laughed inside of me and I found my lips quirking upward. Madness, was this how it started? Maybe. Quite possibly.

With the purple orb floating nicely along with me, the pathway was easy. Sort of. There were drop-offs that showed up suddenly, and branches that led away from the main path, but now that I knew it was a circle, I kept moving forward, not even looking left and right. Doors dotted both sides of the walls, but none were the right one. None were the one I needed to get to the next level of the maze. Or Veil, if that was what this place really was.

I walked like that a long time. Hours. My legs and feet ached, and I was so tired, I was about ready to just lie down and sleep. But what then?

How far to the next doorway?

“A little more. It was on my left.” Door on the left. They would all be to the left if the stone marker was correct. But choosing the correct door on the left was going to be, no doubt, a bit trickier. I put my hand out and let it trail across the stone wall as each subsequent door came up.

The wood and stone became a monotony under my fingers, the skin of my fingertips feeling nothing out of order. Maybe there would be nothing spectacular to tip me off to the correct door.

Ghosts floated by, some reached for me, but now that I knew where I was, I wasn’t afraid of them. Not really. And without fear, they seemed to fade. I ignored them and they faded more.

“I’m sorry,” I said to a ghost that looked particularly sad in the glow of my purple orb.

Don’t apologize. Don’t interact. What you are doing is working, Pam.

“I think that’s the first time you’ve actually used my name.”

A snort rolled through me that was not my own. But that was fine. That didn’t matter. I closed my eyes and took a few steps. The circles did get smaller, the closer they got to the center of the maze. No, not maze. The center of the Veil. I grimaced and a flare of heat called to me. The heat of a male body, of the musk of an animal I knew all the way to my bones, the feel of lips I craved even though . . . even though he would never be mine.

“Alex.” I whispered his name as my hand rested on the door to my left. I turned and faced it, seeing the burn marks of wolf tracks all over it. My thoughts almost spilled out of my mouth. Instead I kept them to myself. Alex had broken the Veil. He’d torn it apart as he escaped. And in that tearing, he’d left his mark with his passing. I only needed to watch for the signs that would show me he’d been there. But that meant this wasn’t just a place resembling the Veil. This was truly the Veil itself somehow.

I only had to follow Alex, to let him lead me home. I took a breath and pushed the wooden door open, stepping into a place that pulled at my feet, dragged me down into a mud so thick that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stop my slide. My feet found purchase and I looked at this new place. At the fog rolling through dead trees, cages hanging in them, a crackle of thunder cut across the sky as the clouds opened and rain began to fall. This place . . . this was the jail for the souls that had committed horrible crimes.

And now I was here.

“Halt!” A booming voice sliced across the fog-slicked mud and I spun to see a horse and rider coming for me, leaping across partially downed logs and sinking into the mud up to their belly. Their belly.

Not a horse and rider, but a centaur. One that looked seriously pissed.

What are you doing just staring? You think he’s not going to cage you up?

My magic had a point and I lurched forward, deeper into the mud pit. This was about to get messy.

14

The mud in this prison level of the Veil pulled at my legs as if it were made of tentacles and not dirt and water.

“I said halt!” the centaur yelled, and something sunk hard into the mud beside me. I twisted to see a spear handle sticking out.

“Are you kidding me?” I pushed forward and got to a small island in the mud, turned and held up my hands, magic crackling between them. I didn’t want to embrace the darkness, but I would do anything to save Mac, anything to get home. Even this. Even if it cost me.

“I suggest you be the one to halt!” I yelled as black smoke rose around me, circling me tightly, my magic clinging to me like a second skin. The centaur didn’t so much as miss a beat as he threw a net at me. A net that grew and stretched as it flew toward me.

I flung a hand at it, releasing a streak of darkness that should have cut the net to shreds.

Nothing happened to the webbing. It didn’t so much as twitch. The net was immune to my magic.

Move!

I leapt to one side, the net dropping where I’d stood a moment before, contracting and squeezing in on itself until it was small, barely anything of it left but a lasso.

Scrambling up, I bolted forward. “Suggestions?”

Run?

“Not helpful!” But I didn’t slow. I didn’t do much more than look back now and then to see the centaur struggling to keep up in the thicker mud. I needed to find Alex’s trail. I needed to find my way out of this place. To Mac. To Oka. To Alex.

I tripped on a log and went down as a spear sailed over my head. I spun on my knees in the muck and threw both hands toward the galloping centaur. The darkness blasted out of me in a coiling rope that should have entangled his legs and dropped him on his big dumb face.

But again, the magic dissipated.

Indirect contact.

I was already on it. I shoved my magic into the water around us and flung it up like a curtain, then hurled that at the centaur. He let out a bellow as the mud clung to his face.

Again and again, I dug it up, threw it at him, covering him until he was sunk to his armpits in muck. I took a few steps back, turned and screamed as another net settled around me. The netting moved like snakes, coiling and tightening as they constricted around my arms and legs, pinning them to my sides, effectively dulling what magic I did have.

Bound again. I didn’t hold back on the scream as it erupted out of me, of the rage and anger that curled through me and wanted every chance to unleash on these two centaurs. A mare—female—centaur bent and took hold of the end of the net, dragging me up and onto her back with very little effort.

“This one does not belong here. She is not a spirit.”

“I don’t fucking care!” the stallion centaur roared, his face purple with anger. “Look at what she did to me!”

“Pity, you’ll have to have a bath.” The mare laughed and trotted forward. “I told you to learn where the paths were in the swamp. You think the lynchpin was the last escapee we’ll have? The last non-soul entity trespassing in our realm? She will pay for her sins, Captain.”

Lynchpin. That was Alex. I twisted around, trying to catch the mare’s eye. Human on top, she was beautiful with long dark brown hair that cascaded to the juncture of where her horse bottom and her human waist met.

I struggled with the net, but the more I wriggled, the more it tightened to the point breathing was difficult. “I need to go.”

“When your time is done.”

“Fay-ella! Get me out of here!” the stallion yelled as he floundered in the deep mud, sinking farther from what I could see.

Fay-ella didn’t so much as give him a one-word answer. I tried to call my magic to me, and my entire body stiffened as a bolt of what I could only think of as lightning danced over me, head to toe.

She started trotting, me bouncing on my belly across her back as stars danced through my vision and my lungs tried to remember how to breathe. She tugged on the rope. “The harder you fight, the more pain you will suffer.”

That seemed counterintuitive for her to give me a hint, especially since she said I was going to suffer anyway. “Why tell me that?” I managed the words, my throat raspy and the world swirling in and out of focus.

“Because you don’t really belong here, any more than that last one who came through. But I won’t be able to convince the captain. He will want you locked up for at least a night.” She shook her head and splashed across a small island in the swamp. The ground rapidly dried until we were on a hard-packed dirt road. I rolled my head just enough to see that the swamp was behind us and within the mud I was sure I could see the imprints of wolf tracks.

Alex had been through here. I just had to get free of wherever the centaur was taking me and then I’d be off again. That’s what I told myself as my bones and innards were jarred as she set into a flat-out gallop.

“What’s the hurry?”

“You want me to choose your cell, not the captain,” she said. On a particularly rough bounce, I got a glimpse of the road behind me and understood. The other centaur—the captain—was coming along full speed ahead. And even at a distance, I could see he was pissed from the set of his shoulders to the way he leaned into his gallop.

Fay-ella slid to a stop, her back end going so far under her body I thought we were going to fall over. But she popped right back up and flipped me off her back, dragged me through an oversized doorway and into a room full of cages. She dropped me to the floor and pushed me with a front hoof, rolling me into what was the equivalent of a dog crate. As soon as I rolled inside the cage, the net fell away, slithering from my limbs like the snake I’d thought it was earlier, and out through the bars of the now-shut cage. I dared a touch on the cage irons. They didn’t burn me.

I wanted to rage at her that this was not how it was going down. That being locked in a cage did nothing but assure her death at my hands. I forced my eyes closed and drew a shallow breath. “What is going to happen?”

“You will stay there until you learn your lesson, whatever that is.” She took a few steps back as the captain slid to stop outside the door. His eyes shot to mine, his body still covered in filth, and the anger radiating off him so strong, I should’ve seen steam rolling from him.

I waved at him, wiggling my fingers.

He blew out a very equine snort, spun and kicked Fay-ella in the chest with both hind feet. The thunk that resulted from the blow was thick, meaty like a metal bat slamming into a hunk of flesh. Fay-ella stumbled back, her hands clutching at her waist where he’d nailed her. “Bastard!” she gasped. “I’ll geld you for that!”

“I am the captain here. Not you. Perhaps you’d best remember that!” He bellowed the words as the main door of the jail slammed shut, sending the room into a semi-darkness that mimicked early night.

“Does that mean you’re stuck here now too?” I asked.

The darkness in me snickered, laughing at the irony.

“Yes.” She snorted. “And no. For now, I will watch over you as the suffering begins. I can leave after that. He knows I do not like to watch other people’s pain.”

Well, that sounded downright fun. The suffering. Like it was some sort of cheap horror flick that only played on matinees. Of course, that was just me assuming, seeing as I hadn’t seen that many movies before the world crashed to a halt. I grimaced and a pain started low across my belly, like monthly cramps. I put my palms over the area.

“You understand you aren’t really in the Veil any longer?” I asked, hoping to have it confirmed that where I thought I was, was really where I was.

Fay-ella looked at me. “Because the lynchpin tore it open? You think that the Veil was destroyed, don’t you?”

I stared at her. “Wasn’t it?”

She smiled as she lowered herself, tucking her front legs under her first and then letting her back end down. “Yes and no. Torn open? Yes. The chains that held it together released? Yes. But destroyed . . . no. The parts of the Veil are still out there, as you see here.”

My jaw dropped. “You know that you are captured here then?”

Fay-ella raised an eyebrow at me and pulled her long hair over one shoulder as she began to part it into sections. “Again, yes and no. It would not matter to us where we were. We punish those who need punishing.”

Her words sent a chill through me. “You think I need punishing?”

Big brown eyes locked on mine. “Do you feel no guilt for your part in this world as it is now?”

The cramps hit me again, harder this time. I pressed the heels of my palms into my belly. “Yes.”

“Then you will suffer. You will pay penance for the things you’ve done wrong.”

A pang went deeper this time, like a clawed hand reaching through my guts to grab at my backbone. I groaned. “How does this make me more liable to bend to that bitch who put me here?”

Fay-ella sighed. “You will see. You will see, elemental witch, that there is a cost for everything. A price you will pay now for something that is to come.”

Buzzing filled the air and I blinked up at the top of my cage, not remembering lying down. Body pain was just weakness leaving the body, that was what Rylee had told me once. I could survive it.

The pangs in my belly started up again and I groaned, rolling to my side, the floor smelling like old man sweat with a faint stink of fear. I didn’t want to breathe it in. I didn’t want to be here.

“Where are you now?” My question was for my magic and it, she, was slow to respond.

I think this is important. Suffering is a part of life. I will not help you with this.

My eyes flooded with tears, realizing that the last vestige of not being alone was fleeing, abandoning me. “Bitch.”

Fay-ella snorted.

“Not you,” I whispered as the spasms came on in waves, harder, sharper, and my pelvic and hip bones began to throb in time with my heart as if I were being ripped apart.

I gritted my teeth as the sweat rolled. I could suffer through this. I could suffer through anything. My ear pressed against the floorboards, a sound rolled up to me as if from a basement.

A moan of pain. A whisper of a prayer.

“Kill me now, please, God, let me die!”

“No more, no more!”

“I’m begging . . . please stop.”

The pain in their voices, the rasp in their throats told a story without words. How long they’d been here, how much they’d . . . suffered. Like I was about to.

I forced my head up, sweat dripping off me, so I could look at Fay-ella. Her eyes were closed as she braided her hair into tiny, intricate braids that would take hours to weave through all her thick locks. Many hours. I swallowed hard before I spoke. “This is about suffering of the body?”

“Is that all it is? If that was the case, then they would all be free, wouldn’t they?” Fay-ella said.

I couldn’t stop my back from arching as a new pain ripped through me, down my spine as though a knife sawed through the muscle, parting my flesh from bone. A scream ripped out of me, cutting through the moans from the basement below. Over and over, the invisible blade came at me, splitting me into sections. Legs here. Arms there. Belly. Back. Neck. Chest. Face. That last . . . I thought the pain in my eyes would send me into unconsciousness as I fought the waves of nausea. My eyes, goddess, my eyes were under such pressure, they might as well have popped out of my head and I would have been grateful for the relief.

As suddenly as the pain started it eased and I lay on the floor, panting, unable to move.

You need to figure this out. I can feel the First Witch looking for you.

“Let her take me then, away from this,” I whimpered, and then realized that was exactly what she would offer me. Relief from the pain, the only way to step away from it would be to take her up on her offer to become one of her minions.

I couldn’t help the sob that crawled up my throat and out my mouth. “I don’t want to give in to her.”

“To whom?” Fay-ella asked softly.

“The witch. The one who made the Veil into a training ground, a maze to escape or die in.” A low burning was beginning to heat the soles of my feet and I curled my knees slowly to my chest.

“You think she made me put you in here?” Fay-ella asked. “I could have put you in any cage. I could have hung you in the trees like I did the incubus. I could have put you in the basement to feel the dark eat at you like a living thing . . . but I chose this cage for a reason.”

I opened my eyes, somewhat surprised they opened at all. “What is that reason?”

Fay-ella leaned in close, the smell of hay and mint leaves wafting up my nose. But her words . . . goddess, her words made me reconsider the thought that she was the softer centaur.

“Because I want you to suffer more than any other soul trapped here.”

15

The burning along my feet in the damn cage rose a notch and I whimpered as the heat traveled over my ankles, my calves, up my thighs. “Why would you want to hurt me?”

The female centaur sat on the floor of the jailhouse like she watched a boring movie. “Not hurt you. Suffering is different than pain, elemental witch. And you of all the souls here must learn the difference between those two things. You suffer so much because of what is in your head, because of the fears that rule you.” Her eyes went distant, and for a moment, I thought I could see the night stars in them, see the depth of the sky and then some, as though she held the wisdom of the ages within her.

And then the fire lit up all over my skin as though she’d struck a match. A scream ripped from me as I tried to claw my clothing off. I rolled in the small space of the cage, violently banging against it, bruising my bones as I fought to extinguish flames that did not exist. I’d had parts of me on fire before. I knew what it was to have fire whisper death in my ear. The smell of my flesh burning, of the crackle of my hair and skin as they crisped, filling my senses, filling my terror.

I knew there would be nothing left. In my mind, I could see how it would be after, barely able to move, barely able to so much as embrace another person without being tossed into that same fiery pit of agony. Scream after scream pealed out of me as the fire laughed, kissing its way over my entire body. The stink of my hair burning gagged me, my eyebrows turning to ash, tickling along the bridge of my nose.

I couldn’t do this. I’d rather die. I’d give in to the witch if she’d only stop this.

The pain cut off and I lay there, shaking, my bladder clenching as I realized I’d lost control of it. There was nothing left in me to be humiliated, though. I could feel nothing but relief that the pain had stopped, that I could breathe.

Nothing but relief for the fact that I could feel my skin intact as I rubbed my fingertips over my face. I wasn’t burned to a crisp, but like the fire elemental’s blow, I did not relish going through it again. Because I was no fool. This place was meant to break me fully and completely.

Fay-ella watched me closely. It looked as though she had perhaps a third of her hair braided. That was it. The sensation of burning, I was sure it had gone on for hours, days, weeks.

I swallowed hard. “How do I make it stop?”

She didn’t smile. “Pain and suffering. That is what this is. You must decide for yourself.”

I lay there, watching her, unable to lift my head. “That’s not an answer.”

“Because you must find the answer in the pain, elemental witch.” She lifted her hand to another strand of hair and the bottom of the cage cooled, the slosh of water rippled around me. I pushed to sit up. This was not like the first two rounds.

Water dripped off my hand and I shot a look at Fay-ella. Her eyes were sad. “You will learn this lesson now, or you will die. There is no more time.”

No more time? “I’ve been here like five minutes!”

“You’ve been here two days,” she said. “Today is your last day, and we can hold against the First Witch no longer. You will learn the lesson now. You must.”

They were trying to help me? But that made no sense! The water rose over my folded knees, then to my waist. I grabbed at the bars that somehow kept the water from flowing out. “I don’t understand! I don’t know what you want me to do. I have no magic, nothing that will work against this!”

“You have everything you need,” Fay-ella said.

The water shot up, over my head, plunging me into an ocean. There were no bars around me now, and I free floated in a brilliant blue ocean, only I was deep. So deep that the surface was beyond out-of-reach. I shed my cloak and swam, my aching body fighting me, but there was nothing for it. I had to get to the surface.

I kept my eyes locked on my destination, chose not to notice the dark shapes swimming between me and my goal. There was no choice. I had to make it to the surface.

Halfway up, my lungs ached and burned for a breath of oxygen. Part of me said that this was like the other two rounds, that I could take a breath of water, only it wouldn’t be water but air and I would be all right—I would be fine.

The other part of me said that I was a codswallop of a fool if I thought that opening my mouth to the ocean was a good idea.

Something bumped into my leg followed by a sharp pain. I kicked out hard and hit a solid body. Fear drove a burst of bubbles from my lungs and I fought the panic that clawed at me. I was almost there, almost to the surface. My fingers broke through and hope filled me.

That bump on my leg came again, only this time it clamped down, dragging me away from the surface. I rolled to see a scaled, thick body sinking with me. Not a shark as my mind had conjured images of great whites, but a crocodile with an armor-plated body and its jaws wrapped around my leg.

