TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

QUOTE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

CHAPTER 24

LINK TO RECURVE

NEWSLETTER

ALSO BY SHANNON MAYER

AUTHORS NOTE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

COPYRIGHT

PRAISE FOR THE RYLEE ADAMSON NOVELS

“Shannon Mayer’s Rylee Adamson paranormal romances keep me glued to the page. Rylee is a kick-ass character who loves with her whole heart and reminds me of my own Rose Gardner—a collector and protector of lost and broken souls. Every new book is better than the last and I always finish her latest book hungry for more.”

-Denise Grover Swank

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

“The Rylee Adamson Novels are filled with a wonderfully detailed and rich paranormal world with engaging characters, a fast paced plot and lots of action. A must read for urban fantasy lovers.”

-Eve Langlais

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author

“If you love the early Anita Blake novels by Laurel K. Hamilton, you will fall head over heels for The Rylee Adamson Series. Rylee is a complex character with a tough, kick-ass exterior, a sassy temperament and morals which she never deviates from. She's the ultimate heroine. Mayer's books rank right up there with Kim Harrison's, Patricia Brigg's, and Ilona Andrew's. Get ready for a whole new take on Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance and be ready to be glued to the pages!”

-Just My Opinion Book Blog

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you seems inadequate when it comes to being grateful to those who help bring a story to life. My editors, cover artists, proofreaders, ARC team, and readers. All of you have a part in making this story more than it could have been without you.

Here’s to a thousand more.

“Always go too far, because that’s where you will find the truth.”

-Albert Camus

CHAPTER 1

THE GULF OF Mexico beach is where Raven found me, where we met the first time as I tried to convince three shifters that the demons had been contained and they could trust me, an underage witch.

“Listen to me.” I struggled not to yell at them. In part because of the wind and the sound of the waves, but more because they kept turning their backs to walk away. It occurred to me that this must be how parents felt when their children refused to see basic logic and reason. I drew a breath and forced myself to relax my stance before I continued. “Rylee stopped the demons. The world is safe now. I was at the battle. I saw them go down.” My back was to the softly lapping water of the Gulf. Around us was the constant hum of the world continuing as if there had been no fight for its existence. Strange how that was.

The cries of the gulls overhead, the rhythmic push and pull of the waves on the sand, the rustle of clothes as the shifters adjusted their stances; my words made them uncomfortable. A waft of dried seaweed—tangy and sour—curled up my nose, tickling and taking me to the edge of a sneeze, something that would make me look even more undignified than I was sure I did. Soaked to the bone, my hair a wild, wind-blown mess, and I knew without seeing myself that I looked younger than the fifteen years I was.

The three shifters stood in human form in front of me, almost as bedraggled as I was. Their clothing was not in good shape, and two weren’t even wearing shoes. They looked like bums, homeless men who’d been out for a night of drinking and ended up on the beach at daybreak. But I could see through what the world saw to what they truly were. One wolf, one bear, and one mountain lion—all male—were battered and bruised beyond the way their clothing looked. The wolf shifter took the lead, which was not a surprise seeing as they tended to be a bit on the bossy side when they were Alphas. “Look, I know the demons are gone. I was at the battle, too.”

I smiled, doing my best not to sigh with relief. “Then you know that now, more than ever, we need to look out for each other. There are so few of us left.”

“Us? You aren’t one of us.” The bear shifter shook his head and a smell of rotting meat floated through the air as he let out a wet grunt. “We aren’t meant to be in close quarters with one another. Don’t know what you’re up to, little girl, but I don’t like it.” He took a few steps forward as if to intimidate me.

Marco, my friend and transportation, clacked his beak. Just once, but the sharp snap stopped the bear shifter in his tracks. “I wouldn’t threaten her. It would be bad for your health to do so again.” Of course, being a thousand-pound male Harpy with talons that could gut all three of the shifters with very little effort helped his words in their effect. I appreciated it, but it also irritated me that no one took me seriously on my own. Even now, after all that had happened, I was still seen as the kid.

The young one. True as it might be, I didn’t feel young.

The wolf hadn’t taken his yellow-green eyes off me. He had dirty blond hair and those eyes seemed to be looking for something, as if he could see through me. I held his gaze easily. I’d locked eyes with far more frightening people than him.

“We don’t need each other now; the threat is over. Brighton is right about that,” the wolf said. Brighton must be the bear. The burly man nodded. Brighton the bear, then.

I clenched my fists at my side, fighting the urge to grab the wolf and shake him till his teeth rattled and what I was saying sunk in. How did I explain what I couldn’t even fully say to my family, to Rylee, or even Liam? The fear that curled through my blood at night while I lay trying to sleep was all too real. The war against the demons was won, but something else was coming, and I knew it as surely as I knew the color of the sky.

But you can’t just spit that out to supernaturals who are not only older than you, but have more life experience. To supernaturals who think that because they are physically stronger than you, they know better.

I straightened my back and tipped my chin up. “Something worse is coming. Maybe not demons but something else, and you’d be a fool not to notice.”

They glared at me and I shook my head. Well, at least I had their attention now.

“Have you not seen the humans and their preparations? They are gearing up for war. You think you will somehow be passed over? That you can escape a human war unscathed? They are not going down quietly; we all know that.” I was throwing caution to the wind and acting on a hunch. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure the humans were going to war. But Marco and I had seen so much activity in the sky that it was hard to come up with any other explanation for what could be going on. Several of the army bases we’d flown over were the same, buzzing like a hornet’s nest that had been kicked repeatedly.

The three shifters looked at each other, eyes flicking, soft shakes of their heads, fists clenching and unclenching.

For just a moment, I thought they believed me. The mountain lion shifter, who up to that point had been silent, was the one to enlighten me.

“Fuck off. We don’t want any part of your conspiracy theories about humans going to war. We’re tired and are going to relax here on the beach. If the humans go to war they can all just go and ram a warhead right up their own asses.”

I put a hand to my forehead. “You idiots don’t get it—”

“No, you don’t get it, you mouthy, brat witch.” Brighton the bear took several steps until he stood over me, staring down at me with his rank, rotten breath.

“Too close,” Marco muttered, and Brighton took a few steps back with a glare at the big gray Harpy.

I put a hand to the shifter’s chest as I gathered the power inherent in my blood. “Witch, at least, is right. Brat, not so much.”

The power raced out of me and slammed into the bear shifter, sending him into the air. I clenched my fist and he paused up there like an oversized, far too angry kite. Another time I would have laughed.

“Let him down, now,” the mountain lion shifter snarled as he began to change forms. Slowly and painfully, giving me plenty of time to prepare for his attack. Ridiculous codswallop.

Marco ruffled his feathers. “They really think they can take you? That’s sad and amusing at the same time.”

The mountain lion finished his shift. His tawny coat caught the sunlight as he leapt. I snapped the fingers of my free hand and then flicked them outward, as if shaking off water. He swept upward to join his bear friend.

I turned to look at the wolf. He hadn’t moved, those chartreuse eyes not twitching, not indicating he was going to attack. “You aren’t convincing me that we should want to come with you. Attacking people is not how to make friends—human or otherwise.”

“Then they shouldn’t have come at me, and you damn well know it.” I wanted to add a few choice words about how stupid they were, and how overt aggression would only get them killed sooner rather than later, if not by me then by someone else. But I didn’t.

“Aw, they were playing.” He smiled and winked at me as he took a few steps closer. His hands were in the air and Marco didn’t give him any warning to stay back. “You know us animals can’t always control ourselves.”

I didn’t let his friends down. “That isn’t going to work on me.”

“No? Then how about this?”

He was only six feet away when he dropped to the ground, scooped up a handful of sand and flung it at me. The grit caught me full in the face before I could close my eyes.

The world spun as I was tackled to the ground, and the weight of the shifter slammed me hard against the earth. Air sped from my lungs and I struggled to think around the lack of oxygen.

Marco screeched and I managed to shake my one hand at him with my two middle fingers held down. That was the sign that I was fine. That I would handle whatever I was facing on my own. The Harpy didn’t step in.

He, at least, trusted me to take care of myself.

“You don’t deal with them in the next ten seconds, I will. His friends are on the ground and coming fast,” Marco said.

I kept my eyes closed, the scratching sand making it painful to even try to open them. I didn’t need to see to deal with them.

The wolf held me down by my wrists. As if keeping my hands away from him would save him. I drove my knee up fast and hard the way Rylee had taught me and caught him in the balls. He grunted and his hands loosened. Squinting through my grit-encrusted eyelids, I snapped my right hand forward and drove it into his neck with as much force as I could muster while lying on my back. It was enough to send him rolling away.

“Now, you’ve pissed her off,” Marco said as if he were an announcer at a prize fight. The thought made me smile. “And she’s smiling now. That’s a bad sign for you three. I’m just going to sit back and watch. I need popcorn for this.”

I could see the shifters, though my eyes were watering madly. Two running at me. One writhing on the ground. Left hand down, right hand up, I sent my power through the earth and the air at the same time. The ground exploded under the three, and sent them flying into the air where I caught and held them for a moment once more. Three kites now made of fur and snapping teeth.

With them effectively nulled, I could have mounted up on Marco and left. But that was not how things were done in our world. If they would attack me because I was younger and female, they would attack others for the same reason. Others who could not defend themselves. If I let these three go, I was effectively sentencing another girl to them. Darkness rose through me and I recognized it for what it was. The desire to kill them to protect other innocents.

Other children like those I’d left behind so long ago.

A shudder rippled through me—no, I would not go back to that place in my past.

“What are you going to do to us, then?” one of the shifters asked. I’m not sure which one, because his voice was pitched differently. Maybe the wolf, seeing as I’d busted his balls good.

I shook my head. “Deciding if I’m going to kill you or not.”

They laughed, and then slowly the laughter died. The mirth tapered off and then seemed to be physically strangled out of them.

The flutter of wings drew my eyes from the three in the air. Marco leaned his head down to me so his eyes were level with mine. “They attacked out of fear, Pam. Not because of your size or your gender. They are afraid, and they are right to be so in the current state of the world.”

“How can you know that?” I looked from him to the three shifters.

He blinked several times. “Their stances, the way their eyes won’t settle on any one thing. You have an aura of power around you. They attacked because you scare them. They did not think you weak. They thought you would try to kill them from the outset.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I know you well. I know you think you are protecting others, when all you are doing is letting the darkness convince you of things that are almost true, but not quite.” He butted his beak against my shoulder. “Let them go, and we will find others that will come with us. Others that are not consumed by fear.”

I still hesitated. Mostly because I was afraid Marco was right. Was I not seeing things the way I should? Was I letting the darkness take hold of me again? A spurt of sheer terror shot through me and with it I flung my hands outward to send the three shifters away. Far away. They would survive a fall.

Only I sent them into the Gulf of Mexico and not over land as I had intended. Would they survive? Maybe, but it was a long way to swim, even for a shifter.

“Oh shit, that wasn’t what I meant to do.” I looked up at Marco. “Would you?”

Marco let out a sigh and stretched his wings. “Yeah, I’ll get them and take them further down the beach. Wait for me here.”

With a great leap and down beat of his wings, he took to the air. The sand kicked up around me and I closed my eyes against it. I didn’t need more grit under my eyelids, thank you very much.

“Bloody hell,” I muttered, my English roots showing up. That’s what stress did to me. I fell back to the lingo of my birthplace. I was trying to fit more into the American culture, trying to soften my accent, but it didn’t always work. I dusted off my clothes and shook off the feeling of panic as best I could. I certainly wasn’t expecting to have any sort of a conversation.

“That was impressive work there.”

I spun around, one hand raised palm up with a ball of energy spinning over it, and my bowie knife I always kept in the sheath on my lower back in the other.

A man stood about twenty feet away from me. Black hair, blue eyes, youngish. Maybe in his late twenties or early thirties, I would guess. “Good reflexes, too.” He nodded as if actually impressed.

“Who are you and what are you doing sneaking up on me?” I didn’t move from my stance other than to wave the tip of the knife at him.

He smiled and tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Didn’t mean to sneak up on you, but shouting from a distance is rather undignified. My name is Raven.”

I could see he was trying to soften me toward him and that alone made me wary. “What do you want, Raven?”

“You going to hold that knife at me while we talk?” He continued to smile, now with a quirk to one side of his mouth. Definitely he was used to getting his own way. It was the way Will smiled whenever he was trying to soften the ladies to him.

I nodded. “You betcha.”

He laughed softly. “Ah, nice touch. You almost sounded American there.” He brushed the side of his nose with one finger, that smile still hovering on his lips.

My heart pounded. Was he a telepath? Could he read my mind?

“No, I can’t read your mind, but I am very, very good at reading people. And to answer your other question, I think I can help you with something.”

I arched an eyebrow and lowered the bowie knife just a little. “Really? Just what is that?”

“I can teach you.”

My other eyebrow shot up to join its mate. “Teach me what, exactly?” Strange men didn’t just show up to teach young girls . . . nice things.

He leaned his head forward, just a little. Enough to make me think he didn’t want anyone to hear what he had to say. “Everything you ever wanted your magic to do.”

His words sank in slowly. I’d had two teachers so far when it came to magic. Deanna, the druid, who only taught me the ways of peace. Healing and divination, for the most part. She had been Will’s sister and she’d died in the battle with Orion. Then, there had been Milly. Prior to my arrival, she had been the strongest witch the world had ever seen. She was gone now, too, dead at Orion’s hand.

With so few witches left, and those being weak, there had been no more training for me. And I knew training was exactly what I needed for what I hoped to accomplish.

“Are you a witch?” I lowered both hands, though I was ready to throw down if I had to.

He shook his head. “No, I’m an elemental. And I can teach you things no other witch will ever be able to teach you.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. I was no fool. Fifteen I might be, but I’d lived a lifetime in those few years. “And what do you want in return, Raven?”

CHAPTER 2

WHEN LEAVING THE beach, I didn’t tell Marco I’d spoken with anyone. He came back from depositing the three shifters on solid land and we headed home to North Dakota. We’d flown from the Gulf to Bismarck in record time, only to land and have Rylee send us to Seattle. Which was fine by me; I needed time to think.

We’d rescued Liam from the bloodthirsty ogres in that city, then returned home once more.

Still not enough time for me to decide what I wanted to do.

Even though Raven had asked for only a single thing in return for his teaching and training, it was a heavy request in so many ways. A sword, and not just any sword, but the one Rylee had used to kill Orion.

A sword that held power beyond the strength and cut of a regular blade.

To go with Raven meant I was betraying Rylee’s trust. But to not go with him meant I was condemning those I loved and had lost too soon to stay in their early graves. I couldn’t do that.

So I’d steeled my spine and took the sword when Rylee was busy.

And now, here I was with my decision made to follow Raven. To turn away from my home and the only real family I’d ever known on the chance I could change what had happened in the past and bring back those I loved.

My feet were leaden as I walked behind my new mentor, and more than once I looked over my shoulder at Liam’s house. Above the trees, I could just make out the edge of the roofline, here and there. Each step took me farther away. I couldn’t help looking back again and again. Every few feet I twisted around, noted it was indeed still visible. But not for long. In front of me, Raven turned right and the view behind me changed, and the home I’d known was wiped from my sight. A part of me wondered if it would be the last time I saw it.

I bit the inside of my cheek. I was leaving Bismarck with a man I barely knew, with a weapon that did not belong to me.

Without thinking, I reached back under my cloak and touched the handle of the sword in question. The sword that Larkspur, elemental and friend to my family, had made in order to give us a chance against the demons. The sword I’d just stolen from the one person who’d always trusted me.

As far as I knew, the only person who saw me take it—persons, I suppose was more accurate—were the babies. Rylee had hidden the sword in their room, strapped to the bottom of their crib. Of course, who would think to look for a sword in a child’s room? I suppose no one, except that I’d seen her put it there.

“Don’t tell anyone, Pam,” Rylee had said as I helped her attach it to the unique hiding place.

“Of course not.” I was only mildly insulted. Rylee didn’t leave anything to chance when it came to the safety of her family.

I clenched my teeth tightly and tried not to think about what I’d done as I hurried toward Raven. I knew what Rylee would say when she found not only me, but the sword missing. She would be angry, that much I could handle. It would be the disappointment in her eyes that would run me through.

As I’d sat in the backyard in the vine-covered gazebo, still contemplating whether or not I should go with Raven, Liam had found me. Always perceptive, he’d known right away something was up and sat with me, just talking. I thought he’d tell me to stay, that I was being ridiculous.

But he hadn’t stopped me. I’d told him I needed to go, and he made me promise to come back—that was it.

I made that promise, while everything inside of me screamed they were just words, that nothing could make them true.

In my heart of hearts, I knew this was a turning point, a decision that would change my world.

I shook my head and narrowed my eyes on the flowing black cloak that whipped around Raven as he walked ahead of me.

This whole thing, the whole desire and need for more training, had started with a simple book I’d found in Liam’s small library. So small, so innocuous looking that I’d pulled it out in curiosity.

The leather-bound book was filled with possible spells. All of them were in Milly’s handwriting. Some of the spells I’d been able to duplicate on my own, some I would never dare for the darkness in them, the whispers of death that beckoned me. But there was one spell . . . one I wanted so badly to perform and that Milly had never tried. No, that wasn’t right. She wrote failed under that spell.

Retrieving a loved one from death.

I brushed my fingers over the book tucked into my small side carry-all. The leather pouch held only a few things, but that book was the most important. It was my last connection to a teacher who had known more than I—the last teacher I’d thought I would ever have.

If Raven could help me do what I needed to do with that final spell, then this would all be worth it.

“You’re awfully quiet. I expected you’d be questioning me nonstop.” Raven looked over his shoulder as we walked along the sidewalk. The sound of our footfalls in a steady rhythm was the only noise around. There weren’t even cars driving by. It was as if we walked alone in a world where all the people had disappeared.

Yet I refused to walk beside him. I wanted him in front of me where I could keep an eye on him. What he offered me in terms of training and help was not something I could turn from, not when I knew most of the witches who could train me were dead. But that didn’t mean I was so foolish to think he was going to be my friend, or even someone I could trust.

I was not the naïve girl I’d once been, believing the world would look down on me with compassion and kindness. That there would always be someone there to save me.

I’d held onto the belief far too long. After my adoptive parents had sent me to the home for difficult children. After I’d survived that place of confinement and abuse. After I’d been forced to undergo an exorcism . . . after so much pain.

No, I knew the truth now. I would have to save myself and be ready to save those I loved.

Going with Raven and learning what I could from him was the only way I could do that.

He stopped and turned to me. With a quick movement, he brought his hand up, and I slid to a stop mid-step. I whipped my own hands up as I scrambled backward. Power hummed along my arms, pooled in my palms, waiting for my cue to lash out.

His eyes widened and he slowly turned his hands, palms out. “Easy, little witch. I am not going to hurt you.”

“I doubt that very much.” I said the words before I really registered them myself. He took a deep breath and nodded, a flicker of sadness in his eyes there and gone as fast as he blinked.

“Fair enough. We need to have a discussion, Pamela. About what it is you want from me, and what I want from you. This is not a freebie, as the humans say. I want the terms of our contract to be very open and clear.”

Of course, it wasn’t. I’d never expected it to be. I straightened my shoulders and cautiously lowered my hands. I looked around, really seeing where we were.

He’d led me to a playground of all places. The swings creaked in the ever-blowing North Dakota wind, but otherwise it was quiet. Not a single child or parent enjoying the place. Then again, it was growing dark. The jungle gym was made of metal pipes and wood, solid against the weather and the hard use of children climbing the structure over and over. If I’d been an ordinary girl, maybe I would have felt drawn to the place with a desire to run and play freely. I shook my head and looked at Raven.

“I never thought this was a freebie. You did ask for the sword, if you recall.” My words were sharp.

He grinned. “That I did. But did you think that was all I would want?” Faster than I could react he had swept his hand out and caught a lock of my long blond hair. He twisted it through his fingers and let it run across them.

“You want a lot from me, Pamela. It’s only fair I ask a great deal in return.”

A sudden lurch in my stomach made me take a half step back. What exactly was he asking? I was no prude, but he couldn’t be asking for that. He was at least fifteen years older than me . . . I squared my shoulders. I would not falter under that fear.

