I covered my ears as the sound of lightning crashing into the floor beneath us continued to assault my eardrums.
“Rodrick!” I screamed.
Alexei disappeared in the blink of an eye. Before I knew it he had Rodrick in tow behind him as he rushed him upstairs with his impossible speed.
It wasn’t good enough. The walls shook on all four sides. At this rate, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire flat came tumbling down.
“Are they mad?” I shouted.
“No, they’re frightened,” said Rodrick. He took a few steps as he tried to regain his footing. Alexei’s speed wasn’t something either of us were used to. “Margaux’s coven thinks the Dolch Erbe has invaded their territory.”
“What did your woman mean by Dirk felt me attack her?” Alexei demanded.
Rodrick didn’t have the time or patience to answer. One of the timbers from the roof came flying down into the floor and made a hole through Margaux’s corner desk. Sparks of blue light funneled up the stairs in a whirling wind of chaotic spirals, each settling around us on the wood floor of Margaux’s flat.
Rodrick’s back touched mine as we realized what was happening. They were surrounding us with their magic in a circle of balled light. Only these balls of light whirled up from the floor in human shapes as they appeared, one by one with their cloaks over their backs and wands in hand. I counted seven of them. Two struck out at Alexei before he had time to run, forcing him to his knees and latching their magic around him like ropes restraining a wild horse.
“Should I shift?” I asked Rodrick, keeping my voice barely to a whisper so only he would hear me with his lycan senses.
“No, not yet,” he said.
Rodrick turned around and shoved me behind his body, protecting me as though he was my guard and I was the vulnerable one. That made me nervous. If Rodrick thought there was a reason to shield me, I should be afraid.
A tall slender woman with perfectly tanned skin, dark hair tied in a messy bun, and bright green eyes took three stoic steps toward Rodrick with her wand before her. She scaled him up and down before settling the top of her wand in her opposite hand and letting the blue glow of her magic dissolve back into her skin.
“Daniella,” Rodrick spoke softly, giving her a small bow of his head.
She did the same but didn’t speak a single word. She locked eyes with me and then back to Rodrick.
“I must survey her,” she said with a tilt of her head in a thick French accent. She wasn’t from Paris. I could hear the difference in her accent just in the few syllables she spoke. If I were to guess, she was from the south of France. Perhaps Marseille or another part of the coast.
Rodrick shook his head. “You know I can’t let you do that.”
“Pourquoi? What does she have to hide?”
“She is my student,” Rodrick answered. “I’m responsible for her. I wouldn’t let you or anyone else perform magic on her, regardless of your intent.”
‘Perform magic on me?’
She spoke French to the other luxra witchlings in the room surrounding us in a tight circle. They all laughed. Alexei grunted from his knees. He understood them. And little did this Daniella lady know that I did as well. She was mocking how Rodrick was already attached to his new Blackatter. The same as the old one. And how that didn’t work out well for him the last time.
‘Does she mean Clara?’
“You know I can stop you if I have to,” Rodrick hissed at her. “I don’t care if you’re Margaux’s second in command. You’re not my coven master nor my inquisitor.”
“The two of you entered our territory without consent,” she spat back at him, daring to step even closer.
“I’ve never needed permission before.”
“That was when Margaux was in charge. She’s not here now. We’ve had to change the rules for the protection of the coven.”
“Enjoying power a little too much, aren’t you, Daniella?”
She sneered at him and pointed her wand directly at his face. “Let me survey the girl now, Rodrick.”
“Try it and you’ll answer to Ellinor Prescott!” Rodrick took hold of my arm and gripped it tight. I could feel his crowning magic begging for release beneath his skin, wanting to warn him of danger and needing to protect him. Or was it wanting to protect me? Either way, it was searing hot through the leather of my trench coat. And I wasn’t sure if he could draw either of his hands up fast enough to beat Daniella’s wand.
“Who do you think we first contacted after Margaux disappeared?” she sneered. “You’re not the only one with allies, Rodrick.”
“No, but I am the only one in this room who has regard for decorum and respect for authority. You forget who you’re speaking to.”
“And you forget that you entered my territory without consent. These are dangerous times, Rodrick. We are without our coven mistress and I must do what I see as right to protect my own.”
“Consider your values met with equal reverence,” Rodrick muttered just before all hell broke loose.
Rodrick flared his magic up from the floor, creating a fog with scarlet red light that burst through the cracks of the wood and burned the hem of their long black cloaks. The second they looked down to see the bottom of their cloaks on fire, they forgot about us for just long enough. Rodrick turned to me and extended his arms outward, creating a circular shield around the three of us and releasing Alexei from the blue magical binds restraining him.
Alexei stood and watched with glee as the luxra tried to contain the magical fire consuming their clothes. The room lit up in an array of red and blue magic, giving everything a strange purple hue.
“Shift!” Rodrick demanded.
The luxra recovered from their brief moment of surprise and tried taking down Rodrick’s shield around us. Bolts of blue lightning erupted from their wands and shook the room until more timbers threatened to fall from the ceiling.
