by May Dawson
Together, Chase and I raced across the grass in front of the academy to another barricade as blasts of magic sizzled all around us. We dove behind the wood-and-steel structure, and even though we were panting, we immediately got into position on our knees behind cover, looking for our next shot.
Through the chaos of the fight between the witches, I caught a glimpse of Winter’s cloak fluttering. But by the time my gaze snapped to where he’d been, he was already gone. I drew my rifle’s stock tighter into my shoulder, my finger resting lightly in the trigger guard as I searched for him.
Winter would come for me, I was sure he would. I’d betrayed him.
I thought for a second of the way he’d smiled at me, of how patient he’d been trying to teach me to move through the rips. Then I remembered the faces of the Everly sisters, and my finger tightened on the trigger, gathering the slack.
I’d thought I was going to unknot the tangled threads of my past when I met my father.
Instead, I was going to rip those knots right out.
Behind us, the gates of the academy began to rock back and forth. I abandoned my search for Winter, looking instead for the witches that were trying to bring down the gates. I finally found a handful of witches standing, almost concealed, in the woods across from the gates.
“There!” I called out, already sighting in on them. I squeezed the trigger, but I was too late. Even as the witch I’d targeted crumpled to the ground, I heard the gates tear loose.
I heard Rafe curse right before the gates fell inward, slamming the ground. The force of it shook the earth under our feet yet again.
The witches raised bubbles of shielding magic that our bullets bounced off of as they tried to force their way past us onto the academy grounds.
As the witches reached the fallen gates, wolves streaked out. A witch who accidentally dropped her shield screamed as teeth closed on her throat, and then blood splattered across the clearing.
Alice let out a panicked sound, her hand pressed over her lips.
“It’s going to be all right,” I promised her, grabbing her shoulder. I’d almost forgotten she was there in the chaos.
“Maddie, it’s not—” she began, and then her eyes widened. “Behind you!”
My rifle was suddenly wrested out of my grip. Chase tried to turn, bringing his gun up to shoot whoever was behind me, but suddenly he was flying through the air as if he’d been thrown by an invisible hand.
When I spun around, Winter towered over me.
Winter raised his hands, and a clear bubble shimmered into existence around us. The noise of the battle faded. His bubble trapped me with him and Alice, who had fallen back onto her elbows. I tried not to look at the bag at my feet, which held the pieces of the Dark Collar.
I’d do whatever it took to keep the Collar out of Winter’s hands.
“Hello, daughter.” He wrapped his hand around my throat, his grip bruising. “I thought we were going to rule together. I thought you could be redeemed.”
I tried to say something, but choked as his fingers tightened even more.
“Don’t think I’m going to give you the chance to speak the words of a spell,” he warned me. “I lost my sense when I wanted to trust you before. I won’t be so foolish again.”
He lifted me off the ground until we were eye-to-eye. His fingers curled deep into my skin, into the tendons, and I couldn’t draw a breath. My vision blurred at the edges as my fingers scrabbled furiously across his, trying to get loose.
Motion caught my eye, and I realized that Rafe and Penn were trying to break into the bubble to save me.
Winter glanced at them too. “I’m going to tear you to pieces in front of them.”
Alice raised wild, terrified eyes to my face, then her gaze fell to the bag. She crept across the ground at Winter’s feet, reaching slowly out for the strap of the bag.
His breath was on my face when he said, “You’re a wolf through and through.”
Even though I’d murdered my wolf, I hoped that was true.
I grabbed his wrists to leverage myself, drawing my knees toward my chest. I threw myself backward as best I could, lashing out with my feet.
When I kicked him in the chest, his fingers loosened on my throat long enough for me to somersault backward, kicking him in the face to push myself off.
I landed awkwardly, falling to one knee, but I pushed myself up to my feet, ignoring the throb of pain.
“Maddie!” Alice shouted. She tossed me the dark crown, and I caught it out of the air.
Winter stared at me, the two of us facing each other, chests heaving.
Winter’s shield around us flickered, then dropped. The chaos of the battle raging around us was loud again. I started toward Winter, already murmuring the words of my spell.
Magic propelled Penn across the ground and into Winter’s waiting arms, and in a second, he had a knife blade to Penn’s throat.
Before I could finish my spell, Winter raised the shield again, sealing us off from the rest of the world in a bubble of quiet and danger.
“Give that to me, Maddie,” Winter said calmly. “Or your friend will die.”
Penn’s eyes met mine. “Don’t do it,” he said, then grimaced as Winter pressed the blade against his throat, deep enough for a line of blood to well, then spill down his throat.
Alice was whispering the words of a spell. Winter’s gaze sharpened on her, just as I heard what spell she was incanting.
She was speaking the words to share magic with someone else.
“Now,” Winter said, his voice urgent. “You are testing my patience, daughter of mine.”
He dug the tip of the knife into one corner of Penn’s throat, just under his jaw, and blood coursed down his throat and soaked into his shirt. Penn’s teeth gritted, his lips peeling back, but he still looked at me as if he would rather I sacrificed him than all of our wolves.
“Sorry, Dad,” I said, right before I reached down and grabbed Alice’s hand. “Accipio.”
