Aviva
Silverhide is in absolute chaos.
I race toward the pack house, still wearing pajamas, of course, but yielding my gilded bow, sending my arrow flying toward the molted beast trying to get inside. Claw marks mar the door–vicious and wide–and the beast, once a wolf, I believe, but now sporting four rows of massive, sharp teeth and multiple eyes, thrusts its entire weight against the door, causing the wall around it to splinter on impact.
My arrow pierces the small of its pack through and through before whizzing back to me. I catch it, prime my bow, and send it flying again.
This hellhound… it’s fresh. There’s nothing old and tired about it. Magic pours off its body, and blood stains its mouth and claws. People are screaming inside the pack house. People–mostly women and children–who’d been enjoying their breakfast before this creature came over the valley to rain terror on my pack.
If I’d left the pack house only a few minutes earlier, I would have known why Ryan and Evander weren’t in the cottage any longer. Ryan had sensed this happening–felt in his bones that something was about to go down, and called on his men, thinking another pack was about to attack. Evander went to the cottage to find Ryan and Cole but found the place empty, but as Kenna’s mate he knows the heavy, metallic scent of magic… and he sensed something was off, as well.
So, when Misty and I arrived at the cottage, and I tasted that magic on my tongue… I knew I was too late.
All hell broke loose, and now I’m fighting with a beast dead set on breaking into my pack house and hurting my people. My friends. My family… my daughter, who I left in the care of Freya.
My arrow hits its target, piercing the hellhound through its shoulder, driving deep. It growls, staggering, and turns to me with a terrifying snarl that showcases its pointed teeth.
Panting, I drop my bow, preparing to shift, but then Ryan barrels into my line of sight in his beast form and tackles the hellhound to the ground.
Smoke begins to funnel from the door of the pack house followed by screams for help. I don’t waste a second. I turn from Ryan and the hellhound and sprint to the mangled door, trying to yank it open, but it’s jammed.
Freya’s voice shudders inside, coughing and sputtering.
“Freya!” I shout. “Something’s jamming the door!”
“We–We pushed the tables in front of it! Now we can’t see anything!”
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I back up several yards and take a deep breath, closing my eyes. I shift, my clothes falling away, and run as fast as I can, lifting off my claws and slam head-first into the door.
The pain is unreal as the door is knocked from its hinges, breaking into pieces that explode throughout the room. Smoke fills my nostrils and blinds me. I try to force myself to breathe but my lungs contract around the smoke.
I let go of a mangled howl as I stagger to my legs. People move around me, clambering for the door, climbing over the tables that didn’t end up breaking my fall.
I see Freya in the smoky haze carrying Lexa.
‘She’s fine,’ Freya says into my mind, running toward me.
‘Get her out!’
Freya nods, tears in her eyes, as she scrambles for the door, but everyone leaving the pack house is pausing at the smoky entrance, unsure how to maneuver around the fierce battle taking place outside. More wolves have joined Ryan’s cause, but this hellhound isn’t giving up its fight.
I have no choice but to assist while Freya rounds up the women and children, taking them to safety.
The fire in the pack house spreads quickly. Smoke pours from the entrance, covering the once blue sky in a thick, black haze.
I find Ryan in the fray. He’s injured. His left shoulder is completely mangled, and he’s favoring his left front leg as he picks the hellhound up by its neck and slams it back to the ground where his men attack, clawing and biting.
I stand back, pacing, waiting for my turn. My adrenaline is running high, and my heart is racing as the seconds tick by. I wait, and wait for the hellhound to try to get up again, but this time, it stays down.
The odd, glowing light behind its eyes slips away, fading to total darkness.
It collapses in on itself, its body turning to ash that’s swept away by a breeze carrying smoke and embers from the pack house.
My golden arrow rests on the ground where the hellhound took its last breath.
I’m in a daze as Ryan slowly turns to me, his snout covered in blood. ‘Where’s Lexa?’
‘She’s with Freya.’
‘I left Cole and Misty in the healer's cottage. Kyra got away.’
I blink, trying to relax so I can think clearly.
‘Evander went to find Kenna. He sent her and the kids to the lake–’
A thundering boom echoes through the valley. The mind-link erupts with the voices of our family members. Kenna, especially, is screaming in rage and anguish, and suddenly the light burns out of the sky completely, swallowing us in a shadow of… her powers.
Even during the war, I didn’t see Kenna in action. I’ve heard rumors about her powers, of course. She’s the daughter of a Firestone witch and Shadowsynger father. That combined is enough to instill a strange kind of fear whenever I think about it.
But during the war, she was acting as a triage nurse. A healer, going from army to army, healing those she could during the main battle and setting up an infirmary in the minutes after the last battle took place.
Now, she’s turned the daylight into… darkness. The trees and buildings groan around us as her powers of shadow and darkness spread, and the earth beneath my feet begins to move.
Ryan remains in his beast form, his ears pricked in the direction of the lake.
Kenna screams Maeve’s name through the mind-link.
That’s enough to get me and Ryan moving.
I sprint after him through the woods, leaving Silverhide behind in a cloud of smoke. The ground continues to shake as we close in on the lake, but just as suddenly as the trembling began, it grinds to an abrupt stop.
I lose my footing, tripping over my own paws, and collide face first with the ground just yards away from the lake shore.
Kenna’s powers flicker, sending shockwaves through the area. Water laps aggressively along the shore of the lake as her figure appears on the dock clutching Brie and Aris.
Evander stands at the very edge of the dock, his head bowed, a blade in his hands.