I shut my eyes and focused all my energy on the center of my body. My ribs started to break and transform. My eyes jutted open. My center stopped moving. I couldn’t shift. Daniella breached the shield and struck me with her magic, creating a cord of blue light from the tip of her wand like a hook right into my core. Then she yanked her wand back like it was a fishing rod and pulled me forward. Rodrick tried grabbing me by the ankles but it was too late. Daniella created a hole in the shield and before I knew it, she tore me right out of it and pinned me to the wall. Rodrick couldn’t hold the shield around himself and Alexei and get to me at the same time. And if he let it drop, their magic would descend on him like a plague.
I smashed into the wall behind Daniella with my feet dangling below me. My hands reached for my center, trying to fight back against Daniella’s magic still brutally entangling inside my gut. Magic poured from my hands and fought back against her. A growl left my throat and echoed throughout the room as the light changed into a bright red through my eyes. It took all the focus I had to get to it, but my magic responded. Along with my bracelet. Green light ripped from wrist, protecting me just like Adeline said it would. I held my hands over the cord she created and snapped it like a thick log, sending splinters of her magic flying throughout the room and causing everyone to duck away.
I tumbled down to the floor and tried shifting again. Before I could finish taking my lycan form, I saw Daniella’s face change. She went from confident and controlled to gasping for air with her eyes practically popping out of her head.
“Elle est Dolch Erbe!” She screamed. “Tue-la! Maintenant!”
Whatever magic she used on me tapped into the spell Dirk had his luxra witchling cast. Daniella knew Dirk and I were linked. And if she killed me, she would kill the leader of the Dolch Erbe. She would cut the head off the snake and possibly get Margaux back. But she had to kill me first.
Rodrick must have come to the same conclusion because the second I started to shift, he did the same. I was in full lycan form by the time Alexei ran for the balcony window and shattered the glass
, flying to the opposite rooftop across the lane with a perfect landing and running for his life.
I roared from where I stood and let the crowning magic inside me tear through my lycan skin and cast light on everyone in the room. Then I ripped their wands right out of their hands, turning them against them just like I did to Dirk after his ritual binding our lives as one. The only luxra who resisted me was Daniella. She gripped onto her wand with more force than I expected and readied herself to strike back.
‘Good luck, bitch.’
With one swipe of my paw, I threw her clear across the room. Her legs flew over her head as she crashed into a huge bookcase scaling up to the ceiling. I didn’t wait around to see if I had done any real damage. Rodrick led the way and jumped through the broken door to the balcony right along with me. He leaped from edge and flew through the air, landing on a nearby rooftop and waiting for me to follow. I aimed true and soared above the streets, landing beside him with a few pieces of the roofing below my feet coming loose and dropping to the cobblestones below.
The both of us took off, running above the rooftops in lycan form, leaping from one building to the next and refusing to look back. I could see Alexei standing on a chimney in the distance waiting for us. Swirling blue light hunted us through the night sky. The luxra were chasing us. I didn’t have the courage to look back. I kept running with Rodrick by my side. I didn’t stop even when I heard people down below screaming at the sight of two wild beasts running across rooftops and tearing through whatever we had to. Anything to getaway.
We caught up with Alexei when I fell forward, landing hard against a roof and tumbling several yards before stopping. My limbs flailed around me with no control. My back tore open like an explosion of raging fire had detonated from my spine. Or at least that was how it felt. I knew immediately what had happened. One of the luxra managed to hit me with their magic.
I landed on my front with Rodrick looking down at me, standing on his hind legs and growling into the sky as more funnels of blue light chased us through the Parisian night. The city of lights had become the city of magical light. And if Rodrick didn’t move fast, we would both get knocked down.
He leaned over and picked me up. I didn’t know how much I weighed when I was in lycan form, but I knew it had to be a ton. Rodrick barely slowed down as he scooped me up and continued to run with me in his arms. I was completely paralyzed. My eyes were frozen shut. My magic was trying to heal me but it wasn’t fast enough. After a few seconds, I could move a foot, a hand, and my eyes opened. That was it. I was helpless. Rodrick wouldn’t survive this unless we got away from them. And even with him running as fast as he could, he needed his hands to summon his magic and truly fight back. I was slowing him down.
‘They want me. Not you! For god’s sake, just save yourself!’
But he didn’t stop. Not until I heard his feet slam into the tiles of the roofing.
Alexei came to a halt beside us. I tried to veer my head to see what caused them both to stop dead in their tracks. When I got sight of it, my heart sank to the bottom of my chest.
‘Margaux!’
15
Alexei stepped forward with caution, not quite believing his eyes as the woman he loved stood there with a straight face. She was unfeeling, cold, and seemingly unaffected by seeing the man who was supposedly her lover.
‘I can’t blame her. I’d have that reaction to him too and I’ve only known him an hour.’
Alexei must have sensed something was wrong because he didn’t go all the way up to her.
She stood there motionless on the rooftop with her long black dress blowing in the light breeze behind her. She didn’t speak and she didn’t move. If we were in danger before, there was little doubt in my mind that it just increased by a level of magnitude that we might not escape.
Alexei kept his distance, unsure if he should approach her any closer.
‘Hate to break it to you, Alexei, but I don’t think the Margaux you knew is in there right now.’