“I suggest you spell it out. I’m not into guessing games.” I was proud of how strong my voice was.

He laughed and shook his head. “The Tracker’s influence on you is strong. You took to her fiery spirit. That’s good. I should have thought to . . . never mind.”

“I said spit it out,” I snapped, “or I’ll leave. I’ll find someone else to teach me.”

His eyebrows shot up. “There is no one else.”

“Bullshit. Larkspur said she’d teach me.” The words were free of my mouth and I wondered why I hadn’t thought of them sooner.

Raven folded his arms over his chest, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Did she? Well, that’s lovely, and I suppose if I am killed, then yes, you should go to her. But the reality is she can’t teach you what she doesn’t know. She was never trained like I was, Pamela. She learned on her own, much like you, and so there are great gaps in her training. Perhaps someday, if she lets me, I could teach her.”

There was quiet between us, the sound of the wind cutting through the chains on the swings, the creak of metal as they swung on their own as if propelled by ghosts. His words held the truth, and I could see it in his face. Never mind that out of all the supernaturals I’d found as Marco and I had scoured the country, very few were witches.

I shivered knowing I would do anything to learn, to grow my abilities. I would do anything to make me strong enough to protect those I loved. I understood in that exact moment how Rylee could go through what she did with the demons, how she could face the fear and lay down her life for the rest of us. I made myself stand a little straighter. I would do whatever it took, no matter how distasteful. “What do you want besides the sword then?”

He tucked his hands around to his back. “Well, first I need to find out if you are strong enough. I’m not sure you are. You see, I don’t train weaklings. I don’t train those who aren’t worth my time.”

I felt the blood drain from my face, felt it come rushing back with the heat of indignation. “I fought at the battle against the demons.”

“The battle of the Veil, yes, I know.” He nodded. “But I only caught glimpses of you there. I was rather busy myself doing what I could to stay alive.”

A hot burst of energy shot up through the soles of my feet. He was a trickster, and I could see through him now. “Let me guess, you have a task for me? One that will allow me to prove myself to you.”

Laughter spilled out of him, so sudden that the birds roosting in the trees around the playground shot into the night air with a flutter of wings and squawks.

Shaking his head, he pulled himself together. “Goddess, you . . . I could never have thought you would be so like your father. You read people well, discern them with an ability I didn’t think you could.”

I blanched, feeling the blood drain from my face yet again. I struggled to keep my feet in place. Every time I thought I had the upper hand, stood on even footing with him, he pulled the rug out from under me. Bloody damn hell. I swallowed the fear of what I was about to do. I knew what Rylee would do. I had to get control of this.

I turned on my heel and started back the way we’d come. Everything I was, everything I would be, balanced on this move.

“Where are you going?” he called after me.

“Home.” I stopped and turned. “It’s apparent to me that you only want to play games. You say you can teach me, but there is no proof of that. You want me to do a task for you, one that will probably put me in great danger and will only benefit you, with no guarantee of you helping me at all. Then you pull the parent card, again with no proof, so I can only assume you can continue to throw me off balance.” I drew a breath. “Which tells me you are a shyster.”

“A what?” He frowned, his brows furrowed deep.

“A con man.” I turned again. Even though giving him my back was dangerous, I did it.

There was no sound of feet behind me, no hot breath on my neck, although the skin all over my body tingled with apprehension. Heart pounding a wild rhythm, I kept walking. Lark would teach me, though it would be years. That had been her caveat. Five years I had to wait, and I just couldn’t, which meant Marco and I had to keep searching. We had to find a witch who could teach me. I knew there were things I should to be able to do by now but hadn’t even tried. Like find those we’d lost in the battle of the Veil. I blinked between steps and Raven was suddenly in front of me.

I stumbled backward and reacted. I flung my hand out and sent my power at him in a bundle that should have knocked him a hundred feet, at least. He flicked his fingers and the power dissolved as if it never had happened.

“Pamela, you can’t fight me.”

I kept moving backward, my cloak sweeping around me. I couldn’t seem to stop myself. I flung my power at him again and again. Fire, Earth, Air. He knocked away every attempt as I found myself backing until I was between the swings of the playground.

“You aren’t strong enough to beat me, Pamela. No witch can, so don’t feel badly about it.” He smiled as if that would soften the words.

“I’m not just any witch.” I was breathing hard with fear and the energy it took to throw that much power at him. “I was trained by Rylee.”

He laughed. “You think you have Tracking abilities?”

I whipped the cloak off and it fell to the ground in a flutter as I pulled the sword from my back. “Nope.”

His eyebrows shot up as I leveled the sword between us. “She taught you to fight.” Not a question.

I nodded. “Come on then. If you think you can take me.”

He put his hand out. “I don’t carry a weapon with me.”

“Pity.” I breathed the word as I dove at him.

He scrambled back as I lunged a second time and thrust the sword toward his belly. Rylee’s teachings flowed through me as strong as any magic. Crouch, pivot, thrust. He didn’t try to fight back. It was almost like I was a joke to him, a game. Which only made me angrier and my attack swifter. I settled into the fighting forms Rylee had drilled into me whenever we had the chance. I rode them the same way I rode my magic, as if it was everything, my whole world, the blood in my veins and the air in my lungs.

I was not weak, nor was I like other witches. I had more than one way to protect myself.

I spun and kicked out. I caught him in the thigh with my boot and he dropped to one knee. I followed his fall with the sword at a speed I wasn’t sure I could stop. But I trusted my body and its training. More than that, I trusted all I’d learned from Rylee.

I whipped the sword at his neck, my heart beat once in the time it took to stop the blade against his skin. Breathing hard, I stared down at him. “Just so we are clear. I could kill you. And I would not need magic to do it.”

His blue eyes locked onto mine and a rolling tingle started at the base of my neck and whispered through me. But you won’t; you want to learn from me.

I flexed my jaw, pushing the thoughts away as though brushing away a bevy of flies. “I know manipulation when I feel it, Raven. That will also get you killed.” I pressed harder with the blade, not yet enough to draw blood, but close.

Shock filtered through his face. “What?”

I didn’t move the sword from him. “You heard me. You trying to manipulate my thoughts will only make this sword run through you faster. You either treat me as an equal, or I leave now. Or maybe I’ll just kill you and get it over with. I doubt the world will miss a soul such as yours.”

He smiled, but very quickly the mirth fell. “You could not kill me. You’re a child playing at things you don’t understand fully.”

Now it was my turn to smile, and I could feel the hard edges of it. “Then you don’t know me very well. You would not be the first. I will protect those I love with all I have, to the damning of my soul if I must.” I drew back a little and the sword opened up a line, splitting the skin like a razor blade. Blood trickled down his neck but the sight was peripheral to what I was seeing.

Slowly, I saw it in his eyes. He lifted both hands to me, palms out.

“You . . . are not what I expected. Lower the blade. We will talk as equals then.”

I didn’t drop the sword. “Swear it.”

His lips twisted as he put a finger to the blood dripping down his neck. “I swear on the life of my daughter that I will not lead you astray. That I will treat you as an equal.”

I doubted I would get him to give me better. I lifted the sword from him, then bent and picked up my dropped cloak and wiped the blade edge on it. “Perhaps we should start again. I want to learn, and you have something you want from me. This should be rather straightforward, yes?”

He stood and looked down at me, and I could have sworn there was a smile in his eyes. But I could not be sure because he looked away and frowned.

The wind around us picked up, and the swings creaked and danced in the oncoming rush of wings. Wings. I turned, half expecting to see Marco swooping down on us. To be honest, I guess I was always half hoping he would find me. Marco had been my backup for six months, and he was my trusted friend.

What I saw, though, was not Marco, but an enemy I’d faced before.

Two figures dressed in white leather flew through the sky, pressing the wind ahead of them. Long white hair flew out behind them as they raced our way. Sylphs, or air elementals, were deadly even to the other elementals. They could steal the breath from your lungs and kill you with a barely lifted finger, without anyone knowing what happened to you even if they stood at your side. I’d faced one and survived, though it had been a close thing.

But what I stared at more than the air elementals, though, were their companions. Two figures flew below the feet of the Sylphs. Those two were not human looking at all, but monstrous in their forms. They were dark gray and thickly built, short arms and long legs, all tipped in rather short claws. Their heads were covered with bumps and knobs as though they had been pieced together—and rather badly. Only black holes were where their eyes should have been, and in their mouths were brilliant glimmering teeth like diamonds. Their wings spread wide, at least twenty feet across, and they cut through the air with heavy thumps that sent a pulse of air in front of them, and a shudder through my body.

“Gargoyles. Well, that’s a problem,” Raven muttered. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to deal with this.”

CHAPTER 3

GARGOYLES? OF ALL the creatures that Rylee and I had faced, gargoyles were not among them. I looked around the vacant playground to make sure no one had wandered in under the waning twilight. Feeling the enemy close, I turned my attention back to the sky. The monsters’ black, soulless eyes stared at us as they bared their teeth and sped up the beat of their clunky-looking wings.

I didn’t know if I should fight or not. Raven wasn’t my friend, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a part of whatever trouble he had coming for him.

Raven stepped around me and lifted his arms above his head. For just a moment, I thought I saw a shimmer of white dance up to his fingertips. But I was thrown to the ground before I could say for sure. The wind slammed into my back and sent me tumbling across the playground. He was using Air, but so were the Sylphs.

The combined force of two currents of air ramming into one another caused a spectacular spinning effect. I clung to the sword with one hand as I spun on my backside. With a quick jab, I drove the blade into the ground to stop my forward momentum. I clung to the handle as my hair whipped around my face making the scene in front of me hard to discern.

Raven had hidden himself so his face was covered with the heavy hood of a cloak, and his form seemed to be one of shadows and dark, hard to pinpoint even though he stood right in front of me. The two Sylphs shot left and right, zigzagging at a rapid speed which allowed them to stay out of Raven’s range. He tossed balls of fire at them and lit up the night sky with a brilliant glow that washed out the light of the moon overhead.

But again, it wasn’t the Sylphs who drew my eyes but the two gargoyles that slipped around the other side of Raven. They were going to hit him from behind.

Clinging to the sword with one hand, I lifted the other and called up the power of the earth. This had always been my strength, the place I felt most at home in my powers. The ground rumbled and exploded to either side of Raven. The burst of rocks and sod set the gargoyles back a few feet. Of course, it also made them take note that Raven was not alone.

They turned together and stared at me.

Heart racing, I stood against the wind, one hand still on the sword handle as I stared back at the two beasts. I needed Raven’s training still, as much as I hated to admit it, and that meant I would have to help him survive this attack.

The two gargoyles advanced on me, hovering just above the ground. I flicked my fingers upward and the earth exploded over and over again, as though I were setting off landmines right under them. They didn’t slow, hell, they didn’t even blink those bottomless black eyes.

“They’re made of earth; it won’t slow them!” Raven called to me.

I noticed he didn’t tell me how to stop them. Maybe I could use the elements that were already being tossed around. Both the wind from the Sylphs and from Raven was still going fast and hard. A little coaxing and I could turn it into something rather dangerous. I gritted my teeth and wove the power of Air through my fingers, letting it pick up speed like a mini tornado. Faster and faster, I coaxed until it was nothing but a blur over my hand. I set it on the ground and whispered softly, “Bigger.”

The spinning air shot above my head with a screaming roar, catching the other currents and going wild in the space of seconds. My legs were yanked toward it and I gripped the sword handle with all the strength in me, but it wasn’t enough. I’d unleashed the power of a tornado, what had I expected?

I slipped through the air and slammed into the wooden pilings of the playground. I couldn’t breathe, could barely see and yet I clung to the wood. Through squinted eyes, I stared at the tornado as it swept upward and toward the gargoyles. They were caught in its spinning vortex, their bodies slamming into one another with tremendous booms that rent the air even over the roar of the spinning monster I’d created.

I could have slowed the tornado, but to do so would free the gargoyles. At the edges of sensation, I felt someone try to take control of the tornado from me. I clung to it as I clung to the wood. It was mine. I wasn’t letting it go. I pushed my energy into it, urging it onward, urging it to grow and devour, to take out those who would harm me. Faster and faster it went; the trees around me cracked and groaned as they were pulled up by their roots.

The playground let out a pitiful moan, and the swing set ripped from the earth, large cement blocks on the ends of the support legs flying past me. I screamed with the power that roared along my veins because I’d fully lost control now.

The rage inside me would not be contained, it would not be denied this unleashing of power.

My arms began to slip, but I didn’t mind. I was the tornado. I was the air. I would not be harmed. A part of my brain tried to tell me those were lies, but I could not hold onto that. Or the wood under my hands. My fingers lost their grip and I was cast into the wild wind.

I floated between heaven and earth and I thought, I am lost. Gone forever.

A hand wrapped around my wrist and stopped my free fall. I was yanked out of the sky and drawn down to the earth. Arms held me tightly and then the wind was gone, the air around me still, my hair no longer flying about like Medusa’s snakes. Just like that it was over. The world felt as though it pulled apart around me for a moment, but the sensation was quick. There and gone before I could put my finger on the feeling.

I blinked several times as though I could wash away the darkness that filled my vision. Was it night, or had I lost my sight, or was it something worse? What the hell was going on?

I struggled against the hands that held me, and I was let go. I pushed through a swath of cloth, curtains maybe? No, something heavier. The material slid away from me and light bloomed. I sucked in a breath and put my hands on my legs to steady myself.

Raven had been holding me under his cloak—that was the darkness I’d experienced.

Raven had pulled me from the grasp of the tornado.

“Why were those Sylphs trying to kill you?” I blurted the question, angry that I’d been pulled into a fight that wasn’t my own.

He shrugged. “They are . . . upset with me, you could say.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” I glared at him.

“Not all my secrets are for you to know, little witch. There are many of the elementals that would kill me if given the chance.” He rolled his shoulders and smoothed out his cloak.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. He’d just saved my life, though, so I decided to let it go for now. There was something about him that was familiar and as I stared at him I realized what it was. He reminded me of Faris. That mercurial vampire that in one second could be your greatest ally, and the next, hand you off to your enemies for no other reason than he felt like it.

I needed to be even more careful of Raven than I’d first thought.

God, I did not want to cock this up.

We stared at one another, and then I realized we were no longer on the playground. Trees surrounded us, but there was nothing but grass and moss underfoot, no road to the side of us, no school in the distance. A forest, that much was obvious, but just where were we and how the bloody hell did we get here? I did a slow turn, knowing without looking that I’d lost the sword.

“You left this behind.” Raven drove the sword into the ground between us. “Far be it from me to make you think I would take anything not freely given.”

I wanted to grab the sword and stick it back into its sheath, but I paused. “You could have taken it and run. You could have let me die.”

He gave me a short nod. “I could have.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He squinted his eyes. “You’re interesting, Pamela. Far more than any witch I’ve ever met. And I think you actually want to learn. That makes me willing to do what I haven’t done in years, and attempt to teach a witch.”

I didn’t buy it, but for now, I would take his words at face value. “Sure.” I tightened my hand on the sword, spun the blade up and slid it into the sheath on my back without looking.

Raven watched me, as I watched him.

His lips quirked. “Now a question of my own. Why did you help me if I am so untrustworthy?”

I shrugged. “You said it yourself. I want to learn. Can’t do that if you’re dead.”

“Point.” He nodded.

“And for all I knew they would come at me next just for being with you.”

He barked a laugh. “Well, at least, you’re practical.”

“Where are we?”

He beckoned with one hand. “Somewhere you should know about now that you are old enough.”

I looked around us again at the dark sky, the trees leaning over us. His words were not really a comfort. “Really, and why is that?”

“Because this is the homeland of your birth mother.”

His words could not have stolen the air from my body any more than the tornado I’d just left behind. “My mother?”

“Yes, she was a powerful witch. Though no magic in the world could have saved her from her death.” There was sorrow in his voice. He glanced back at me. “She was killed shortly after giving birth to you, murdered actually.”

My heart clenched. “How do you know all this?”

“Isn’t that why you came with me, at least, in part? Because I knew your father, and your mother. Because I can tell you the history that is missing from your life?”

Our eyes locked and I wanted to see lies in his. I wanted to believe it was all just a story made up to fool me. But I didn’t see lies. I saw sincerity and a desire to actually tell me.

“I can’t manipulate you like I can others, Pamela. I can’t lie to you.” He said the words softly, almost . . . as though he were sad? But that didn’t make sense. He went on. “Funny how that works, but I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised.”

I didn’t find it particularly funny, but I held my tongue. For the moment, he seemed open and willing to talk and I needed to take advantage of it. “I want to bring a friend back from the dead. Is it possible?”

He blinked several times. “Maybe. Depends if there is time or not.”

“What do you mean?” I couldn’t help touching my carry-all. The book Milly had left behind didn’t say anything about it being someone’s time. Or did he mean there was a time limit? My guts clenched. If there was a ticking clock, maybe I was already too late?

Raven beckoned for me to follow and I made myself walk at his side so we could talk. “I mean that sometimes people die when they aren’t supposed to. Those are the only ones you have a hope of bringing back.”

“He died far too young,” I said.

“Doesn’t mean he wasn’t supposed to die,” Raven countered. “Age does not preclude a natural death.”

“He was killed. It wasn’t natural.” I thought of Frank, of how he’d sacrificed himself for me. Rylee had called it survivor’s guilt, the feeling that it should have been me. But the thing was, it really should have been me. But it wasn’t. Frank had died. Did it matter that I’d then gone on to help in the battle of the Veil? Not really, Frank could have done that too.

I swallowed hard. “He died to save me.”

Raven shot a look at me and tipped his head. “Possible then.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, there are several ways. One is to call up their spirit to see if they are at peace or not. If they are, they stay in the Veil no matter what you do. If they are not at peace, you can call them out.” He pushed a branch aside and held it for me.

We stepped into a clearing, and as my foot passed over some invisible barrier, I felt it in my bones.

This place was mine. It called to me in a ripple of sensations that rolled through my skin, muscle, and bone. A memory I didn’t know but felt in my body. Warmth and then a prickling of icy dread.

Love and hate.

Fear and rage.

“This was where you were born,” Raven said. “And it is where your mother died.”

CHAPTER 4

I MOVED AS IF pulled forward by strings I could not see, tugged toward the center of the clearing where there was nothing but a solid piece of flat rock on the ground. Half buried under the grass and moss, I went to my knees and pressed my hands to the stone, moving on autopilot.

Flashes of scenes, bursting images, overpowering smells, and the sounds of screaming and battle assaulted me in a crashing tumble over my senses. Like an avalanche, I could barely see through it; I could feel myself suffocating. A blonde woman stood in front of me as she laughed to the sky—she could have been me except for the hard cruelty in her eyes. Anger radiated off her, and I knew in that moment where my rage came from, where the uncalled-for fury that was so rooted in me stemmed.

Then there were the cries of a baby, the sobs of a woman who was my mother on the ground as she bled from a mortal wound, the plea for mercy, at least for her child . . . I closed my eyes but I could not shut out the sights in front of me. The person who killed my mother was no one I knew. Another witch with dark hair and green eyes, her belly heavy with child. “I do this for the world, and for my own daughter. May the goddess have mercy on all our souls” was what she said before taking my mother’s head.

As the blade bit through, there was a swirl of her long dark hair around her, her slender, if rather pregnant, body like a willow tree bent over my mother’s still body.

In the trees of the vision, there was a flash of lightning and before the witch could scoop up the bundle of baby that was my young body, another took me away. A figure in a dark cloak with a flash of blue eyes that seemed to cut through me.

The vision ended, but I kept still, my hands on the earth as I breathed slowly in an attempt to slow my racing heart.

After a few moments, I opened my eyes and turned to Raven. “You stole me from that woman who killed my mother? You couldn’t have been much older than I am now.”

“Even then I knew you would be stronger than any other witch. It was in your blood from both sides of your heritage. You were destined for greatness, Pamela. And elementals don’t age like the rest of the world. I am much older than I appear.” He wasn’t looking at me, but at something not there, his eyes distant as if maybe he saw the memory too. He finally looked at me. “You see I am telling you the truth now.”