I reached for my dark magic, wanting nothing more than to flood my body with its killing power and unleash it on the croc. Only it wasn’t there. I mean, it was, but there was no power.

There is a difference between pain and suffering . . . what is it?

Fear. The word slammed into me so hard, the last of my air rushed out of my lungs. That was what this was about. Fear and guilt that drove me to try to be everything I was supposed to be. I covered my fear with anger. With lashing out.

Fear had been my companion for so long, I wasn’t sure it was even separate from me any longer. That is what caused my suffering, all the fear I clung to.

I’d been suffering because of the fear instead of letting the pain of it go. My mind was so caught up in the pain of not breathing that the sharp stabbing wounds of the croc’s teeth in my leg faded. They melted away as the fear tried to make me pay attention to it one more time.

I was going to die here, in that moment I knew it. My mouth moved in a silent goodbye to those I loved the most. To Mac, Oka and Alex. To Rylee and all those who’d tried to teach me along the way. To my father, Raven.

I let my love for them chase away the fear, and for the first time in years, since before I was sold to trolls as a child, peace, pure and clean, lit me up. Literally, light suffused my body, turning the water into a kaleidoscope of color, shining so brightly, that the croc released me and the water slid away in a rush.

Gasping for that first breath of air, I clung to the bars of the cage inside the jail cell as though that would keep me from going into another round of suffering.

“You understand then, that you are the cause of your own suffering? That the fear feeds the anger, and the anger keeps you from the love that would heal you and this world,” Fay-ella said.

I gripped the bars, confusion rocking through me. “Yes?”

She laughed. “Part of you understands. Pain comes to you as it comes to us all, elemental witch. But it’s your choice as to whether or not you suffer. You have suffered a long time. You let the fear rule you. You let it wound you deeper than any weapon.”

The bars fell away from me, clunking to the wooden floor. “Just like that?”

Fay-ella pushed to her feet. “Yes and no.”

“Always the same with you,” I muttered.

“It is a horse thing.” She smiled and that same smell of hay and mint whispered over me.

My legs shook as I pushed to stand. The world wobbled and I reached out to steady myself on the wall. “I don’t understand why you would do this? I mean . . . you went out of your way to bring me here. To stick me in this bloody little cage, to force me to face pain to understand myself better, but why?”

She reached out and cupped my chin. “For the same reason I helped the lynchpin. Some of us need a hand up, some of us need a kick in the ass. You needed a little of both. No more fear in you, and the suffering will ease. The pain will come, embrace it. Let it teach you. The fear will come. Face it with the love you hold.”

The ground wobbled again and a shriek filled the air. Fay-ella slapped her hands over her ears and I cringed against the sharp sound that cut through the walls of the jail cell. “What is that?”

“She has been looking for you!” Fay-ella cried back. “And you have the key to defeating her now.”

I swallowed hard. “Wait, what?”

“Fear, that is her weapon, that is how she will break you,” Fay-ella cried out as the building began to blow apart around us. “She knows you have it now. She knows you can face her. And she is—”

“Not happy.” I lifted my hands as the magic of my mother slid through me. Not so dark as before. Not so heavy. But just as powerful. Gray billows of smoke curled out of my hands, almost silver in tone. I wanted to marvel at the difference letting go of my fear had done to the magic, but I didn’t have time. I wove the silver magic into a shield that covered Fay-ella. It was all I had time for.

The First Witch was coming for me.

So, the only question left was did I run or stand and fight? I looked at Fay-ella and she shook her head. “It is not time to fight her. Run, elemental witch, run, and let what remains of the Veil prep you for the battle of your life! We of the Veil stand with you, for you are our guardian!”

There was not time for me to question her, to question what she meant by the Veil teaching me.

I forced my legs into action as I raced across the small room, leapt over Fay-ella’s body and out the door. Outside whirled around like what I could only imagine the inside of a tornado looked like. Branches and bushes flew through the air and planks from the jail tore off, spinning end over end, sweeping by my head.

I ducked and ran down the road toward the swamp. The swamp that would lead me out of this place. A bellow from behind spun me around. The captain galloped toward me again, head down. I flicked my hands at him, that strange silvery magic whipping out like a rope, wrapping around his front and back legs and most effectively hobbling him.

He went down hard, and I turned into the wind. And in that moment, I realized I’d lost my cloak. I almost went back to the jail, but the reality was the cloak I’d made to hide from danger was gone, and with it, my last connection to the girl I’d been before.

Another shriek cut through the air, and nails on a chalkboard would not have been less welcome by the way the sound raced down my spine.

“You are mine!”

“Not today, bitch,” I growled as my feet hit the swamp waters and my eyes landed on the still-visible tracks of a wolf.

Leaning into the wind, I ran as hard as I could without directly fighting the First Witch. My magic was quiet, letting me put my energy into my body without having to verbally spar with another person. Entity. Whatever.

The swamp stunk, the water cold and murky, and when the first lightning bolt lit up the twisting sky, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it.

Ahead of me the wolf tracks led to what looked like a gauzy curtain with a narrow tear through the middle. So much for a doorway. Maybe the witch had gotten lazy, deciding not to make doorways through the last few levels of her “maze.”

“Cheap ass,” I muttered.

I leapt toward that split in the maze, through the Veil or whatever it was, and like the ocean that had tried to drown me, my fingers escaped, passing through to the other side.

Only to have something wrap around my legs and yank me back into the swamp.

16

Alex

Oka and I crept to the top of the hill that had previously looked over the compound that housed Stefan and his Breakers, along with the little sorceress and a warlock, if Pam had been right. The grass and dirt tickled my nose, bringing me the scent of the land.

A whisper of deer, a pungent tang of skunk, the smell of tires, of men’s boots and a faint lingering breath of fear.

“There is nothing down there,” I said to Oka, even though she could, of course, see for herself. “How the hell does an entire company of men, a freaking fortress, just disappear?”

Oka lay flat on her belly beside me, still in her tiger shape. One rounded ear swiveled my way but when I looked at her, her eyes remained locked on the spot ahead of us.

“They don’t.”

I looked back to the empty space, then to Oka again. “What do you see that I’m missing?”

She lowered her head to her paws. “The elementals had a way of hiding their homes, their places of sanctuary, so the casual observer would not stumble upon them. I think that is what has been done here.”

“Holy shit. You mean they are watching us right now?”

“Possibly.” She stood, stretched with her butt in the air and her head down near her front paws.

“What are you doing?”

“Making it look like we are giving up.” She trotted down the hill. “Come on, they don’t know anything of what we suspect.”

“We . . .” I muttered, “don’t suspect the same thing at all.” Though to be fair, she likely had a point. There was no way a fortress would just disappear, but with a little magic, anything was possible.

I pushed myself up, dusted my clothes off and started down the hill after her. I couldn’t help it, I kept looking at where the compound had been. In part because I wanted to make sure she was right, and also in part because that’s what one would do if something was missing from a place it should have been. You kept looking.

With a quick shrug, I adjusted the backpack across my shoulders.

Hurrying, I caught up to her as we approached what should have been the front entrance of the fortress. “Why aren’t they attacking us?”

She slowed her steps. Her tail twitched and she shook her head. “I don’t know. And you’re right, the outside guards should have made some effort toward us.”

“Unless they aren’t here at all?” I did a turn on my heels. Screw it, I was going in to where the compound should have been. With elementals, their homes were hidden but one could still stumble into them. “Come on, we know Pam is close.”

“Alex, I don’t think—”

“You paraded us down here, all but inviting us to get shot.” I stared her down. “You made your mistake. Let’s see if mine gets us anywhere.”

She gave a low growl. “Cats do not make mistakes.”

“Sure they do. They just won’t admit it.”

A gasp, and then I leapt forward, feeling the danger coming as she took a swipe at me with those damn big paws.

“I’m glad you aren’t her familiar,” Oka snapped. “I’d kill you for your smart mouth.”

“You don’t know I’m not her familiar.” I found my eyes drifting away from her and to the empty space in front of me. The closer I got to where the compound had been, the more the air tightened around me, as if being squeezed.

A shiver snaked down my back and the hair stood up along my arms. “Get ready.”

I didn’t know what we needed to be ready for, only that something was coming. I took one more step and it was like pushing through sticky food wrap. I lifted a hand and kept going, even though it resisted me. Yeah, I could see how this would keep the average person out.

No human in their right mind would keep trying to get through sticky wrap that clung to you. I reached for one of my blades that I kept in my bag. With a quick swipe, I cut it through the spell, or whatever it was that tried to hold us back.

Another few steps and I was stumbling into the courtyard of the compound, everything suddenly appearing as it should be.

Oka hopped through after me. “It’s still empty.”

“That doesn’t mean no one is here.” I jogged into the shadow of one of the buildings. Built in a massive square, the compound covered a lot of ground, with the central piece the most protected. With good reason: it had been a damn garden of Eden, full of animals and food that . . . well, I assumed they kept growing with magic.

The stone behind my back was cool and helped me settle my thoughts. The incubus magic in me stretched as if it would reach up and do . . . something. I could take a guess at what it wanted as Oka padded close. I pulled away from her. “Keep your paws to yourself for a bit.”

“Is it awake again?”

“Apparently,” I growled under my breath. Damn it, I’d just gotten a handle on my wolf abilities. To have another set of skills thrust on me that I didn’t want—didn’t want to learn how to use—was damn shitty. I sighed. “I think we should split up. You—” I was going to tell her to shrink, but she was already there. The tiny orange cat zipped between my legs.

“I’ll take the southeast, you take the northwest side. Call if you need help.” And just like that, she was gone.

My jaw ticked. Not that I needed her with me, it wasn’t that. But I had a feeling this had just turned into who found Pam first won. Or maybe I was just reading into things—

“Whoever finds her first, wins!” she called out as a flash of orange disappeared around a wall.

I couldn’t help the grin. “Stinking cats.”

A flash of energy ripped through me that was not my own, and I tipped my head to one side as if that would somehow help me identify the electrical current tugging me forward.

I took a step, sliding along the wall, keeping as quiet as I could now that Oka was gone. There was no sound within the compound, not even a call of a bird or the scuttle of an insect. It was strange and made my skin itch with the knowledge that I was walking into danger. I lowered my bag and pulled my blade free.

Given to me when I was within the Veil, the curved blade’s handle fit nicely against my palm. Weirdly enough, I’d not even thought to use the blade much the last three years.

I’d not had a cause to use it.

The handle warmed against my skin, becoming almost tacky. Yeah, that was why I’d not used it much. Magic was not my forte, and the blade felt like magic to me. But here I was, hunting for Pam, and knowing I could come up against a sorceress and a warlock around any corner.

If there was a time I needed a magically infused blade, this was it.

Gripping the handle, I kept moving forward, all my senses in overdrive as I strained to pick up any sound, any smell, at all. But there was nothing. Or at least nothing fresh. Each step I took, I waited for an explosion to happen, or a gun to fire. But nothing came, which only heightened the tension along my spine.

The smell of the men, of Stefan’s Breakers was there, but faint. They’d been gone for a while. As long as it had taken Oka and me to get to the caravan and back here, at least.

I frowned as another tingle of energy danced along my skin and tugged me forward. The power that had been my father’s rose in me and I swallowed hard as a sudden understanding hit me.

The energy I was feeling . . . was someone’s life energy, the thing that my newfound curse wanted to suck down.

I paused, blew out a breath, and then nodded to myself. This was my life, this was what I’d been handed. No point in fucking about.

Breaking into a jog, I followed the sensation that pulled me. Whoever this was would be no one good, of that I was certain.

And apparently this incubus power was no small thing and was a hungry little beggar. My stomach growled as if reminding me that the power was my power, and not separate.

Not separate. I nodded. Got it. Not unlike when I was first changed into a wolf. I’d wanted to believe it wasn’t me. But it was. Just like this new power was me too. I only had to figure out how to make it work for me instead of against me. I could do that.

Simple.

The energy called me to a door set in the northern corner guard post of the compound. A tower set as a place to watch people coming and going, and a perfect place to hole up if you were left behind by Stefan. I could have hesitated there, but the truth was . . . I could feel us running out of time. My thoughts swirled as I put my hand on the door and carefully opened it. There was no reason for me to feel that way, except that I knew what it was like to try to escape death. If Pam was trapped with the souls of the dead, it would be tough for her to get out.

Maybe I could make it part way to her. I’d been through the Veil, escaped death, and . . . my thoughts stuttered to a stop as the energy yanked on me. A sensation I did not like made my breath hitch.

Like someone sliding their hands over my body, touching me in all the right spots. I closed my eyes and swayed as the power called on every inch of me. Begging me to take it in, begging me to have my way with it.

So much for simple. I leaned against the wall and slowed my breathing. Time to use every tool in my arsenal to deal with this.

Time to think of baseball and hockey.

Of plants, fucking rabbits, and trees in the forest.

No, not trees, that made me think of hard wood. My body tightened and a groan slid out of me as I fought images that only made my heart rate climb and my skin take on a sheen of sweat. I slowed my feet as the urge to run up the stairs and fuck whoever was up there swept over me. I took another step before I could stop myself.

“Shit.”

I pressed my hands against my face and forced my feet to hold where they were. Rotten teeth. Halitosis. Trolls. Troll shit. My nose curled as if I could smell them right there.

Bingo. Trolls and troll shit, that did it. The fire in my blood cooled as I recalled just how bad trolls were, how the stink clung to your skin long after you’d escaped them. How blinking horrendous they were in every sense of the word. I pushed off the wall, my legs a little wobbly and my pants a bit too tight, but under control anyway. The energy was still there, still calling me, but I could think straight at least.

The power in me curled and pushed against my skin from the inside. “You’ll get your chance,” I muttered.

I wasn’t fully sure of what or who I’d find at the top of the stairs, but was sure enough I’d feed to the incubus power anything that stood between me and Pam.

17

I kept my back to the wall of the stairway on the north side of the compound as I crept upward, still following that call of energy. Was it someone’s life force, or their magic I could feel through the incubus power? No, I had to stop calling it that.

Through my power. Through my magic.

I swallowed hard. What did you call a werewolf with incubus powers?

A fucking werewolf.

I grinned to myself. I’d have to tell Oka that one.

My steps were silent on the stone stairs as I crept higher and higher. From the outside, the tower looked to be three stories, but with the way the stairs curled, it felt twice that height.

More than that, though, was that with each step, the energy of whoever was up there pulled me harder. Sweat rolled down my face, not because of the many steps but because I was working to keep my body from reacting to the proximity of the energy.

If I wasn’t careful, I would dry hump the air.

I put a hand on the wall, the cool stone grounding me as I took that last step and rounded the final corner. In front of me was another door, wooden with large metal bands across it.

A voice called through it, male, irritated and bored at the same time. “Who is there?”

Oh, this was too perfect. “The big bad wolf.”

I grinned, and the power in me surged forward, no longer arousing me, but prepping me for a fight. The snap of adrenaline was familiar, at least. The need to bash in someone’s head filled me. Whoever was on the other side of this door knew something about what had happened to Pam and I was going to get the info one way or another.

The voice belonged to a man, and I was not interested in banging a guy. But I’d take his power and use it, especially if it was Stefan or that warlock.

Not before I’d gotten some answers, though.

The door whipped open and what could only be the warlock stood in front of me. He was average age and wore clothing with long swirling robes and high-heeled boots. Maybe he was prepping for a drag show. His eyebrows raised. “You are no wolf.”

I took a step and he moved back, his eyes narrowing. Why was he letting me into his space? Did he think so little of me? “I am a werewolf.”

“You are an incubus. I smell the stink of your magic.” He took a few more steps back and his hands slowly curled into fists.

“Then why aren’t you throwing a spell at me?” My turn to raise an eyebrow as I stepped into the room on level ground with him. The room was circular with a table in the middle, handcuffs attached to the top of the table and leg shackles secured into the floor. Blood stained the area around the table.

“You have fun torturing the ogre?” I asked.

“Immense joy.” The warlock grinned. “Did you enjoy killing the female werewolf that was your traveling companion?”

He might as well have thrown a spell at me, as I froze where I was. “What did you say?”

“Her blood is on your hands. I can see it.” He shrugged and half turned his back on me to cross to the table. “You and I are alike, and it is the only reason I didn’t outright kill you. So few of us left, so few of us who can cleanse this world.” He sighed and slid into a chair.

I worked to keep my jaw from dropping. He spoke to me as if we were two good old boys talking about days gone by. Maybe I could get my information from him easier than I thought.

“Assuming the likes of the sorceress can be contained.” I crossed my arms, but otherwise, didn’t move from my spot. Where I stood, I could keep the door in my line of sight, as well as the warlock.

He barked a laugh and snapped his fingers, pulling a bottle of wine out of thin air. “Perhaps. But she is a tool, like the other one.”

“What other one?” I might have asked that a little too quickly as his eyes shot to me.

He pulled a cup out of thin air and poured it half-full of wine. “The one that recently went into the maze. That is the witch’s training ground.” He took a sip of his drink and pulled a second cup from nowhere, filled it and handed it to me.

I shook my head. “No. I’m on a hunt. I don’t want my senses dulled.”

The warlock grinned. “No? Well, I wish you well on your venture. Who are you going to suck dry today?”

My brain gave me the answer and it spilled out of my mouth before my filter could catch it and make sure it was a good answer.

“A witch. I’m quite sure she is the one you stuck in your maze.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You realize that a witch is the only magical creature, other than an Immune, who can destroy you?”

I swallowed hard. His words echoed my father’s. “All the more reason to finish her off first.”

The warlock yawned, then laughed at me. “Please, you’re so young in your powers, you don’t even know what you’re up against. You came right in here, right into a warlock’s lair as if you have it in you to take me on. I am a male witch, boy.” His eyes bored into me. “And the last incubus I faced . . . well, let’s just say he didn’t fare so well.”

