by Leia Stone
My uncle had committed the high crime.
My breathing grew shallow.
Was it me?
Justice, Honor, and Noble appeared before me, all in their black wolf forms. One by one, they tore at my flesh with their teeth until my blood soaked their gums.
‘I am your shield. Any harm that comes to you will first pass through me,’ Justice said in my mind.
‘I am your shield,’ Noble said. ‘Any harm that comes to you will first pass through me.’
And then Honor pledged, ‘I am your shield. Any harm that comes to you, will first pass through me.’
Four shields.
All four Midnight brothers had just pledged and sacrificed their life before mine.
I stood, lips parted and speechless, when the king entered the grove. His guards flanked him, and the high mages arrived with their shields.
The king’s eyes widened when he saw the four Midnight wolves around me, and his face paled.
“Get away from her,” he growled, his dark hair flying free of his gel as he shook his head. “Get away from her, now!”
The high mages wore equally repulsed expressions of disgust like I was the scum of the earth—all except one.
The nice old dude with gray hair and silver cloak stared at me, but when he caught my gaze, he turned away. Was he upset or hiding something?
“I thought you took care of this problem two decades ago,” Kian growled at the king.
The alpha king sneered. “I took care of her wolf-father. You assured me the pregnancy hadn’t come to term before you exterminated the mother.”
Holy. Mother. Mage.
What were they saying?
“She is a shifter high crime,” Kian snapped. “The responsibility falls at your feet, Declan, not mine.”
My jaw hit the ground, and my entire world tilted.
I blinked, barely seeing the students and pack members gathering around, but I could feel the crowd pushing into the small clearing. What would they do? I could only imagine the picture we made, a small pack of black wolves surrounding a bleeding girl.
The wolves perked up, and I followed their gazes to their mother. The headmistress entered the clearing just as the king pointed at me and declared, “Nai, of Crescent Clan, is a foul perversion of the highest order. Half shifter, half high mage.”
Everyone gasped. Even me.
My mother was … a high mage?
I glanced at the only nice high mage I knew, but his attention remained fixed on the other high mages.
“The sentence for this crime is death,” Kian roared.
The king flicked his head to the royal guards, and they advanced.
Oh, hell no!
I thrust my arms out, and a gust of wind blew outward, knocking the guards back.
The alpha king clenched his jaw, the anger turning his face purple, and he drew his sword. Like Rage, the alpha king’s element was fire, and he pointed his blade at me, flames dancing down the sides to the tip.
Heat pricked my skin, and a hot searing pain ripped through my body as he tried, no doubt, to ignite me. I sucked in a deep breath to cool his magic, and then it was gone.
As I exhaled, relieved, I heard a whimper. My gaze shot to the wolves, and I gasped in horror as realization dawned.
The scent of burning flesh confirmed my fear.
Honor, the smallest of the wolves, let out a cry, and smoke curled in the air. He was my shield. The last to take the oath, he would be the first to fall if…
“No!” I screamed, desperate to help my friend. “Please, stop, he’s—”
The rest of my plea died in my throat as Honor’s fur burst into flames. He collapsed to the ground, writhing as blood oozed from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Time slowed to a crawl.
Howls of agony rose up from the three Midnight wolves, and shock ripped through me. I fell to my knees, water gushing from my palms to douse the fire. Tears streamed down my cheeks, and my whole body shook.
“Honor … no.”
Honor’s mother screamed. Her loud wail of anguish tore through the night, mourning for a loss that could never be replaced.
Rage snarled and stalked toward the king, head low and hackles raised, and the alpha king staggered backward.
The coward.
“Shields?” the king gasped. “You idiots!”
I crawled to where Honor’s wolf had fallen and gathered him up in my arms. Rocking him back and forth, I sobbed.
No.
No.
No.
Not him.
Not sweet Honor.
Not for me.
The loss cracked open inside of me like a cavern swallowing me whole. There was a gaping space in my heart…
He was gone, melted from the inside out by his own alpha, his uncle, his king.
The grief clamped my throat, and I released a guttural wail.
Then I felt it. A slice of breathtaking pain as another mark branded me. This one at the top of my head. The searing pain crawled down my spine, and my vision disappeared with an explosion of white-hot agony.
A fifth mark? How? What?
When I opened my eyes, I knew what the fifth element was. The one no one spoke about, the one no one at school had. My gaze shot to the silver-cloaked mage, and he offered me a sad smile. And then he pointed…
At Honor’s ghost.
He stood over me, watching as I held his dead wolf, with a frown on his lips.
My eyes filled with fresh tears, and I scrambled to my feet.
“No,” I gasped. “Please … come back.”
“Oh, Nai,” he said, his voice a mere echo of its normal strength. “It doesn’t work like that.”