“About this,” I countered as I stood. My whole body shook from the things I’d seen. Of all the images left to me, those were what my mother had chosen—and I knew she had left them. Her imprint was all over the scene, a final memory to be opened if her daughter ever set foot here. Her last vision for me was not a moment of love, not a moment of cherishing her baby girl, but of her death. And the one who’d done it to her. “She wanted me to avenge her death, didn’t she?”

He tipped his head in acknowledgement. “She was . . . driven, to say the least. It was one of her better qualities.”

“And you took me away when that other witch would have killed me.” I repeated the question/statement because he hadn’t answered me the first time.

“I hid you, that much is true. It was the only way to keep you safe. The witches here are not particularly . . . nice.”

“No shit,” I muttered as I walked away from him, pulling my thoughts together with each step. This was lovely and all, but I had to move on. That’s what I told myself.

“So, here we are. We still haven’t come to terms with what, exactly, we are going to help each other with. You want the sword. I want to learn. You won’t get the sword until I’m satisfied I’ve learned everything I can.”

He looked at me, his eyes wide. It almost looked like he wanted to say something, maybe about my mother, but the moment passed and he got back to business.

“And of course, that will culminate with you retrieving your lost love?” There was laughter in his words, laughter at me. Because how could I, a fifteen-year-old girl, possibly understand real love? I understood clearly that he was mocking me and I ignored it. Because he didn’t know me or the depths of my heart.

I gave a sharp nod. “Exactly.”

“First, we call him forward. As I mentioned. It is a him, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

Raven stepped forward to the flat rock and held his hand over it. A fire sprang up on the rock, not attached to anything, just pure fire. “This is a simple summoning, usually reserved for demons, but it works on any soul.”

A part of my brain bucked at that. Demons did not have souls.

Did they?

Raven breathed out words that sounded Latin, but here and there was a harsh guttural pronunciation that was demonic. I knew because I’d heard it chattered in the battle of the Veil.

“His name?”

“Frank.”

“Just Frank?”

I struggled, not wanting to say I’d never asked his last name. Of course, he was Agent Valley’s nephew. I took a chance. “Valley.”

“Frank Valley, dead too soon, I summon your soul.” Raven stepped back as the flames burned and there was a flicker of a face.

Frank’s face, twisted in pain.

I closed my eyes. “That is enough, send him back.”

The sound of the flames disappeared. Raven grunted. “Seems like he is not at peace.”

I clenched my hands and slowly opened my eyes. “So you’ll help me bring him back?”

Raven scratched at his jaw. “First, I need to know you are up to the task.” He held up his hand as my mouth dropped open. “Not only a matter of strength, but fortitude. You are young, Pamela. You have to be willing to work for this. I won’t just hand it to you. And bringing someone back from the dead is probably one of the most powerful spells you will ever learn. Well, that and transfiguring someone into an animal, but that isn’t on the list for today.”

Damn it, that sounded like something Rylee would have said. “Fair enough.”

He strode to the center of the rock and tapped a toe on it. A crack opened and a hole swept wide until it was three feet across. A snap of his fingers and new flames burst up, crackling nicely.

“How many elements do you carry?” I asked, suddenly realizing I’d seen him use . . . all of them.

“All of them.” He didn’t look at me. “Which is why I am uniquely qualified to teach you, a witch who is strong in all five elements. At least, I think you are.”

“What do you mean you think?”

“I’ve not seen you use Spirit yet, and that element is the trickiest of all. Because you are a witch, a human, you are not going to be affected like some elementals are when you use it.”

“What do you mean?” I frowned at him. I’d never heard anything about Spirit being bad.

Then again, I hadn’t heard much about elementals until the last year.

“Spirit not used correctly by an elemental can cause a great deal of damage to the soul. Like I said, though, this isn’t an issue for you, so don’t worry about it.”

I shrugged. “Well, maybe I can’t use it. Four out of five ain’t bad.”

“There you go, trying to sound American again.” He smiled and I fought not to smile back. We were not friends. Even if he had saved me as a child. I did not want to like this man. “What do I have to do then to prove myself?”

“First, I am going to teach you something so you will trust me more. It will also allow you to leave whenever you want, and I will not be able to follow.” He raised an eyebrow. “Fair?”

This sounded too good to be true.

“Before I do any task? Without any expectation of a payment?” I wanted to be clear.

“Yes.”

He held out his hand. “We need skin to skin contact for you to feel what I’m doing. It will involve Spirit, so there is a chance you won’t be able to manage. There aren’t many witches who have that ability. In fact, none, besides your mother.”

I suspected he was talking about Jumping the Veil. Something Milly had learned from a demon, something destructive to the soul the more it was used. I swallowed hard. I would do this.

“Milly knew how,” I said.

He shook his head, a lock of dark hair sweeping over his brow. “No, she didn’t. She was powerful with spells and learned how to use them to bend people to her will, but it wasn’t using Spirit.” He still held his hand out to me.

“You aren’t talking about Jumping the Veil?”

He snorted. “Jumping the Veil has nothing to do with Spirit.”

I put my hand in his. What I expected perhaps was a rush of darkness, of power and anger. But it was just a hand, no different than my own.

“So . . . I’m confused. The only way to travel fast is to Jump the Veil.”

“Goddess, no.” He grunted. “That’s a trick of demons and weak witches and it damages the Veil as well as the soul doing the jumping. This is an elemental trick, only available to those who control Spirit at a visceral level.”

I blinked up at him, not sure I believed him. “Then why have I never heard of it before if it’s so much better than Jumping the Veil?”

He frowned. “Did you not hear me? It is an elemental tool. And not widely known even amongst them, seeing as most Spirit elementals are dead.”

Slowly, I understood. While I was familiar with elementals because of Lark, the supernatural world for the most part was not even aware they existed as a people. They were like a legend of legends, myth in the mist. They didn’t exist.

Except, of course, they did.

Excitement coursed through me. Learning was my drive. I wanted to know everything. To be strong in everything. To fill the role being offered to me. To be at Rylee’s side in all the fights she would face. “What do I have to do?”

“Nothing, just watch me and feel the sensations of what Spirit is doing. Then you will try to duplicate it.”

His hand became warm under my own and there was a flicker of sparkles around his arm. I narrowed my eyes and drew closer to watch them dance above his skin. Like tiny prisms of light, the color twinkled and moved.

“What are you looking at?”

I looked up at him. He had a deep wrinkle between his eyes as he frowned at me.

I frowned right back at him. “Watching the sparkles. You said to do that. You said to watch what you did, didn’t you? Or have you changed your mind?”

He tipped my head up with one finger under my chin and stared into my eyes. “What do you mean you can see the sparkles?”

I shrugged. “I can see the damn sparkles. How much more clear can I be?” I fought not to roll my eyes. Gods, it was like we were speaking two different languages.

He drew a slow breath. “Perhaps you have more of your father’s blood than I thought. I believe your step-aunt on his side can . . . see the elements at work.”

My heart picked up speed. “You mean I have another aunt, then?”

He gave a sharp nod. “She’s dangerous, though. You don’t want to let her know . . . that you have met me. That would not bode well for you.”

I wasn’t sure I understood. I shrugged. “The only elemental I know besides you is Lark, and she’s a friend.”

He tightened his grip on me. “Let’s start again.”

Once more the sparkles began to trickle around his hands. Not so many that I was overwhelmed with them but enough that I could tell something was happening. They were multi-hued and sparkled like diamonds across his skin. Slowly they spread up his arms.

“Does it always take this long?”

He grunted. “I’m going slow so you can see the process.”

“Oh.”

I concentrated on watching how the sparkles spread from him to me and how they slid through our skin, but still they glowed with a life of their own as if I were lit up from within. The light intensified and then there was a sudden pull through my center that spread through every pore of my skin. Not quite painful, but uncomfortable as though I was being pinched over my entire body, my skin tugged in every direction.

I couldn’t see anything for the space of perhaps five seconds, and in that time, I felt nothing. Nothing on my skin, I felt no breath in my lungs, no sensations at all. But before I could panic, my vision came back, and with it, all the sensations of existing. My hands were still in Raven’s, and we stood across the clearing from where we started.

“That is about as slow as I can take it without our bodies coming apart at the seams. Faster is easier. Be bold when you do it. This is all Spirit, nothing else.”

“And if I screw it up?” I couldn’t help the spurt of fear. Pulled apart at the seams was not something that would end well.

He grinned. “Well, you’ll end up in pieces all over the place. Think of where you want to go. You don’t have to know the place; you don’t even have to have ever been there before. Spirit knows all places, by all names; it is not as constricted as the Veil is in terms of moving around. So, you name the place in your mind however you see it, and it will take you there.”

I wasn’t sure if he was teasing or not. I decided to go with teasing, otherwise, I might not ever get up the guts to try it.

Raven let go of my hands and stepped away. “Go on your own. It’s easier that way.”

“What do you call this?” I was stalling, I knew that, but I needed a moment to gather myself. “I mean, Jumping the Veil is a bad thing, and this is not a bad thing which is great. But what do you call it?”

“We don’t call it anything.” He stared at me. “Not everything has a name, Pamela. Not everything can be defined by being put into a box or a category. This world and all it holds, all the magic in it is dependent on the person who perceives it.”

“So I can give it a name?”

He burst out laughing. “Fine, you give it a name. Once you do it.”

“And there is no distance that holds me back? Like water or mountains or something?” I was thinking of Rylee’s Tracking abilities. They’d been stymied by large amounts of water.

He shook his head. “None. Though, I wouldn’t recommend trying anything bigger than across the clearing first.”

No more stalling then. I closed my eyes and thought of the other side of the clearing, then paused for a moment. If this was real, I could go home . . . and tell Rylee I was sorry, then leave again before she could stop me.

I wasn’t sure I wanted that.

I wasn’t sure I could stop myself from going home for a minute just . . . because that was my family.

I closed my eyes and thought of not a place, but of Rylee. I wanted to go where Rylee was, wherever that was.

My body began to tingle as I fed the power of Spirit through my body the way I’d seen Raven do. That same sensation of being pulled apart and pinched at the same time. I pushed a flood of my strength into it and let go and thought of only one thing.

Rylee.

CHAPTER 5

RYLEE’S VOICE WAS the first thing I heard, before I opened my eyes. “Damn it to fucking hell, Liam! What do you mean she’s gone? That you let her go!”

“She’s not a child, Rylee, no matter her age!” Liam roared back.

I opened my eyes and promptly slammed them shut. Apparently taking the road directly to Rylee might not have been the best idea. Liam was naked from the waist up which gave me an impressive view of chiseled abs and chest. His pants were still undone, and Rylee stood in nothing but . . . well, nothing. A few minutes earlier and I might have caught them in bed doing things. Good lord, that would have been a clunker.

“I’m sorry,” I said with my eyes still shut. “I . . . didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Pamela, what the hell?” There was the shuffle of clothes and then a pair of arms wrapped around me. I hugged her back, put my face against her neck and breathed in the smell that was home. This was my family. She was the sister of my heart if not of blood.

“Rylee, I have to do this,” I said. “I have to go away again but I wanted to tell you I was sorry for leaving. And I hope you can trust me to do this.” The words tumbled out of me, one over the other.

“How did you . . . you Jumped the Veil?” She breathed the words, fear lacing them.

I opened my eyes as I shook my head. I pushed back a little from her, so my hands were on her arms still but not so tight. “No, I’m learning something else. A way to travel that doesn’t cost my soul like Jumping does.”

She stared at me, her eyes no longer the swirling tri-color but instead a solid blend of three colors. Mostly green and gold with a fleck of deep chocolate here and there. “What do you mean?”

“I have a new teacher, and he’s taught me this. I wanted to come back and tell you that I don’t know how long I’ll be away,” I said softly, not wanting to disappoint her.

“Pamela, the world is shifting again, something bad is coming. You need to be here with us,” Liam said. I looked at him and nodded.

“I know. That’s why I left. That’s why I have to go back to him while I still have a chance to learn.”

She frowned and a bit of her fangs peeked out from under her top lip. I shot another look to Liam.

He gave me a half grin. “I’m sticking my neck out for you, kid. I think if you need to do this, just be careful. And come home.”

“Yeah, I could see you were backing me.” I broke into a sudden fit of nervous giggles. “Can you imagine if I’d showed up five minutes earlier?”

He blanched and closed his eyes. “That would have been . . . awkward.”

“Yeah, cause all she would have seen was your bare ass in the air.” Rylee shook her head, and then turned back to me. I stepped away, though, knowing my time was almost up. If I could figure out how to Jump to where a person was, surely Raven would know how to do it and he could come looking for me. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to meet Rylee.

“I have to go back.”

“Pamela, don’t. We’ll find the training you need here,” Rylee said, and I could see the worry in her eyes.

“Thank you. But I can’t refuse this chance. And Marco and I have been looking. There is no one else.”

I fed the magic, the feel of Spirit humming through my body with no issue, no break in concentration. I thought of Raven and as my body pulled apart there was a last sensation.

The house, the place where my family hid, shook. Boomed as though a bomb had exploded right on top of it. I saw Rylee and Liam spin around as my body dissolved.

No!

I blinked and I was back in the clearing where Raven stood only a few feet from me.

“What the hell?” He had a hand on me, his eyes wide, and I wasn’t sure if it was anger or concern or both.

“I have to go back.” I tried to shake him off and he yanked me hard, forcing me to face him.

“Where did you go?”

“I went home.”

His eyes widened farther. “You . . . what?”

“I had to tell Rylee. I’ve been feeling bad about leaving the way I did. I have to go back, something happened as I Rode Spirit back here.”

A snarl escaped him. “Stay here. I’ll check on them.”

I grabbed his arm which seemed to freeze us both. “And if I don’t?”

“Then I will teach you nothing more,” he snapped as he jerked his arm from my hand. A blur of his cloak and he was gone.

I stood in the clearing, alone and unsure. I could go back. I could ignore his warning and bank on him wanting the sword bad enough that he would forgive me.

I paced from tree line to tree line. I would wait. He would come back, and if I had to, I would leave then. But what . . . what if I went back close enough to the house that he couldn’t see me? Then I could Ride Spirit back to the forest here and say I had just been wandering about. Would it work?

Only one way to find out.

I breathed out and imagined the side of the house next door to Liam’s place. Though Raven said I didn’t have to be that specific, it couldn’t hurt.

That’s what I thought.

The world went from the peaceful quiet of the forest clearing to an explosion of heat, screams, and the smell of burning flesh and the hot ash of something I couldn’t put my finger on. The neighbor’s house was not there. A burning hole behind me was all that was left. Smoke swirled up in a funnel that covered my vision here and there, leaving the scene nothing but bits and pieces.

I dropped to my hands and knees and scooted forward, using my magic to bring fresh air to my face and clear the path. I pushed through the smoke, praying I wasn’t too late.

Between one step of my hands and knees and the next I was against Liam’s house. It still stood, though the side was charred and some of the siding was missing. There was shouting and yelling, Rylee above it all.

“Mai, get the babies out!”

The ogress, Mai, who was wet nurse to the ogre triplets, burst out the front door and ran with two babies in her arms. With her was Belinda and Levi, the two new kids—partial elementals—half-breeds. Belinda carried the third baby, Bam, holding him tightly to her chest.

They bolted down the street. I watched them go, urging them faster.

Two men stepped out from between houses further in the subdivision. They had guns and leveled them at Mai. Levi lifted his hands but nothing happened.

I stood and flicked my fingers at the men, beckoned the earth up under their feet. They were flung back as Mai and the others raced past them, the precious cargo safe—at least for the moment. I watched until they were out of sight, well out of the subdivision.

What was happening? What supernatural could cause destruction like this besides a witch? I thought the strong ones were gone.

All around me were smoke and shouting. The humans who lived around us streamed out of their homes, crying and running for their lives. The subdivision was absolute and utter chaos.

I lifted my head and stared into the sky. The shriek of a jet plane shot overhead, a boom of the aftermath from its passage rolling through the air.

The humans? They were the ones doing this, but why?

As I stared, I saw something growing larger in the sky above me. A dark shape shooting down, faster and faster.

A bomb.

Holy fucking hell, it was coming straight for us.

I lifted my hands but before I could do anything, the bomb froze hundreds of feet in the air and exploded. Shrapnel spewed out in a burst like fireworks gone wrong. Around me the bits and pieces landed, sizzling hot and searing the grass at my feet.

“Clear your people out, Huntress,” Raven said, his words not loud but still resonating in the air. “I can stop some of the bombs, but not all of them. The end of an era is coming, and cities are not the place to be.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

I crept along the edge of the house and peered around it. Rylee stood with a sword in one hand, and Marcella in the other on her hip. The jackal Nigel was at her feet, a low growl on his lips.

“An elemental who hides himself is nothing but trouble, Rylee,” Nigel said. “I know. I catered to their asses long enough.”

Liam stood at Rylee’s side in a similar position to her, only he had a gun and Zane in his free arm. They presented quite the picture, and my heart swelled with love and fear at the same time. Not for them against Raven, but against everything else. If Raven was right and it was the humans, would there be any safe place?

“This is the human government, you know that,” Raven said.

“Why would they bomb here? We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Liam said. “The government might be going to hell in a handbasket but they aren’t mindless. They don’t do things for no reason, and bombing their own civilians—”

“Because there is always a supernatural influence in the politics of the humans,” Raven said. “And they are coming for the last of the supernaturals. They will cover it with all manner of lies, but you know I speak the truth. They are coming for us all.”

Rylee took a step closer to him, her sword tip raised. “You’re the fucker who lured Pamela away, aren’t you?”

“Clever, Huntress,” he murmured, “I am training her. She needs me.”

“Harm a single hair on her head and I will find you and make you wish your mother had never taken that second look at your father.”

Laughter. “Duly noted. But I will protect her as if she were my own.”

Rylee didn’t exactly relax. “And you will make sure she comes back to us.”

“That will be up to her. She’s not the child she looks.”

Rylee nodded. “I know. Doesn’t mean I won’t ram both my swords up your ass to see if I can cut your throat from there if you fuck with her.”

Raven stepped back and gave a slight bow. “I must go. She isn’t patient from what I’ve seen, and I forced her to stay behind.”

Liam laughed softly as he took a quick breath of air. “Sure, you did.” He winked out of the eye closest to me. I pulled back from the edge of the house as Raven swiveled in my direction. “Damn it, Liam,” I whispered as I pulled on Spirit and Rode it back to the forest away from the clearing.

The forest was still as quiet as when I’d left. But I was breathing hard as though I’d been running. I needed a moment to gather myself.

I dropped to a crouch and waited for the adrenaline to ease off. I needed to be calm. The minutes ticked by and finally I knew I had to move, time to go back to the clearing and see if Raven caught me or not.

That was not exactly a pleasant thought.

I stood and smoothed out my clothes, made sure I didn’t have any of the shrapnel stuck to my pants. I ran a hand over the sword handle protruding from the sheath strapped to my back. All good there, at least.

I picked my way through the forest, letting my feet take me where they would. It was only when I neared the clearing that I picked up my pace.

Raven stood in the center of the clearing, his hood down as he did a slow circle. I stepped out of the trees and made myself rush over to him. “Did you find out what happened? Are they okay?”

He arched an eyebrow at me. “Really?”

I managed to keep my tone even. “What do you mean?”

“I can smell the smoke on you, Pamela.”

Well, shit, so much for not cocking it up.

I squared my shoulders. “They are my family. I had to make sure they were okay.”

“And I did that,” he snapped.

“Oh? And did you see the two men with guns who tried to shoot Mai and the babies?” I snapped right back at him. “You didn’t, I did. You need to understand that I will always put my family first.”

He drew a slow breath. “I should hold to my word and not train you.”

My heart plummeted but I would not regret going back. I would not regret saving Mai and the babies. “Fine. I understand.” I spun and walked away, fully intending to go back to Rylee. But not yet.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“You said I had an aunt in the area. She’s a witch. I’ll take what training I can from her then.”

There was silence except for the dull crunch of the undergrowth below my feet as I walked away, for a good ten seconds. Then a grunt of exasperation behind me.

“She’ll kill you,” Raven said.

“She wouldn’t be the first to try. And as you keep pointing out, I’m stronger than her, than any other witch,” I fired back and kept on walking, picking my way through the forest. I wasn’t even sure if I was bluffing or not. A part of me wanted badly to meet my aunt, even if she did try to kill me. That desire to know where the blood in my veins originated was a pull I couldn’t deny.