I should have been afraid, should have been fighting or running, but I stood there and stared at him, the wolf in me a reminder that I was not what he thought I was.

“So, you want to kill me then?”

“Only if you ask for it.” He saluted me with his wine and took a long swig as if it were beer.

“Where do I get into this maze?” I asked.

“You don’t,” the warlock said. “If she makes it out the door, she’ll come through the central field. And then she will face the little sorceress. If she can best her, then she will take her place and her power. Or vice versa. That is why the little one is so strong. She’s killed two other witches and absorbed their power.”

Curiosity burned through me. “So, it is her maze that she put—” I almost said Pam’s name, catching the slip at the tip of my tongue, “the witch I hunt into?”

“No, it is the First Witch. She is the source of all witch power. It’s a long and complicated story I do not wish to bother with at the moment. Either you will fight me now, and I will kill you, or we will part as friends.”

I had no doubt this warlock would not be my friend if we parted now. The second I let my guard down, he’d be fighting me. The reality was if he’d thought he could kill me, he’d have done it already. I was sure of it. Well, almost sure of it.

I smiled. “Why didn’t you kill me when you opened that door?” He blanched, and I went on. “Because it would make sense to kill a threat, and I am obviously a threat enough for you to try to bluff your way out of this. You killed the ogre without hesitation.”

He shot up out of his chair and swung his hand toward me, palm out. A ball of bright blue energy leapt at me, solid like a line of steel cable.

I dropped to the ground and rolled, popping up to my feet as he shot another blast of magic my way. A darker blue this one, closer to the night sky, complete with prickles of white stars within it.

Something in me made me hold my ground. I lifted an arm and the magic coiled around my forearm, digging in as though it had teeth and claws. I grimaced and fisted my hand as I stared down the line at the warlock who’d gone terribly pale.

I opened myself to my very new, and very hungry, magic. The coil around my arm absorbed into me, pulling the warlock forward as the dark blue magical loop was drawn into me. The power lit me up and I laughed with it as the warlock cut away from the coil right before my magic reached him.

“You aren’t very good at bluffing,” I said as I jumped at him. He spun, pulling a long sword from the air and swinging it straight for my head.

I couldn’t avoid it, there was no way to drop in the middle of a leap. I lifted both hands and the blade bit into my forearms, deep, all the way to the bone. Blood spilled down my arms to my elbows as he yanked the blade free.

Stumbling back, I couldn’t even twitch my fingers, never mind put my hands over the wounds. My blood puddled under me where I stood. I had to do something, fast. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? A half dozen parlor tricks, pulling shit out of the air?”

The warlock snarled. “You are too young and stupid to let live.” He swung the blade again, only this time when I dropped to the floor, praying I’d shift as I called my wolf forward.

There was a split second where I thought it might not happen, and then my body slid from two legs to four. But there was no time to even breathe a sigh of relief that I truly was still a shifter

The move not only took me out of range but healed me as my body went from two legs to four. Okay, maybe not fully healed, but the two wounds were partially closed at least. I spun on my back legs and went for his hamstring, tearing out the tendon with a single bite.

The warlock brought the butt of the sword down on my head and I yelped and tumbled backward as the world swirled and an intense ache spread from the top of my skull.

“What the hell are you?” The warlock shook his head, limping toward the door.

I bolted forward, skidding through the blood and sliding to a stop between him and escape. Teeth bared, everything in me said to rip his throat out, to kill him where he stood.

But I waited. Just in case I was wrong.

The warlock leaned on his sword with one hand and held the back of his leg with the other. “A draw then. You let me go, and I won’t kill you.”

I barked—really barked—a laugh. “Try again.”

He flexed his hand on the sword. “What do you want?”

“I want to know where the witch is.”

“The one in the maze? I told you I can’t get to her.”

My lips curled up farther over my teeth. “Try again.”

Sweat beaded on his upper lip and he licked it off. “I . . . I can maybe get you close. It’s complicated though.”

“Let’s go.” I stepped to the side. “And leave the sword.”

The weapon clattered to the ground and he stepped forward, hobbling. I followed him down the stairs and into the compound proper. He smelled of fear, but not of lies, and that was going to have to be good enough for me.

Because right then, he was the best chance we had of getting to Pam.

18

Pamela

The creature of the swamp yanked me back, away from the tear in the maze, or the Veil if you prefer, and into the muddy waters. I went down, barely closing my mouth and eyes in time for the liquid to pass over the top of my head as I was dragged to the bottom. Whatever had my leg was smooth, like a tentacle, and I didn’t waste any time in questioning just what it was, only that it had to go.

I fumbled for one of my blades, got the left free and leaned forward, slicing it through the tentacle. It released me and I pushed toward the surface, scrambling to get away. Panic driven, I was far from graceful. All I wanted was to be out, to get away from this place.

Gasping for air, I broke the surface and all but fell through the cut between the levels. I crashed down on the other side, my body aching and my nose full of the stink of the swamp. Nothing attacked me, nothing caged me or jumped to fight me.

I blinked through the dripping brown water to see a small man who stood barely waist high if I had been standing, wearing what looked like a pirate outfit. Tall boots folded down at the top were matched with a white shirt that had poofy sleeves, and a buckle around his middle finished it all off. He pushed a set of glasses up his nose with one of his four—I blinked—yeah, four hands. Spring-green hair was smoothed back on his skull.

“Welcome to the Library of the World. I see you have had quite a journey to get here.” His voice was wildly high-pitched. “What a treat to have two visitors so close together!” He smiled and while part of me said I shouldn’t trust him, I couldn’t help but try to smile back.

“You aren’t going to hurt me?” I tensed.

“Lordy no.” He shook his head and made a safe motion with all four of his hands as if I’d barely made it to home plate in the final inning of the World Series. See, I had paid attention when Liam made me watch the baseball games with him. “You are welcome here, and welcome to have a respite before the final two trials. Though I am sure the peace will be shattered far sooner than I’d prefer.” He sighed, sounding for all the world like a tiny mouse. “Come, you have questions, and I don’t want you dripping on my floors any more than you have to.”

He tipped his head for me to follow him as he turned his back to me and walked away. “The bathrooms are this way.”

Bathrooms. This made no sense to me.

“I understand all this must be confusing, the how and the why of this place, the things you have faced so far. But if you will get clean, then we will sit and I will explain just what it is I see.”

I pushed to my hands and knees, then to my feet. And then I really looked at the place I was in. The tile work on the floor was stunning, gorgeous, and looked old as though it had been polished and scrubbed for thousands of years. I knew marble when I saw it. But as beautiful as that was, the books were what caught my eyes and held my gaze. Row upon row of books, climbing high into the ceiling that was easily three stories. Maybe more, even.

How long since I’d been in a real library? The urge to grab a book and hold it to me, bury my nose in the pages and escape from the hell my life had become was so strong, I took a step toward the closest shelf.

“Is this for real?”

“Yes, yes, now come please. No touching the books when you are so filthy.” He smiled, softening the words. “Dear miss, I believe I know who you are, but for the sake of propriety, please do tell me your name?”

“Pamela.”

“Ah, lovely! My name is Fergus, and I will be your guide while you are here. My last visitors, well, they made rather a mess of things, though I suppose it was all pre-ordained.”

I stepped up behind him as he led the way through the place. The maze or the Veil.

“Is this the Veil?”

“Ah, so impatient. I suppose I can answer some questions while we walk. Yes, it is still the Veil, broken but still here. Did you all think that it would be destroyed completely?” He tipped his head and looked up at me from under his glasses. “Broken is sometimes better, you know. A broken window allows the air to move through it, bringing smells you would have otherwise missed.”

“A broken window also allows in insects and pests.”

“Oh, yes, I’m familiar with that aspect.” Another half grin and I had no doubt I was one of those pests. But . . . there was no hurt in going along with his suggestion. For the first time since I stepped into this place, there was no fear.

No adrenaline.

No monsters.

“Is this a safe haven?”

“Until the witch figures out you are here.” And then the little bugger laughed. “Oh, she’s going to be in quite a tizzy when she realizes what’s happened.”

“And what is that exactly?”

Fergus snapped his fingers. “Ambrose, clean up her wake. She’s just like the lynchpin, dragging herself through here covered in mud. Though, it was the other direction before. So confusing having the levels of the Veil shifted around.”

Movement to my left spun me around to see another little man not that different from Fergus, only he had a bucket and two mops. He brought them out, sweeping back the way we’d come, cleaning up the dripping steps I’d left behind.

“The Veil is shifted?”

“Yes, after it was broken, the First Witch was woken with the shattering of the continents. She latched onto the dead first, as that is where much of her power is drawn from.”

“Is she a necromancer then?”

“Yes, that too. She is the birthplace of many dark powers. Many dark souls.” He sighed and looked back at me. His eyes were gray, soft with flickers of silver throughout, not unlike a guardian’s eyes.

I opened my mouth to ask another question and he put up two hands, palms facing me. “Refresh yourself. We will find you an appropriate uniform for moving forward and then we will discuss all that must be discussed. I will wait for you here, young Pamela.” He bowed at the waist and waved me forward with all four hands.

The door in front of me was nothing fancy, but when I stepped through, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

Along one side wall of the bathroom, a row of natural waterfalls flowed at different rates down a rock face completely natural-looking as though they’d been plucked from different mountain sides. From there, the water spread across the floor, gathering in a multi-tributary stream that led to a pool. Well, really, more like a pond, if a pond had bubbles and smelled like jasmine and vanilla. Here and there, plants grew at the edge of the pool and in the crevices around the waterfalls, their blooms a variety of colors and shapes from bells to wide open petals.

“Amazing.”

I looked down at myself. My clothes had not been in great shape to start with and what I wore now was mere rags at best. The jeans were mostly shredded across the knees and the backs of my thighs, my shirt was torn in multiple places, and of course, my cloak was missing, lost in the depths of the ocean I’d faced.

My knives were still there, though, the leather straps across my hips still solid after all these years. I snorted to myself as I peeled out of my clothes, dropping them where I stood until I was completely naked.

The pool beckoned me despite my recent encounter with deep water. But I hesitated. The sole of my foot tingled and I lifted it up to see the footprint of a much larger person.

“Alex.” I breathed his name and a series of footprints led me to the waterfalls. I ducked under one of them, the water warm but not hot, the bruises and scrapes over my body aching more as I stood there. I felt like Alex was there with me, laughing and splashing in the water. A smile crept over my lips and then I thought about Mac. There was little doubt that he’d be in the water with me too.

I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep the sudden well of tears from falling. Damn it, I would find Mac. He would be okay. I’d get us out of here.

I rinsed off the worst of the mud and dirt, and then followed the still-glowing footprints back to the pool. Dipping my toes in first, I sighed as the heat billowed up, steam rolling around my face. I sat at the edge, and slid into the water, right up to my chin.

“Your new clothes are here, with your knives,” a feminine voice said, as high-pitched as Fergus but womanly. I turned to see exactly that—a female version of Fergus, right down to the round glasses and green hair, only her hair was done up in an intricate crown braid around her small head, tiny white flowers accenting it.

“Thank you,” I said, and she offered me several bottles.

There were soaps, shampoos, and even a scrub of some sort. I dunked under the water and then got to work cleaning myself up after how long? Years, it had been years since I’d had a hot water anything. Never mind a full-on bath with soaps that smelled heavenly and water that never seemed to get dirty.

Still, I found myself hurrying, unable to truly enjoy the beautiful space. Because I had things to do, and a maze to escape. A familiar to find.

And a witch’s ass to kick.

I pulled myself out of the water, feeling more myself than before. A thick black towel waited by my clothes and I used it to dry off quickly before picking up the garments put out for me.

Black leather pants and knee-high boots were first. But it was the corset that made my eyebrows raise. I lifted it and another shirt slid off.

“Layers?” I murmured to myself. The corset was soft inside, made of a material that would be nothing short of amazing against bare skin. Decision made, I put the corset on first, tightening it enough to stay on, but not restricting my movement. The long-sleeved shirt I pulled over top. When it settled, I did a slow turn, feeling the movement of the clothing, and understanding magic was in it.

“Armor. It will protect you as you face the trials that will come your way.”

I turned to see Fergus waiting on the doorstep of the bathroom, something in his arms that I’d not thought possible.

“My cloak.” I was shocked at how tight my throat got when I saw it, realized what it was . . . and what it meant to me.

“Yes, well, it was a gift from the Raven, and then woven with your own magic so this item is no small thing. It found its way here. Back to you.” He smiled and handed the thick green cloak to me…no, no longer green. I frowned and ran the cloak through my fingers, feeling the material. Yes, it felt the same, but the deep blue was not what I’d left it as. Here and there within the blue I was sure I could see specks of light, like tiny stars. “Are you sure?”

“It’s changing, I believe, to grow with you.” Fergus said softly. “Such magic is rare.”

I slid it through my fingers once more, then pulled it on and fastened it on my shoulders. Last, I gathered my leather sheaths and curved blades.

“And now for some answers.” I said.

He held up a finger and smiled. Before I could ask anything, the ground rumbled in answer, heaving upward, the boom of columns falling, and the air pressure changing. The tiles below us groaned and Fergus hurried away, shaking his head. “Dear me, dear me! Come. Quickly now!”

I didn’t ask another question though many were on the tip of my tongue, burning with all I didn’t understand. All around us, the scene shifted, changing as it fell apart in front of my eyes as though we were outside and not within a building.

Fergus raced down long stretches of the place while books fell, crashing in long lines to the floor. I winced to see the spines crack, to see the pages as they spewed out across the floor like falling petals from a spring storm through an orchard. A sharp, frigid wind whipped in and out of the tall bookshelves almost like it were alive and searching for something. I slowed as it moved in and out, mesmerized by the undulating motion like waves crashing on a beach, only this wave was alive. And it was hunting as it smashed into books, whipped down bookshelves, and coursed along the floor.

Call me pessimistic, but I would have laid money on whatever that wind was, it was looking for me.

“This way!” Fergus opened a door for me, and I slid through into a warm, welcoming space that was not what I expected at all.

He shut the door behind us with a click, something slammed into the wood, and then the rumbling was gone, the upheaval of the library as if it had never been.

“Before you ask.” Fergus dusted his hands off and went to one of the two overstuffed chairs set up next to a nicely roaring fire. I hadn’t thought I was cold but now I felt it, a chill against my skin. “This place is safe. It is the one place I have that the First Witch cannot touch.”

“For how long?”

Fergus looked at me and smiled. “Long enough to prepare you for what you are going to face.”

19

“For what I’m going to face? I’m already in this goddess-forsaken maze, which I know now is a piss-poor mockery of what it really is, which is what is left of the Veil!” I slid over to the chair, still unable to believe that I was essentially sitting in a library talking to a four-armed little librarian dressed like a pirate. I wasn’t going to complain, not after everything I’d faced so far.

My new leather pants squeaked as I sat. My clothes were amazing, soft, and yet I knew they would be strong against what was coming. Whatever it was I would have to go through to end this nightmare.

“True, you have discovered that, which is good. But the levels are all moved around, sliding in a circular fashion now that we are wrapped around the world. There is no direct line like the Veil used to be.” Fergus pulled out a piece of paper and drew a circle next to a line. “The First Witch escaped as the world was destroyed. She took the Veil, which was, for lack of a better explanation, a straight line from the living world, all the way through to the realm of the demons in the seventh level.”

I nodded, part of me thrilled to gain new knowledge. “And she bent it into a circle?”

“Yes, exactly, she touched the two ends together. Bad for many reasons. While some demons escaped as you and the lynchpin cut through the Veil, not all of them did. But now that the First Witch has made this path that is both circular and a whirlpool, with her at the center of the swirling vortex,” he used his pen to go around and around in a circle, “the demons have easy access to the rest of the Veil now—not good for those of us who are here—and, of course, they still seek the real world. But they cannot reach the real world, as this circle doesn’t fully touch the world any longer. It just floats along.”

“Like a bubble,” I muttered, recalling Peta’s words.

“Yes, like a bubble. But the demons,” he pulled off his glasses and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt, “she’s a fool to think she can control them. The dead is her realm, and she can use the power of the ghosts to increase her strength, but the demons . . . they will not be ruled by her. Anything they do for her now, they do for a reason.”

I’ll admit, my blood cooled at the thought of demons running rampant. Again.

I stared at the circle. “Okay, so she’s at the center of the whirlpool with the demons?”

“Yes, and that is a dangerous place for you. You have been inside the Veil when it was still intact, you have walked the seventh realm. And you killed demons as you fought them in the final battle. They will not have forgotten that.”

He wasn’t wrong. I said, “The First Witch must know all that. Which would make sense to set me up to face her there.”

“No, no, she does not want to face you. She wants to win you over.” Fergus reached over and took my hands in his. “Child, she wants your power. You are an elemental witch, one of very few. And the only one who carries all five elements. If she gains control of you . . . there will be no stopping her. She will possess your body and you will cease to exist. That is why she put you through the testing. To be sure that you are the one. To be sure that you are the child of Raven and a witch of her bloodline.”

He picked up a book and flipped it open. “These are prophecies of Giselle, a seer of the future who had no equal.”

Chills went through me as he handed me the book. The cover flipped open without any prompting on my part and the pages flipped almost lazily, stopping a third of the way into the book.

“Read that bit there.” Fergus pointed at the left-hand page.

I drew a breath and began to read slowly, out loud. “And when the destruction shall come, and the world shall break, a new evil will rise from the earth. It will seek out the most powerful of the magic users. But the one required for the evil to walk this world again in the flesh will be the child of two lines. A line of the First Witch and a line of the elements.”