Time stands still as I slowly, carefully, rise to my feet, still in my wolf form. Ryan pants beside me, tucked in the shadow of trees.
‘Where’s Maeve?’ I ask, but I already know the answer. She isn’t here.
And neither is Kyra.
Ryan turns to look at the village where a plume of black smoke rises above the trees. ‘The kids can’t see me like this. I need to go back.’
‘You need to get that shoulder tended to immediately,’ I tell him, my heart lurching for more reasons than one.
I look back at the family on the dock as Evander starts to turn to his mate, but he pauses, seeing us in the trees, and looks right at me.
His eyes are dead and dark… and full of murderous rage.
* * *
I stare at the charred remains of the pack house, my heart hanging on by a thread. Six of our pack members are dead–two women, their mates, and two others who were stuck in the crosshairs when Kyra’s hellhound attacked the pack.
We still don’t know who the hellhound used to be, but it doesn’t matter, does it? We’ll never know unless we find Kyra, and that’s looking less likely as the hours tick by.
Our house is full. Misty and Cole talk in low tones in the corner of the kitchen while Misty brews tea for everyone. Cole looks beaten down and just… wrecked beyond repair. I feel awful for them knowing what they went through less than a year ago and what they must be going through now as a couple trying to keep their young son safe.
Ryan’s in a sling, his shoulder barely allowing Misty’s healing powers to take effect. He’s sitting beside Logan on the couch, who has his head bowed, occasionally glancing nervously at the door.
Brie, Aris, Addy, and Lexa are all asleep upstairs, tucked safely in bed and nests of blankets and cushions on the floor.
Ryan rises from the couch, running his fingers through his hair with his free hand, and walks over to where I’m standing near the door… waiting for news about Maeve.
“I need to do another sweep, meet with some of the men,” Ryan whispers to me, sliding into his shoes.
I nod, biting my lip as he presses a kiss to my forehead before leaving the house, the door snapping shut behind him.
I meet Misty’s tired eyes, but neither of us have anything to say, not now. Not after this morning. What could we possibly say to make any of this any better.
“Can I go with him?” Logan asks, suddenly appearing at my side. He’s already in his shoes somehow.
I nod, exhausted. “Just be careful and stay away from the pack house. It’s still smoldering.” I reach out on impulse and run my fingers through his hair the same way I do to Lexa when she’s falling asleep in my arms. The touch shocks him for a split second before he leans into it, then pulls away, quick on his feet as he runs after Ryan.
I pace to the far side of the house, looking out the windows at the smoky haze still covering the lower part of the village.
“They’ll be back soon, I’m sure,” Misty says quietly, and she’s not talking about Ryan and Logan.
The details of what happened at the lake sting when I think about them. We’d been so unprepared, so incredibly trusting of the stranger who infiltrated our pack and manipulated Ryan’s kindness. She also manipulated Cole, who spent months under the yoke of a madman.
I’m sure he thinks he should have known better and is dealing with that guilt, but I don’t blame him. Silverhide takes in everyone who needs a place to land.
I hate the idea that that might have to change.
Kenna and Evander watched in horror as Kyra disappeared with their daughter. She’d appeared in front of Kenna, taking her by surprise, and plucked the child from her arms before vanishing in a cloud of mist. Kenna was a single second too late to react, and her powers didn’t reach the witch in time.
We have no idea where they are.
So, Kenna and Evander went to Moonrise to tell her parents and get help.
If this had been Lexa, I’d be scorching the Deadlands to find her, leaving nothing but ruin in my wake, and I know Misty feels the same about her son.
“I’m going to check on the kids,” Cole says under his breath.
“You should try to sleep,” Misty whispers to him, but he shakes his head, holding her gaze for a few seconds before tearing himself away and heading upstairs.
She sighs, pouring more tea, mixing in more sugar than necessary, and I accept a mug when it’s brought over, regardless.
We sit on the couch in silence for several minutes. Cole returns and sits on a stool nearby, leaning his head against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, and closes his eyes.
Only then does Misty turn to me and say, “Logan is a good kid. He likes you.”
“He’s comfortable here with us,” I reply.
“He’s going to stay, then?”
“Yep.” I sigh into my tea, thankful for the distraction, but still…. This whole situation is weighing heavily on me. “He-uh, he likes Ryan a lot, tends to follow him around when we’re all home together. He’s been curious about Ryan’s camera. They don’t have those in Emberfyll.”
“Have you talked to him about Emberfyll?”
I shake my head. “I need to, but he’s… he’s struggling, I assume. He’s probably repressing memories of his journey here, and he’s still speaking exclusively in Firestone, which means I’m the only one who understands him. He’s not ready to talk, and I’m in no hurry to push him.”
Ryan arrives home smelling sharply of smoke. “Kenna hasn’t come back yet?”
I shake my head.
He nods, his eyes glazed with fatigue. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do at first light. Half of my men are staying here to guard the village, and the rest of us are going out to search for Maeve. I already sent scouts to Endova in the event she’s there, or nearby, and more to Teshka, but they won’t reach that territory until a day from now. We’ll–”
“Where’s Logan?” I ask, standing.
Ryan gives me a look. “He’s not here with you?”
“He wanted to go with you into the village, and I let him.”
Ryan straightens, glancing at me, then at Cole, whose eyes are now open and holding on the door.
“I didn’t see him at all,” Ryan says, stepping back toward the exit.
“I’ll go find him,” Cole says, but I’m already pulling on my boots.
Something in the back of my mind nags at me, yanking on some invisible thread I’ve never felt before.
“That little shit,” I hiss, whirling toward Misty. “He can shift.”