A burst of laughter erupted behind me. “Stop, stop, I’ll teach you. Damn it all, you are a stubborn one.”

I turned, swept my cloak out behind me and raised an eyebrow. “Why the change of heart?”

“Well, for one, your aunt on your mother’s side is a complete psycho of a witch.” He shook his head, then rubbed a hand over his hair. “You would never get her to teach you, even if you beat her in a duel. The other reason is far simpler. You remind me of your mother.” His eyes softened for a moment, and I wasn’t sure why, but it warmed me. Until I remembered the memory my mother had chosen to leave me. The one thing she’d wanted me to see of her. A memory of her death, so I could get revenge.

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” I said.

“We’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?” He crooked a finger at me.

I shrugged but didn’t move toward him. “So have you decided if I’m strong enough yet?”

He narrowed his eyes as if deep in thought, but I had the feeling he’d already decided whatever was going on in his head. “You took to the Spirit travel well, that’s excellent. But for what you want to do, we need more than that. For bringing your first love back from the dead, we need a little help in that direction. Even I have not tried that.”

I didn’t say anything, just waited for him to explain.

He drew a breath as if he’d been expecting me to jump in and demand an explanation. I might have been trained by Rylee, but I wasn’t her. I could hold myself back if I really wanted to. Though, I will admit, it was an effort.

Raven turned and paced toward the center of the clearing where the flat rock peered from the edges of the moss. “You see, there is a book we will need. An elemental book of spells, to be exact.”

“I have a spell book.” I reached into my carry-all and pulled the small leather book out. I fanned the pages until I found the spell in question. Holding the book open, I handed it to Raven. “Won’t this work?”

He frowned as he stared at the spell, and then let out a snort. “This is necromancy. You don’t want to do this, trust me.” He ripped the page out of the book. “Your loved one comes back inside their body, rotting, and their mind eaten away by worms. No, what we are going to do,” he handed me the book, “is far more complex than this.”

Deflated, I took the book back and tucked it into my carry-all. There were other spells there that I didn’t want to lose. I looked up at Raven. “So this elemental book of spells. Why don’t you get it then?”

“It’s being guarded by a fair number of elementals at the moment. Elementals who are not exactly happy with me, and while I could just kill them all, that would be wasteful.”

“Right, I’m sure that’s the reason,” I muttered under my breath. Once more, I was reminded of Faris and his mercurial ways.

Raven gave me a nod. “You, though, can slip past them. They don’t care about witches and won’t be trying to stop you. In fact, I’d be surprised if they even noticed you. Your age will help you there, too. They won’t see you for the threat you could be.”

I dropped my hands from my hips, stupidly pleased at the compliment. No, I thought, don’t let him get under your radar like that. Still, I needed him and it didn’t hurt that he thought I could do this. I made my way to his side.

“Where is this book supposed to be, then? Or is that part of the challenge?”

He dropped to a crouch over the flat piece of stone and produced from under his cloak a piece of chalk. By the flickering light of the fire, he drew a few lines and I saw quickly that it was a map he marked out for me. “You don’t need a map really, but I want to be sure you know where you are going,” he said.

The drawing looked like the coastline of some place . . . but not North America. And not the western side of Europe. I squinted at the lines and the small island that he’d circled. With speed he drew another map beside it. A mountain surrounded by trees. Something about the place made my heart pick up speed and sweat break out along my spine. A visceral response I couldn’t control.

“This is where you need to go.” He rolled the chalk in his palm. “The mountain is no more. It was destroyed not long ago.”

“Where is the book then?”

He tapped his piece of chalk on the drawing of the mountain. “Beneath what is left of this lava, in what the elemental world knew as the Pit.”

CHAPTER 6

THE PIT . . . IT was a place I’d never been, yet I knew about. Rylee had gone into the Pit to save Belinda—the half-breed elemental. The Pit was a place of fire and lava and danger. And I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted anything to do with it if the things I’d heard were true.

I stared at the drawing, anxiety flowing through me. “In the Pit? Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“But it doesn’t exist, so how can the book be in there?” I had a bad feeling about this and a creeping suspicion I knew what he was going to ask of me. I held my breath while he spoke.

“The room that the book is in was wrapped in spells, covered in strong protection to keep it intact in case something like this ever happened. You will have to go through the earth to find it.”

I blinked several times, not sure I’d heard him right even though I’d already guessed as much. I pulled my thoughts together. Rylee told me that with every salvage there were a few questions to ask, not only to buy you a bit of time, but to help understand just what you were facing. Question one.

“Why not Ride Spirit right into that room?”

“That is the only limitation of using Spirit as a form of travel. It cannot take you directly into the elemental homes.”

Question two.

“Is there a time limit to the retrieval?”

His eyebrows shot up. “No. You will either be able to get the book or you won’t. Take as long as you like.”

There was something else, I could see it in the way his mouth twitched at the edges. Time for question three, and perhaps the most important one.

“What else are you not telling me?”

He shrugged. “There may be some active lava you have to deal with as well. I’m really not sure how you will get past it.”

And there it was.

I drew a breath and slowly nodded. Question four was always the name of the child Rylee was going to salvage. But this was no child I was going after. “All right. What is the book called?”

He seemed to consider me a moment before answering. “Breaking the Veil.”

I stared at him. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“That’s the book you need to bring your boyfriend back.” He stood. “Get the book and bring it to me. We’ll go from there.”

Still in a crouch, I stared at the chalk drawing on the rock. I brushed my fingers of one hand over it. The Pit.

I tugged my thin cloak around me with my free hand and closed my eyes.

“Go to the edge of the cherry trees, Pamela.” Raven put a hand on my shoulder and my eyes popped open. “Any closer and you’ll end up right on top of what could be active lava.”

I looked up at him. Was he actually concerned about my welfare? I doubted it. He was using me, I was just a tool to him, and more than anything, I needed to remember that. He was a charmer.

“Take your hand off me.” The words were cold, as icy as any time I’d heard Rylee get pissed. He stepped back, a look of surprise on his face. It was gone as quick as it showed.

“Try not to die, would you?” he said.

I frowned at him and pulled the element of Spirit to me, wove it through my skin and Rode it through the ether. The problem I had with Raven was that part of me wanted to trust him, and the other part wanted to keep him at the point of my sword. That was not a good combination when I needed him to teach me.

Two blinks of time passed and I was through to the other side of the world. I stared out from under the edge of my cloak as though looking through a lens. Above me a mass of skeletons reared and creaked in the wind, their clawed hands tangled above my head. I held my breath, fought not to move for fear they would see me. Slowly, I took in what I was really seeing. Trees, dead and stripped of life, most likely from the lava flows. I pressed my hands to the ground below me, a need to feel grounded overwhelming me. Or perhaps it was my instinct that I was acting on, a knowledge deep within me even I didn’t understand.

A throb of warmth curled along my skin like the beating of a heart, steady and strong.

Child, what are you doing here? It is not safe for you, little witch, the gentle voice whispered inside my head, comforting and safe.

“Who are you?” I asked the question though I could feel the direction of where the voice might be from. Or who she was.

We are the earth, the sky, the water, the wind and the flame. We are the spirit that carried you here.

I swallowed hard. “Mother goddess?”

From some, we are known as that. We are all. We are one.

“I have to go into the Pit. The library contains a book—”

We know of what you seek. You are key to the cleansing of the world, little witch. Go with our blessing. While you walk in the Pit, it will be as if you are of the blood of the Salamanders. The flames and the fire will not harm you. The blessing will last only one hour from the time you set foot in the Pit below.

I had to pinch my lips together to keep from crying. Never in my life had I felt so loved than in that moment and I knew the voice that spoke did indeed care for me. A shudder slipped along my spine.

“Thank you.”

There is a life for you to save here, little witch. A life tied to yours. A life we have kept for you.

“Who? Why?”

There was no answer and I slumped into the earth a little. I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to stay in that embrace of someone who understood me through and through, who saw my dark and my light and loved me no matter that they were not always balanced. No, that wasn’t fair. Rylee loved me like that. But she was not my mother in this world, but my sister.

This was the mother I’d craved since I’d first realized I had none.

I pushed to my feet. “I am yours.”

We know. Now go and find your destiny.

The heat I’d felt through the earth propelled me forward and I ghosted through the trees. My cloak swirled behind me, the hood pulled low over my eyes. There was a sense of dreaming, like I wasn’t really there. Like I didn’t exist in this place. I tried to shake it off, but it persisted.

The trees around me thinned, then disappeared until they were nothing but stumps, and then nothing at all. The ground grew thick with hardened lava, black as night and stinking of sulfur and death. Still I walked; the tension around me rose as I prepared to face an elemental who would stop me.

But maybe it was an elemental I was to save? The mother goddess had said a life that was tied to mine . . . could it be Lark? My heart picked up speed and the surreal nature of the moment was gone in a flash. I broke into a run at the thought of Lark hurt and needing my help, my worry spurring me on. I searched the area, spinning round. I needed higher ground to see the lay of the land.

A lump of soil curled out of the earth, broken and piteous even as it rose above the flat destruction. I headed for it. I scrambled up the side and as I pushed off with my feet, lava flowed out from the gouges I created. Fear sliced through me, but there was no sensation, no mind-rending pain.

Whatever protection the mother goddess had given me, it was thorough—but now I was on the clock. One hour was all I had. I ignored the lava and kept climbing.

At the top of the heap—what I realized was just a pile of rocks and lava—I stared at the field around me. The mountain, or where it had been, was now obvious. It had fallen into a true pit, the sides broken inward and swallowed by the earth and the heat that had lain in it. Nothing but darkness stared up at me. What I stood on was the top edge of the pit. That was the inner ring. The next ring outward was the blackened earth I’d covered to get to this vantage point. It looked to go for a solid mile outside the center of the mountain. Next came the stumped trees for a short distance and then the dead ones.

But there was no life, no sign of birds or animals. Not even an elemental guarded the place as Raven had said there would be.

Did I dare call out?

Time to throw the dice. “Hello? Is anyone here?”

A cry echoed back to me, the sound both pitiful and terrifying. Pain-filled, a cry for help. I spun a slow circle trying to hear where it started. Movement at the far side of the mountain grave drew my eye. Black on black, it was hard to see exactly what I was looking at, but whatever it was, it was alive. Barely. I ran down the side of the tiny hill I’d stood on and around the edge of the pit.

My mind shot to Alex, how his black fur would have blended into the dead earth. My mind knew it would not be him.

But my heart hoped that somehow he had found a way back to me.

Ahh, how my heart hoped I would find him there, a grin on his face.

I slid to a stop near where I’d seen the movement. “Where are you?”

The ground seemed to come to life and a pair of pale blue eyes, the eyes of a husky dog I’d seen once, stared up at me out a midnight black face.

I stared hard, but I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. The body was small, the ears were missing . . . no, they were burned off. A gasp escaped me as I dropped to my knees. An animal, barely big enough to fit in my arms. But what kind of animal, I couldn’t tell. The fur was charred off, the skin was blackened and blistered, the paws were mere stubs. Pain was all I could see, suffering beyond measure, and my heart broke.

“Oh, gods.” I reached out carefully. Healing was something I’d learned but it still scared me. I put my hands on the small body, the back and head. The creature opened its mouth and hissed at me.

A cat? What the hell was a cat doing in the middle of a lava flow?

It didn’t matter, though I doubted this was the life the mother goddess had meant. I mean, it was just a cat after all. But still, I couldn’t leave it, not when I could help. I blended my powers together to bring the healing from my hands into its body. Sometimes I closed my eyes when I healed, but not this time. No, this time I watched as the skin closed and the ears slowly grew back, as the paws reformed and the fur began to sprout like watching grass erupt from the earth in fast forward.

In moments, there was a fully formed, if smallish, light peach-colored striped tabby cat in front of me. All shades of orange with cream splashes on his toes and face. Big, oversized ears swiveled in my direction and then pinned back to his head.

“I am not a him. I’m a girl.” She snapped her teeth at me, and then let out a long hiss as she backed away.

I jerked my hands to my side. I’d been reaching for her. Because . . . well, I thought I’d be able to hold her.

“Sorry. I just thought orange tabbies were boys.”

Her tail swished violently side to side. “No. Not always.”

I pushed to my feet and she skittered back further as though . . . “I’m not going to kick you,” I said. “What happened to you? You’re a familiar, aren’t you? Shouldn’t you be immune to the lava like a Salamander?”

“Are you not an elemental?” Her ears slowly came forward, though her eyes were still narrowed.

“I am not,” I said.

Behind us, a belch of lava bubbled up, gulping and spluttering like an old man eating dinner at high speed.

She puffed up, her tiny body fluffing like she’d had her fur dried in a windstorm. “The queen made the lava dangerous to us all. I was caught in it and . . . I was left behind to burn.”

“Did you not have someone you were tied to?” That was how I understood it to happen. A familiar was gifted to an elemental, but only once the elemental was shown to be worthy. Apparently, it had to do with how strong the elemental was.

She shook her head. “No, I am too young yet. And there were none strong enough.”

“Oh.”

Her ears flicked. “Why did you heal me? The other elementals have passed over me several times, despite my cries.”

Another piece of my heart broke for her. “How long were you here?”

“Weeks, I think; the mother goddess has kept me alive, though I wished I could die.” She shook her head. “I ask again, why did you heal me?”

She was persistent, I’d give her that. “Because I could.” Much as the mother goddess might have told me someone needed my help, I would have done it anyway.

My cloak fluttered around my legs, whipped to the side and then, acting as a sail, actually pushed me toward the edge of the Pit. I stumbled, dropped to my knees and looked into the sky.

Two Sylphs floated toward me. Oh dear. The peachy orange kitten hissed. “Those ones threw things at me, laughed as the rocks made me stumble on my stubs.”

They had thrown rocks at an injured animal, one that had been crying out for their help? Nope, that was a pile of stinking shite if I ever saw it. If there was one thing I’d known even before Rylee had become my mentor, it was this.

Stand against the bullies and don’t let them get away with their shitty actions.

I stood up, and anchored myself to the ground by calling the earth up around my feet. Power raced through every synapse, every nerve ending, and pooled at the tips of my fingers.

Sylphs were dangerous, and once they realized I was fighting them, I’d have no chance. But . . . they didn’t know what I was.

I would have one shot at this.

“What are you doing?” A tiny set of claws sunk into the back of my calf.

I flinched but didn’t look back. “I’m making sure they know that—”

“Their deaths won’t make anything better. I don’t know what you are, but if you think you can take on a Sylph, then you must be strong. But this fight isn’t worth it.”

Her claws dug deeper. “You healed me. Is that not enough?”

“And if they would do it to you, would they not do it to someone else?” I did turn then even as the wind around us picked up.

Her icy blue eyes locked on mine and there was a click inside my brain, like a piece of me opened. Emotions that were not my own, thoughts I’d never had, and fears I’d never experienced slammed through me like a tidal wave.

“Holy shit.” I breathed the words, shock making it a struggle to speak.

Unless I was wrong, and I wasn’t sure that I was . . . I’d just gotten a familiar of my very own.

CHAPTER 7

I STOOD ON THE hardened lava flows of the Pit and stared at the furball that was now my own. Witches did not have familiars, contrary to the humans’ beliefs. So to say this was surprising was a bit of an understatement. Was I ready to take on the responsibility of another life?

The revelation didn’t have long to sink in. A hard wind buffeted me, swept me into the air and spun me around and around so fast my arms and legs were flung outward with the power of it. Like being spun on a carnival ride that had been set on crazy fast, the centrifugal force was so strong, I couldn’t fight it. I struggled to see. The images were there and gone so quickly, they blurred and almost felt like I wasn’t moving—like those crazy flip books I’d had as a kid. I turned the pages so fast the images blurred and looked like they were moving. Only this was the reverse; I was the one moving. The two Sylphs laughed as they spun me, faster and faster.

Bullies, they were bullies, and I wasn’t taking this shit. They brought me closer, so they were just outside my reach.

“Look at her face! She’s going to puke!”

From somewhere below me, the cat screeched, “Put her down!”

“Ah, look, the pussy cat thinks she’s going to help? What do you want? You think you can actually do anything? You can’t even shift! Stupid cat, it’s no wonder you were left behind!”

The words were a blur along with the world. My stomach rolled, I fought the urge, but there was no use. I puked and lost whatever food was in my belly. The vomit spewed out, and I was sped through it, the warmth and stinking wet chunks slapping my face, the smell making my stomach tighten again in anticipation. The Sylphs kept laughing. Kept poking at me.

I was caught. My magic would do the same thing as my vomit. It would be caught in the spin and hit me.

I closed my eyes, but that was no better. With my arms spread-eagled, the pressure of the wind was on my lower back. It was only then I realized I wasn’t vertical, but horizontal on my back. That was how they were keeping me from doing anything.

I only had one thing left to me.

Rylee’s sword. If I could pull it out, I might have a chance. There was power in it, that much I knew.

Fighting the centrifugal pull, I reached for the handle. It felt as though I were being held down by ten men, the strength of the spinning was so great. But the handle was there and if I was going to survive this, I had to get it.

I screamed as I forced my arm up, my fingers seeking the only thing that might save me.

“Ohh, look at her crying now!”

I wasn’t crying. I was pissed.

Anger pulsed through me and gave me the strength to move those last few inches to grasp the handle of the sword. I tightened my fingers around it and then stopped fighting the spin that trapped me tightly.

The pull of the spinning took control of my arm and jerked it outward once more. Only this time, I clung to the sword with everything I had in me. The blade was two and a half feet long at least. With the first spin, the honed and sharpened tip cut through the two Sylphs like a razor through silk. I was let go, and the momentum of my spinning sent me in a deadly spiral to the ground.

I hit hard, and the wind was knocked out of me. I lay on the blackened earth and stared up at the sky. The world still spun and danced in front of my eyes and I rolled to the side and heaved, though there was nothing left in me. I couldn’t stop the reflex.

“Keep breathing, it will pass.” A cold nose touched my cheek and then was gone. I shivered and forced myself to sit up, wiping some of the chunks off my face and out of my hair. My vision narrowed to tiny black dots and I closed my eyes. That was a bit better.

I drew in breath after breath as I fought the intense nausea. It was like nothing I’d experienced. Carefully, I opened one eye and then the other. Things were almost normal, and I pushed to my feet, wobbled, and used the sword to balance myself. I still had vomit in my hair and all over my face and clothes, but I would deal with that later.

Unsteady as I was, I walked to where the Sylphs lay. Their bright white leathers were a beacon on the stripped and barren earth. The cat sniffed at their feet.

She turned and looked over her shoulder at me. “You killed them.”

I hurried, stumbled over a rock and then I stood over them. The sword had cut through both their bellies, all the way to their spines. Here and there, I could see the ground behind them, even through the blood. I took a step back. I’d killed before, and like this, it had always been in defense.

Except for Liam.

I stumbled back further as the feel of the sword in my hand merged with the feel of the dagger as I plunged it into Liam’s heart. Did it matter that he’d come back, that we’d both done what we’d felt we’d had to? Yes and no.

I still dreamed of killing him, woke sobbing when he asked me why I often found myself pulling away from my family for fear of hurting them to that depth again. Was that why I was really here? Is that why I’d left Rylee and the others? I didn’t know.

Somewhere along the way I fell to my knees, sobs wracking my body. Not for the Sylphs, maybe not even for Liam.

A part of my mind whispered the truth I’d defied time and again, a truth I did not want to be true.

I was a child, forced into a war that was not my own. A child asked to do things no child should be. I covered my face with my hands and curled down until I was nothing but a ball of tears and shuddering sobs.

Even now. Raven asked me to face the Sylphs and the Pit for his own gain, not caring that it might cost me more than my life. I clung to my own legs and rocked, unable to break past the moment. I’d killed the Sylphs, their blood on my hands. Did it matter they deserved it, that they would have killed me?

Yes and no.

Always the answer was yes and no.

A tiny weight settled onto my upper back. Warmth from a small body spread from the cat—my familiar—to me and slowly the shudders and sobs eased. I breathed in the smell of the charred ground.

“Sometimes, you have to be broken fully before you can heal.” She kneaded her paws into my back, no claws involved. Like a miniature massage.

“I need to stand,” I said.