Her magic jolted through my body.
Winter’s knife sunk into Penn’s throat, his eyes still locked on mine as he dragged the knife across Penn’s throat, then cut up into his jugular. Blood sprayed over all of us.
I raised my hand, feeling power race through every muscle, through every vein. My vision was suddenly clear, my hearing sharp the way it had been before I lost my wolf.
Winter grabbed Alice and threw her like a rag doll across the ground. She slammed into the shield, which shimmered under the force of her body, then she fell to the ground, limp.
Penn crumpled forward, his eyes wide with terror, then hit his knees hard.
Magic couldn’t bring someone back from the dead, but Penn wasn’t dead yet.
Winter smiled at me thinly from between the bodies of my two friends. “You’re only delaying the inevitable, Maddie. I’m going to rip you apart.”
Alice looked up at me and whispered, “The Dark Crown…”
It was our weapon first.
My fingers tightened around the metal, which was suddenly warm to the touch. There was just too much we didn’t know about the damn thing.
“Don’t you hurt her,” I warned Winter as he took a step toward Alice.
“Stop me,” he said, right before he reached out and grabbed her chin in one hand. He was going to snap her neck.
Clearborn slammed his hand against the shield. “Use the Crown, Maddie! It’s our only chance.”
Clearborn had been researching the Crown. I stared at him for a second, but this was no time to hesitate.
Time seemed to slow as Alice’s met mine, vivid with fear. Winter’s fingers tightened on her jaw as he drew her back into his arms, bracing her for the snap.
Penn sagged forward and caught himself with his hands on the earth, letting out a choking bark of a sound. He scrambled forward as if he were going to try to save me.
“Sana,” I murmured, holding out my other hand to Penn, imagining all my healing power coursing through hi
s blood. He gagged one more time, but the wound knit closed.
He raised his eyes to me, full of wonder, his hand going to his throat as if there was still phantom pain, and then he rose slowly to his feet.
I threw out my hand to stop Winter, but no magic burst into existence in my palm. My magic was spent.
Winter snapped Alice’s neck, and she crumpled to the ground at his feet.
“No!” I screamed.
“You can’t beat me, Maddie,” he promised me. “Even though she gave you her power.”
He raised his hands toward me, magic crackling between his palms.
“Guess we’ll find out,” I said.
Then just as Winter’s magic blasted toward me, Penn hit him from behind. Winter stumbled, his magic blasting into the sky over my head harmlessly, filling the air with the scent of a lightning storm.
I was too late to save Alice, but I could protect everyone else. I could stop Winter, who was already whirling to face Penn, magic flaring across his fingers to attack Penn again.
“Here goes nothing.” I pressed the crown onto my head.
The ground heaved under my feet, and I fell to my knees. Magic tingled through my body, then it was gone.
It was all gone. My muscles were suddenly weak, and the sense of magic had faded.
Winter grinned, his gaze locked on mine. Penn charged at him, but suddenly the shield flickered out of existence again.
As Winter jerked his fingers, Penn was suddenly propelled away from me. Rafe and Lex were running to help, but Penn crashed into them. The three of them fell across the grass. They scrambled to their feet instantly, but the shield flickered into existence again.
The bubble we were in had shrunk. It was just big enough for Winter and me and the rip behind him. I climbed to my feet, although it took force of will; my muscles felt completely depleted, as if my life had been yanked out of my body along with my magic.
“Good job, daughter,” Winter told me, his voice mocking.
Clearborn raised his hand in a reluctant wave from outside the shield, and then his face shifted, and suddenly, he was Bennett again.
My stomach dropped in fear as I faced Winter, who began to laugh.
All around us, a desperate howling sound rose into the air, as if the hundreds of wolves at the academy had all howled at once.
Then suddenly, their voices were all cut off with a yelp and a whimper, as if they’d just been murdered.
As understanding dawned, I staggered.
I was Winter’s tool.
Whatever the truth was behind the Dark Crown and its transformation into the Dark Collar, somehow I unleashed the magic that destroyed the wolves.
He’d used me to exterminate all the wolves.
I had become the Cure.
I kept moving, though, reaching over my shoulder to draw my sword. I moved steadily toward Winter.
Winter took a step backward, into his rip, and the universe seemed to swallow him.
Chapter Sixty-One
Rafe
As Winter disappeared, so did his shield. I ran to Maddie, who still gripped her sword in her hand as she fell to her knees.
“Are you all right?” I demanded as I strode to her.
She turned wide blue eyes to me, fear written across her face. “Rafe…” she whispered.
“You saved Penn,” I reminded her. She must feel like she’d failed when she didn’t defeat Winter, but at least we’d held him off. All around us, the battle was still raging. I was still furious at her, but I’d never leave her behind, even though I knew now she’d leave us. “Good to have you back on the team, Northsea.”
She shook her head, as if she were in denial.
“Get it together,” I said impatiently, knowing how much she’d hate herself later if she didn’t rejoin the battle. Maddie was a born fighter, for all her many and varied faults. I held my hand out to her. “Get up.”
She looked at my hand, then shook her head, climbing unsteadily to her feet. “You don’t understand,” she whispered. “Can you shift? You can’t shift.”