I looked up. “Raven could have had other children.”

“Of course, he did.” Fergus grimaced and then went on. “That is neither here nor there, but I thought you should know if you survive this place—and I truly want you to—there will still be one more fight waiting for you on the outside.” Fergus shook his head. “You, like your mentor, seem to draw trouble like most people hike up their britches in the morning.”

I barked a laugh. “I might have to steal that one, Fergus.”

He grinned, his eyes crinkling shut. “Feel free, child. But we have more to discuss.”

“Wait, before you tell me anything else, I don’t understand why you’re helping me? The dead tried to kill me when I was first here, but each level I’ve gone through, hard as it might have been . . . well, they felt like tests to make me stronger.”

He bobbed his head. “They are. As I said, the First Witch has power over the dead. But she does not truly control the Veil. We denizens of the Veil, both alive and dead, have lived here for as long as time has stood. She can manipulate things, but she can’t force us. And we know you, Pamela, just as we knew the lynchpin. You are the world’s only hope. You are the only one who can defeat the First Witch. But not if you aren’t ready. Not if you aren’t trained. You cannot kill her, Pamela. You must bind her again.”

Again, I just sat there, taking in the words. They were training me. Each level pushed me outside my comfort zone, tested me, and each step brought me closer to facing the First Witch.

Not to buckle to her.

But to fight her. And put her away.

“But why can’t I kill her? Would that not be easier?”

“Let me clarify. She is the embodiment of magic in a way that the Mother Goddess is the embodiment of the elementals’ power. It is impossible to kill her. So you must bind her.”

I covered my face with my hands and leaned over the book as a tremor slid through my body. I’d faced big bad uglies before. But never one that had wanted to possess me. Kill me, yes. Use me and my abilities, yes. But possess me? Not even the demons had wanted that. And never one that was impossible to kill.

A warm hand settled on my shoulder. “You can do this, Pamela.”

I drew a shuddering breath and lifted my head. “Can you tell me what is next?”

“I will tell you that it will take you to where you once were.” His hand squeezed my shoulder. “You have become hard, Pamela, cynical and quick to anger. That was not you. You need to find who you are, not who you think you are supposed to be. You are not Rylee and striving to be her has made you weak.”

I wanted to jerk away from him, call him a liar and an asshole. Wanted to, but my mouth remained closed. Because he wasn’t wrong.

Fergus smiled and dropped his hand. “Sometimes we lose our way for a reason. The path back to who we are can be fraught with danger, but it can make us stronger than any easy path ever would.”

I blinked, barely realizing I was crying. “I . . . I don’t know what to say.”

“Say you are ready to be who you are meant to be.” Fergus stood. “Don’t be afraid of what is to come; embrace it. Embrace who you are—both the light and the dark, and I think you will find yourself.”

I looked down at the book in my lap. Giselle had prophesied all this? The pages flipped forward, stopping after only a few. I whispered the words almost without thought.

“And the Veil shall heal itself, and in that healing, a new reality will bloom. One where magic and demons, humans and shifters finally realize the world for what it is. But only if the balance is found and the magic tamed.”

I looked up to see Fergus staring at me. “What?”

“That prophecy . . . I’ve never read it before, and I have read that book front and back many, many times.” Fergus smiled. “Perhaps that prophecy was just for you.”

“How can healing the Veil be something to do with me?” Like I needed one more thing to do.

No.

No, that was the Pamela I’d become in this last few years, one who avoided all she could just to survive. The person I was, who I’d always been, she would face the challenge head on. I smiled at Fergus. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Goddess, had I just agreed to heal the tears in the Veil?

Fergus smiled and clapped his hands. “Yes! I knew that you would see. That you would be the one!”

I wanted to grimace, to pull away and run back to the caravan. But the world needed someone to stand up for it. Not a Tracker like Rylee. Not a lynchpin like Alex.

The world needed an elemental witch. I stood, feeling for the first time in my life like I was going in the right direction. This was where my path guided me all along. “Thank you, Fergus. I will never forget this place. I wish I could stay and learn and read all these books.”

He grinned, dug around in his shirt pocket and then flipped me a coin. “Granted. When you have need of knowledge, use your ability to jump the Veil while holding that coin. It will bring you here.”

“I can’t jump the Veil,” I said.

He nodded. “Not while it’s torn. But once it is healed, anything is possible.”

I slid the coin into a pocket in my leather pants. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. For you are about to fight not only for your own soul, but for every soul that has ever died. They are bound to the First Witch, Pamela. And only you can save them.”

That was along the lines of what Peta had said to me. I blew out a breath and nodded. “I won’t fail them, Fergus.”

He smiled and pointed to the door. “Then you must go. The First Witch is hunting for you. She is realizing that perhaps her testing grounds are not working as well as she hoped. She is not breaking you as she planned.”

I moved to the door and paused. “Can I ask you one more question?”

“One more. And then you must go. I have an entire library to clean up.”

I smiled but it slid off my face as the question formed. “The dark magic in me. It’s tied to the First Witch, but it speaks as though it were separate. Is it separate?”

Fergus shook his head. “I do not know. I’m sorry.”

I am separate. You can trust that.

I put a hand on the door. “Was worth a shot.”

A hand rested on my lower back and Fergus moved to stand beside me. “Two more levels. Face what comes with your heart, Pamela. Your heart will not lead you wrong.”

There was no point in putting it off. Time to step back into the maelstrom that was the maze.

20

So much for the maelstrom I thought I’d be facing. More like a gigantic mess. The library was quiet, the wicked wind that had whipped through it gone, the heaving of the floors a thing of the past. I took a step out, my boots crunching on little bits of tile and shards of glass.

Behind me Fergus tssked and then pushed past me. “Brendy, where are you? We have a mess and a half! And find Ambrose. It will be all hands on deck!” He blew past me, all four arms in action as he swept up books and seemed to know which pages were missing and where they were. I turned away and walked deeper into the library.

The coin in my pocket tugged at me and all I wanted was to stay here for a little longer. To let that part of me thrive again as my mind filled with knowledge, and with the knowledge, a sense of security.

A glimmer of a paw print beckoned to me under a sheet of paper. I bent and pushed the paper aside to see Alex’s wolf print. Tracks found, I followed them quickly to a part of the library that was dark. The moisture in the air increased and as I looked around, I realized that mold clung to the books in this section.

“That is the cost of the Veil being opened to us.”

I turned to see Brendy, the female librarian, standing there, watching me. “This mold?”

“The destruction of our books, of all our knowledge. It will continue if you do not stop it, until there is nothing left for anyone to learn.”

I didn’t know if that would affect the world outside this place, but it didn’t really matter. I had to fix this. All of it.

There was nothing more for me to say to her, so I turned and headed deeper into the dark section. The lamps here flickered, dimmer than those in the main part of the library, and there were the sounds of scurrying creatures. Yeah, none of that was good for a library of any size.

Under my feet, the crunching of broken bits turned softer. Moss clung to the stone now. I came to a T intersection of the library and stared down the left branch and then the right. Which way?

I needed to find Alex’s tracks. Dropping to my knees, I tore away the moss until the stone was visible. And with it, the faintest wolf track. I turned my body to angle it the same direction as he’d come. From the right. I stood and jogged down the right branch, the wind cooling at my back. A hard gust shoved me forward and I almost turned around to face it. To tell the First Witch to fuck the hell off.

But my goal was no longer just to get her out of my way, but to lock her away. I picked up my speed, running as fast as I could through the narrow halls. What I wouldn’t give to be able to jump the Veil again. To be able to cross time and space as if it were nothing. I could jump the entire caravan to the Haven.

I could go home to Rylee and the others.

A dead end appeared in front of me, the darkness absolute except for a slash of light. The place that Alex had come through.

I approached it carefully, worried there might be a nasty surprise for me on the other side. Even though Fergus had said what I would experience would help and give me what I needed to face the First Witch, that did not mean it was going to be all tea and crumpets and how do you do.

A tingle of apprehension had me pulling out my curved slayer blades. It occurred to me that if the First Witch controlled the dead and drew power from them . . . “That is why there are so many patches of death, so many zombies!” I blurted out the words. This was why the world was covered in dead ground now. Because it fed the First Witch’s power.

From behind me came a low growl. I didn’t look for the source of the sound. It was enough that I could feel the hot breath of the creature behind me, hunting me. This was not the time to fight, but the time to run like my ass was on fire.

I bolted forward and jumped at the slash in the wall. Falling, I was falling through the sky. I tumbled end over end, and then hit the ground with a thud, sinking into what felt like moss.

Groaning, I rolled over and tucked my two blades away. That could have gone terribly wrong. Blades out while free-falling? Yeah, that could have made for a particularly shitty day.

I pushed to my knees and got my first look at this next level of the Veil.

You are getting closer to the witch. My magic spoke, catching me off guard.

“You’ve been quiet. Thought you’d finally buggered off.”

You didn’t need me. But you will soon. And then you will be grateful I am what I am.

Cocky. My dark magic was cocky. I wondered if that was how my mother died, believing her magic? Believing that her magic would save her.

I blinked and the scene around me sunk in. The moss below my feet was only a small piece of what surrounded me. Trees spread as far as I could see, some flowering, some heavy with fruit, others barren and even some dead.

Those that bore fruit swayed in an unseen breeze, the leaves dancing, tugged this way and that. If not for the dead trees or those losing their leaves it would have been picturesque. The sound of wind rushing over feathered wings spun me around.

I blinked up at a young woman with flowing golden locks and eyes of pale blue. She blinked back at me. As beautiful as she was, the wings that spread from her back were what held my attention.

“Are you an angel?” I asked. “Part of the dead world?”

“I am not an angel, and many have screamed that I am the devil herself.” There was a distinct twinkle in her eyes when she spoke that told me she wasn’t kidding.

I adjusted my stance, flipping my cloak back so I could grab the curved blades on my hips if I needed to. “The First Witch sent you?”

“She does not rule me, though she would like to.” The angel girl smiled again. This time showing off curved fang teeth, dainty and yet obviously deadly.

“So, I’m going to get a lesson here?”

“Yes. Three, to be exact.”

“Yippy skippy,” I muttered.

“These three lessons are not like the others you’ve faced. The Prison tested your strength and willingness to fight through the last of your breaths. The dead tested your fears.”

I frowned. “And the incubus?”

Her eyes were sad. “The incubus tested your heart to see where the truth of its strength lies.”

My guts clenched. “What are you saying?”

“Your final fight with the witch . . . she holds your bear. And if the wolf is not careful, she will hold him too.”

I shook my head as I backed away from her. “No, that can’t be. Alex is safe. He’s not here!”

“But he seeks you just as he was searching for you when he first traversed the Veil.” Her wings fluttered and she landed on the moss in front of me. “Come, you do not have time to stand and do nothing.”

She led the way through the trees, and I walked after her, stunned like I’d had a brick dropped on my head. Alex would not come back to this place. There was no way. The little sorceress dropped me here, and that was all there was to that. No, this angel girl had to be wrong. She had to be. Or I would lose what was left of the hope I clung to that all would be right when this battle was over and done.

The wings in front of me were all I could see, trembling ever so slightly as she turned and motioned toward a tree with a trunk that rippled and moved as though it were the flesh of a creature and not a plant. I walked toward it, reached out and pressed a hand against the bark. The tree shivered under my fingers.

“The present moves and forms with each decision we make, for good or for ill. Eat of the fruit.”

I reached up without actually looking, my eyes transfixed on the bark. The fruit was firm, and I brought it to my mouth, my eyes closing as I took a bite. The juices were bitter, tangy with only the slightest hint of sweet, like an overly tart green apple. As the flavors slid over my tongue, I opened my eyes to find myself no longer standing amongst trees, but beside the caravan.

I was back? I took a step, then another and another. “Oka! Alex!” There was no answer to my call and no one that I saw so much as looked up at me. Except for the new guy who’d joined us, leaving Stefan’s Breakers to help us escape. His eyes locked on me.

He leapt up and ran toward me, shaking his head. “You’ve got to go! Get out of here!”

“No! This is my family!”

Wade, that was his name, grabbed my arms and shook me. “You have to go. The elementals are hunting for you. Something has changed and they want you dead.”

He looked over his shoulder and the steam went out of him in a whoosh. A billow of air and water funneled toward the caravan, far from normal. I knew elemental power when I saw it.

“Too late, it’s too late.” Wade shook his head. “I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

“Hide Frost from them.” I strode forward, pushing past him as I spoke. “Whatever you have to do, get Frost and the other children as far from them as you can. Send Crimson with them and speed them away. Now!” I barked the last word as I squared my shoulders and placed myself directly in the path of the oncoming elementals. I didn’t know how real this was, or why Wade could see me when the others couldn’t, but I could guess the answers to both questions.

The wind swept my cloak up behind me along with my hair. I could lead the elementals away, that was the best I could do. Wade was right.

I spun and ran south, back the way we’d come. What could I possibly be learning from this? I’d faced elementals before; what was I supposed to learn here?

Maybe you are learning nothing. Maybe you are regaining something? Much as I am loath to admit it, we will need all your power to beat the first witch.

All my power. As in more of my elemental magic. As I ran, the bracelets on my wrists bounced and danced. I’d killed one elemental, the one tied to spirit, in order to break the bracelet that had bound that element away from me.

This was no lesson, no heartfelt come-to-Jesus moment or even learning how to bind the First Witch.

This was a chance to break my magic free, walking the lines between reality. I bolted up the side of the ravine as the wind buffeted at me, driving me from behind. A sylph and an undine were behind me. Air and water elementals. Their power coursed along my skin, familiar and deadly.

I reached the top of the ravine and threw myself forward onto my belly. “I need you now.”

Are you ready to embrace me?

I wasn’t, but there was no choice. I needed all my magic, not just the dark, but the light too.

“Ready as I’m ever going to be.”

Like turning on a faucet, the magic flowed through me, dark and thick, like molasses. I rose to my feet as the sylph floated in front of me.

She was stunning, leggy and lithe, her gray-blue hair twisted into perfect dreadlocks that lifted with the air that whipped around her. A sword hung from her hip and her clothing was of the purest white.

“One of the sylph queen’s guards then?” I arched a brow.

“I am the new queen’s consort!” She roared the words and I shrugged as if I didn’t feel the power in her. Because it was mine.

The penny dropped and I stared at her. “You have something of mine. I want it back.”

She flushed. “I do not know how you called me here, in my dreams, but I will fight you no matter where you stand! This power is not yours, you are a mutt at best, a cur that needs to be ended!”

She pulled her sword and the wind around me picked up, spinning me high into the air.

What are you waiting for?

I didn’t answer out loud. How did I explain something I wasn’t fully sure of myself? I was following an instinct that told me to hold, to wait for the moment to strike. The air spun me faster and faster until the world blurred and the nausea that took me stayed with me long after I was no longer being twisted like a tornado. My cloak clung to me and my head bobbled as my knees found the ground.

“She is so weak without our magic,” the sylph said.

“Raven chose poorly in his mate to create this cur,” another voice said.

Water washed over me, and I opened my eyes. I was in a bubble of water held by the undine. He stared at me, nothing short of hatred in his eyes. He would kill me and think nothing of it.

With my own power.

They were using my own power against me.

Ready yet?

No. Not yet.

I kept my eyes locked on the undine. I lifted a hand and pointed a finger at him as my hair floated around me in the mock ocean. He was smiling, but that mirth fled as I made a slow slashing motion across my neck.

The sylph laughed, her voice muffled through the water. “Oh, she’s brassy. You remember how she fought when we first bound her?”

My need for air grew and I wanted to open my mouth and let the water in, but that would be my death.

I blinked as the water pressed in on me, familiar with my own magic. My magic.

Raven, my father, was part undine. Undines could breathe water. Which meant that even without my magic fully working . . .

This is not the time to test theories!

The darkness was right, and wrong at the same time. I opened my mouth and drew in a lungful of water, believing with all I was that I would be able to use it like air.

I was wrong.

21

Alex

The warlock led me through the compound, all the way to the central portion that had held the animals, fruit trees, gardens and foodstuffs. I pushed him ahead of me, the incubus power that was part of me snapping upward, making a bid for the warlock’s life.

Before I could say anything, the warlock spun, his face pale and his hands up. “You said you wouldn’t kill me!”

“I never said anything like that.” I pointed at the large wooden doors and the warlock backed up to them, never taking his eyes off me.

Fumbling with his hands behind his back, he unlatched the doors and shoved them open. A cold wind whipped through the opening, banging them against the walls. I lifted a hand, shielding my eyes from the dust and dirt flung into the air.

“Is there anyone else still here?” I turned toward the warlock to see him bolt inside, racing away from me as he went toward the center of the building.

The wind kept up, pushing at me like an oversized hand shoving me back and keeping me from the warlock. It was not his magic that fought me, though.

No, this magic belonged to the little sorceress. I was sure of it.

I dropped to my knees, ignoring the fact that I was going to rip my clothes, and shifted in one fluid motion. The change in body shape allowed me to move forward, dodging the wind as if I were dodging blows instead of an element.

A shriek flowed through the air and I locked my eyes on the sorceress. Only it wasn’t the sorceress, it was Pam. I raced toward her. She’d gotten away from the realm of the dead—that was the only answer for the blonde hair that swirled around her petite form, the dark cloak and the flashes of blue eyes I caught in between the gusts of wind.

Only . . . it wasn’t Pam.

Oh, shit.

I spun and raced to my right, only to be picked up by the wind and flipped onto my back as I was floated toward her. Upside down and slowly spinning, I got a pretty good look at the place. Including the tiny orange speck that blended in so well near the wall.

“Stay there! I got this!” I yelled.