“Then stand.”

I didn’t argue that she would fall off, so I once more pushed to my feet. She hung from my back for a moment and then shimmied up until she sat on my left shoulder. “Seems we are bound. They call me Oka.”

A thread of excitement bled through to me from her. I tried to give her a smile.

“I’m Pamela. Look, I’m sorry you are bound to me. I am not even an elemental.”

She shrugged. “Probably no elemental would want me. The Sylphs spoke truth. I can’t even shift.”

I blew out a breath. So I’d been handed a weak familiar. I wasn’t going to complain; I’d never expected anything really on this journey.

“Peta likes to sit on shoulders, too. Are all the familiar cats like that?” We both knew I was changing the subject from my breakdown to something safer.

“Peta?” Her mouth hung open. “She’s a legend, you know.”

I blinked at her, focusing on what she was saying. “Really?”

“Yes.” She tightened her hold on my shoulder. “She’s my hero.”

That explained the shoulder thing.

I took a step toward the Pit. “I have to go in there. I have to get to the library.”

“Oh, the hidden one?” Her ears perked right up and her eyes went round, dilating with excitement.

I gave her a smile, though it was an effort. “If it’s hidden, how do you know about it?”

She ducked her head and wouldn’t make eye contact with me. “I might have followed Peta around. I’d heard a lot of stories about her, how all her charges died. But my trainer told me differently. She said Peta was the greatest of all the familiars and that I should do as she did.”

I forced myself to look at the bodies of the Sylphs again. Even at a distance, their white leathers made them stand out and would alert others to their death. That would do no good. I raised a hand and beckoned the earth. It opened and drew them down like a beast swallowing hunks of meat in a single gulp. The imagery was too strong.

I cleared my throat and turned my back on the spot they’d lain. “I have to go in.”

“You said that.” She patted my chin with one paw, drawing my eyes to her. “I’m going with you. That’s my job now, you know.”

There was something about her I couldn’t deny. “You’re still a kitten, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “Same as you. Doesn’t mean we can’t do more than others expect.”

Her words, so simple, grounded me.

Time to pull things together, time to make this happen. There were people I loved waiting on me. I pushed the past behind me where it belonged. Maybe one day I would deal with it, but today was not that day.

Oka crouched on my shoulder and tightened her hold on me. “Pamela. Let’s show them what we can do.”

We.

I liked that more than I would have said out loud, but by the sudden purring that rumbled from the tiny orange cat on my shoulder, Oka felt my pleasure.

Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

I stared down the slope that led into the Pit. It reminded me of a movie I’d seen once, only that pit had tentacles reaching out that were attached to a monster that would eat someone. I swallowed hard. Nothing to say there wouldn’t be tentacles waiting for us at some point. That didn’t make me feel any better.

“Just go. Better to move now, I think.” Oka spoke right in my ear, her claws digging in tighter.

Carefully, I started down the slope. There was no way I’d be able to make it standing up, which meant in seconds, I was on my butt, sliding downward at a speed I couldn’t stop. As far as I could tell, there was no bottom to this Pit. I held up one hand as I slid—harder than it sounds—and called up a bloom of witch light. The light scattered the darkness as we slid faster and faster, the sloping sides causing the speed to increase with each inch we traveled. I dug in my heels in an effort to slow our descent. A burst of steam shot up below us like the breath from a beast, and my imagination went wild.

Surely at the bottom there would be a creature hovering at the edges, waiting to devour us as we slid right into its maw.

I lost control of the witch light as my fear took hold of me. I spun backward as one heel caught a rock and twisted me around so I was looking up in the direction we’d come. A last glimpse of the sky far above us and then I was tumbling over and over. I tucked my arms around my head and Oka slid away from me with a screech.

The slope went from a sharp angle to purely vertical from one tumble to the next and the only thing I could do was hope we weren’t far from the bottom.

That I wouldn’t die when I hit the ground.

Launched into open air, there was a strange sensation of floating. The darkness enveloped me fully and then it slowly faded and a bright orange glow filled my vision as I rolled in the air. I stared at the lava as I flew toward it. The only thing I thought was the spell book in my carry-all. I grabbed the leather pouch and wrenched it from my side, flinging it out in a last desperate effort. At least someone might find it and know this was where I died.

There was no chance to stop my fall, no way to avoid the lava. There was only a split second to wonder if it would hurt. To wonder just how effective the mother goddess’s touch was on my body.

And then I plunged into the brilliant pulsing blood of the earth. I kept my mouth and eyes clamped shut and a part of my brain scoffed. As if that was going to save me. Instinctively though, even knowing that I would die before I made it clear, I fought for the surface. The lava was thick, not like water at all, and it pulled at me. I couldn’t tell which way was up.

But it didn’t burn.

Hell, it didn’t even hurt. Maybe that was because it covered me all at once?

Even with that, I had to move. I was running out of air. Stroke after stroke, I fought the tide and as my lungs begged me to take a breath, I broke the surface.

Lava dripped off my face, down my cheeks, and off the edge of my chin. The closest thing I could equate the sensation to was swimming through warm mud. The glow of the lava lit up the hollow I’d landed in. I spun in a slow circle.

“Oka?”

“I’m here. The lava is no longer hurting me. You either?” she called from farther down the winding path of lava. I made my way to the side of the stream and pulled myself out. Fully expecting to have all my clothes eaten off, I looked down, shocked to see that not everything had been removed. The sheath and sword were still strapped to me.

“Made by an elemental, wasn’t it?” Oka trotted over to me.

I nodded. “An elemental friend made them both.”

“That would do it. Well, let’s find you some clothes. It will be cold in the tunnels here, despite the lava.”

I bent and picked up the leather carry-all. I peered inside. The spell book was still there. I breathed out a sigh of relief.

With no more than that, Oka led me away, chattering as she did. “Things were pretty crazy when it all went down. The mountain fell in on itself, but it looks like there are still some rooms left untouched. Disasters are always like that from what I understand.”

I wasn’t sure she was right, but I kept my words to myself. My skin prickled with the cold air and I rubbed at my arms. Clothes of any kind would be welcome. As we left the cavern with the lava, the darkness encroached again. I held up my hand and created two balls of witch light. I sent one a little ahead of Oka and kept the other nearer to me.

The little cat wove her way through the tunnels with an ease born of a lifetime of familiarity. “You said you were a kitten. How old are you exactly?” I asked.

She didn’t look back. “Sixteen of your human years.”

“So you don’t age like a normal cat then?”

She shook her head. “No. Peta was the only one taken at a young age. Or maybe that’s just what was done back then. Now we are still taken young but then trained for years before we are even put into the potential pool for familiars.”

“At what age does that normally happen?”

They stopped at an intersection. “Does it matter?”

“Maybe.” I didn’t know why I was pushing this. Was it because I wanted to know if I’d been handed a familiar because no one else wanted her?

Her shoulders hunched up around her ears. “Ten.”

Awkward, heavy silence followed and she kept even farther ahead of me. I realized I’d pushed too hard, but too late. My feet slapped against the stone and that was about the only sound I picked up.

Oka stopped in front of a closed door. “There will be clothes in here. They should fit you.” Her eyes wouldn’t meet mine. She looked past me, over my shoulder, her body stiff. I sighed.

“Oka, you will have to get used to me, as I will to you. I meant no offense. And it doesn’t matter to me that you weren’t picked. I’m just glad to have a friend.”

She didn’t move, didn’t even look at me. “I’ll keep an eye out while you find something to wear.”

I got nothing from her, no emotions, no worry or wayward thoughts. She’d effectively blocked me out.

I put a hand on the lever of the door and pushed it open. The room inside was not dark at all. A towering stone fireplace was lit with flames of blue, green, and brilliant orange. The flickering light cascaded over the room, making it look like I was underwater with the way the shadows undulated on the walls and furniture. I let the witch light above my hand go out and stared around me.

“Oka?”

She poked her head in through the door.

I pointed at the fireplace. “Does this mean someone was here?”

She padded into the room and looked at the fire. Her ears twitched back and forth as she stared. “No, I don’t think so. It looks like it is magical. It will keep going unless it is deliberately put out. I think.” She glanced at me and I knew that her uncertainty was my fault.

With two bounding leaps she was on the bed. The four posts were all at an angle, like they’d been hit hard, and listed to the side. “This is the queen’s chamber. One of the most protected places within the Pit,” Oka said. “I figured if there was anything left after the lava flows that came through, it would be here.”

I nodded. “I don’t know anything about the queen. Was she kind?”

Oka burst out laughing, going so far as to throw herself on the bed and roll around, chasing her tail.

“Goddess, no! She was made of iron and steel and fire. Not what I’d call kind at all. Fair maybe? But hard and deadly when provoked. She went mad at the end, lost her ever-loving mind and that is why the lava started killing people again.” Oka scooted to her feet and shook her head hard. “That doesn’t really matter now. The wardrobe is over there.”

She pointed with her nose to the left of the bed. Indeed, there was a large stone armoire that went to the ceiling and had to be at least ten feet wide and four feet deep. On the front were several carvings, mostly of flames. But the closer I looked, the more I saw within the design. Like the tiny figures being swallowed by the fire and lava. The pained looks on their faces as they burned to a crisp. I grimaced and opened the armoire. Inside there were a great deal of clothes, lots of dresses though they looked as though they’d never been worn. There wasn’t a single scuff on any of the hems, not even a bit of charcoal that was bound to be around in the Pit with all the lava.

I pushed through the clothes until I found a section that looked like it might work. Black leather pants . . . not so different than what I’d seen Rylee in once or twice. She’d always said if leathers were broken in well, they were comfortable. I pulled a pair down along with a top that was made of a light, floating material. Off white and smooth as silk. I took the sword sheath off and then slipped the shirt over my head. The top hugged me, and had a built-in bra which was rather convenient. The pants slid on like they were made for me, and yet they weren’t restrictive. Maybe Rylee was onto something there.

“You’ll need shoes, too.” Oka stuck her nose into the cupboard. She disappeared into the depths of the armoire and came out dragging a boot that had to outweigh her ten to one.

I took the boot from her, also black leather. Tall, it had buckles up the sides to the knee. I slid it on and gave a gasp. “Wow.”

“What?”

“It’s like they were made for me and stuffed with the softest material.” I reached into the closet and dug around until I found the second boot. It was as comfortable as the first. I stomped my feet several times. Like walking on clouds.

Oka shrugged. “Elementals like their comfort. They probably don’t think anything of it, but I guess you would notice the high quality.”

I couldn’t resist, not with a treasure like this at my fingertips. I opened the armoire wide. “I need a cloak, too.”

“You do?”

“It’s a witch thing,” I said, which wasn’t really the truth. I just wanted another piece of clothing from this amazing cupboard. I fanned through the clothes until I found a long swath of rich purple material. Be a cloak, be a cloak, be a cloak, the words echoed through my mind.

I pulled it out and grinned at Oka as the cloak fanned out around us in a circle. “This is perfect.” I put my sword sheath back on, settling it along my spine and buckling it around my middle, then I swept the heavy, yet smooth material of the cloak around my shoulders. Like a warm embrace it settled over me. I flipped up the hood and bent to the ground. I held a hand out to Oka. “I have an idea.”

Her eyes were wary. “What?”

“Trust me.”

She let me pick her up and I once more noted just how tiny she was. Maybe only two kilos . . . I frowned and put the number into pounds. Maybe five pounds. Tiny for a full-grown cat. I snorted at myself and the conversion from kilos to pounds. Raven was right, I was trying to be more American, but I wasn’t ashamed of it.

I lifted her and tucked her onto my shoulder inside the hood. “See, this way no one will see you.”

She let out a sharp hiss. “Are you ashamed of me?”

“Goddess, no!” I shook my head, turning my face so I could look at her. “You’re like a spy, Oka. If there is someone here, they won’t see you and you can help me.”

She blinked several times but I could see I hadn’t convinced her. She lay on my shoulder and would look at me no longer. I sighed. “I’m really making a mess of this.”

Oka didn’t answer and her emotions were cut from me without a whisper of what she was feeling.

Dressed, I headed out the door and Oka softly gave me directions. Left here, straight, another left, dead end, backtrack now to the right, up these stairs, blocked, backtrack. Time held no meaning in the darkness as we walked and walked, but I knew it was passing. “An hour was all I had with protection against the lava.”

“We have used up perhaps half of it now,” Oka said.

Half an hour, plus the ten minutes I spent above ground on the old lava flows. That left twenty minutes to find the book and get out. Sweat beaded on my forehead despite the cool air of the tunnels.

“We have to hurry.” I picked up the pace and Oka said nothing.

The walls in many places were crumbled, and the caverns we encountered were often full of bubbling lava which gave us both a shudder. While I knew I might not die, I was not prepared to just leap back into the red death.

I started to count the time, ticking it off in my mind. “Six hundred.”

“What?”

We stood in front of yet another collapsed wall and a dead end I was not sure we could find our way around. Twice we’d been to this wall, and I stared at it as though looking would move it. “Ten minutes have passed,” I put a hand to the wall. “Oka, I think I should try and blast our way through.”

“And if the mountain collapses further?” Her tone was sharp. In fact, the further in we got, the sharper her tone had become with me. I put a hand to my eyes and rubbed at the bridge of my nose.

“Do you think there is a way around to the library?”

A laugh erupted around us, as sudden and unexpected as if lightning had danced down at my feet. I spun but there was no one behind us. “Oka, that . . . that didn’t sound good.”

“No, it didn’t.” She shuddered on my shoulder.

“What should I do?”

Her claws tightened on my shoulder, hooking in tightly to the leather strap of the sword sheath. “If it was me, I’d run.”

“Then we run,” I said.

CHAPTER 8

I KEPT A BALL of witch light hovering in front of my face while I ran through tunnel after tunnel of the destroyed Pit from the laughter that grew around us. Laughter that according to Oka . . .

“That sounds like the queen,” she said, her words tickling my ear.

I slowed and she squeaked. “No, don’t slow down. She lost her mind in the end. She is the reason I was burnt, remember?”

“Shit.” I put on a burst of speed, grateful that Rylee had so insisted that I train my body and mind. Running for hours wasn’t a problem, but we were almost out of time. Or at least my immunity to the lava was. I took a corner and slammed my hands into yet another pile of rubble.

Oka leaned forward and sniffed. “I can smell water on the other side.”

“And that’s important why?” I kept my hands on the stones.

“Because there was a fountain in front of the library.” Oka jumped off my shoulder and landed halfway up the pile of rocks and dirt. She pawed at a bit and it pulled away. With a glance over her shoulder she nodded. “I think this will be your best shot to get through.”

I felt the presence behind me, that whisper of knowing someone was about to sneak up behind you, a split second before my arm was grabbed.

The hands that clawed at me spun me around with a strength I’d have never guessed from the skeletal creature behind me. She looked frail even though she was anything but.

Brilliant blue eyes blazed like the fire in the queen’s chamber. The body was barely bones covered in blackened and charred flesh. Here and there I could even see bits and pieces of organs peeking through, the pulse of the heart, the shiver of the lungs as they fought to expand against the drum-tight skin. The few strands of hair were brilliant red, even in the dim light.

I jerked my arm and the clawed fingers tightened. The mouth opened and laughter, high and feminine, spilled out of the skeleton’s mouth. I lifted my other hand and opened the palm. Power raced along my skin and off me in a rush that slammed into the skeletal queen. Hot, acrid fear pulsed up my throat as I was flung with the queen down the corridor. My push had taken us both because of her grip on me. We tumbled over each other, but her hand never released me and all I could think was one could not kill the dead. The dead were already dead, so how did you end their lives? But I was not alone.

“Oka!”

“Coming!” she hollered back and I shook my head.

“No, get that rock pile open.”

A wash of disappointment swept over her and through to me, but I didn’t have time to sooth her feelings. The queen’s other hand swept toward my face, and I threw myself back as I kicked out with both feet. Maybe power wouldn’t stop her, but how about a boot to the face?

The heels of my boots slammed into her over and over as I fought to get away, but her hold on me didn’t waver. No pain maybe? Which meant I would have to remove her arm.

I reached back for the sword, grabbed the handle and yanked it free. The queen’s eyes slid to the weapon.

“You think to take me with a simple sword? Fool, I will devour you and take your youth and I will rise from the ashes.”

That didn’t sound like an outcome that would bode well for me. “Lark made this sword,” I said, and she released me so fast I was hard pressed to see it actually happen.

I scrambled back, keeping the sword between us. She stood in the shadows, swaying from side to side. “Larkspur?”

I nodded. “Lark made it.”

Apparently she knew Lark, or maybe she knew the sword?

The queen lifted a hand, the fingers crooked. “Give it to me.”

Now it was my turn to laugh and it spilled out of me. “Bollocks. I wouldn’t give it to you for all the money in the world.”

“But for your life?”

I shrugged as I backed away. “You can’t kill me as long as I hold it.”

My words seemed to stymie her and it was all I needed to buy time for Oka to get us a way through. It had looked soft enough that she could have dug even a small hole for the two of us.

“Cat, you got that opening?”

Silence.

I wanted to look back, but didn’t dare take my eyes off the skeleton queen in front of me. “Oka?”

I got nothing, not even a whisper of emotion. Had she abandoned me? The pain that sliced through me with that possibility was unexpected and hurt far more than I would have thought. But if she’d left, there was nothing I could do about it now. I had to get my ass through to the library. If indeed, it was on the other side.

I backed up until I could reach behind and touch the pile of rocks and earth that blocked me from the place I needed to go.

Splitting my focus was not smart when it came to magic but I had no choice. The charred skeleton that had been queen of the Pit followed step by step, as I tapped into my magic and beckoned the earth to move, to hold itself up so I could pass through. The rumble of rocks and stones, the trickle of dirt as it slid down the sides was all I could hear. I couldn’t even look back to see if the path was clear enough, or that I wasn’t going to fall into some hole in the ground.

I kept moving, pausing only when I was on the other side of the blockage. The sound of water was clear now, though it was pitiful at best, a bare trickle.

“You will not come out of this alive.” The skeleton queen pointed her finger at me. For a moment, I thought she would shoot fire out of it, but there was nothing but the threat of a pointed finger.

I nodded. “Thanks for the warning. I’ll keep my eyes out for your bony ass.” I dropped my hands as a streak of orange raced toward the opening. I went to my knees and shot my hand out, barely stopping the earth from falling and crushing Oka as she sped through to me.

I caught her in my arms as the rocks tumbled and clashed against one another.

“Where were you?”

She pressed her nose into my neck. “I thought I could find a way around. I didn’t think I could dig through.”

I rubbed her ears. “But did you try?”

She dropped her head. “I am afraid, Pamela. I . . . am full of fear and panic and it is why I was never chosen as a familiar. There are many that can’t shift, that’s actually normal. But I . . . I want to run from danger. A familiar is supposed to throw themselves in front of their charge, not run the other way.”

I hugged her tightly to me and tried to find the right words. I couldn’t blame her for being afraid; hell, I was shaking too. “Just keep trying. I’ll never ask you to do something that you tell me you can’t. Just try.”

She sniffed and looked up at me. “You don’t want to get rid of me?”

I shook my head. “Nope. You’re stuck with me. And wait till you see all the familiars back home. There’s a jackal, and dragons, Harpies, and maybe Peta will come and visit with Lark.”

Tears filled her eyes, making them glitter like jewels. “And if I can’t protect you?”

I shrugged. “Then I’ll protect you. That’s what friends do.”

She pulled away from me and shook her head. “That’s not what familiars are for.”

“Well, if you belong to me then we can make new rules. Besides, I wouldn’t have gotten this far without you,” I pointed out. We turned together to look at the fountain that was slowly leaking water from the mouth of the stone tiger. I put Rylee’s sword back into the sheath on my back. It had come in handy but I hoped I would not have to use it again.

Oka put her paws on the edge of the pool and peered up. “I always wanted to be a tiger.”

I touched the top of her head. “You’ve got the stripes for it.”

She glanced up at me. “The way into the library has to do with this fountain. I saw Peta tell Lark to put her hand in and push something. But I think it burnt her.”

I touched the water. It was warm, but not hot enough to burn. “I think whatever magic held that together is gone. Or maybe whatever was keeping it hot was diverted when the mountain fell.” Or maybe it was because I was still under the mother goddess’ protection. I peered over the edge and saw a handle. Leaning over the water, I swept my cloak back so it wouldn’t get wet, then reached in.