She peered behind Alexei to Rodrick and me. Rodrick stood there trying to catch his breath with me still cradled in his arms.
“Unshift,” Margaux ordered us in a thick French accent.
Rodrick shook his head and growled at her. I saw his breath swirl about over my form in the cool night air.
She narrowed her eyes at him and let a touch of magic light up at her fingertips. Only her magic wasn’t blue like the other luxra witchlings. It was red.
‘What the hell? How does Margaux have crowning magic?’
“I said unshift!” she hollered.
Sparks of blue light of the luxra chasing after us finally caught up, encircling us on the rooftop and standing about with the burned hems of their cloaks wafting at their knees. They didn’t appear quite as arrogant as they did before. Now they were angry. And perhaps a little embarrassed. Daniella’s orders to kill me were probably still potent in their minds. Until they saw Margaux standing before us.
We were outnumbered and we were surrounded.
Alexei was the only one not to realize it. He took hesitant steps toward Margaux, trying to see her closer after weeks of being apart.
“Where were you?” he begged to know. “I searched for you!”
Margaux lifted her arms and launched a spiral of red magic right into Alexei’s body, making him go rigid and fall to the ground.
My eyes widened. Margaux had crowning magic inside of her. And she was using it against the man Rodrick claimed she loved.
‘Maybe their affection isn’t as deep as he thought.’
Rodrick set me down on the ground gently, making sure I was alright and breathing fine before he stood back up and faced Margaux. Then he slowly shifted back into his true form as the luxra witchlings watched on with acute fascination.
“Unshift, Riley!” Margaux demanded. “Do it now!”
“She can’t,” Rodrick snapped. “Her magic is still trying to heal her.”
Daniella broke through the circle of witchlings with their wands pointed right at us. Her shoulder was dripping with blood. My claw managed to draw blood when I threw her across the room. She didn’t hesitate to walk right up to Margaux and demand an explanation. Or so I thought.
“You lied to me!” she spat. “You told me you needed my help.”
“And I do,” Margaux stated bluntly.
“You cannot allow her to live! Not when the stakes are this high. Dirk has given us the perfect weapon against him. We’d be fools not to use it.”
Margaux clenched her jaw. Daniella’s words made her furious. So much so that Daniella quickly shrank away as Margaux wielded more crowning magic in her hands. And for whatever reason, Daniella backed down. She was afraid. There was clearly a line between her and Margaux. She crossed it. Her head craned down in a small bow.
My magic traveled through my veins and healed me one body part at a time. I moved my other hand. Then my fingers. And finally, I was able to unshift. I could hear a few of the luxra groan in disgust as my bones broke and remolded back to their normal state.
‘It isn’t exactly pleasant for me either, you twats!’
Rodrick leaned down and help me up to my feet, making sure I was steady and refusing to let go of me until I could stand on my own.
“Forgive me…I-” Daniella stuttered.
“Forgive you?” Margaux snarled, approaching Daniella with narrowing eyes. Margaux’s face changed in an instant. Her long hair became short. Her eyes were cobalt blue. And her clothing molded into a finely tailored suit.
‘Oh my god!’
“Tell me, Daniella,” a tall man with a deep voice talked down to her. “How am I supposed to forgive a woman who proposes to murder both my children just to see the end of the Dolch Erbe?”
‘Dad?’
My father stood before us, his usual cold expression gracing his face as he glared at Daniella with a gaze that frightened me as a child. He had the power to make even Margaux’s second in command to a powerful witchling coven
cower in his presence.
‘My dad is a master shifter?’
His eyes didn’t fall on me. They went right for Rodrick. He walked up to him and for a brief moment, I thought my dad might strike him. He didn’t. He stood before him with venomous eyes as all the luxra witchlings surrounding us, waiting to see what would happen and for orders from Daniella.
“Stand down,” she told them.
They lowered their wands and gave us some space. I allowed myself to breathe, knowing the immediate danger was over. Well, maybe the danger of death. The danger of my father’s temper was another story entirely.
“I wrote to you! I told you not to come here,” my dad said to Rodrick. “Not only did you do so but you brought my daughter along?”
“We didn’t have a choice. The game has changed. Too much has happened and we needed to find Alexei.”
“There are plenty of vampires to be found if we need a new one. Why him?”
My father pointed down to Alexei who was still frozen on the ground beside me. Then his eyes fell on me. I swallowed hard, not sure how to react to him appearing out of nowhere much less being a master shifter.
“Adeline told you to stay at the academy!” he fumed. I had seen the look in his eyes one too many times over the years. He wanted to see me cower as Daniella had. Unlucky for him, I spent a few months getting to know just how strong I was. I wouldn’t be intimidated by him anymore. Or if I was, I refused to show it.
“Why are you here, dad?” I asked, refusing to be belittled before a bunch of strangers that wanted me dead only seconds ago.
“Why do you think?” he snarled. “You’ve been at the academy long enough. Surely you learned about the curse.”
“You mean the one you didn’t bother to warn me about? Yeah, I’m up to speed. Thanks for keeping me in the loop.”
“Then you know a lycan is required to break it. I offered Margaux my services before she disappeared.”
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