“Tala! Go!”
“No!” I snarled. I closed my eyes and again called upon that place deep inside me, the place I retreated to when I needed to think and exist with nothing and no one interfering with my magic. Inhale in, exhale out. One. Two. Inhale in, exhale out.
Slowly, so slowly, the pulsing magic ripping through me from the Fire Wolf slowed.
“I’ll try again.” I panted. “Just hold still.”
Thankfully, my new power had stopped draining him and filling me. He gave a curt nod, his chest rising as unsteadily as mine, then gave me his back and the cuffs.
I was about to try breaking the cuffs again when the sorcerer who’d escaped suddenly appeared at the doorway with a dozen other supernaturals behind him.
My lips parted in fear.
Escaping was no longer an option.
The Fire Wolf surged to his feet, his entire body blocking me just as the group advanced. Spells came at us so fast that I thought for certain we were dead, but in the next moment, I realized that none of them were hitting us.
My eyes widened when I sensed the shield spell the Fire Wolf had woven around us. His jaw clenched, his muscles straining, and I could only imagine the amount of power it was taking to keep the group from descending on us with those half-dissolved cuffs wrapped around him.
“Break. The. Cuffs. Now.” He panted between each word as the black flames along the wall began to grow again.
Too much. Too much was happening, and we were losing control.
“Can’t,” he rasped heavily. “Cuff’s still draining my magic. Can’t hold them. And control burn.” Veins popped in his neck.
Shit. Even though I’d weakened the cuffs, they were still draining him too much. Break them, Tala. Break them now! I crouched down just as a crack appeared in his shield. A spell shot through it.
The Fire Wolf roared, his entire body rippling as spells, fangs, daggers, and swords came at us from every angle as the group did their best to hack down the hunter’s defenses.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
And that was when I knew.
We were out of time.
And only one thing could set us free.
An avalanche of despair hit me and buried me at once. I had no choice.
I’m sorry, Mom.
Another curse shot by as one of the sorcerers put a second hole in the hunter’s shield spell, and a fireball lobbed by a half-demon shot inside it, setting the carpet ablaze.
The hunter lurched back as my forbidden magic swirled to life inside me. I concentrated on my breathing, knowing I needed to maintain control since I had one shot, and one shot only at this.
“Get ready!” I yelled to him as another spell tore through his shield. “I’m going to strengthen your power and you’ll need to act immediately!” Before he could reply, I gathered the unique magic trapped inside me, calling upon those coiling strands of power and light. My whole body vibrated and warmed, as though expanding and heating to accommodate the awesome power.
It hummed and swelled, flowing down my arms to my wrists as I directed all of it at my hunter.
Now.
My magic shot into him as the lid on the well to my forbidden power burst wide open like a geyser. My power flooded his body, multiplying his power a thousand-fold until he became a conduit for death and darkness.
The Fire Wolf’s head whipped back as black flames shot across his skin, and with a snap of his wrists, the glowing blue bindings shattered as if they’d been as thin as brittle glass.
I flew backward, putting as much distance between me and the Fire Wolf as I could. Sweat poured down my face as I struggled to keep my forbidden magic flowing into him, but he didn’t waste any time.
In a flurry of movements too fast for me to see, the blazing Fire Wolf became a literal hurricane. He obliterated the supernaturals surrounding us, turning into a whirling blur of vengeance and snarls, heat and fire—a living being of destruction and cataclysmic power.
My head grew fuzzy just as my magic began to fizzle out. Ragged breaths made my chest rise and fall as the well of my magic began to run dry.
I blinked, then blinked again as I surveyed our surroundings.
The Fire Wolf stood in the center of the room, his huge frame covered in flames. A dark light filled his eyes, and a twisted smile curved his lips. Around him was a sea of blood and flesh, hair and robes.
Everyone was dead.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you enjoyed that,” I said weakly.
Somehow, I managed to drag myself to my feet, but in a flash, the hunter was there, hooking my arm around his shoulders and half-carrying me out.
We flew out the door and down the hall as the room we’d been in exploded into black flames.
A large steel door barred our way at the end of the hall, but my forbidden magic hadn’t fully worn off yet from the hunter, and he slammed a fist straight through it before twisting and yanking it off its hinges.
“Impressive,” I managed to say as the fog in my head grew.
His worried-looking eyes shot to mine just before we raced through the door. I was completely limp now, fully dependent on him carrying me. My vision grew in and out of focus, but I managed to assess the cages along the walls with prowling supernaturals locked behind their thick bars. Seven. There were at least seven supernaturals locked in this room.
“Tala!” my sister cried out, her face a desperate mask of relief and hope. She still wore the floral dress. It was ripped and stained, but she wasn’t bleeding and she didn’t appear injured.
“Tessa,” I whispered. “Thank the gods.”
A small smile lifted my lips just as the fuzziness in my head expanded. The Fire Wolf snarled before setting me gently on the floor.
“I need to free them,” he said urgently.
I managed a nod as I blinked and tried to stay conscious. But a second later, I was slumping against the wall, and the last thing I remembered seeing were the cell doors being ripped from their hinges before I sank into oblivion.
Chapter 19
I awoke to the feel of sheets swirled around me, and the warmth of sunshine on my face. Blinking, I opened my eyes. Above me, my old familiar light fixture dangled from the ceiling.
I blinked again, wondering why I was so freakin’ sore until I felt the mattress shift next to me.
A yelp tore from my throat when I came face to face with the Fire Wolf. In my bed. In my apartment. In Chicago.
His amber eyes pinned me with a look full of heat and burning questions.
“Hi?” I offered by way of greeting and was about to ask what he was doing in my bed when everything came flooding back to me. New York. The club. Our scorching kiss in the alleyway. Him finger fucking me and my revelation that I was his mate. Rescuing Tessa. Everything going wrong. My forbidden power being revealed.
“Oh shit,” I breathed, but then in the next breath I bolted upright. “Where’s Tessa?”
“Safe. She’s asleep in her room.”
I scrambled out of my bed before he could say another word and didn’t breathe again until I stood in her doorway and saw her sleeping on her bed.
She was sprawled across her mattress, tangled in her sheets, her long hair spread across her pillow like a draped flag. She slept deeply, her breaths low and even. She was even dressed in her favorite lime-green pajamas.