The water warmed more the further in I went but it still didn’t burn. I grasped the handle and the screech of stone on stone made me let go.

The wall across from the fountain slowly slid sideways, opening into yet another dark space. I held one hand up and snapped my fingers. Light flared over my hands, not witch light but just a flame of orange and yellow. A spinning ball that I kept right over my palm.

“Why the change in light?” Oka padded beside me as we approached the opening.

“It’s a library with lots of paper, I assume. Witch light is even more likely to light something on fire than just plain old flame.” I kept the ball of light close to me until we were inside the tiny room. On the wall was a sconce and I set my flame to it.

“There’s another here.” Oka trotted to the far side of the room, which really was only ten paces for me, and I followed her.

With the two sconces burning brightly I looked around the room. “Okay, the book I need is called Breaking the Veil. And we have to hurry.”

Oka sucked in a sharp breath. “That doesn’t sound good.”

“I know. But I have to if I’m going to save lives.” I started searching the room. From left to right, I went along the spines of the books as fast as I could, feeling the seconds tick by. How many did I have left? I took the top four shelves and Oka took the bottom two. Of course, that didn’t account for the piles and piles of books scattered with no organizational thought whatsoever.

The words blurred after time and my belly rumbled. I was starving, and now that the acute danger had passed my body was making its needs known. I was sure the time had passed, my hour was up. I stopped hurrying. If we hit lava again, I was done for.

“Oka, do you think there would be food down here I can eat while we search?”

She perked up. “I could go see.”

Before I could say anything, she was off like a shot, just a blur of light orange fur.

I kept my head down and slid my fingers across the many spines. Most were in reference to the history of the elementals. I ached to pull the books out and immerse myself in all the new knowledge to find answers to the questions that ticked along inside my head. How were the elementals different from supernaturals? Why did they stay hidden? Where had they come from? Some of those questions had been answered by Griffin when I’d pressed him, but honestly I knew there was more.

Like how come I had abilities like no other witches that were somehow tied to the elemental powers? Why was that? What did it make me?

I paused on one thin book, the spine barely big enough for the words.

Witchcraft and Elementals.

Damn it, I couldn’t resist. I slid the book from its spot and tucked it into my carry-all. Knowledge was not something I could pass up and this place was a true treasure trove I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to come back to. I shuddered at the thought of falling into the lava without the mother goddess protecting me. Yeah, that would have been a mess. I could only hope I didn’t have to do that again.

I kept moving, kept going through the books and then . . . there it was.

Breaking the Veil. The spine was middle sized and made of what looked like pressed paper. I yanked it from the shelf.

“Bloody brilliant.” I stared at the volume in my hands. This was it, we could go. As soon as Oka came back.

A scuffle of feet announced her return. The timing couldn’t have been better.

“What did you find?” I spoke before I turned around. “Because I hit the damn jackpot!”

The voice that answered me was not Oka’s.

“I found a kitty you let go, silly girl.”

CHAPTER 9

THE SILENCE IN the alcove after the queen’s words was absolute. The rock that edged the library seemed to absorb everything, narrowing my vision and sight into one thing. Slowly, I turned, books gone from view as I moved. The door of the library slid across my vision and then there was nothing but absolute horror for the final image in front of me.

The skeletal queen of the Pit held Oka by the scruff of her neck. Clawed hands dug into the pale orange fur, and the queen’s body swayed slightly side to side almost as if she was rocking the cat.

Oka’s pale blue eyes were stark, panic filling the wide orbs.

But I’d promised her I would protect her, and I always kept my promises.

I pulled the sword from my back as I dropped the book. “Put her down.”

The queen shivered and her bones clanked and I knew I was going to have nightmares about this. That it would haunt me. “Oh, was that supposed to scare me?” She wobbled side to side as she took a step toward me. “I don’t think you will be able to hurt me when I have your wee tiny familiar, will you?”

I lifted the sword so the point was level with the queen’s middle. “I said put her down, you twat waffle.”

“Oh, such a potty mouth on such a young girl.” She breathed. “I will enjoy swallowing your soul.”

She threw Oka at me, forcing me to catch the cat. The queen rushed me. She was damn fast for nothing more than skin and bones and clacking teeth. I took a wild swing at her with the sword, barely able to get it moving. The tip grazed her face, forcing her backward and buying us a few moments. A screech erupted from her as she clutched at her face.

No blood fell from the wound but she clutched at it as though she could still feel, as though I’d done her lasting damage. I wasn’t sure that was possible.

“Oka, what’s going on with her?”

“Her powers were stripped from her for what she did to her own people. I think . . . that this is her curse, to remain here and protect what is left of the Pit.” She climbed up to my neck and tucked herself into the hood that hung low on my back. Her shivering was palpable even through the layers of cloth.

I bent carefully and picked up the book and slid it into the carry-all on my side. I tucked it under my shirt, pinning it to my side under the waistband of the leather pants. “We have the book. We’re leaving.”

The queen whipped around, her head bobbling crazily on her partially visible spine. “No, you’re not. You can’t leave from here. It is protected.”

In desperation I tried to Ride Spirit out anyway, and felt nothing. My throat tightened as I tried to swallow around the fear. This was not good at all. The only way out was past the lava flows, of which I no longer had protection.

Deep shit did not even begin to cover the trouble we were in.

I held the sword out in front of me with one hand and held my palm up with the other, magic swirling in a mix of colors. I wasn’t sure just what I’d hit her with, maybe a combo of several things. I threw several spells, one after the other. She stumbled back, but none of them seemed to hurt her.

She arched an eyebrow . . . eyebrow? A lock of red hair flowed down from her scalp, growing back even as I watched.

A smile ghosted over her taut lips. She said nothing and a sneaking suspicion flowed over me. I dropped my hand and the magic with it. The disappointment on her face was the only confirmation I needed. She was somehow absorbing the magic I threw at her.

With a twist of my wrist, I rolled the sword, then took a step and thrust it at her. She stumbled back, away from the tip. At least I had that.

“Are you not strong enough to toss your magic at me?” She growled the words. I shook my head and sighed.

“I guess not. Just a weakling here. Going to have to go with the blade.” I took another swing at her, driving her backward.

“Little bitch,” she snarled and tried to get around the side of me. I let her and then drove her back with a careful parry that blocked her as she tried to move around me again. She was damn fast and I was sweating with nerves more than effort.

“Actually, little witch is more accurate.” I couldn’t help myself.

I backed up to the rubble we’d come through and held a hand backward, once more keeping my eyes only on the queen. If I could get through, we could block her in. Of course, I didn’t stop to wonder just how she’d gotten into the small antechamber if not through the same way I had. That was my mistake. I stared at the queen, keeping her in my sights.

Clawed hands grabbed me from behind, and pinned my arms to my sides. I was yanked to the ground so hard, my head bounced against the stone. Stars and lights burst in my vision, and I could see nothing but a swirl of charred limbs, and heard the scattering of voices.

“We need her to use her magic. It is the only way to gain our strength back. Then and only then I will devour her soul,” the queen snapped. Well, I’d been right about that then. Not that it did me any good at that moment. I kept still and from behind me, Oka pressed her nose against my ear.

“There are four others like her. Their attention is diverted; they think you are out cold. We could run.”

“Guide me,” I whispered back. The sword was still there, under my hand, and I tightened my grip on it as I scrambled first to my hands and knees and then to my feet.

“Straight!” Oka called out and I didn’t even look, I just ran. Behind me the queen screamed her fury and it echoed and bounced along the stone walls. I didn’t dare look back, and for the first time in a long time I was afraid for my life.

I could not use my magic, or I would strengthen them.

But maybe . . . I flung my hand backward, palm facing the floor. I called on the earth and rock and stone exploded in every direction.

Oka clung to me. “I think you slowed them down but—”

I slid to a stop. We stood at the edge of a cliff looking out over a pool of lava that was at least fifty feet below us. But from there, I could see the opening that would let us out of the Pit. If I could get through that opening, could I transport us out? There was only one way to find out.

“Mother goddess, protect us,” I whispered as I leapt from the edge of the cliff. There was no way around it. We were in open space before I could think better of what I was doing. I’d swum in the lava once, and there was no way the queen and her skeletal cronies behind me would let me live. The mother goddess was our only hope.

I am yours. Those words reverberated through me. I’d spoken them truly. I only hoped the sentiment was returned still.

The air heated as we fell and Oka let out a moan as we plunged into the lava. So much for the nice new clothes. The heat was there, but like before, it did not burn.

We are with you, child. But our power wanes. You must hurry. The voice was as before, both comforting and loving. But now there was an urgency to it. I wasn’t about to argue.

I slid down through the depths of the lava until my feet found something solid. I pushed off the bottom of the pool and shot to the top. Spluttering and scrambling, I headed straight to the side of the lava and climbed out. Clothes intact . . . maybe because they were elemental clothes? I touched a hand to my side. My carry-all was still there, protected under the clothing. I stared down at the material as the flecks of lava slid off as though it were water. I pushed the question away. I could ask Oka later. When we were not running for our lives. I reached back and touched her head, feeling her tremble.

“You all right?”

“Yes, but we aren’t out of this yet,” she said.

I looked up as several of the bony cronies flew through the air. Apparently the lava didn’t bother them either. “What a bunch of fuck nuggets,” I spit out as I turned and bolted toward the vertical opening.

My adrenaline no longer buoyed me. If anything, each step felt like the weight of the world dragged me backward. I stumbled over rocks and bits of stone that were not large enough to trip me but I could hardly get my feet up enough to get past them.

“Here.” Oka breathed into my ear and suddenly energy shot through me like I’d swallowed a bag of espresso beans. My body felt rejuvenated and I bolted the last hundred yards to the opening. I flicked my hands at the walls and created steps in the soft earth, and ran up them. As each step was used, I dissolved it behind me. A continual process that kept my mind on what I was doing and not what was happening behind me. Or what was happening to Oka.

As we neared the top of the opening, the sun hit my face and the darkness of the Pit was left behind. I finally began to slow.

“Oka, we made it! Another few feet and we’ll be out.” I reached back to touch her head, but she had curled up deep inside my hood. “Oka?”

I jogged up the last stretch of earth and waved my hand at the steps, making the last few disappear with ease. I dropped to my knees on the hard black earth around the opening of the Pit and reached around to pull Oka out of my hood. She was sound asleep, her breathing slow, so slow, that for a moment, I thought . . . no, she was not dead. Just exhausted.

“Raven will know what is wrong.” The desire to get back to him surged through me. I might not trust him, but after this . . . at least, I knew he wouldn’t kill me outright.

I curled my arms around Oka and pulled on Spirit. We dissolved, and a few heartbeats later, I was crouched on the ground of moss and wet earth, the sounds of the forest a pleasure to my ears over the deathly silence of what was left of the Salamander’s home.

“Pamela, that was fast. Nice new clothes . . .” Raven slowed as he approached me. I glared at him, but then pushed the anger away. I had chosen to do this. Not his fault he was a shit pouch.

“What’s wrong with her?” I held Oka up to him. She was so small that curled in the tight ball around herself, she fit with very little overlap in my hands. He took her from me with a glance.

“What are you doing with an elemental’s familiar exactly?” He crouched beside me as he worked his fingers over her fur.

“She’s mine. The mother goddess gave her to me.”

I’d heard of people freezing before, of going so still you thought they were a block of ice. Or a statue. Raven went so quiet, his hands no longer moving over her fur; only his eyes gave him away. Those blue, blue eyes lifted to mine. “What?”

I repeated what I’d said. He blinked and then shook his head. “I had not expected that.”

“Is Oka hurt?”

His hands resumed their gentle movement over Oka’s body. “No, she gave you her energy. Were you in trouble?”

Now it was my turn to stare at him like he was out of his mind. “Trouble? Trouble!” The story of my trip to the Pit poured out of me in a wash of words I couldn’t hold back. Finding Oka and healing her, the Sylphs and what they’d done to Oka, how I’d had to kill them, falling into the lava, traversing through the darkness and dealing with the skeletal queen all while . . .

“How did you fall into the lava and survive?” Raven cut me off.

I hunched my shoulders, not sure I wanted to tell him. “I wrapped myself in a protective spell.”

His eyes narrowed. We both knew I was lying, but he didn’t push it.

I grabbed the book from my carry-all with trembling hands and held it out. “All to get this stupid book! It had better be worth it, the spell had better be the right one!” I was so angry, I could have spit. Not at Raven, but at the world. The world that made you work so damn hard for something and at what cost? I’d almost lost Oka, I’d almost died. What good would I have been to anyone then?

He handed me Oka and I curled her tightly in my arms. Raven took the book and stared at me. “I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get it.”

“Then why didn’t you come with me?”

He shrugged. “I told you, I am blocked from going there. The elementals have become wise to me in some ways and are making it impossible to get into their homes.”

“Why would they do that?”

He flashed a grin. “You mean you haven’t figured it out yet?”

“Figured out what?” Did I want to know this?

He laughed and shook his head. “Pamela, I’m the bad guy.”

CHAPTER 10

RAVEN WAS THE bad guy. His words—his confession given with a grin—echoed between us in the small clearing and I struggled not to back away from him. Damn it, I had to admit, at least to myself, that I had suspected. I mean, I was no idiot.

But shit, what was I supposed to say to that? We both knew I needed him to do what I wanted to do. And I needed him for whatever training he could give me. Then again, I had the book on Witchcraft and Elementals. Maybe there was something about training in there.

“Your face is like an open book when you do not have it in your mind to block me.” He waved Breaking the Veil at me. “Just because they see me as the villain, doesn’t mean I am one.”

I frowned. I hated that he had a point. I stayed where I was. “Fine. For now.”

My belly let out a grumble and fatigue washed over me. The let-down from all that adrenaline hit me like a train. I blinked several times. “I need to sleep and eat before I do anything else for you.”

“There aren’t many safe places left for that,” he said, but he was already flipping through the book I’d given him, distracted by the pages. I’ll admit I was a little hurt he wasn’t praising me for getting it. He hadn’t even said thank you. I shook it off. This was not the place for hurt feelings.

I needed a place to rest.

My mind blanked out for a moment. I’d had two real homes in my short life. Both had been with Rylee. Though we couldn’t go back to North Dakota, that didn’t mean we couldn’t go to the other.

“London. There is a place near London we can go. A mansion I stayed in and it belonged to our friends. It would be safe, I think.” I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat. Friends that were gone.

Taken far too soon. So many I could bring back if I learned how from the man in front of me. He nodded. “Excellent. What is this place?”

“We called it Jack’s place.”

Two strides and he was at my side. “Keep it in your mind.” He hooked an arm through mine and just like that we were gone from the forest. Another blink passed and we were standing on the back lawn of Jack’s mansion.

“Oh, this will work.” Raven walked ahead of me, and I wobbled a bit where I stood like I’d been partially frozen. He looked back, paused and then came back to my side. He hooked his arm through mine again and helped me walk. “I suspect you will want me to feed you, too?” He was teasing me again, but I took his words hard.

“I can take care of myself.” The words were meant to be tough and independent sounding, but even to my own ears they were just plain tired. Exhaustion stole over me, deep to the bones so far into me, I wasn’t sure even sleeping a full day would be enough to erase the fatigue.

The big doors were locked, but that didn’t slow Raven more than a moment’s pause. He put his hands against the wood and it melted away from his fingers like wax on a candle.

Inside the mansion, the air was dank and musty, and so silent. I felt it on my skin like tiny spiders. I tightened my arms around Oka and her softly breathing body. She had the right idea, it was time to sleep. “I’m going to lie down.”

“Wait,” Raven said, “is there a study?”

I blinked several times. My brain felt like mush and his words took time to sink in. “Yes.”

I led the way through the familiar, dark halls. This was my home as much as North Dakota and Rylee were. The urge to run my hands against the old wallpaper, to call out to Alex, to listen for Jack cursing up a blue streak . . . I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself and Oka as the swell of emotions caught me off guard. I pointed at the library as we approached and then hurried off on my own. I did not want Raven to see me cry and the tears had escaped my eyes even though I’d tried to stop them.

The exhaustion that dogged me, that was why I was crying. That was what I told myself, even though I knew it wasn’t the truth.

This place held so many memories, and not all of them bad. Some of them were amazing, some would stay with me until the day I took my last breath. Images and laughter, the touch of a hand, the feeling of being loved and belonging . . . they chased me as surely as any mob of hungry zombies.

I found myself in the kitchen before I really knew where I was going. I was hungry, that was true, and I focused on the needs of my body. Better than thinking about where I was and all it meant to me. All the energy I’d spent in the Pit needed to be refueled. I slipped the dark purple cloak off and pooled it on the counter. I set Oka onto it and covered her up a little, then turned back to the fridge.

“Rylee will have my hide if I don’t take care of myself,” I said. That made me smile, though it slipped from my face before I took another step. Perhaps it was best not to think of my friends, right now. How many of them were lost and the rest were far away from me?

I drew a breath. That wasn’t entirely true. Will was here in London, though after the battle, I wasn’t sure he wanted anything to do with Rylee and her crew. He’d lost his sister, and so many of his friends. We all had.

But maybe I would get the chance to see him.

I shook my thoughts off and went to the tall stainless steel ice box. I opened the left hand side portion that was the freezer. Anything that was left in the fridge would have gone rotten by now. It was hard to believe it had been over a year since we’d lived here. Rylee had inherited the place, but she hadn’t wanted to come back. She’d instead hired someone to check on the mansion a couple times a month, and kept the electricity going so as to keep the mold away. In our world you just never knew when an emergency safe house was going to be needed.

Stacked inside the freezer was all the baking and cooking I’d stashed away while we’d been here. Even though Alex had been a glutton, I’d always managed to put aside at least one small container from everything I made.

I pulled out some frozen rolls, and a single portion of lasagna. I stuffed them into the microwave and turned it on. The buzzing of the machine filled my ears and when it dinged, I jumped as though I’d been shot in the ass.

I ate mechanically, not bothered by the parts that were still frozen, or the parts too hot. I mixed them together and forced them down. I wanted to eat and find a place to lie down, that was what I needed. My eyes drifted though while I ate, and with the sights, memories flowed to me. Memories I didn’t need right now.

One of the last times I’d been in the kitchen, I’d thought I was alone. I’d been so upset, so torn because of what Liam had asked me to do. How could he ask me to kill him? Did it matter we both knew it was for the best, that his sacrifice and mine would allow Rylee a chance to save so many? But someone had found me there, hidden against the cupboards. The food in my mouth seemed to solidify as the past washed over me.

“Pammy crying?” Alex pushed his cold nose under my folded arms, the smell of his musky fur surrounding me. I sat with my back to the cupboard and my head tucked to my knees. I slowly lifted my head.

“No.”

He tipped his head to one side. “Yuppy, you is.”

I moved to push him away. “Go on.”

“Nope.” He shifted his big furry bulk, all awkward limbs and ridiculously long tongue, so he could sit beside me. He tried to sit upright, like a human which had to be uncomfortable the way his limbs were so twisted. But he mimicked me right down to bending his knees and setting his elbows on them. And then he looked at me with those golden eyes and winked.

I couldn’t help but smile. “Alex, you’re my best friend, you know that?”

“You my best friend, too, Pammy.” He dropped his chin to my shoulder and rolled his eyes so he could look up at me.

I sniffed and glanced down at him. “What about Rylee?”

“Rylee my boss. Love her different. But Pammy is Alex best friend.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. “Alex. Promise me you won’t ever leave me alone.”

His clawed hands reached around me. “Alex promises.”

I slid to my knees in the very spot we’d clung to each other. A sob escaped before I caught it, and I slapped my hands over my mouth. Curling down over my folded knees, I pressed my forehead to the tile floor. I couldn’t stop the tears, couldn’t hold them back. I lay there and gave in to the grief that had chased me for the last six months. I’d run from it, taken Marco and flown across the continent looking for other supernaturals, but what I’d really been looking for was Alex.

He couldn’t be gone. My best friend. And just when he’d finally been able to shift and be both human and wolf . . . “It’s not fair.” I curled onto my side and closed my eyes. Sleep took me there on the floor, a testament to just how tired I was.