Oka hunched down, and I could almost feel her anger. But she didn’t argue with me, or even point out that I was very far from having “got this” particular situation.

I was flipped again so I was upright in front of the little sorceress, still floating. She stood next to an old-fashioned well, complete with a stone circle to mark it. Big enough you could lose a cow down it if you weren’t careful. “You look like Pamela.”

“We are related, or so the First Witch tells me.” She shrugged. “You can ask her yourself if you like.”

“Pamela?”

“The First Witch. She will make a meal of you.” She flicked her hand and I did the only thing I could. I opened myself to the new power inside me. It flowed out, and though I couldn’t see it, I could feel it moving, searching out the female in front of me. Grabbing hold of her and tightening its touch until she paid attention.

I didn’t know what to expect, not really. Not what happened, that was for damn sure. The little sorceress looked up at me, and her eyelids fluttered as she lowered her hands. “You are stronger than I thought you’d be.”

“Kill him!” the warlock said. “Kill him now!”

I stared at her, let the change come over me so that I was in front of her as a man, not as a wolf. And for all that was good and holy, I’d managed to shift for the first time with my clothes intact. “You don’t want to kill me.”

“No, I don’t. But I don’t want my mind controlled more than it already is either.” Her blue eyes filled with tears. “I cannot stop the First Witch. I can stop you.”

Shit. “I can help you stop her.”

“You can’t. No one can.”

The warlock screamed in the background, bellowing like a bull gone mad with bee stings. Behind the little sorceress, Oka crept forward, step by step, her belly on the ground. Barely moving, but I saw her.

“The warlock would control you,” I pointed out, redirecting her. “You let him control you.”

Her eyes narrowed and she shot a look at the warlock. She lifted one hand and his bellows cut off with a strangled squawk.

“You make a point. I will kill you both then.”

There was another muffled yell from the warlock as her eyes locked on him. I reached out for her, just close enough that I could snag one lock of that floating hair. Enough of her that I could drain her.

My stomach twisted even as I unleashed the incubus power on her, even as she sank to her knees, her face going pale as though I were draining her blood as well as her life. But I didn’t stop. Her name floated through me, along with her power.

No matter that she was so young. No matter that she was . . . damn it, she was a relative of Pam’s.

As my feet touched the ground, I let the strand of hair go and took a step back, then another.

Only I’d forgotten about the warlock. He slammed into me, knocking me off my feet as he roared. Maybe he thought she’d save him, maybe he’d forgotten that touch was how I drew the power in.

Either way, I rolled with him, grabbing at his wrists. We stumbled as I yanked his life from him in a sharp move that was anything but gentle. The energy rushed into me and I groaned, soaking it in, shivering with the pure bliss of power.

I couldn’t stop myself from closing my eyes, something I knew was a bad idea the second I did it. But everything with this new ability was reflex. I couldn’t stop myself.

“Open your damn eyes!” Oka yelled and then let out a pain-filled yowl that cut through the pleasure that shut down my senses.

She was pinned to the ground, flattened as though a rock held her there, and the little sorceress stood over her. “Your death will break the other witch. Your Pamela.”

“Jess.”

She froze, and slowly turned to me. “How do you know my name?”

“Jess, this isn’t who you are. You are no more a killer than Pamela is. Powerful, yes, but not a killer.” I still couldn’t understand what had made the warlock come at me so foolishly, but that question stayed at the back of my mind as I used his energy to ensnare the little sorceress once again. Her eyes flicked to the warlock and I understood.

She’d used me as the weapon. “You couldn’t kill him yourself, so you made him rush me so I’d do it.”

Her lips tightened and her hands lifted. Oka rolled, scooting away, her ears pinned flat to her skull as she let out a low hiss. “She has elemental blood, Alex. She can hear me.”

I pushed some power into my next question. “Where is Pamela?”

“In the maze,” Jess said. “The First Witch will break her and take her power.”

Her words were like ice down my spine. “I’m not going to let that happen.”

“You have no choice,” she said. “None of us do. The First Witch controls the dead, and the dead are many in this world.”

“Behind you!” Oka screamed the words as the crunch of a foot on dirt touched my ears.

The warlock was up, his eyes empty of life, but he was standing and coming for me. I kicked out, catching him in the chest, driving him backward. He stumbled, bared his teeth and came again.

There was no life in him left to take.

“Damn zombies!” I growled as I pulled my blade and slashed at the dead warlock, cutting through his neck. His head bobbled and hung on by the spine, but his ability to navigate was gone.

I was hit from behind, shoved face first into the dirt and pushed along for a good space before I was flipped onto my back, unable to see because of the grit shoved under my eyelids. I shook my head and blinked, water dripping from my eyes. The little sorceress, Jess, stared at me from a distance. With one hand, she beckoned with two fingers, and Oka, once more in her house cat form, floated toward me. “The First Witch has requested your presence.”

“Flattering,” I spat to the side, blood and dirt going with it, “but tell her we’re rather busy. We’ll take a rain check.”

Her eyes narrowed. “If you wish to find your Pamela and save her, then you should take the offer.”

“Why would you help now?” Oka growled, twisting as she fought invisible bands.

“I do what the First Witch commands,” Jess said. “And while she is busy with your Pam, she stays out of my head. So, I will help her with that. If she chooses to possess Pamela, then I will be free of her.”

Her magic tightened around me and I couldn’t draw it in like I could the warlock’s. She smiled sadly as she lifted both Oka and me above her head.

“Cat, you got any suggestions?” I tried to twist, tried to see where we were going.

“Can’t you draw in her magic?” Oka was doing the same as I, whipping around but unable to truly do anything.

“No, tried that.” Even as I said it, I tried again, reaching for the little sorceress’s magic with my own power. But I might as well have been reaching for nothing, even though I was wrapped in her magic.

What had my father said? That a witch was the only one who could fight an incubus other than an Immune. Maybe this witch was too young to realize at first that she could stop me, but she’d figured it out mow. Now, I had nothing. “Jess, don’t do this. We want to stop this First Witch, we can help save you.”

“No. You can’t.” She turned and her cloak flared out around her. I lifted my head as a new scent rolled through the air, one I knew though it had been a long time. Oka was above the well now, and I had a terrible feeling about where we were going.

I waved, holding out a hand to the little sorceress. “Jess, wait! Oka, you smell what I smell?”

“Yes, I do. And they are not going to be happy to find another half-breed like Pamela,” Oka said, her eyes on Jess, but I could see her judging where she floated the same as I was. “Listen to me, girl, elementals are not your friends right now—”

Oka screeched as she was dropped into the well, her legs splayed out as she tried to reach for the edges. Maybe she could have, shifted into her tiger form, but I’m not sure even then she would have been able to reach. The well was big, easily twelve feet across.

Just like that, Oka was gone, and I was floated over the top of the well. “Jess, Oka is right, the elementals—”

“They will not bother me, and if they do, I will destroy them,” she said. “Or the First Witch will.”

I shook my head. “Jess—”

“No.” That was all she said as she opened her hand. I fell, reaching for the edge of the well the same as Oka had with the same result.

As soon as my head dropped below the lip of the stone well, my vision disappeared. The air cooled rapidly with each second that passed until my skin hurt. I thought about shifting to my wolf form but before the thought truly came together, I hit the bottom.

Water flowed over my head and something grabbed my ankles, yanking me down before I could gulp a final gasp of air. I grabbed for my blade, couldn’t find it, and panic well and truly set in.

A second before I thought my lungs would explode, I was yanked through something that felt like mud, and out on the other side, I gulped a breath. Whatever had me by the ankle kept dragging me along, through the muck. A deep laugh rumbled through the air.

“Oh, the mistress will be liking you two. Just the ones she be wanting to make the witchy witch come to her. Three’s a charm you know.”

I rolled to get a look at the creature. Human, or at least, kind of human, as there was a single head, attached to a single torso, on two legs. Musclebound, his back was exceptionally wide and I could see why. There had to be space and muscle for the eight arms that connected up and down his back. Only they weren’t really arms, but tentacles complete with suction cups and tiny hooks on them. One of the appendages hung limply, dripping blood.

“You got a boo-boo,” I said. How the hell were we going to get out of this?

“Yeah, that there witchy witch cut me. All I was doing was scaring her.” He held up one of the other tentacles, a tiny orange puff wrapped up tight in it. Oka’s teeth were bared, and if looks could kill, the tentacle man would have been dead and buried, brought back to life and killed again.

He dragged us through the mud, step by step. From the mud the ground turned into torn-up pavement, and broken-down buildings. My blood chilled as I realized where we were. The seventh level of the Veil.

“This is impossible.” I breathed the words, shock making my voice soft.

The demon—because that’s what the tentacled bastard was, I was sure of it—shoved a door open in the building closest to us and started up the stairs so fast, I banged my head on the side walls more than once. As quickly as he’d started, we stopped and I let out a groan.

I reached for my blade again, but it was gone. I could shift and he might lose his grip on me. I looked at Oka.

“Ideas?”

She was not the one to answer me.

Mac did. “We wait.”

I sat up, got dragged on my ass, but could see who was speaking. “Mac, what the hell?”

We were inside a small room, way up in the building the demon had taken us into. The room itself was surprisingly clean, or maybe just empty. Except for the cages made of different materials stacked against the far wall, one atop another. In the bottommost sat the bear shifter.

Mac, his head leaned back and his eyes on us, spoke. “We wait now; our fates lie in Pamela’s hands. She will either defeat the witch, or we will die with her here.”

Normally, I wouldn’t be bothered by the idea of waiting on Pam, knowing how determined she was, how strong her magic was.

I opened myself to the incubus magic and drew on the life force of the creature in front of me.

Darkness, thick and oily, fell like a lump of sludge in my belly. I threw up to the side and the creature laughed. “You gots to have the strongest of strong bellies to be an incubus who can eat up a demon.”

I looked up at him. “You sure about that?” Cause I was hoping my initial belief was wrong. Like really wrong.

“You be in the seventh level of the Veil . . . lynchpin.” He turned and winked at me. “You escaped once. You won’t be doing it again.”

And just like that, somehow, I was right back where I’d started three years ago, trying to break free of the Veil, and hoping I could find Pamela.

22

Pamela

I breathed in the water that the undine wrapped me in, for a moment truly believing I would be able to use it as air.

That moment passed as the pain shot through my lungs and I thrashed in the water, fighting the hurt. I coughed and dragged more water in, searing my lungs and telling me all I needed to know about my water abilities.

I would die here, my elemental magic bound from me, the pain of being weak the last thing I would feel. There was nothing left to lose but my life, and for the first time, I opened fully to the black magic in me, the darkness that was my mother’s power.

Now.

Shadowy gray swirls cut through the water, obscuring my dimming view of the two elementals that laughed at my slow and pain-filled dying.

The power in me built and built and I didn’t try to stop it. Instead I rode it, guiding it to snake out around the ankles of the undine, silver and shining as it snapped the bones in both legs. His scream cut through the water and I fell, hitting the ground hard as I dropped.

I threw up, water rushing out of me as I lifted one hand and pointed it at the undine. The magic raced out of me, wrapping him up hard. There was no mercy in this, no care for keeping them alive.

I flexed my hand as I heaved up another mouthful, and with that simple gesture, I crushed his body, snapping the bones in his chest and spine, forcing them inward to cut through organs. He screamed as the bones kept pushing until they were forced to the opposite side of his body from where they started.

With a final squeeze, I pushed a piece of rib through his heart. I felt him die, holding him as tightly as I was. Felt his heart stutter as it tried to beat around the jagged bone. Felt his fear as he realized he was dying. That he was dead. Felt his soul leave in a rush. As he died, the bracelet on my wrist that had tied us together dropped away in a crumbling pile of ash.

Without hesitation, I spun on my knees to face the sylph, my voice hoarse. “Release the band. Now, or face his fate.”

Fear slid over her, fast and clear as a summer day. I thought she’d fight me. I really did. But she lifted a hand and snapped her fingers. The band that kept me from my air element dropped to the ground. She took a few steps back, her pale eyes on me. Anger radiated from her. “We are not done. You are an abomination. All of you half-breeds are, and we will deal with you accordingly.”

Before I could tell her just what I thought of her, she disappeared into thin air, perhaps waking up from the dream she claimed to be having. I closed my eyes and bent forward, covering my wrists with my hands. Two of the five bands were fully gone, and I could feel my connection to those elements so strongly that tears leaked from my eyes.

“Thank you.”

Don’t ignore me now you have your pretties back.

I nodded but it was a hard nod, hard to believe I would ever want to use the black magic again if I didn’t have to.

The world blipped, like skipping a TV channel and I was back in the forest of trees with the angel girl looking down on me. “I see you have gained something,” she said. Without another word she turned and walked away, farther into the orchard.

“Seriously?”

“You need all the tools at your disposal if you are to face the first witch. We are doing what we can to make sure you have them.” She stopped in front of a tree that was burnt, charred, flames still licking over it.

“No.” I stepped back, already knowing what would wait for me on the other side. The salamander—fire elemental—who held the binding over that bracelet.

“You must. Fire is anathema to the dead, and the dead are what you will face with the first witch.” The angel girl sighed. “There is no other way.” With a wave of her hand, a still-burning fruit tugged away from the tree and floated through the air to me.

Fear closed my throat. I’d barely survived all of this—the lessons, the attacks, the elementals. And I had no doubt the fire would be real this time should the salamander choose to burn me. Then again, I did have my connection to water and air again, and the faintest touch of the earth, though I doubted I could do much more than sprout a flower with that power at the moment. Nonetheless, I pulled them through me, feeling their power, and that strength diffused some of the fear.

Her wings fluttered, fanning the flames a little higher. “Take heart, Pamela. They do not expect you to show up in their dreams.”

“And kill them?” I couldn’t help the bitterness in my voice.

She tipped her head. “Do you think they are here to let you live? To allow you to continue on as you are, a mutt to them?”

Her words stung, but they were not untrue. “No. They are here to kill me.”

“Then why the hesitation?”

“Because that is always the answer. And I don’t want to kill people.” The words tumbled past my lips before I could catch them. The truth literally fell out of me.

Angel girl smiled, reached out and touched my chin. “Perhaps that is what you’ve been seeking all along? Your truth?” Her words echoed my own thoughts, and I didn’t like that. Or maybe I didn’t like that I could be so weak.

“Give me the fruit.” I pulled water from the air, pooling it in my palm through my connection to that element. I grabbed the burning fruit, and the flames went out with a hiss against the water. One bite and the fire raced down my throat, coating the inside of my body with such intensity that I fell backward.

The scene clicked again, and I stumbled against a chunk of something cold. I opened my eyes to find myself in a place I’d been long ago. Underground caverns where the home of the salamanders had been until it was destroyed along with so much of the world. This was where I’d first met Oka, where I’d found her burned and near death. Where she’d become part of my soul.

I pushed a palm against my chest, the ache there so intense. I struggled not to cry for how much I missed my cat.

Someone was here besides me.

“Mother Goddess, where are they?” The voice was one I knew, that of the salamander who held my bracelet. I crouched, backing toward a crevice that would hide me. I pulled my dark green cloak around me and waited. I was no fool, this one would not snap her fingers and allow me to go free without a fight.

I would have to kill her.

“Ashranda is on her way. She said something about being in a dream with the mutt and waking up to find Horlan dead.”

A snort from that familiar voice. “That’s impossible.”

“She said the mutt broke the two bracelets they held. One by killing Horlan. The other—hers—by force.”

I would have snorted myself at the lie had I been farther away. The salamander did it for me. “There is no force save for an elemental’s power that would break those charms.”

“You think she was lying?”

“Yes. I should never have let her hold the power over that mutt. It should have been you,” the salamander said.

“True, but she is the queen’s consort. We needed that connection.”

I thought about where we were, in a dreamscape. Could I change it to my advantage? Because if there was one thing that a fire elemental feared, it was water. Perhaps it was time for someone else to suffer by that element.

Bowing my head, I imagined the ocean, frothing with high winds and waves, saw it so clearly, I could feel the spray of the water on my skin and taste the salt on my lips. I opened my eyes as I fell. With a quick snap of my hands the wind caught me, holding me as though I were born a sylph. I wobbled, uncertain how much effort to put into the wind to balance me.

There was a pair of screams and then the sound of bodies hitting the water, distinct over the sound of the waves.

I stared down at the salamander, her fiery orange-red hair a perfect mark in the water. Her eyes found me in an instant.

“You can release me from my binding, from the charm you put on me, or I can kill you. That is the offer I made to the sylph.” My voice echoed over the ocean.

She turned her face to me and the anger was enough for me. She would fight, so there was only one thing I could do. I flipped my hand and a wave crashed over her, pushing her down. Holding her below the waves. Drowning her. Anxiety clawed at me as I watched her struggle, as I watched her fight for breath. I knew that feeling all too well and I hated that I had to do this. Hated it more than I hated anything. A tear slid down my cheek.

But I’d forgotten her friend—apparently a sylph—who had fallen with her into the ocean. A gust of wind shoved me from above, straight down into the water. I tried to stop myself but caught what was happening a split second too late. I crashed into the water, pushed down by the wind.

Clinging to the water element, there was only one thing I could do. I swam toward the salamander as she swam for the surface.

I grabbed her ankles and pulled backward, dragging her deeper once more. She fought me, but her strength was leaving her and she’d been in here longer than me. Her friend dove down after us and I wondered if they were friends like I was friends with Alex, or Mac. I wondered if her friend would die for her.

They reached for each other, fingertips brushing just as the bracelet connecting me to the salamander fell from my wrist, floated in the water and slid down into the depths.

I let her ankle go and her body didn’t fight anymore. Her friend caught her, dragged her upward, but it was too late. Far too late. The bracelet only fell with their death. Perhaps that was a part of the deal they didn’t understand.

