*Ryatt*
Ella’s lips are warm and supple against mine, but there is nothing soft or gentle about this kiss. Our teeth clash, and she bites down hard on my lower lip as I lift her up so her legs are wrapped around my waist.
Goddess, I would have lost control. I would have laid her on the cold, hard ground and fucked her like the bond wanted me too, like I wanted to, had it not been for the thick, metallic scent of magic in the air.
She’s going to hate me for this trick. I already regret it, but what choice do I have when we’ve been followed by hellhounds for the last ten miles?
She has no idea that I’ve walked us backward toward a large, jagged rock that juts out from the ground and looms behind us. She has no idea there’s a cleft just big enough for three people–her, the fox, and her maid.
I break from the kiss, gasping for breath, and then turn toward the opening.
In the darkness, it’s nothing but a shadow against the granite face of the rock. I toss her into it, and she chokes out a surprised yelp before she hits the ground hard, and then I’m on top of her.
“Take it,” I growl, pressing a dagger flat against her chest. She fights me, but I expected this. From the moment I realized we were being followed, I knew I’d have to hide her and deal with these witches and their pets. But Ella doesn’t know how much danger she, and the rest of us, are in right now.
She tries to shove against my weight, but I have her pinned against the shallow recesses of the cleft. There’s only enough room inside for her to fit without being seen from the exterior of the rock face.
“Ella, look at me!” With my free hand I grab her face, and lower my head so we are nose to nose. “Don’t let them take you alive. Do you understand?”
She opens her mouth, probably to hurl a deserved insult at me, but a screech pierces the air. I can’t even describe the sound. Some say it’s the last cries for mercy of whatever poor soul has been turned by a witch into a hound that linger on their tongues. The sound echoes, and Ella goes rigid, the faint moonlight illuminating in her eyes which are wide with terror.
Granger shouts my name, and I roll off Ella right as he drops to his knees and tosses a writhing bundle into the back of the cleft. Amanda, in her fox form, gnaws at the cloak she’d been wearing only moments before, desperate to get out. Granger drops Hannah’s limp body in Ella’s lap and bursts into his wolf form, his clothing nothing but ribbons of leather and wool.
Ella pants, “Ryatt–”
“Look at me!” I grab her face again, caressing it between my hands as another unholy screech slices through the air. “Whatever you hear, whatever you see–don’t trust it. I will come for you.” I break away from her before she can react and jump to my feet.
Ella lurches forward with an outstretched hand to grab me, but she’s too late. I raise my hands and shadows pull from the rock, creating a shield that traps the women inside.
Through the swirling ether, I catch a glimpse of her opening her perfect mouth in a scream, her small fist raised to pound against the shield, but then she’s gone, hidden entirely.
My entire body jolts as my power ignites and burns through my veins. What’s left of it, at least. Since the moment I took her hand at the ball held in her brother’s honor, I’ve used my powers to keep her own powers subdued and hidden from the rest of the world. I’ve used my powers to ward others against picking up that scent of magic that falls from her skin and hair.
It hasn’t been enough. My father knows I’ve brought her here. And now my powers are frayed thin.
I tear myself away from the rock, my hand clenched over the leather armor across my chest as if I can physically slow my thundering, painfully racing heart.
I take a single, heavy, shattering breath and then reach over my shoulder and unsheathe my sword.
* * *
Ella
Amanda’s head cracks against the narrow, pitch black cave not even big enough to fit three toddlers we’ve been stuffed in like sardines. She’s frantic, barely able to catch her breath as she shifts. She has just enough fragments of clothing left to cover herself.
I flail in the darkness, reaching for her with one hand while the other cradles Hannah’s head. By some miracle, I find Amanda’s face, and pull her toward me. “What’s happening?” I ask, breathless, a tremor of panic making my chest go unbelievably tight.
“H-hellhounds.” She sucks in a breath like she’s struggling to breathe. “It happened so fast, Ella. One second, I was sitting at the fire wondering why Ryatt made you walk to him through the woods, and then Granger was running up to me with Hannah over his shoulder. He grabbed me and then–then the screech–” Her shaking hands brush against mine as she lifts them to cover her ears. “I shifted. I was scared. I’ve never–I’ve never heard anything like that before, and I–I panicked. I never panic!”
Suddenly, everything snaps into place. I hold Amanda as close as possible and blink into the pitch black confines of Ryatt’s powers. I can barely see through whatever spell he’s put over the entrance to the cave, but sounds of battle drift through the swirling darkness. It sounds like I’m listening to it while holding my head under water. Screaming, snarling, the clashing of metal and teeth, all if it sends chills washing over my skin.
“We have to get out of here,” I say quickly. “We can’t stay here.”
“We can’t go out there!” she hisses, gripping my jacket.
“I can’t–I can’t leave him. He knew this was going to happen. He chose this place to camp because he knew the hellhounds were closing in on us. Those wolves up on the rocks overlooking camp… they saw them. He had Granger come and get me because he was going to hide us here, in this spot.” Oh, Goddess. He’d looked like he’d been in pain when he raised his hand and closed us into this place. I’d watched him grit his teeth and cry out as he lifted his sword, like the act was tearing him apart. “Something’s wrong with him. He needs me. I need to use my powers.”