Hands scooped me up and held me tightly to a warm body.

“Come here, cat. You’re supposed to be taking care of her.”

I curled in tighter to whomever held me as they shifted my body and a tiny weight was placed on my middle. Instinctively, I put an arm around Oka’s body as we were taken from the kitchen. Somewhere between sleep and wakefulness I knew that Raven had found me on the floor. That he’d come looking for me, to check on me.

I was put into my bed and I rolled to my side with my back to him. I didn’t want to like him. Didn’t want to think he was my friend because he’d said it himself. He was the bad guy.

“I’m not a good familiar.” Oka put her paws on my side, and even with my eyes closed I knew she was looking up at Raven. Her words were quiet and uncertain.

“You were chosen for her for a reason. She’s the strongest witch this world will see and has elemental blood running through her veins. Which means there must be something special about you, too,” Raven said, not unkindly.

“I don’t want to let her down.” Oka curled in tightly to me, against my belly, and I put my arm around her.

“Then don’t. It is that simple.”

The sound of the door closing with a click, and then Oka wormed her way under the covers. We both fell asleep, and for a wonder, it was dreamless and peaceful. Just sleep.

I woke however many hours later, rested and more comfortable than I’d been in a long time. Maybe that had to do with Oka snuggled tightly to me. She was a small purring warmth that made me feel safe. She tucked her head under my chin.

“You got us out of the Pit.” She blinked up at me and then gave a jaw-cracking yawn.

I ran a hand over her back. “We got us out. I couldn’t have done it without the energy you gave me.”

She shrugged. “That’s my job.”

I pushed the covers off and then in a sudden fear I reached around to my back. The sword was still there, strapped to me. “He didn’t take it?”

“What?” Oka squinted up at me.

I explained how Raven wanted the sword, and how we’d made a deal. “He said he was the bad guy, Oka. How can I trust him?” And yet here it was, the sword was still with me when he could have taken it easily. He was a series of contradictions I didn’t know what to do with.

I stood and slid out of the clothes I’d taken from the Pit. My bathroom was connected to the bedroom and I headed straight for it, still talking to Oka. “What do you think about Raven?”

“Elementals are not known for being straightforward. Most have ulterior motives and it’s only at the end of whatever they are trying to do that you understand the full situation.”

I blew out a sigh as I turned on the hot water to the shower. The steady stream quickly fogged up the mirror. “Well, that’s shitty.”

“Yes. But I think that as long as you can learn from him, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. If he really does carry all five elements, I believe he is right. He can teach you.”

I stepped into the shower and scrubbed at my skin while I thought about that. I’d proven myself pretty well; it was about time for another lesson as far as I was concerned.

Wrapped in a towel, I stepped back into the bedroom. Oka just watched me as I went to the tall armoire and cracked it open.

“Do the clothes from the Pit not fit you well?” she asked.

I looked at her. “They’re dirty, I wore them through an awful lot.”

She touched her tongue to her nose before she answered. “Well, they aren’t really dirty. They’re elemental-made, same as the sword and its sheath. They don’t get dirty. You can wear them over and over.”

I picked up the edge of the top and held it to my nose. It smelled floral, like cherry blossoms, not like sweat and fear at all. I slid it back on, and then stepped back into the leather pants. “I guess while I am with Raven here, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to use these. Hard to say what he’ll ask me to do next.”

On my bed sat the book I’d taken from the Pit’s library for myself. Witchcraft and Elementals. I leaned over and picked it up. I opened it to a random page, my curiosity once more getting the better of me.

On the right was a picture of a woman in a full skirt pinned up on a large stake; below her flames roared up and around her. Her head was thrown back, and for a moment, I thought I could hear her screaming. Mouth dry, I forced my eyes to the left side of the pages I’d opened.

“What is it?” Oka stood on her back legs so she could put her paws on my arm. I tipped the book so she could see.

I read the passage. “There are many rare and dangerous magicks that witches are capable of that must be considered a violation of nature. If a witch should be found to carry more than two types of elemental powers, she shall be taken to the stake and burned, or dismembered and her body scattered to the four winds. The humans have been made aware of the power of witchcraft and have been given the knowledge of how to end a witch’s life. That being said, they are fools that have been killing many of their own. Thus, it is up to those of us who truly know to be sure that any of the powerful witches are destroyed lest they be shown the ways of the darker magicks and come on us in our sleep.”

My voice grew softer and softer with each word. “Oka, I carry all five elements in me. Raven said so, and even if he didn’t, I already knew I carried four.” I sat on the edge of the bed.

She pinned her ears back flat to her skull. “You don’t think he means to kill you, do you?”

I stared at the book in my hands and thought back over the words Raven and I had exchanged. He wanted the sword, and he wanted me to gather things for him. But I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t kill me.

“I’m the bad guy, Pamela.”

I swallowed hard. “I think we have to believe he will. That as soon as he is done with me he will end my life.”

CHAPTER 11

I SAT ON THE bed in Jack’s mansion and stared at the book in my hands. Could it teach me what I needed? Or did Raven know more? If Raven intended to kill me at the end of this venture, was trying it even worth anything?

“We have to flee, we have to go now.” Oka pawed at my arm, hooking her front legs around my elbow with her claws retracted, as if she could physically force me to do as she said. “If Raven will try and kill you, then we have to get far away.”

I carried all five elements as a witch, and as such I was a danger. The book in my hands said so loud and clear.

I stared at the pages in front of me, my mind racing. “No. He can still teach me. We know what his game is now, and we can be ready for it. He doesn’t know that we know. We have the upper hand.”

A knock on the door brought both our heads up.

“Pamela, are you finally awake?” Raven’s voice was muffled through the door.

I snapped the book shut and stuffed it into my carry-all at my side. I spun as he opened the door and I glared at him.

“Do you mind? I could have been getting dressed!”

He frowned and shook his head. “I put you to bed with all your clothes on, and you haven’t stirred in twelve hours. I doubt very much the first thing you would do when you got up was strip.”

Oka puffed up beside me, her fur so bristled, she looked like a tiny orange porcupine. “She had a shower which requires the removal of clothes, you idiot.”

He had the decency to look chagrined. But was it all an act? That was the question rolling around in my head that I had no real answer to. Faris had been a master at fooling people. I had no doubt Raven was the same.

“I want to learn something new today.” I picked up the sword and sheath and strapped them to my back, then scooped up the purple cloak and slid it over my shoulders. Oka leapt up to me. I lifted her to my shoulder but she slid back into the scoop of the hood. From there she put her front paws on my one shoulder and peered out at the world.

Raven gave a tight nod. “Come to the library. I will give you a lesson and then we will discuss the book you brought back and what I have learned from it.”

He turned away, and for a moment, I thought he meant the book that I’d just stuffed into my carry-all. But of course, that wasn’t the book. He meant the one he’d sent me for. Breaking the Veil.

I hurried after him, not that I needed him to lead the way to the library. I knew these halls like the back of my hand. The tapestries along the walls were old and depicted battles and conquering heroes that I didn’t know. My favorite was the one where a giant snake coiled around a hero. I didn’t think the hero would make it, but there was no way of saying how the story ended.

I suppose the hero would have to win.

That was how stories went, right?

I swallowed hard. Was I the hero now? Would my actions be seen as helpful and good, or as monstrous as a two-story giant snake?

“Do not fuss, Pam.” Oka batted at my ear. “You have made a decision, that’s good. Now we go forward with confidence.”

I reached up and touched a finger to her nose. “You’re awfully smart for being so young.”

She sniffed and nipped at my finger. “That makes two of us.”

The smile on my lips faded as I stepped through the doorway and into the massive library. The tall windows that stood as high as the ceiling were the same, and the sun coming through them was the same muted light as always. But it felt weird without Rylee and the others. I glanced at the table Alex had liked to hide under, but of course, he wasn’t there.

I swallowed back the emotions stirring in my chest before they could do so much to irritate my eyes into tears. I needed to focus on the task at hand and remember who I was dealing with. Speaking of which . . .

Raven leaned over the main desk in the middle of the room, a book flat open in front of him. “Do you know how to blend all five powers to create a single pulse of energy?” He didn’t look up from the book.

I stopped where I was, only a few steps into the room. “I’m not sure. Maybe?”

He turned and beckoned me closer as he leaned his butt against the table. His other hand rose chest level, palm to the ceiling. Over his open palm, curls of light began to flicker and rise. Red, blue, green, white, and pink. They spun faster and faster until they were nothing but an orb over his hand. I couldn’t take my eyes away.

“Can you see this too?” The tone in Raven’s voice was curious, but I could barely look at him.

“Yes.” I breathed the word because I just wanted to stare at the colors and the spinning orb. Slowly I lifted my own hand, mimicking him move for move. The five powers rose in me easily and I sent them all to my palm. I looked at my own hand and watched as the five colors began to spin and blend, but the orb was different than Raven’s. Where his was smooth and calm, mine tumbled and tangled in on itself. Tiny forks of color shot out of the orb like miniature lightning bolts.

“Why—”

“Because you are a witch, and I am not.” Raven dropped his hand. “Your power is meant to destroy first, heal second. An elemental is meant to heal first, and never destroy. That is why there are some spells that require both an elemental and a witch of great power to complete.”

His words were not surprising. My ability to fight, injure and kill had been instinctual; as easy breathing. Learning to heal had taken much more time and effort before I’d been able to master it.

“What do I do with it now?” I rolled my hand and the orb followed as if attached to my skin. “And is this not the same as when a bolt of pure power leaves me?” I’d done that before but it had felt very different than this.

“I suggest you reabsorb that energy. Combined like that, it is ten times stronger than any pure power that you are mumbling about.” He shook his head. “Pure power, ridiculous.”

I drew a breath and imagined the elements sliding back into my skin, which they did without much effort.

“Well done,” Oka said.

I smiled and looked up at Raven, but he was just staring at me. “You are a fast learner.”

“I am.” No point in denying it.

He cracked his knuckles. “Something harder then, shall we?”

I nodded and tried not to look too eager. Standing there with him, it was easy to forget he was the self-proclaimed bad guy. That he would likely try and kill me the second he was done with my help. And I realized then that was exactly what was going on. Not only did he need me to gather the book for him, but I had no doubt he would need me for some spell he didn’t want me to know he needed me for. I shook my head ever so slightly.

“No?” He raised both eyebrows. “You’ve changed your mind?”

“No, I haven’t.” I crossed my arms.

He grinned suddenly and I had the feeling that I knew him. That flash of teeth, the way his lips turned up at the edges. Where, though, had I seen him? That was the question I could not answer.

“Can you read people?” He pushed himself onto the table and sat staring at me. This was so different than anyone else who’d ever taught me.

I drew a breath and shook my head. “I am no mind reader.”

“No, I mean can you read people? Can you tell how powerful they are? Surely you’ve been around others who can do this.” He wasn’t being condescending, so that much was good. I think.

“Yes, some of the witches could do it. But they never told me how.”

He laughed. “Probably they were worried you would see how weak they were in comparison to you. It’s a hard skill to learn. It might take a bit for you to gain it because it is not a skill of magic but of your second sight.”

I relaxed my stance. “I have used my second sight.”

He spread his arms wide. “Then use them on me, little witch. Tell me what you see.”

What was this now? No instruction? A frustrated sigh slipped from me and I narrowed my eyes to stare at him.

Oka leaned forward. “It is not just about your second sight, Pam. I’ve heard it said by the other familiars that this gift is about seeing someone’s ties to the mother earth.”

I glanced down at Raven’s feet, but there was nothing there. I bit my lower lip and narrowed my eyes further until they were mere slits that I could barely see out of. “Damn it.”

Raven laughed and slid from the table. “It takes a lot of practice. I’m glad to see I can stump you.”

My eyes flew open. “Well, it’s not like you told me what to do.” I wanted to call him names, but I still needed him to teach me. I still needed him to help me bring my friends back. I held that in my mind as I struggled with my anger.

He shrugged. “You either can do it or you can’t. It takes years in some cases and there is no right or wrong way. It is how you see someone’s power and understand it as a reflection to you. Let us move on to your next task, shall we?”

“Not until you show me one more thing.”

He folded his arms over his chest. “Rather demanding, aren’t you? Did you have something in mind?”

That’s where he had me. “I know a lot; it’s your job to teach me something I can’t learn from another witch. Otherwise, you are useless to me already.”

He flinched as though I’d hit him. “Useless?”

I shrugged and fought a sudden spurt of fear. “You get my point?”

He snapped his fingers and a cloak curled around him, as if it sprung from somewhere on his back and was released. Like wings. Like it was alive. Another snap of his fingers and the hood rose and slid over his face.

“Then learn this, little witch.” The voice that came from the figure was not Raven’s any longer. No, the voice was that of someone evil and dark . . . someone who would slit me open just for shits and giggles, just to see what my insides looked like.

Oka let out a long low hiss and her claws tightened on my shoulder. “Back away!”

I stumbled back as he took a step toward us. I whipped my hands up and called on the five powers in me, spinning them into a flashing, bobbing orb.

He lifted a hand and I tensed. With a swift move he knocked his hood back. “Now, can you do that with your cloak? Make it an extension of you? Make it shadow who you really are and in doing so, hide you from the world and your enemies?”

Heart hammering as though I’d been running for my life, I struggled not to toss the orb at him. Perhaps he saw it in my eyes because he went rather still.

“Pamela, I promised I would not hurt you.”

“I put no stock in your promises.” I spit the words at him, fear driving each syllable. “You did that on purpose to scare me.”

“Of course I did.” He barked a laugh. “I did it to show you the power of hiding your face. You can confuse your enemies and keep yourself safe if they do not know you. You can protect your loved ones that way too. If your enemies find out how much you love your family, they will use that against you.”

Carefully, I dropped my hand as I reabsorbed the energy from the five elements into my skin. Oka pressed her cheek to the back of my neck. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t have to. He’d scared me to show he could still hurt me. I wasn’t a fool.

“Oka, come to my shoulder.”

She did as I asked, silent as she climbed out of my hood. I pulled on the currents of air around us and slowly brought the hood of my cloak up around my face, hiding both Oka and myself.

“That is well done, but you are not cloaked as I was. It is a gift of Spirit that allows you to hide. Think of it as being bent between dark and light, a place of in between.”

His words resonated and the dark part of me wept with joy, to be hidden in the night. To do terrible, dangerous, murderous things. I pushed that part of me away. I would not go back to that place.

I shivered and shook my head. “No.” I swept the cloak from my face. “No, I don’t want to. I will not hide who I am.”

Raven stared at me hard, as though I’d said something wrong. But all I knew was that I didn’t want to be in that place again. I’d been there before, when I’d run away to Milly. I’d lived with half my heart in the dark and the other half striving for the light.

And I refused to stand there again.

CHAPTER 12

STANDING IN FRONT of me in the library, Raven held his hand up in concession. I was not letting him bully me into magic that would lead me in the direction it had taken a long time to come back from.

In his eyes was something that looked like disappointment for my lack of trying to wrap myself in shadows as he did. I refused to rise to the bait. He didn’t know me. He didn’t know what I’d lived through already. I would not let myself succumb to darkness again, not if it was within my power.

“Fine, but you will want to learn it at some point. Just remember to anchor yourself through the earth when you do it. It is Spirit that creates the place to hide, but Earth that will bring you back.”

“Funny he mentions that now after you refuse to try,” Oka spoke quietly as she slid back into the hood on my back. I nodded my agreement with her. He was cagey.

“This book,” he turned his back to me and leaned over the pages he had open, “tells us how to gain your friend back. But it will require both of us, as I suspected, and an ingredient I have never heard of.”

My feet were moving before I thought better of it. I leaned over the page he stared at so intently.

Retrieval of a Soul

This is not to be undertaken lightly. But if it must be done, you will need the tears of a ghost to help breach the layers of the Veil.

That was it. There was no instruction, no details of anything else. Raven waved his hand at the page. “So, any idea where to find the tears of a ghost?”

I frowned at the page and then up at him. “You don’t know?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never dealt with a ghost before. They primarily stay on their side of the Veil. And catching their tears sounds . . . what is the word humans use? Dodgy.”

I reached out to touch the page and he pulled the book away. “No fingers on the old paper. It’s fragile.”

A lie. I could feel it in the air between us. I drew myself up. “Don’t be a fuck wit, Raven. You and I both know it is elemental-made and as such will not be breaking under my damn fingers.”

Oka snickered and dipped her head down. “Fuck wit. That’s a new one.”

“Good old English slang.” I spoke to her but never took my eyes from Raven.

Anger flashed across his features but it was gone before it ever settled. “Fine, you want to see what it says?”

He flipped the book around so I could see the words appearing below that had been hidden from me.

Retrieval of a soul comes at a high cost. One must be ready to defy the mother goddess, to defy the world as it was made to bring back a loved one. This is not necromancy, there will be no raising of a body without a soul. This is true resurrection.

And it will tear at the very fabric of the world no matter if it is done correctly or not.

Spit in my mouth dried up as I read. The words crushed what was left of my hope. How could I bring back someone when doing so would tear at the fabric of the world? Yet Raven didn’t seem to want to stop me. I lifted my eyes to his. “Why would you let me do this?”

He closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face. “It is . . . complicated.”

A tap on the window turned us both to the panes of glass across from us. Hovering in the air was a figure in white with long white hair spilling out around the lean body.

Raven pushed me hard toward the hall. “Go, I will deal with this.”

I was through the door and he’d locked it before I could fully comprehend what just happened.

“I think we should do as he says. If nothing else, the Sylph will come for you if we dawdle.” Oka butted her head against mine as if to send me along faster.

I pulled the cloak around me and let Spirit flow through me. I rode the element to a place I knew well. A place that should be safe.

The police station where Will worked was better than anything else I could think of. As a shifter, he had connections to the supernatural world I did not. He was my best bet in trying to find the tears of a ghost. I took us to the roof of the police station. Just to be on the safe side.

The crunch of gravel under my feet grounded me as I stood and took the place in. There were still deep gouges in the roofing where Eve had landed and taken off, where the Beast of Bodmin Moore had tried to take Rylee out. Not many of the memories I had of here, or knew from here, were good. But still, it was where I’d find Will. And I believed in my heart he would know where I could find the ingredient. Okay, maybe hoped was a better word than believed.

As I let my senses catch up with me after landing, I drew a breath and a shiver wandered down my spine. There was the slightest hitch of air that was not my own. But maybe I was imagining things. That was possible.

“Oka, do you hear anything?”

She popped her head up and her ears swiveled. “There is someone on the roof here, but I smell nothing. Their heartbeat is erratic.”

I dropped to a crouch and the cloak pooled around me. Suddenly I wished I’d pushed harder in learning to hide myself as Raven knew how. “We can hear you. Come out slowly,” I said.

Nothing happened for a solid minute. I held a hand up with a ball of flame hovering over my fingertips. “Now, or I will toss this your way.” I wasn’t even sure what their way was, but I was getting good at bluffing.

A figure stood and stepped out from around a few of the planter boxes. A boy, maybe my age but I wasn’t entirely sure. He had dark hair that hung over his eyes. He was very muscular, not like the lean bodies I was used to seeing on boys my age. “What are you doing hiding up here?”

“What are you doing Jumping the Veil at your age?” His voice was low, deep. Maybe he wasn’t my age after all. I didn’t move.

“I didn’t Jump the Veil.”

“Bullshit. Who taught you?” His eyes darted to mine and there was a flicker of red.

Red.

Demon.

I threw the ball of flame as I lurched forward. With my other hand I pulled the sword from my back. It would kill demons. I’d seen it take down Orion.

Oka clung to me as I raced at the demon. There was no question about what I had to do. He pulled a weapon from the air, a staff that had blades on either end. He spun it out and I caught it in the middle with my blade, snapping it in half.

His eyes widened and he stumbled back, now with a weapon in each hand. Maybe that had been a bad idea.

He whipped both out, one around his head and one toward my feet, but there was a hitch in his movement, like he was holding back. I rolled to the side, tucked my head down and came up with the sword held above my head. I caught his two blades on mine and jerked my handle hard. The force of my move sent him sideways and he went to his knees.

Oka stayed off to the side. “The smell on him . . . he’s a demon!”