The ocean swallowed my tears as I floated there, feeling the world blip again. I was on my knees in the orchard, sobbing as though the ocean would fall out of me.

A hand touched my back, gentle, soft, understanding. “Sometimes who we are must crack and die to let out who we are meant to become.”

“I hate this.”

“We often do hate the metamorphosis phase. It is pain-filled and hard to see the end of.”

“Pithy,” I whimpered, wrapping my arms around myself.

“There is one more you must challenge.”

I shook my head but stood and followed her to what was to be my final tree. As we walked I caught a glimpse of black and white fur between the trees, pacing us. “Peta?”

“I am with you as much as I can be.” She called out. “Think of Lark when you fight this witch, Pamela. Lark was caged as no other has ever been, the oubliette she was in the strongest of its kind.”

I frowned and opened my mouth to ask her what that had to do with where I was now.

“We are here.” The angel girl said, as if Peta had not spoken at all. Then again, Peta could only be heard by someone with elemental blood. It was possible that was exactly the case. Even if I didn’t understand what it was that Peta was trying to tell me.

The tree we stopped in front of had a trunk of deepest brown, and the limbs were thick with greenery that hosted the brightest red apples I’d seen. Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew this tree would take me into the dreams of the Terraling, the earth elemental who held my final sort-of intact band. If I did not count the mockery of a band the first witch had put on me to keep me from spirit. Beside the apple tree stood another tree of darkest night as though it had swallowed the moon and the stars and held them deep in its belly. It pulsed with magic like none of the other trees.

“I’m strongest with this element, with earth,” I said softly, but my eyes kept sliding to the black tree. Not blackened like the previous one but made of shadows and energy I couldn’t deny called to me.

The angel girl nodded. “You have done well. Use your gifts and end this.”

No, you must go to the other tree. The one that calls to you. That one is your mother’s tree.

The angel girl gasped suddenly, and a smell of rotting flesh rolled around us. I gagged and she covered her mouth with one hand. “You must go now. We are out of time.”

I nodded, already knowing the choice I made would save or kill me.

Trust me. You must trust me.

“I’ve trusted you before and you tried to kill me!” I yelled and the girl stumbled away from me.

You weren’t worthy then. You weren’t her. You weren’t your mother. But . . . I was wrong about you. You are worthy. But you must see. You must understand, if you are to ever truly trust me.

With a snarl, I ran to the left, to the tree of darkest nights and hidden stars. The fruit was small and I popped it into my mouth and bit down. The juices were wicked smooth and filled my mouth, drowning me in forbidden flavors.

I opened my eyes and stood in a clearing I knew. Or at least I’d been there before. “Is this a dream?”

“No.” A figure stepped up beside me. My mother. “This is a memory you are finally ready to see.”

I found myself reaching for her and she took my hand, weaving our fingers together.

A fire burst to life in the middle of the clearing. Four women strode forward, and I found myself walking closer. They were dressed in long colorful skirts, tight bodices, and cloaks not unlike my own.

But it was the one who held the baby that grabbed my attention. “That’s us, isn’t it?”

“It is,” my mom said, her voice sad. “These are our last moments together.”

“No, no, I don’t want to see them kill you.” I tried to pull away, but her hand tightened on mine.

“You must see this. You must understand.” She wrapped her arms around me from behind, holding me carefully.

In the clearing, my mother laid me gently on the grass and went to the flames, stripping off her clothing until she was completely naked. “To this cause, I give my blood, to this child I give my protection, to this magic, with my sacrifice I make it my own.”

The words were simple and yet I knew they were anything but simple. Sacrifice?

“You weren’t killed?” I whispered as though I would break this spell.

“I was not.” She pressed her cheek against my head. “The things we do for love. I never understood until I held you in my arms.”

Tears slid down my cheeks. “Goddess, no. Not for me.”

“The prophecy was clear. The First Witch would come for you. And I would do anything to protect you.”

A flash of silver cut the air and then my mother was on the ground, her blood spilling out of her. The other witches picked her up and a chant began that tugged at my own blood. I could see my mother’s chest still rising and falling. She might have been dying but she did not die quickly.

“How long?”

“All night. They had to keep me alive through the night of the solstice for the connection to be broken, so that you would not have the taint of the First Witch so heavily in your blood magic.”

I closed my eyes.

“But it has not always helped me. Sometimes it has tried to hurt me.”

My mother smiled. I could feel her cheek lift against my head. “Well, I did not say it couldn’t be a cheeky bastard, did I? It spoke to me often and asked me to free it. That dark magic is as much a slave to the First Witch as you could be now that she is awake.”

I wanted to thank her, to tell her that I loved her for giving me life and for setting me as free as she could. But as I turned to do just that, the memory slid away, and I was in the orchard once more.

The angel girl stared at me, eyes glazing over as a sword tip stuck out of her chest. Blood dripped from her mouth as she whispered a final command.

“Run.”

23

The orchard that had been so quiet, petals falling the only sound, now filled with the roar of the man who’d killed my guide. Her body shook, wings outspread and splattered with blood as he used her like some sort of trophy before he threw her body to the side. She hit a tree with a heavy thump and the last of the petals fell, covering her body in a dark pink blanket.

The killer, though, he had my utmost attention the second he threw her body away.

Horror like nothing I’d ever felt before filled me, fear so deep-seated, I thought I’d fall dead right there. Because the demon in front of me was supposed to be dead. I’d seen him fall in the final battle. He was massive still, a man of mountainous proportions, his muscles flexing as he swung the sword. Red eyes glittered and I could barely say his name.

“Orion.”

He arched a brow. “How do you know my brother?”

I stumbled back. “Then you are a demon?” I was going to skip over the fact that this lookalike was Orion’s brother. Orion, the demon who’d tried to take over the human world. Orion, whose machinations had been part of the reason the world had needed to be remade.

“Of course, I’m a demon. As you are a witch. One that I am charged with killing. But before I do, I want to know how do you know my brother?”

Something in me sharpened, like a blade straightening my spine. “My name is Pamela, and I am the most powerful witch this world has ever seen. I fought by the side of the Blood of the Lost. I battled and killed demons. I helped remake this world and I am done with the shit that your kind keeps causing. So unless you want a taste of my blades, I suggest you get the hell out of my way!”

His eyes widened with each word and I barely realized that I stepped toward him, my powers rising around me, lifting my hair and cloak.

“You . . . were at the battle.”

“I was.”

He launched at me, bellowing, and I sidestepped, yanking up my one curved blade, aiming for his belly. I might not have wanted to kill anyone, but that rule never applied to demons.

I cut deeply into him and backed up the blade’s blow with a curl of fire that snaked around his body. I yanked the flames back and used them like a rope to entangle his limbs, binding him in place. In seconds, the fight was over before it ever really began. “Are you working for the First Witch?”

He frowned up at me. “Which witch?”

I leaned in closer. “The witch who is holding you all hostage. That witch.”

He opened his mouth and then frowned. I wanted to use spirit on him to compel him to speak but I was still somewhat bound by the First Witch there. Damn it.

He is made of darkness, as am I. Let me weave through his mind.

I reached out and touched his face as my black magic slid down my fingers and into his skin. His red eyes rolled back into his head and images, words, and things I didn’t understand came back to me.

Archer, that was his name.

The demons were running rampant. They’d felt a power enter their world and were hunting it.

They were still trying to get to the human world more fully.

Some had escaped when the Veil had split open, but then it had been taken away from them and those left behind were angry. A female demon led them now. Orion’s consort. Smerelda.

Archer was trying to prove himself to her. It wasn’t going so well.

I pulled back from him before I saw something I would regret for the rest of my life. Demon mating rituals were not on my bucket list. All that information came to me in a flash. And I would use it. “Go to Smerelda. Tell her there is a witch under her nose. And that witch has you all bound here, keeping you from the human realm.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Don’t then. See if she’s impressed by having your ass handed to you by me.” I smiled at him and leaned forward. “I’ll bet she’ll let you in her bed then.”

Archer frowned and then nodded. “You make a point. I will suggest to her what you said.”

I let him go and shoved him away with my magic, pushing him a solid thirty feet. He stood, brushed himself off and turned away. He paused, though, and looked over his shoulder. “Why didn’t you kill me?”

I didn’t answer. Because what he didn’t know was that I fully intended for him to die, only I wouldn’t be the one causing it.

I bent and touched the angel girl’s face. “I’m sorry, I can’t bury you.”

Of course, there was no answer, but I think that maybe I believed she wasn’t truly dead. A guide within the Veil dying could be no small thing. Gently I closed her eyelids and then looked to the ground. It took me a few minutes to find the wolf tracks. But there they were, glimmering under a thin coating of leaves that had fallen.

Ahead of me was what I hoped was the final step, the final threshold of this place. And then I would be free. Fergus had said the levels of the Veil were all mixed up, no longer in order as they had been. And I’d come through at least five levels, and there was no way I’d be offered a chance to go to the sixth level where the heroes waited, I knew that now.

Which meant this was it. The cut between this level and the next was thin, like a piece of torn cellophane. It stuck to me the same way, tugging at my hair and sticking to my face. I brushed it off and then I was through into the final level of both the maze and the Veil. The seventh level.

The realm of the demons.

Do you think it was a good idea to tell the demon queen there was a powerful witch here after you announced to him who you were?

“Just a feeling.”

You made a major decision on just a feeling? There was more than a little horror in the inflection of her words. Her. She needed a name.

“I’m going to name you.”

Please don’t.

“I can’t keep calling you the dark magic. Blackness. Devil.”

Haha.

I took a few steps deeper into the seventh level. The broken city ahead of me was weirdly familiar. I’d been here once before, taken by someone I trusted. Rylee had saved me then, Rylee and Alex.

I didn’t think she’d be coming for me this time, though.

The ground between me and the city was barren, a bit of a walk, so there was time to talk.

“How about Louanne?”

Are you serious?

“Paula.”

No.

“Victoria.”

Piss off. I don’t like this. I don’t want a name.

“Fiona.”

Go away.

I frowned. Maybe she was not so girly. “What about Sam?”

Silence.

“That good? I can call you Sam?”

Yes, fine. Call me Sam.

I grinned. “How hard was that? All right, Sam. We have demons and a nasty witch ahead of us. Mac is injured and waiting, and there’s a good chance we’re all going to die. How do you feel about that?”

Well, I think you’re being rather optimistic. I don’t think there’s a good chance you’ll all die. I think it’s more likely a solid surety.

I nodded and broke into a jog. “Well, at least we’re all on the same page. And at least . . .” I paused, uncertain how to say that I was glad that Oka and Alex were at least safe. Not that I wanted Mac to die, not at all. But I could face death and know that I’d done what I could to keep the others safe.

The ground slid behind me and I wobbled, forgetting how weirdly the demon realm worked. My feet covered the distance in a crazy fast time, as if leaping mountains with each stride instead of just jogging. Before I could formulate much of a plan, I was at the edge of the city. Buildings shot into the sky high above me, wobbly looking, bent at strange angles and in one case completely horizontal.

If the witch sees you without bands on your arms, she will know and will clamp your powers as she did with spirit.

“Good point, Sam.” I did a slow turn, looking for something I could use to create three bracelets. In a pile of rubble were several chunks of metal wire. I hurried over, yanked a piece out and twisted it into a mockery of one bracelet. Using my fire element, I smoothed it out a bit and then cooled it by pulling water from the air and dousing the heat. I repeated the process twice more and within minutes had three bracelets ready.

The gems. Use this.

I bent as Sam spoke, picking up three pebbles. My dark magic flowed over them and turned them clear, into mock jewels that I then placed into the settings, sticking them there as though they’d been made for this moment.

The three bracelets slid over my wrists easily, even giving off a nice jangling sound. Next to the cracked—yet stupidly still intact—bracelet that still held the earth’s element from me, and the mock band that held spirit from me, they looked right. Or right enough. “There. Done.”

Now I just had to find the First Witch, find Mac, and get us out of here.

Don’t forget freeing the dead. And healing the Veil. You promised both.

“That will happen when I deal with her.”

“When you deal with who?”

Oh shit.

I spun to see Archer behind me, along with a buxom woman with stunning silver hair who stood just in front of him. Her eyes were red, and if not for that, I would have called her attractive. Beautiful even, in a sharp-edged way.

Time to bring this together, to put my half-hatched plan into action and pray to every god and goddess that I could pull this off. “You are Smerelda.”

“And you are?”

“The one who will set you and all your demons free.”

24

To be fair, I would have given the same look Smerelda gave me when I announced that I was going to set the demons free. Because who in their right mind, while standing in the seventh realm of the Veil, would do that? No one, of course.

But I did have a plan. One spinning in my head since I realized this place was actually the Veil, and not just a maze. The Veil had rules, as did the real world.

Smerelda tucked her hands behind her back and tipped her head. “Convince me.”

Or you die. The unspoken words were there, and I ignored them. Another day I wouldn’t have. But I’d been through enough.

I was learning. Honest.

“The first witch has taken what is left of the Veil and essentially rolled it into a loop, folding it in on itself—a whirlpool or vortex if that helps you understand clearer. No one can go in or out without her permission. I want out. So do you. I need to find her to deal with her.”

Archer leaned toward the demon queen. “She means to kill her when she says to deal with her.”

We both looked at him and I couldn’t stop myself. “Nobody needs you to mansplain to us, you idiot.”

His eyes flashed and the queen turned back to me. Her lips twitched. “Mansplain. Clever play on words. And appropriate. You may leave us, Archer.”

He blanched and I made a little waving motion with one hand. But he at least listened to her.

“We are not friends; let us make that perfectly clear,” Smerelda said. “I remember you from the final battle. Though you were younger, you were no less dangerous.” Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps you are more dangerous now, but I am not sure.”

“I agree, we are not friends. But the enemy of my enemy and all that jazz. I only need to find the First Witch.”

“You want to surprise her.”

“Yes.”

She nodded. “Come, I think I know where she is.”

I followed the demon queen as she walked toward the center of the city. There was a graveyard to the left and I couldn’t help but notice the large monument in the center, the name emblazoned on it not needed. Even at a distance, I could read the words. For Orion, a hero of the ages.

“Do you miss him?” I asked.

“Who?”

“Orion.”

She turned and frowned at me. “Why would I miss him?”

There was a moment where the confusion cleared in her eyes and fear reigned supreme followed by panic. What was happening?

The First Witch has her in thrall! Kill her!

“Smerelda, you’re being possessed!”

The demon shrieked and threw her head back, her body shaking. I bolted from her, running toward the center of the city. The First Witch wanted me, so I was sure it was still the right way. But as I got closer, I would need more than a general direction.

Reach for your familiar. Maybe you can sense him now that you’re nearer.

Sam had a point.

I opened myself to the connection I had with my familiars and got nothing back. But the darkness in me hummed to life as someone else’s energy pinged back to me, and I recognized it even though it was different than before.

Alex. But how could that be? Why was my darkness responding to him and what the hell was he doing in here?

Like calls to like. There is something new in him, something dark like you and me.

I locked onto his energy and ran as fast as I could. When demons poked their heads out of a building, I shouted the same thing over and over. “The queen is under attack!”

They scrambled back the way I’d come, never questioning that I did not have red eyes as a demon should. Perhaps I would be able to pull this off after all. That’s what I told myself.

The energy rolling off Alex pulled me into a building near the center of the city, a building as broken down as the rest, only it was made of blood-red stone. The bricks were laid together with mortar that was falling apart, and that was saying something considering the building was twenty stories up. A good gust of wind would take it down, no problem.

“We get Alex and Mac out, then we deal with the First Witch.”

Sam was quiet as I let myself into the building. I didn’t look around much, just found the first set of stairs and started climbing. The floors went by in a blur. Sweat slid over me as I hurried, my thighs and calves burning, my body near the end of my reserves. Adrenaline would only take me so far. But I had to do this. The two men I loved were at the top of this tower.

I decided not to dwell on that errant thought that had escaped the steel trap I’d put it in.

You know, many witches have two or more consorts.

“Piss off.”

I could almost feel Sam smile, a warmth curling around me.

The final few floors slid by in a blur and then I was at the top, breathing hard, a final door in front of me. From the way it stood partially open, I could see that it wasn’t even locked.

There were no voices inside, no footsteps, or even the shuffle of a body here and there. I peeked in.

Three cages stood directly across from me. Inside the bottom one was Mac. Above him was a sleeping Alex, and in the third and smallest, Oka.

I didn’t understand how they could be there when I was sure Alex and Oka had left, gone back to the caravan and were supposed to be safe. Later, I’d have to ask them later. Or yell at them.

Moving as stealthily as I could, I slid in through the door and did a quick sweep of the room. There was no one here. How was that possible?

I hurried to Mac’s cage first. His eyes rested on me, but he said nothing. I put my hand to the lock and forced a gust of air into it, making the tumblers loosen and release. Next was Alex’s cage. He came awake with a start. “Pam?”

“Shhh.” I stretched and opened Oka’s cage. She didn’t hesitate a second, just leapt into my arms. I squeezed her tightly, breathing her in.

“I notice she hugged the cat,” Alex grumbled, but I knew him, there wasn’t a single mean note in his words.

“Let’s go.”

“Where?” Mac asked and I stepped up beside him. Oka climbed to my shoulder and I put an arm around Mac’s waist.

“I’ve an idea.”

Alex shook his head and when I reached for him he pulled back. “I think it’s best you go on ahead.”

“He’s been weird since he got here,” Mac said.

Oka butted her head against mine, purring so hard, drool slid from her lips. I led them out of the room they were in and across the hall to the other door on this floor.