I wanted to tell her this was no time for dramatics, but something about her voice warned me off. I slung my rifle quickly over my shoulder and touched my hand to my opposite shoulder, imagining my muscles swelling and shifting, loaning me my wolf’s strength in human form.
Nothing happened.
Her face was frantic. “It’s all my fault. I thought I was following Clearborn’s orders, I thought he had researched the Crown and I…”
“You? Following orders for once? I guess this is the apocalypse.” I swallowed my own rise of panic. I glanced around the battlefield outside the broken gate of the academy, and saw a handful of shifters, lying on the ground groaning as if they had just abruptly shifted back. “What did you do?”
The question seemed to leave her stricken. She snatched the steel crown off her head and she looked as if she would fling it across the grass, but instead she pressed it protectively against her chest even though she looked as if it burned her.
“We still have to protect it from Winter,” she murmured. “Even though it seems like it’s too late.”
Behind her, witches surged through the academy gates.
“Let’s go,” I told her, my voice harsh. “Whatever you did, we can deal with it later. It’s still time to fight. Don’t give up on me now, Northsea.”
Her chin rose, as if that was just what she needed to hear.
Together, the two of us moved steadily toward the gates of the academy, past Alice’s body. The witches had all disappeared into the academy and it was quiet now; the last of the naked shifters who had shifted back were climbing to their feet. I tossed one of them my rifle, then drew my sword.
Maddie put her slender arm through the center of the crown, pushing it up onto her shoulder, then drew her own sword.
Together, the two of us moved forward through the gates into the fray.
Maddie and I slashed our way through the witches, trying to rejoin our team. I glimpsed Lex, Penn, Chase and Tyson through the crowd, battling a witch who hurled fire balls at them, and relief spiked my chest. Then Lex stabbed the witch, and Chase’s sword swung in a smooth arch that decapitated him.
A witch grabbed Maddie from behind, reaching to cut her throat, but she tossed him over her shoulder in one smooth motion. I finished him off with a stroke of my sword.
The two of us moved forward into a knot of witches and students engaged in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Maddie and I moved as one smooth, polished team as I kicked a witch who was about to stab a shifter, and she drove his blade through his throat.
All around us, our fellow students fought the witches, and I realized there were fewer and fewer witches. These were a last few desperate battles waging, but more and more, the patrols were regrouping and checking for casualties. Clearborn and the teachers directed the fight.
We were winning.
Even without our wolves.
A year ago, I was sure we would have needed our wolves to fight so many covens successfully. Now even in the midst of a crisis like losing our ability to shift, the patrols still fought smoothly.
Clearborn whistled, raising his hand as he made eye contact with me. Then he turned and pointed toward a handful of witches who were up on the roof of our own dorm building. They were setting up some kind of attack from the relative safety of the rooftop.
I nodded, then called to the rest of our team, “With me!”
Together, we all ran into the concrete stairwell at the edge of the building and rushed up the steps.
When we reached the rooftop, there was a dark rip in the sky, and the witches were gone. The rip was a black, shimmering hole in the fabric of our world that seemed unreal.
I stepped in front of Maddie automatically, knowing Winter would want her most of all.
Another rip opened up right next to us, and freezing cold burned my arm as I spun, accidentally finding myself partially in the rip.
Winter tore Maddie through
it just as I reached for her. Her wide eyes met mine, her blond hair blowing around her face. I grabbed her hand, but her fingers slipped through mine.
She was gone. Pain stabbed my chest, so intense that I couldn’t breathe. I had to follow her. I tried to fling myself through the rip after her, but it closed before I could get through. I stumbled in the air.
Another rip opened behind Silas. He grabbed the witch who tried to take him, and the two of them fell through the rip as they wrestled for control.
Maddie was on the other side of the roof now, and Winter gripped her by the throat. Magic shimmered between us, and I started forward only to run into a shield that blocked me from her.
“I don’t know if I should kill your men first or you,” he told her.
“You used me,” she said. Her chest heaved, but if she was afraid, there was no sign of it “Why are you angry that I betrayed you? You wanted me to. You wanted me to find that book, to bring the crown here, you wanted me to think we could use it as a weapon—”
“Oh, it’s still a weapon,” he promised her. “You just don’t know how to use it, and you never will.”
He seized the crown from her, and moved as if he were going to toss it through the rip. She managed to grab it from him and instead, flung it off the edge of the roof. It sailed through the air.
He watched it go, then turned to her, his eyes blazing. “Foolish move.”
“That’s kind of my signature,” she snarled back, and there was a flash of a silver blade in her hand as she strode toward him.
She almost reached him. He frantically raised his hands, and without ever touching her, his magic pushed her across the roof until she slammed against the brick chimney. Her hands rose above her head, and as she writhed, it looked as if she was pinned there.
Winter slashed out at her, magic sparking across his fingertips, and Maddie screamed as a sudden gash opened up across her stomach.
When I saw her hurt, something inside me snapped. Fury and protectiveness sparked in my chest. I was going to rip Winter’s head off his shoulders, no matter what magic lay between us. I took a step forward, my fingers tightening on the hilt of my sword.