“Against witch magic?!”
I grip Amanda hard, my fingers curling through her hair at the nape of her neck. “You called me a witch once. I’m done, Amanda. I haven’t had a moment's rest, a single moment of peace, since I came here.” The words warble off my tongue as emotion flares, emotion I haven’t had a chance to truly process. “I’ve been scared, and tired, and so fucking sad for far too long. I need to get my friend help. I dragged you into this mess, too. Now, my mate and his men are dying fighting off magical beings sent here to find me, right? The witches attacked Gemma because of me. That has to be the reason. Now, these men are in danger. You’re in danger. I need to put a stop to all of this now.”
Screw it all. I’d come here for a reason. I’d made the choice to leave my family to keep them safe. I’m done being scared. I’m done walking on eggshells waiting for the boogeyman–my mates daddy–to jump out of the bushes. I’m done being left in the dark. I’m done hiding my powers.
“I need your help,” I tell Amanda, my voice full of gravel.
“How?”
“That depends on what you can do, fox.”
Amanda calms, taking a deep, restorative breath. “Facts about hellhounds aren’t well known. Not many people survive an encounter with them.”
“Has anyone ever killed one of them?”
A dark mass passes the hidden entrance to our hiding place, slow and lumbering. I bite down on my lip as it lingers, its body shimmering golden in the moonlight. Its proximity briefly sends a spray of light into the cleft. I look at Amanda, neither of us willing to breathe as the creature–something shaped like a lion–paws and sniffs at the ground only feet from where we’re hidden.
It can’t see us. It has no idea we’re here.
Wolves close in, and it turns on them, chasing them out of sight while letting out another scream that’s like nails against a chalkboard. I hiss out a breath, squeezing my eyes shut as my ears ring with pain.
Amanda chokes, “You can’t kill them. You can only kill the witch that controls them.”
“Then we’re going to kill some witches,” I pant, something wet sliding down my neck. Blood. Blood, from my ears. Goddess, if the muffled sound of the hellhound’s calls are enough to burst my eardrums in here, how bad is it out there, on the other side of Ryatt’s shield?
I look down at Hannah, my hand trembling as I brush the hair out of her beautiful face. “Thank the Goddess you won’t remember any of this,” I whisper to her then gently scoot back and lay her head on the cold, damp earth.
I meet Amanda’s eyes, finding her tears have dried, and she’s staring at me with a look I’ve only ever seen on the face of a warrior. “I’m breaking us out of here,” I tell her.
She nods, wrapping what’s left of her cloak tight around her naked body. I turn from her and look toward the shield of raw power separating us from what could be certain death.
I raise a hand, closing my eyes, and dig deep.
My power lurches forward—hot and furious–and suddenly my skin is too hot. It’s too much. Like the moment I gave in to those powers when the Magpie tried to slap me a third, and final, time. But instead of losing control and turning all three of us to embers, I reign it in, letting it curl through my body.
I think of my mom. I imagine her smiling at me while making little glowing orbs of her powers and letting them lift into the air, like little bursts of sunlight. I think of my brother and I as children, when he’d lay his hand over the locked drawers in the kitchen where the cook kept sweets and cookies hidden away from us at the command of our parents. I remember the look on Isaac’s face as his powers broke through every lock.
Then I think of my dad, whose power is the greatest of all. Love. That’s it. Undying love. Love for Mom, love for us, even if we’re different. Even if I’m different.
My heart shatters as I scream, letting those concentrated powers flow through my fingertips and into the shield.
Like broken glass, the shield cracks as tendrils of dark red light cut through Ryatt’s shadows and pull them apart.
Behind me, Amanda gasps.
“B-Be ready!” I cry out, and then I’m thrown backward as the shield disintegrates in a great woosh of air that tears my hair from my braid and nearly blows me out of my jacket.
I don’t think. I don’t second guess my decision. I lunge for the entrance of the narrow cave and roll into the open air. Amanda leaps over me as gracefully as a dancer, her fox form small enough to be mistaken as a small cat, and then I’m turning, reaching a hand back toward the entrance of the cleft as my power surges through my fingertips.
Piece by piece, a new shield forms, protecting Hannah’s precious life.
A screech echoes through the forest. The trees rustle overhead in a phantom wind.
Amanda comes to stand beside me as I stand up. I sniff, dusting off my pants before shrugging out of my jacket. I left the dagger in the cave, with Hannah. I don’t need it. I never needed it.
I don’t need it against the towering beast staring right at us, its lion’s face decayed and distorted by whatever ghastly magic has made it so. Its fangs drip with bloody saliva as it pants, nostrils flaring, and lowers its head in a menacing snarl that echoes with the sounds of someone begging for their life.
“I’ve had nightmares worse than you,” I say, my power rumbling through my voice. “Where the fuck is my mate?”