“Are you serious?” Mac tried to put the brakes on, but even though he was bigger than me, he was hurt and couldn’t fight back.

“They’re going to look through every other floor, outside, through the city. They aren’t going to look across the hall.” Especially not after I laid a false trail.

I pushed the door open, and thank the goddess, the room was bare of any creatures, demons, or other nasty surprises.

“Stay here.” I let Mac go and took Oka from my shoulder. Or tried to. She clung to me and I had to pry her nails from my cloak.

“No, you can’t do this.” Oka stared at me. “You promised.”

Crap, she had me there. “You’re right, I did. Stay close.”

I let her go and she jumped to the floor. I spun and strode for the open door before I couldn’t move my feet. Because I really just wanted Mac to hold me. I wanted to hug Alex. I wanted to let myself sink into their strength for just a moment. Only I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it and then keep going.

I hurried out the door and down the stairs. “Sam, help me out here.” I knew what I wanted to do but wasn’t fully sure how to make it happen.

Oh yes, a false trail. Excellent.

“Who?” Oka tipped her head and looked up at me as I embraced my dark magic. It flowed over me, less oily than before, more shadows and light than straight-up blackness, and then down my body. My movements were partially guided by the magic itself, and I let it touch Oka. She squeaked and backed up against the wall, her eyes wide like teacup saucers. From there, I flicked my fingers at the stairs ahead of us, and a scattering of scent and marks that mimicked our feet and paws pressed into the rickety wood, down several flights.

“Done.” I looked back at Oka as I climbed up the one flight to where Alex and Mac were. “You see, I wasn’t going far.”

“With you, I never know.” She took a swat at my leg, but it was half-hearted at best.

I paused outside the door. “Oka, I love them both.”

She looked up at me, not a lick of judgment coming from her. “I know.”

That was about all we had time for. A bellow from inside the first room ripped through the air. I grabbed the door where we were going to ride out the first wave of searchers and slid through, Oka right beside me. At least we were together, the four of us, for however long we had left.

If only I’d known just how little time we had left, the group of us, I wouldn’t have hesitated to tell them all what they meant to me.

25

I pushed the door behind me, softly, not even a click audible as I let it close. Across from me, Alex crouched beside Mac. “Pam, he needs you.”

Right, of course he did. He was hurt. I hurried over to them and lowered to my knees. Mac’s eyes were closed and sweat rolled down his face. I picked up his hand and covered it as best I could with my two. “Mac, I need you to hang on. I don’t have spirit back yet, and I need that to heal.”

Well, we could patch him up some with me.

I blinked. “Wait, I can use my mother’s magic.”

His eyes opened, heavy pain in them. “Your black magic.”

“Yes, we’ve come to an agreement of sorts. Sam can be trusted.”

Yes, I can.

“No, you can’t. Don’t use it, Pam. Not even for me. It eats your soul.” He shook his head.

But I was already lifting my hand to his face, to hold him, to heal him. The magic rose in me, and for just a moment, I thought I could see it brush against my elemental magic, but it was there and gone in a flash.

Oka pressed against my leg. “Pam, are you sure?”

I nodded. “Yes, I understand it now.”

Mac’s face twisted up. “No, that’s the witch’s plan. She’s using my injury to force you to use your black magic.” His head tipped back and the smell of blood smothered the air.

I grabbed at him and he pushed my hands away, still strong even injured. I was not having this. “Alex, grab him for me. I can’t hold him on my own.”

Outside the door came shouts, the pounding of feet on the stairs, and a door being slammed over and over again. I tried to lean in close and hug Mac, but he scooted back from me. Oka pressed harder against my leg, her warmth centering me.

“Find them!” a woman roared, the voice the same that had spoken to me in the beginning of this maze. The First Witch was here.

The sounds rose in a fevered pitch.

“I found a trail! They went down!” a voice boomed, and then the footsteps faded.

I lifted a hand to Mac and he shook his head. “No. I don’t want that magic on me, and I don’t want you using it, Pam. It’s evil. You know that.”

His words might as well have been a slap to my face. My stomach rolled and I had to work to blink away tears. “No, it’s not evil.”

“I want to tell you something about my family,” he said. “Back when we first met, I told you that my brothers, sister, and I were happily taking care of our older mother, then the Rending happened and they disappeared. That’s not exactly true. Or even close.”

With those words, I knew his story wouldn’t be a happy one. Something had occurred that tore his world apart before the Rending did it again.

He continued. “My little sister was seduced by a dark mage—we had no idea. It went on for over a year and by then it was too late. He taught her to use spells and she tried to kill the rest of us at his bidding. We . . . stopped . . . her.” He paused and the pain in his voice and eyes said it all. They hadn’t stopped her. He had. He’d killed his sister to save the others. “And it left me out on my own all those years ago. It’s why I sought out the elementals. Why I offered to be a familiar for them. Because their magic is clean.”

I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that my magic wasn’t like that. Sam and I understood one another.

You won’t be able to convince him. He’d rather die than let you touch him right now.

“Dude, this is a bad idea. Let her heal you,” Alex said. “You might not trust the darkness, but surely you trust Pam.”

I watched Mac’s face as Alex spoke and I saw his answer. He didn’t need to say it.

“We need to get out of here,” I said. “And I need you to—” Goddess, I was going to ask them to do what Mac so obviously wouldn’t. Not when it came down to it.

“To trust you?” Alex offered.

I nodded.

Oka moved to stand in front of me. “You know the deal. I’m with you, no matter what.”

I dropped a hand to her head. “You and me, cat. You and me against the world.”

A tingling warmth spread through me, and the bond between us flared to life, bright and clean and full of the love that had seen us through so much. She closed her eyes and a single tear slid from one.

But from Mac, there was nothing. Not even a glimmer. The ties between us were somehow damaged. “I have a plan,” I said, forcing myself not to dwell on what was happening between him and me. “I can get us all out of here.”

Mac leaned against the wall. “Alex and I will wait here for you then. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Mac, please . . .”

“No. Go do what you do best, witch. Defend the weak. Save the world.” A half-smile slid up over his lips. “That’s what you were born for, I think.”

I wanted to throw myself at him, to feel his skin under my own and to know that he would be with me when this was over and done. But I could already feel him pulling away. I could feel him putting distance between us.

And if he wanted to be away from me, I had to respect that. I stood and walked to the door. I couldn’t say goodbye, not again.

“Alex, you’ll know when to bring him. But I do need one thing from you.”

“What is that?”

“Where did you stand when you were the lynchpin holding the Veil together?”

I kept my eyes on the door, because I didn’t want him to see my plan in my face. If anyone could read me, it would be Alex.

He frowned. “That was in the Veil, Pam. This is a maze.”

“They are one and the same. It’s complicated and I don’t have time to explain, but this is the Veil. It’s just different.”

Right, like that was a great way to get him to believe me. But Alex being Alex didn’t argue.

“When I was the lynchpin, I stood in the Veil between this one and the heroes’ realm. If this really is the same demon city, it will be on the far side. Assuming it is and they haven’t changed anything,” he said.

There was a small window and I went to it, peering out. “Can you point me in the right direction from here?”

Alex stood beside me. “See that dark spot at the edge of the buildings?”

“Just take her,” Mac said, cutting off the conversation. “If she gets lost or taken, we’re all doomed. No one will find me here. I’ll be safer than you three heroes out there.”

I didn’t want Alex to come. I didn’t want him to try to stop me from what I was going to do.

“I see you wanting to argue and there isn’t time for that,” Mac said. “Go with him. Go, Pam.”

Alex gave a full-bodied shiver and then shifted into his wolf form, solid-bodied and covered in silver-tipped black fur. He was careful, though, not to lean into me, like he would have done a few days ago.

My throat tightened. They both thought I was not worth touching now. I couldn’t stand there any longer. “Alex, show me.”

I turned away from Mac, and Alex and I were out the door, working our way down the stairs. Oka right behind me.

“Something is off with Mac,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s this place or what, but he’s not himself.”

Alex grunted, but said nothing.

“He hates the magic in me,” I said. “And I can’t change what I am.”

Not even for Mac.

26

Alex

The obvious pain in Pam’s voice tore at me as we ran through the demon city, and I wanted more than anything to tell her that Mac didn’t hate her. That he loved her more than he’d loved anyone in his life, even his family. But I’d promised him I wouldn’t before she’d arrived to rescue us.

Mac leaned over as I was stuffed inside the cage next to him. “Damn it, wolf! You were not supposed to be captured!”

“Rather big talk coming from a bear in a cage.” I raised an eyebrow as if we were having a discussion over a beer in a bar. I liked Mac. More than I should have considering how we both felt about a certain witch.

He groaned and leaned back, his body twitching. “I’m dying, Alex. She needs you on the other side to pull her through.”

I spun on my butt to face the cage bars and stuck my arm out like I could touch him. “She can heal you.”

“She can’t. It’s a trap the witch here set. If Pam tries to heal me, it will allow that witch to possess her. No matter what, you have to keep her from me. If I can’t.” His failing voice was hard on me. “She’s yours, wolf. I think she always was, but I can’t let her lose herself, not to save me.”

“Listen, much as I disliked you in the beginning, she loves you. And I want her to be happy.”

Oka, in the cage above me, reached through and batted my arm. I moved so she could see past me to Mac. “Bear, there is always another way.”

“Not this time, cat. Would you take the chance that Pamela could be possessed? You know she will fight for me if we tell her the truth. You have to help me drive her away. The two of you will take her from this place and leave me behind.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, and yet I understood. Because I would do the same for her. I had done the same for those I’d loved.

“She’s going to be pissed when she figures it out,” I said.

Mac grinned suddenly. “Yeah, but I’ll be dead, so it’ll be your ass she kicks.”

I barked a laugh. “Cold, man, truly cold. I thought we were friends.”

He held out a hand through the cage bars to me and I took it, careful to hold back the incubus. “We are friends. Love her hard, Alex. She’s going to need you to fight for her after this. The only way to drive her away will be to hurt her.”

I held onto his hand. “Shit, I know.”

“Which means you’re going to have a hell of a time getting her to believe you love her again.” Mac grinned again, but his face twisted with pain. “I can’t help but think that’s my last dig at you. You’re going to have to work for it.”

I laughed again and shook my head.

Oka snorted. “Men are stupid. How is this moment bonding you two idiots?”

Mac’s chest shook with a soft laugh that ended in a cough. “Men are far more complicated than we seem, cat. Far more. When the time comes, tell her about this moment. Tell her that I loved her enough to let her go. To make sure my last act was her safety. That’s not my job as her familiar, but because I love who she is, through and through. Light and dark.”

His words still echoed in my ears, burning at the edge of my tongue as we ran along. I glanced at Oka to see her looking at me. Yeah, this was not going to go well. But we’d both known the truth of Mac’s words. And as much as we liked him, it was Pamela the three of us were driven to protect above anyone else, even each other.

Which was why I knew that no matter how I told her the truth when that moment came, she would hate me, and because I loved her as Mac did, I would take that sacrifice for what it was. Pamela’s safety over her love.

27

Pamela

Alex led me through the demon city with more ease than I thought possible. He seemed to sense oncoming demons blocks ahead and had us bypass areas with just a twist of his head and a sense that went beyond smells and sounds.

An hour slid by before we made it to the far side of the city. Alex stopped between two buildings that leaned against one another, making a messy archway. He shifted to two legs, clothing and everything.

Oka snorted. “About time you learned that trick.”

He ignored her and pointed to a writhing mass that rose through the sky. “There, that is the cut between the sixth and seventh level of the Veil. Damn it, I can’t believe I didn’t feel it when I fell down that damn well.”

I shot a look at him. “A well?”

“Tell you later,” he said. “What are you going to do here?”

I swallowed hard. “I’m . . . not going to tell you just yet.”

Alex grabbed my arms and turned me to face him. “Nope, not playing that game. I know you, Pam, and I know when you’re about to do something dangerous.”

I stared up at him, this man who had been my best friend, my first best friend. “Let me go, Alex. I need you to trust me. Trust that I’m not you. I’m not Rylee. I’m not Liam. I know what I’m doing. I have a plan.”

He stared hard at me, and then pulled me into a hug, crushing me against his chest. “I will always trust you, Pam.”

His words soothed away some of the hurt that Mac had placed over my heart. “Thank you. Now let me go. I have work to do. You’ll know if I need you.”

Goddess, let my plan come together. Let the pieces fall into place.

He shifted to his wolf form and gave me a toothy grin.

Oka leapt onto my shoulder, wobbling a little. “You are going to tell me, aren’t you?”

“I’m afraid the First Witch is listening, that is why . . .”

Oka’s emotions rolled through me, reminding me that there had been times that she could “see” my intentions. I thought an image of what I planned to do. Assuming I could do it.

She bobbed her head. “Dangerous, terribly dangerous, but I agree. Do it.”

She trusted me.

That was enough for me.

Of course, it depended on a few things. Like taking spirit back from the witch. Like using it to heal something that was not a living, breathing thing. Like timing it all so well, I didn’t let the First Witch slip away from me. Like making sure her dead creatures were kept off me.

I swallowed hard as I walked toward the dark shimmering curtain. The place where Alex had been was still torn open, showing through to the other side. The heroes’ realm, where those who’d been warriors for good went after they died. I had friends there, too, many friends.

I stopped in front of the cut, turned and put my hands on my hips. “I am here, at the center of our maze. And where are you? Hiding still?”

Oka let out a low growl. “She is a coward.”

“Oh, totally a coward,” I agreed, but kept my eyes moving, waiting for the First Witch to show up. I only had three elements to my name, and Sam. Not for long if this worked.

I could do this.

I had to.

“Just a thought,” Alex said. “You want to hold off on calling her to you?”

“I don’t want her to surprise me,” I said. “I’d rather go in facing her than be shocked when she shows up at a vital moment.”

Almost on cue, the air around us shifted and the ground below us gave up a rumble as if a herd of elephants stampeded toward us.

“The demons are coming,” Alex said. He put his back to the shimmering Veil and placed himself between me and the oncoming horde.

“Hang on. They might be here to help.” I hoped, anyway.

Even as I said it, the ground rumbled harder and a decayed hand shot out of the earth. “Here we go.”

I grabbed one of my curved blades and stepped forward, slashing off the reaching appendage at the wrist. “She controls the dead.”

The demons slid to a stop about a hundred yards back, puffing and blowing, Smerelda in the lead. I gave her a salute and she nodded back at me. When your deal with a demon was the least of your concerns for the day, you knew it was going to be a rough one.

The wind picked up again and I turned to the left as the First Witch blinked into existence.

She was no older than me, at least by the body she had. Her hair was a dark brown with a single stripe of black down the middle of her head. Eyes of brightest green and a body shaped with soft curves.

“Hello, Pamela. We finally meet. I am Xa.” Her voice was that same deep sonorous tone as before.

I didn’t need to talk to her. I was done talking. I didn’t run at her. Didn’t throw a blade or a spell. This was not just about her, this was not a single fight.

I stepped back into the shimmering mass, standing between the two levels.

She laughed, her face wobbling as though I were under water yet again. “Are you running from me now?”

“No. I’m fixing something I broke.” I opened myself to my three elements I had to me, and then opened myself to Sam. “Together, Sam.”

Damn. This might work after all.

Weaving the two kinds of magic together, I directed them into the final two bracelets on my wrists. They shattered as though they were glass smashed with a brick. For the first time in three years, I had all my elements, and my black magic. I called them to me, power flowing along my skin.

The First Witch, Xa, screeched at the top of her lungs, and the ground exploded with zombies, the dead rising to her aid, not only fueling her, but coming for me.

“Smerelda! Keep the dead busy!” I yelled.

I needed to focus, I couldn’t fight this fight, not like I’d done in the past. Others had to fight for me if I was to have a chance to free us.

And for once in my life, I was grateful for a horde of demons. They launched themselves at the undead, battling hard, keeping their attention away from me.

“Hurry!” Oka yelled.

Xa shook her head and snapped her fingers. “You think I did not prepare for you to fight me?”

An image wavered, and Mac appeared at her feet.

I took a step as if to come out of the shimmering mass.

Mac pointed at me. “Don’t you dare. No matter what happens, you finish this, Pam. You finish this!” he bellowed as she flexed her hands.

Alex and Oka raced toward the witch, but she flipped them back without much effort. Alex hit the ground and was up and running first, streaking on his belly, dodging her spells as he fought to get to her. To save Mac.

He got close enough to bite on her and her magic faded, just for a pulse. “Impossible.” She swayed on her feet and he shook her hard, yanking her off balance.

Everything in me wanted to launch into the fray, to battle with my body. But that was not how this day would be won. Everyone had a place, everyone had to be trusted to do what they could do.

I didn’t understand what was happening, but I took the moment. I closed my eyes and lifted my arms through the shimmering mass, feeling the broken threads of the magic that had held this together. Not just magic, not just light, but dark too.

Under my skin the truth emerged. The world was not just light, not just magic made for beauty, but the dark too. The shadows helped the light shine much brighter.

My elemental magic coursed through me, and as Sam tried to pull away from the light, I held her tightly to me too. “Wait, there is a place for both. We must work together.”

That understanding of what was needed felt as though a light had been shined on a dark page in a library. The last piece of the puzzle I had been missing.

I needed both my sides to make this work. The Veil could only be healed by someone like me. Just as it could only be opened by someone like me. I pulled the ragged edges to me, tugging them closed with spirit, wrapping them in the five elements and bending my dark magic through the threads.

Xa screeched and I was hit in the middle of my belly, shoving me backward. I didn’t open my eyes and didn’t fight back. Not directly.

I poured my energy into the weaving of the light and dark, fought to sew the pieces together that had been torn so horribly. And bit by bit, they wove in and around one another.