He leaned forward, and I felt a whisper of a kiss against my forehead.
“I’ll miss you,” he said. “And my brothers and Mom, but I have no regrets.”
He turned and strode away, walking without his limp, right to where his grieving mother pounded her fists on the forest floor. He paused there, bent down, and tried to give her a hug, but his arms went right through her. He straightened and squared his shoulders, turning to meet my watery gaze. “Make sure you tell them that and that I love them—and when Mom is ready, tell her too.”
I stood there, numb with grief and shock, but nodded, unsure of what else I could do, then glanced at the old high mage, the one with the silver cloak, the one who must be the master of the element of spirit.
He merely pointed for me to keep watching.
Almost as if everyone had been frozen and then thawed, a cacophony of wailing and yelling erupted.
The headmistress leapt to her feet and launched herself at the king. “How could you!”
Four guards struggled to pull her off, and Honor blew her a kiss before he walked into the trees toward a blinding white light.
“Honor, no!” I stood, dropping his wolf’s body to the ground with a sickening thud and moved to go after him, to beg him to stay. Maybe I could stop him…
“You’ve been living on borrowed time,” Kian growled, stepping toward me. “That ends now.”
There was so much commotion, the students backing into the trees averting their gaze, uncomfortable with death, the king and his wife fighting in the woods, the guards holding her back. Rage at the edge ready to rip his uncle’s head off. Justice and Noble nuzzling Honor’s dead wolf with their noses as if they could revive him.
Kian’s lip curled with disgust. “High crimes deserve their fate. You’re an abomination. Half wolf, half high mage.”
That might even be true, but if I let Kian hurt me, then he’d hurt the Midnight boys. One by one, they would fall, and I wouldn’t let that happen.
The silver high mage stepped in front of Kian and held up his hands. “Kian, you’re being hasty. Think! You’d wipe out all the Midnight royal heirs to kill her? She has three shields.” He indicated the congealing bite marks on my arms. “What would that do to the shifter-mage peace accord?”
Kaja’s sister, s
hield to the high mage of spirit, pulled her sword.
“I don’t care about the accord!” Kian bellowed. “I want her dead!”
Wow.
Probably not the best time to tell him, but I wished he was dead too.
I glanced at the Midnight princes, debating my next step, when I felt a presence in my mind.
‘Run,’ the silver-cloaked mage said. ‘Go to the mortal realm, and hide until I get word to you.’
I gulped and noticed Rage, Justice, and Noble all stood erect as if they’d been given orders too.
‘Mate. Run. Protect,’ Rage said, nuzzling my leg.
Kaja ran into the space, screaming, “I’m on fire! My blood is boiling. No! Aggghhh! Get out of here!”
I frowned because she looked fine…
“Flee!” Kaja bellowed, dropping to the ground. Her gaze hit mine, and she screamed, “Now! My blood!”
The students all screamed, creating a massive distraction.
The mage must’ve told her something too. Why was he helping me? I didn’t have time to figure it out.
With one last glance at my bestie, I took in the hellacious ending of the midyear games and then raced off into the forest, my clothes falling in tatters as my wolf rose to the surface. Three black Midnight wolves kept pace next to me. I knew now why my wolf always retreated in danger. She knew my magic was there this whole time, that I was more powerful in human form. Not human … high mage.
My mind reeled as we ran. I was the high crime. I was … interbred between two races.
And Honor was gone.
The ache in my chest deepened, and I knew all of us grieved as our paws pounded the forest floor. I wasn’t sure which of the boys howled first, but eventually, one by one, we tipped our heads back and yowled when the grief became too much. But as Justice, Rage, and Noble each pressed against me, I knew no matter what, we were in this together.
Rage moved our little pack to where we could catch a boat back to the shore and the portal into the mortal world. But I diverted to the right where the boats went to Dark Row.
‘No. Mate. This way,’ Rage growled.
I shook my head, weaving in and out of the bushes, only one thing on my mind.
The boys sidled up next to me, and I looked at each one of them. ‘No. This way. We’re going to bring Honor back from the dead.’
I knew a certain dark mage who’d bragged about knowing the keeper of souls. I didn’t even want to know what the cost was for bringing someone back from the realm of the dead. I’d have to negotiate better this time. Either way, I’d pay the price. No matter the cost.
Honor would not be taken from us.
Not tonight.
And definitely not like this.
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Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to our families for dealing with the late night tippy tapping on the keyboard while we wrote this story. To our ARC team and reader groups, thank you so much for your enthusiasm for this series! We heart you. Lee and Dawn, our editors, this book would not be polished without you. Thank you to all our readers who help us get to follow our dream every day!
Also by Raye Wagner
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www.RayeWagner.com
Also by Leia Stone
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www.leiastone.com