The power of the First Witch hit me again, smashing me in the face. I took the blow and went to my knees, arms still out as both the elements and Sam blended together.

“Hurry!” Oka yelled.

Every bit I had left, I poured out of me, screaming as Xa did the same, her magic biting into me, lifting me off the ground. I saw the weaves of her magic and knew it was death when it would touch me. Pure, simple, death. The black lines of magic rolling from her made the darkness in me when it rose look like mid-day sunshine.

I braced myself for the impact, for the pain and certain death that would come. The threads of her magic snaked around me, fast and hard.

I kept working the five elements in me, weaving them together with Sam. Knowing that this was the moment. Either I would heal the veil using all I had, or I would die.

Another shriek ripped from her throat. “No, that is impossible!”

I looked down at my body just as her magic turned to ash against the clothing I wore.

“Damn that librarian!” She snarled, her hands coming up into fists. “Well there is more than one way to skin a cat.”

Another blast of her magic came at me fast and hard, slamming into me with the force of a speeding truck.

But she could not throw me from the shimmering mass as it clung to me, holding me in place as the threads of the Veil came together slowly, far slower than I wanted.

Like a supernova, the light around me exploded as I bent my two kinds of magic—light and dark—together with one last surge of energy.

Inside me, Sam cried out.

“Hurry!” Oka yelled again and I didn’t open my eyes, I couldn’t. Because if she was telling me to hurry there was a reason. One I would not like.

“Keep her off me!” I yelled back. “A few minutes more!”

The threads of the Veil were cut short and I had to weave the exact kind of magic that they were to bring them together. Sweat rolled and I worked harder within my own magic than I ever had when I’d fought another creature, or even the elemental witch I’d first saved the caravan from. This work was time-consuming and exhausting. I tried not to think about what would happen when I was done here, and I had to face Xa.

Over and over, I wove the threads as the battle raged on without me, as Xa pummeled me over and over again, the clothing Fergus had given me taking the punishment and deflecting most of it. Thank the mother goddess for his foresight.

Oka’s emotions were strong, worry overlaid with protectiveness. I wanted to feel Mac, too, to know that he was okay, but I couldn’t pick up on him.

What could have been hours, or minutes, or days, passed before I felt the last bit of the Veil come together. The shimmering mass was whole once more. I opened my eyes and stumbled out, bleeding and bruised into the chaos of the battle. The sounds and smells that came with death and dying hammered at me. I didn’t dare turn around.

I took a breath. The weaving was done. But it was not finished until blood was spilled on it.

I took out one of my curved blades and pressed the razor-sharp tip against my palm, cutting the skin with very little pressure.

With a swipe, I coated the shimmering mass with a smear of my blood. “Sam, help me.”

Xa screamed and tackled me, our bodies hitting the ground at the base of the line between the veils. “You will not! My magic will not help you!”

Oka dragged the witch away, the back of Xa’s robes in her tiger teeth. Xa struggled trying to hit Oka with a spell but had no luck, as she couldn’t get to her feet. That a girl, Oka, buy me time.

Time for Sam to come through for me.

Bound in blood, bound in magic, woven together to weave the world once more. By my magic, by my life, I heal thee.

I repeated the words with effort, swiping my hand over and over again. Three times I spoke, three times I smeared the blood. The spell was not pretty, but I was sure of it.

A yowl of pain echoed through the air. Peta. I turned to her, hoping she’d escaped any death spells.

A shriek ripped out of Xa. “NO!” She stood in front of the Veil as it healed, ripping at it with her fingers, doing no damage at all.

As I turned and I couldn’t help the gasp that escaped me. Alex was on his side in his wolf form, a puddle of blood under him. Mac was flat on his back, his chest not moving.

Oka was at my feet, limping in her tiger form. “They are not dead.” Not yet.

Smerelda and her demons stepped back. “You said you would free us from this place!” the demon queen roared.

I nodded. Timing. This was all about timing. I lifted a hand and wove my magic, imagining a doorway, solid, strong and opening into the real world. I’d seen it done by my first teacher, Milly, so I knew it was possible.

My belly clenched as I wove the magic together, and the door slowly appeared. I put a hand on the lever and pushed it open. A doorway between this world and the real one. Triumphant, I turned to the demon queen. “I did not lie. This will remain open while I get my friends out.”

I looked at Xa, still tearing at the newly sealed barrier. “And you and I are not done.”

She shrieked and her power slammed into me, flipping me through the opening in the Veil. I hit the dirt on the other side, the dusty basin a place I’d been more than once. Oka followed us through, snarling, her claws extended.

“No, let me do this!” I yelled.

I’d opened the Veil to what had been the badlands of North Dakota. The home of my mentor, and the place I knew held more secrets than most. A place I could use to my advantage.

I let the First Witch bat me around like a child’s toy, keeping up just enough shields that she didn’t realize I was leading her along. We weren’t close to where we needed to be and I had hope that she wouldn’t kill me before this final task was done.

I stumbled, she slammed her magic into me, and something in my hip snapped. A break.

I crawled backward, whimpering. “I won’t give up. I won’t let you rule me.”

“You will give me your power!” Her magic wrapped around me, squeezing me tightly.

But we had reached the point.

I beckoned the earth with one hand, digging out the thing I needed to complete this.

Peta had given me the clue. She’d said that the oubliette that Lark had been placed in was the strongest of its kind. A place to hide someone or something away and forget about it forever.

Now, I pulled the same oubliette out of the ground, blending my dark magic with the elemental, weaving it through the very threads of the small prison. An oubliette trapped a magic user within, cutting them off from their powers.

If the first witch could not be killed, then I would lock her away.

She kept at me, her magic sharp and jagged, drawing blood with each blow. But I didn’t dare let her see my face. Let her see that I almost had her.

A snap of bone sent me to my knees, the armored clothing protecting me from the magic itself but not from the force of it. And Xa had figured out a way around my protection. She’d broken my leg and I barely felt it. I was almost there. Almost.

“You are mine,” she snarled. With my magic, I opened the oubliette under the earth behind me. The ground shifted, the sound of sand sliding the only clue that I was doing anything at all.

“Then come at me, bitch.” I finally lifted my head, let her see the anger there. “Come at me and see who wins this.”

She shrieked and launched at me physically, her magic humming over her skin. I caught her by the arms and flipped her over my head. Her magic caught me, burning my hands, the heat driving into me like swords on fire.

I screamed as I threw her, and she screamed as she landed in the oubliette. As she hit the bottom of the rounded cage, she tried to launch up at me.

Her magic came first and I held my hands out. “Sam, help me!”

Inside my head, Sam screeched as the silvery darkness flowed out of me and met Xa’s darkness. The two magics collided with a crack like thunder.

“You cannot kill me!” She screamed.

“I know.” I bit the two words out as I fought to hold her there but she was too strong.

You must use all your magic, together, the same way you did with the veil!

I opened myself to my elemental magic and it ripped out of me, down my arms and blended with the silvery shadowed magic creating a crescent moon shield in front of me.

Xa’s fingers gripped at the edge of the oubliette.

I gritted my teeth and went to my knees, all my strength going into the fight. The darkness began to seep through, black and deadly, it swelled and Xa laughed maniacally.

But I was not alone. I was never alone. I opened myself up not just to Oka, but to an older being far stronger than any darkness.

“Mother goddess, help me,” I whispered.

The words dropped from my lips like rain falling from the sky and the earth bucked below us, but my body didn’t move. Power raced through me, power that was not my own. I was a conduit, nothing more, as the First Witch fell back from me, and into the oubliette. As she hit the bottom of the curved jail cell, I leaned over and pulled the door shut. It clicked closed and the power of the mother goddess left me, as if it had never been.

Fast as I could through my fatigue, I wove my magic around the oubliette, sealing her in with both elemental and dark magic, blending them together and in that blending making them both stronger than they ever could have been on their own. Over and over, I layered them both around the oubliette. A hundred times I coated it in my magic until there was nothing left in me.

On my knees, I stared at the oubliette. It didn’t so much as shiver. But I had to be sure she was in there, that she was locked away.

I crawled on my hands and knees, whimpering with each shift of my hip and leg, across the ground to the oubliette and pressed a hand against it.

A screech echoed through my head and a flash image of her inside, battering the walls was all I needed. She was trapped.

I sat back on my butt and pressed my hands to the earth and groaned as I called on my connection to the earth. The ground softened and the oubliette sank down, down, down, a thousand feet, and there I let it rest.

“Well done, little witch.” I turned to see Peta trot to me, her body wispy, but there. “You have freed the dead and captured the witch once more. And healed the Veil. That was not expected.”

Oka gasped. “Oh my sweet baby goddess. Nepeta?”

I tried to smile, I really did. “I let a bunch of demons out.”

Peta laughed. “Demons can be dealt with. But that one, she would have done much harm. Far worse than the demons can do. After all, there is still the Blood of the Lost out there, she can handle them.”

Peta wrinkled up her nose. “The elementals are not done with you, Pamela. Be careful. You have one last fight before you can rest.”

I nodded. “Thank you, for everything.”

She bobbed her head and walked away, butting her head against Oka’s first. “You should be proud. That there is a hard charge to care for. Almost as bad as Lark. Which means sometimes you will have to do what you must, even if she does not understand.”

“Thank you,” Oka whispered as Peta disappeared between one step and the next.

A set of footsteps turned me around. The demon queen, Smerelda, stared down at me.

“You kept your word. We brought your people through.” She tipped her head as two demons carried Mac and Alex through the doorway in the Veil. As soon as they put them down, I lifted my hand. “I must close it now.”

“Understood, but then we are enemies when the sun sets tonight,” she said.

“Understood.” I clenched my fist and closed the Veil. The demons dispersed, but I was not done. I had to heal Mac and Alex.

28

“Heal Alex first. He’s hurt worse,” Oka said.

I crawled to the wolf and pressed my hands against his side. The connection to spirit flared and I wove it through his body, healing the damage. I’d healed him, but he’d not woken. Like he was in a drugged state. Or hung over, that’s what it felt like, as though he’d had too much to drink. My magic touched something new inside him, something dark and sultry that reacted to my power, tugged at it and made me want to rub against it. This new thing came at me lightning fast and I jerked back, recognizing it at the last second for what it was.

The power of an incubus lay inside him? How was that possible? “Oka, what happened to him?”

“When you killed his father, the power came to him. It is how he was able to slow Xa. He drew her magic into him before she figured out what he was doing.” Oka butted her head against Alex’s. “He’s not so bad for a canine, you know. I like being in his pack. But don’t tell him that.”

An incubus. Alex was an incubus?

Later, I’d deal with that new information later. Right now, I had to help Mac.

I shimmied toward Mac and Oka moved to stand between us. “You can’t heal him.”

Stunned I looked up at her, sure she was joking. “Oka, move.”

The pain in her eyes said it all. She wasn’t joking. I didn’t even react as she grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me back from Mac, at least not at first.

“Oka, stop this!”

She dropped me and sat in front of me, blocking my view. “You cannot heal him, Pamela. There is a spell laid on him that will allow Xa to take you over should you heal him. It is a perfect trap.”

“She’s locked away; it won’t work!” I yelled, but even I knew that there wasn’t a certainty that I was right. The First Witch was no slouch in the magic department.

“When Lark was in the oubliette she was able to travel by spirit, you know this. The first witch’s spell could allow her to do the same, to take you over even though her body is there, trapped.”

Her words cut through me, and I knew she was right, but she was wrong too.

“Oka, I can’t let him die.”

“You have to,” Mac mumbled. “Actually if you could hurry it up that would be great.”

I tried to crawl around her, pain rocketing through me, and she blocked me again.

“Promise me you will not try to heal him. Swear it on Alex’s life and I will let you go to him, to say goodbye.” Oka’s voice broke on the words and tears leaked down her furry cheeks, matching the tears that streamed down my own face.

“I . . . promise not to try to heal him.”

She picked me up and took me back to him.

I touched his face and his eyes opened slowly. “Hey.”

“Hey,” I whispered back. “Please don’t die.”

“She filled me with her magic, Pam. Like a poison that will spill into you,” he said. “Don’t be angry at Oka or Alex. I’d have done the same to protect you.”

I realized then that the three of them had planned to leave Mac behind. If not for Xa’s twist, thinking to use him against me, I would not have even had this chance to say goodbye.

“Thank you,” he said. “I wish I’d had more time with you but thank you for the one last wild ride.”

“Don’t, don’t say goodbye.” I sobbed the words, hurting in body and spirit. This was not happening, it couldn’t be, not when we’d won.

He smiled and closed his eyes. “Not goodbye. See you later. I think I might have finally earned my place in the realm of heroes.”

I bent over and kissed him as the last breath slid from his lips and into my mouth. “Mac.” Just his name, nothing else. He’d come into my life in a whirlwind and left on a whisper, and in between, he’d helped me to find myself, to find my heart and to remember who I was.

And in the end, he’d sacrificed himself for me.

I clung to his chest a long time, the sobs shaking me until I was exhausted, and I fell into a strange doze clinging to him.

When Alex lifted me away from Mac, sitting me a few feet from my familiar, I let him. There was no fight left in me. Using my connection to the earth, I opened the ground and let it take Mac into its embrace.

I motioned for Oka to come to me and she shifted back to her smaller form. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“Not your fault,” I said.

Still seated, I looked up to see Alex watching me and I motioned for him to come to me too. “We’re leaving.”

The arch of his eyebrow said it all. We were closer to Rylee and our family than we had been in years here in what had been the badlands. But I had one more battle ahead of me. Peta had said it. And I’d felt it coming.

The hole in my heart that Mac had carved out though, goddess that ached. Ached the way I’d hurt when Alex had died. I made myself swallow it down, though it was difficult with such a tight throat.

I took Alex’s hand and jumped the Veil, moving between time and space to take us back to the caravan in the blink of an eye. A blessing at least, I could jump the Veil once more, now that it was healed.

Richard was the first to notice us, then the shifters. We were mobbed, everyone shocked and pleased we were back. Asking about Mac. Helping me get to the nurse.

I let them manhandle me as I tried to process everything that had happened and what was to come.

We’d lost Mac.

Healed the Veil.

Stopped the First Witch.

Mac…Mac was gone. My head kept coming back to that, my heart throbbing painfully with each beat. Tears I couldn’t stop kept leaking out of my eyes and I didn’t bother to wipe them away, though the nurse kept on trying.

“I’m sorry you lost him,” Nathanda said. “He was a good man.”

I nodded, unable to say anything at all for fear of the sobbing that would come instead of words.

Laying inside the medic tent, I ran my hands over my bare wrists. Never again, I’d never let someone cage me again. That power was mine and would keep my family safe, would keep the caravan safe.

I was alone—even Sam was quiet—except for Oka who hadn’t left my side and hadn’t tried to talk to me since I’d jumped us back to the caravan. She lay curled in the crook of my arm, a steady warmth, a steady heartbeat. Her grief over losing Mac blended with my own turning it into a river of pain I couldn’t escape, nor was I sure I minded drowning in it at that moment.

The tent flap opened, snapping me out of the daze I’d fallen into, and a man I barely recognized stepped in.

“Pamela. I don’t know if you remember me.”

“Wade, right?”

He nodded. “I’m an elemental, Pam.” I reached for a blade with one hand and raised the other as I took hold of all five elements. He spread his hands wide. “I’m with you, Pamela. Not the others. But they want your head on a pike. You understand?”

More than he could ever know. “Yes, because of what I am.”

Mutt. Cur. Half-breed.

“And because of me.” A second figure stepped in. Black hair, blue eyes, and a face I knew all too well.

“Hello, Raven.” I nodded at my father.

Wade paled and backed out. “You don’t need me if you have him. But I will stand with you, if the time comes for that.”

Raven snorted and crouched beside my bed. His power flowed over me and my leg healed in a matter of seconds. “Better?”

I flexed my leg, moving it freely without pain. “Yes, but why do I have a feeling you’re setting me up?”

He smiled but it was sad and for the first time I thought I saw his age on him, the age of losing so much in your life. With one hand, he reached out and touched Oka on the head, gently and for once she didn’t hiss at him. “I miss having a familiar. They are of great comfort. I’m sorry to hear about Mac. It is a great loss to you, I know.”

Not the bear. Not your familiar. But his name. My throat closed and my eyes filled, tears spilling down my cheeks once more.

“Thank you.” I choked on those two words. Raven picked up my hand and squeezed it between both of his.

“I know you are grieving, but I need your help,” he said softly. “The elementals . . . they took him.”

I closed my eyes, knowing the second he said that who it was that they took. The one that I’d known was special all along. “They took Frost, didn’t they?”

Raven curled his hand around mine, tighter, holding our clutched hands to his chest.

“Yes, Pam, they took your little brother.”

Afterword

HANG TIGHT! “Elemental Witch” won’t be far behind the ending here (yes, yes I know it’s a strong hook but NOT a cliffhanger, even if you do want to toss the e-reader across the room right now)

“Elemental Witch”

My name is Pamela, and I am the strongest witch the world has ever seen.

Only I’m not just a witch, I’m an elemental, and that truth makes me a target and a threat.

The elementals of this world are done hiding in the shadows. And there is a faction of them who want to rule our world. They want to put the humans beneath their heels, and they want all the power to themselves.

Standing between them and their goal are only two people, two that still hold a connection to Spirit, the key to stopping them. Myself, and my father.

But the elementals we face are no fools. And they’ve taken the most precious thing from us both.

A child who could be everything they need to force all the elementals to bend knee. A child who I’ve always known was special.

They’ve taken Frost.

And if I have to break the world again to find him, I will.

Because I’m done hiding too.

And the elementals had better be ready to play.

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