“I know.” I breathed the words, saving my energy for the fight. “You fucking piss stain, I’m going to send you back to the seventh Veil.”

He dropped his weapons and held up his hands. Covered in blood. I frowned. Did demons bleed? I hadn’t even hit him yet.

“I am already injured and I . . . I am only half demon. I was born here, in London.”

I wanted to run him through, my hatred for demons was so strong. They’d destroyed my family. They were the reason Alex was gone. The reason Rylee was no longer a Tracker, the reason we’d lost so many. His words took a moment to sink in.

I blew out a slow breath. “What do you mean you were born here?”

His hands shook and dripped with blood. “My mother was a witch, she called up a demon. He raped her and I was the product. Seeing as we’re sharing.”

My spine tingled, mostly because I thought he might be telling the truth. “How were you injured?”

“That’s not sharing.” He smiled, though it turned into a grimace.

I narrowed my eyes and stared at him hard, trying to see just how strong he was, because if his mother was a witch then . . . a slight echo of light rose around his ankles, a connection to the earth. From there the power spread upward along his legs, torso, and limbs, but it hovered away from his hands. And the light was just that, light. Not dark. Did that mean he wasn’t a bad guy?

“What are you doing?” His eyes narrowed and I shook my head.

“You’re blocked from your power, aren’t you?” I asked the question even though I already knew the answer.

He stared at me, his eyes not the black I thought but a green so dark, it was hard to tell they were green even in the light. “I am blocked. How did you know?” He blinked and there was just the flicker of red again, but he seemed to . . . push it back? Was that right?

“I just do.” I shrugged, suddenly understanding why witches wouldn’t share this info. It was a leg up understanding what your opponent could and couldn’t do. “How did you get hurt?”

He took a step, groaned and slid to the ground with his back against the retaining wall.

“There’s a pack of shifters around here, they seem to be aware of what a demon’s eyes look like, of what they smell like. I tried not to hurt them, but got bit in the end.” He lifted his shirt and showed me a wound that was indeed a large bite out of his side. Next to it were the vertical claw marks that could only belong to a rather large cat.

“You should learn to hide that demon side of you. Demons aren’t exactly on the ‘people we should trust and be friends with’ list.” The words popped out of me before I thought better of them.

He tried to smile, but it slid from his face in a split second. “Yeah, I got that. I’ve been hiding for years, if I’m honest, love.”

“I’m not your love.”

“You aren’t trying to kill me. That is love as far as I’m concerned.” He grinned.

I glanced at Oka, doing my best to send her a silent question. Should we help him?

Oka took a breath and nodded. “Yes, I think so. Maybe he can offer a trade?”

The demon didn’t move as she spoke. Of course, he couldn’t hear her. No one who wasn’t an elemental could. Bonus points for having a familiar.

“I need to know where to find some ghosts, or the tears of a ghost. You know of any around here?” I didn’t move toward him.

He nodded. “Yeah, over on High Street. There’s two ghosts that haunt the local pub.” He looked at me. “Why?”

“Damn, you really aren’t one of the bad guys, are you?”

He grunted. “Sorry to disappoint.”

I slid the sword I still gripped overly hard into the sheath on my back. “I’m going to heal you.”

“Why would you do that?” He tipped his head to the side and stared up at me with one eye.

“Because . . . you aren’t one of the bad guys.” I shrugged and made my feet walk in his direction. It took everything I had to control my hands from blasting him into pieces. Demon, not demon. Demon, but not bad. I knew it was possible, just not common. I crouched by his side and stared at the wound. “It might hurt.”

“Lovely.” He breathed the word through gritted teeth. I put my hands on the wound and fed my power through my fingers, knitting the wound together, giving him a little something of my own energy, of my own essence in order to put him back into one piece. His skin closed over under my hands until there was nothing but bright pink scar tissue. I stepped back and called up some water to my hands, washing my fingers clear of his blood.

“Thanks for the tip about the ghosts.” I backed away. “But I’m going now, and if you want to be safe from that shifter pack, you should go, too.”

He shook his head and pushed to his feet. “I’m afraid it isn’t that easy. They scented me and I think they have some of the humans watching for me too. If I could get out of the city, I would have by now.”

I frowned and rubbed a hand over my brow. “Well, I can take you somewhere, I guess. Where do you want to go?”

He stared at me hard. “Who are you? No one does things like this anymore. Certainly not for a demon, half demon or not. Good bad or otherwise.”

I bit my lower lip. What would Rylee say? No . . . what did I say?

“Because it’s the right thing to do. And sometimes, that is the only light in the dark —the right thing.”

I held my hand out to him. “Where do you want to go . . . wait, what is your name?”

He put his hand in mine and a shot of power like I’d never felt before ricocheted between our fingers. He sucked in a sharp gasp, but didn’t let go. A grin tugged at his lips. “My name is Ajax. But my friends call me Jax.”

“Pamela, and that cat is Oka.”

He looked at her. “She talks?”

“Not to you,” Oka grumbled.

I grinned. “I can hear her. You can’t.”

He hadn’t let go of me yet. Nor had I let go of him. “Where do you want to go, Ajax?”

“Any ideas where they might not know anything about demons?” His eyes were on mine and I struggled against the weird emotions rocketing through me.

“North.”

“North. I tried north,” he said.

“I mean like . . . North America north. Alaska. I haven’t found any supernaturals up there, nor demons.” Which was the truth. Marco and I had found neither hide nor hair of anything in the cold white north. Strange considering some of their legends.

Jax tightened his hold on me. “Are you sure it won’t cost you to take me?”

He seemed to have some understanding of how the Veil worked at least. I nodded. “All good. Just don’t let go or you’ll end up a wank stain in the middle of nowhere.”

He laughed and I closed my eyes.

“Oka, I’ll be right back,” I said as I thought of Alaska and the snow and the cold. Three heartbeats and I opened my eyes.

We stood at the edge of what I thought might be the ocean. Behind us was nothing but bush and forest, the trees weighted down with snow. It was still early in the year and nowhere else had the icy cold claim it like this.

“I can’t leave you here.” I started to tug him closer, fully meaning to take us somewhere else. He pulled his hand from mine.

“This is perfect.” He took a step back and then grinned at me. “Thank you, Pamela, greatest witch I have ever met.” He swept into a courtly bow that made me blush. “Perhaps we’ll cross paths again one day.”

“Not if you don’t figure out that block,” I pointed out, and he grinned and had the audacity to blow me a kiss.

“Let it be then. And good luck with the ghosts. Be warned that when they realize you see them, they’ll cling like burrs to your sweet ass.” He moved a hand to his lower back and pulled something out. A knife in a back sheath. “It ain’t much, but I want you to have it. You saved my life back there.”

I took the knife. It wasn’t very big, but I’d lost my bowie knife in the Pit, burned it up in the lava when I first fell in. I tucked this new knife and sheath to my lower back. “You sure you don’t need it?”

“Ah, I’ve always got something up my sleeve. Don’t you worry about me, Pamela. Though it’s nice to think you might.” He winked, spun and was running before I could say anything in response. I took a breath of the icy cold, clean air. Alaska. What the hell had made me think of this place?

A tiny voice whispered the truth to me. He’ll be closer to you once you go home to Rylee.

I shook that away, closed my eyes and rode Spirit back to where Oka waited. Only she wasn’t alone.

CHAPTER 13

WILL STOOD ON the rooftop of the police station. His dirty blond hair stuck up in every direction and his clothes were filthy, torn and hanging off his frame. There was no sign of the man he’d been before. His eyes were wild and he lurched toward me before I had a chance to say a word. “Where is he?” The words were ripped from him along with a snarl. I saw the beast in him and knew if I didn’t diffuse this fast, he was going to shift.

“Will, it’s me. Pamela!” I held out my hands and he sniffed the air. “Will, you remember me, don’t you?”

If he shifted and attacked me . . . I wasn’t entirely sure I could stop him without killing him.

I stumbled back as he took a step in my direction. I went down to one knee and my movement set him off. He shifted, his body sliding into his black panther form with a single smooth motion. He crouched, his tail lashing across the gravel in big sweeps.

“Will, don’t do this.”

He snarled and his muscles bunched.

“Oka!” I called for her, not entirely sure what she could do. If anything.

But she ran for me, skidding to a stop between us. Another time it would have been comical to see the tiny peachy orange cat fluffed up and hissing at a black panther that could have swallowed her whole with a single bite. A single bite and she’d be dead.

What had I been thinking?

Will didn’t even look at her as he slunk toward me.

Until she shot forward and slashed her tiny dagger claws across his nose. He roared and shook his head. But she wasn’t done. She slashed at his nose and went for his eyes too. Like a fly pesters an elephant, she kept at him, dodging around, avoiding him easily.

I got to my feet. The distraction was all I’d needed to get my bearings. I called up air and spun it around Will, stilling his movements.

“Will, stop it!” I walked up to him now that he couldn’t move and slapped a hand across his furred face.

Nothing changed, nothing happened except for him to strain harder against the bonds I held him in. His eyes were still wild and my heart broke. “Will, what happened to you?”

Oka leapt up and I caught her in my arms. “He’s lost himself to his animal. With shifters sometimes . . . one thing too many and it pushes them over the edge.”

I closed my eyes. “He was my friend. Rylee’s friend. I can’t believe he’s lost too . . .”

“I’d lay money he can smell the demon on you. His blood got on you, didn’t it?” Oka pulled back and sniffed at me. “Yes, I can smell it on you now that I am looking for it. Has he had dealings with demons before?”

“They killed his sister.”

“Oh, dear,” she whispered. “That would do it, I would think.”

I backed away from the snarling face of panther Will. “As soon as I’m out of sight, I can’t hold him anymore.”

“I think you should just disappear,” Oka said.

Relief flowed through me. Of course, that’s what I should do. I just hadn’t thought of it; the skill was still new to me. I put a hand up and touched her head just to be sure she was there and thought about the pub that Jax had told me about. In a blink, I was gone from the rooftop. So much for getting help from Will.

I opened my eyes and stared around . . . and found a whole lot of humans staring right back. I had taken us just outside of the pub, that had been my plan, and it had worked a little too well. We stood in the front courtyard and the humans—all men—were in a semi-circle around me, as though they had been waiting. But how could that be?

I’d just appeared right in front of them, right out of thin air. More than one took an aggressive step toward me, and the click of a gun’s hammer froze me. I slowly raised my hands, and prepped to Ride Spirit right back out of there.

“Help me.” The plea normally would have turned me around. As it was, I felt it prudent to keep my eyes on the advancing humans.

“Oka, who is it?”

She popped up and looked behind us. “Dark-haired woman on a platform with a noose around her neck and her hands tied behind her back.”

I took a deep breath, raised my hands a little higher. The world was truly going mad. I wiggled my fingers at the humans. “Don’t you worry, I’ll be leaving.”

“Help me, please!” the woman cried out.

I spun, my cloak flared out and the gun went off. The boom of it, so close, rattled my ears and I ducked as well as I could while still staying upright. I flicked my hands out at the rope around the woman’s neck. Flames cut through the twine as though sliced with a razor and she scrambled down from the platform. I raced toward her, grabbed her hand and pulled on Spirit to take us away from the courtyard.

The world went from the chaos and yelling of the humans after us to the quiet of the forest. I’d taken us to the outskirts of the city, a park I’d been to so long ago, I could barely remember it. Except that I remembered it being far away, and very sparse with people.

“Who are you?” The witch turned slowly to look at me as she worked the ropes off her hands.

“Who are you that you couldn’t stop them?” I didn’t understand how they’d gotten a hold of her in the first place. Then I just stared at her. The face. The hair.

She was the witch that killed my mother. No longer pregnant, of course, but otherwise she was the woman. There was no doubt about it.

She sighed. “I was a fool. I thought that he loved me and when he got me drunk . . . well, you know how it is, eh lassie?” It was then I heard the Scottish brogue.

I didn’t know how it was. But I knew witches could be fooled by their hearts, same as any human. All of that was a blur, though. I was spinning through emotions. Should I want to kill her for what she’d done? Because I didn’t.

More than that, though, it was like she finally looked at me. She sucked in a sharp breath. “It cannot be.”

“You killed my mother.” I said the words simply, with zero emotional inflection.

She shook her head and her eyes were shadowed with fear. “Your mother . . . she brought it on herself. She tampered with things beyond her ken. There was a full coven that took her down. You saw her last memory, did you? I was the one to finish the spell.”

She straightened. “If you’re going to be killing me, then do it. I’ve got nothing left since my Bonnie girl was killed.”

I didn’t move. Couldn’t. My mother was not . . . she was not the kind of person I wanted to be. I had seen the darkness in her eyes and the hard line of her mouth. I didn’t love her. I no longer wanted to avenge her death.

“No. Just go.” I backed up a few steps.

Her eyes locked onto mine. “You are not like her.”

I shook my head, conviction flowing through me and, of all things, relief. “No, I’m not.”

I could see the tension ease out of her as her shoulders slumped. “There are so few left, child. If you need help, call on me. My name is Meghan. You would be of an age with my Bonnie girl.” She stared at me, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “And be safe, daughter of the forest, you are one of the last.”

She snapped her fingers and was gone.

“She Jumped the Veil.” I shook my head as I stared at the spot she’d been only a moment before.

“What now?” Oka asked softly.

Obviously I couldn’t go back to the pub where Meghan had nearly been hanged. Too many humans on the lookout for a witch. That left me one option, one I’d not thought of because doing so would mean going back to a place I had sworn I would never step foot in again.

“There is a place I know where there are ghosts.” I cringed as I spoke. “I did not want to go back there, but I know for sure there is one ghost. And if there is any that would cry, it will be him.”

I swung my cloak around me and closed my eyes. I pulled Spirit through me and let it carry me to a place I’d not wanted to go. A place where I knew there were ghosts, because I’d seen them.

The place I was handed off to when my abilities began to present themselves. When my adoptive parents couldn’t handle me anymore.

Carefully, I opened my eyes one at a time, as if by doing so, I could keep from seeing where I stood.

I was in the backyard of the home for disturbed children. The three-story structure still loomed into the sky, a massive square of gray with bars on the sparse, small lower windows. At least that was what the back of the house looked like. From the front, I knew it looked lovely. Welcoming even. But the back told the truth of what this house was. The yard, big as it was and something of an anomaly just being that large, was stripped of grass. Nothing but slick, slimy mud covered the ground making each step slide and slip.

“Where are we?” Oka peered out over my shoulder, hoisting herself up to see.

My jaw ticked as I fought the nervous fear that bubbled in my belly. “A place of many ghosts,” I said. “They took in the troubled children, and did . . . whatever they thought they had to do to correct them.”

Oka glanced at me. “I can feel your abhorrence. Did you know it well then?”

I stayed where I was, crouched in the shadows of the broken-down shack that had been my refuge more than once. “I lived here.” No other words and yet Oka picked up my swirling thoughts.

A hiss slipped out of her. “My beautiful girl, that was so wrong of your parents to leave you here.”

Just those words were all it took. No one had ever said that, not even Rylee. We all understood it was wrong to beat a child, to strap them to their bed, to burn their skin in an attempt to make them understand they were of the devil . . . I didn’t realize I was shaking until my forehead pressed to the soil.

Oka slid between me and the ground. “You are not that child any longer, Pamela. You aren’t. You are strong and kind and beautiful and no amount of hurt can take that away from you.”

I lifted my head. “There was a boy. He died here . . . while I was here. I could hear his screams in the room next to me.”

My eyes found my bedroom window on the third floor. “I need to get into his room. His ghost will be there. Trapped.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ve seen him before. Before they took me away. He was so sad.” That memory I thought I’d pushed away forever because I hoped to never see this place again climbed to the front of my brain. The rage that had swelled in me as they’d dragged me away, the pain and grief at seeing my friend forever tied to a place that had terrified him . . . it had all seemed so wrong. But maybe that was why I was here. My words to Jax suddenly had more meaning than I’d even realized at the time I’d said them. To do what was right. Maybe I could make things right here, too.

I stood and took a deep, shuddering breath. “I need to do this on my own, Oka. Can you understand that?”

She closed her eyes, pinched them shut so tightly, she made wrinkles around them. “I do not like it, but yes. I understand the need to face your demons on your own legs with no one to catch you if you fall.”

It was only then I realized I hadn’t thanked her for standing between me and Will. For being braver than I could have ever hoped for. She must have picked up on my thoughts because she shook her head. “You don’t thank a familiar for doing their job.”

I smiled at her. “You were amazing. You were a tiger in that moment. My brave girl.”

Her eyes shone as she stared up at me. “I’m glad I’m your familiar, and I think for you, it is easier for me to be brave.”

I slid the cloak from my shoulders and let it drop to the ground. “I will try not to be long.”

She stepped onto the cloak and sat in the hood. “I will wait as long as I must wait.”

With my back to her I squared my shoulders and started toward the back door of the house.

The place where I’d lost my childhood.

The place where they’d tried to break my spirit.

The place where ghosts of my past waited to test my courage.

CHAPTER 14

“JUST OPEN IT.” I stood in front of the door that led into my every nightmare for years. This building tortured me, though I’d been gone years. Was I really going to put myself through this hell for something that may not exist? Tears of a ghost? With my hand on the knob, the icy cold of the metal sucking all the warmth from my fingers. This house I’d thought I’d left in my past, left in my nightmares had taken hold of me again as if I’d never left.

No, I would not fall to that fear.

In a fit of anger-laced fear, I sent a rumble of fire from my fingers into the metal.

Warmer now, but not any easier to turn. Minutes ticked by, they stretched around me like sticky taffy. “Do it.” I barked the words at myself and twisted the knob.

Letting myself in was the easy part, the guardians of the home were cocky. Inside the back door, the first room I stood in was mud and laundry. I drew a breath in, tasted the mold and dusky damp of being continually wet with both the moisture of the clothing and the jackets and boots tromping through. I pushed the door behind me shut with a silent click. Harriet and Boomer had obviously been oiling the hinges lately.

Their names made me shiver. Harriet and Boomer. My guardians. Not guardians. The devils who looked to break me under the pretense of helping me. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms as the old hurts and memories stirred in my heart.

“You are not that child anymore,” I whispered to myself.

From further within the house came the grumbling snore that still haunted my dreams. You’d think it was Boomer because of his girth, the triple chins, and beady eyes sunk deeply inside his head. But it was never him. The snoring belonged to Harriet, whose girth was only slightly less than Boomer’s. In some ways, they looked more like siblings than husband and wife.

My parents—who I now knew were my adoptive parents—had dropped me off just before I turned twelve. I’d lit the living room curtains on fire. They thought I was a fire bug, a demon possessed.

Turned out, of course, it was a little more complicated than that. My mind retraced the past as I picked my way through the refuse and rubble. A stench I knew all too well billowed up from a vent in the floor. I gagged and turned my head away. How could they live in this squalor? How could anyone let their child come here?

I let my mind go back to that first day when we’d stood in front of the huge house. The flowers decorating the window ledges, the fresh clean white paint on the door, the sign above it. Home for Challenged Children. Challenged. Harriet and Boomer had been clean, their hair combed, their hands out for the money that would keep me bound to them for nearly a year before my parents decided to take matters back into their own hands. I put a hand on the wall to steady myself, and the material gave way under my weight, sinking me in up to my wrist. I pulled back and flicked off the soft, moldy bits that clung to me.

The bottom of the stairs that went to the third floor was through the hall to my right. I could have closed my eyes and seen the passageway. But I found myself pausing at the intersection that would lead to the front of the house. To where Harriet and Boomer resided and reigned in fear over the children they were guardians of. They set up far enough away from the upstairs bedrooms so they couldn’t hear the children begging to eat. To be let out. To be unleashed from the leathers holding them to the beds. The shakes along my muscles began then as the full weight of where I was crashed around me, taking me back to a time I couldn’t save myself.

The smells and sights overwhelmed me, clung to me like ghosts I could not escape. With my fists clenched and my body fighting my every step, I made myself go to the left. I needed to see them—the two bastards who’d beaten me and made me believe there was something wrong with me. That I was worthless and an abomination.

“You smell that, Boomer?” Harriet’s voice froze me between one step and the next.

There was a grunt and the sound of flesh pulling away from the beaten-down leather furniture I’d seen only on my few trips in and out through the front door. “What?” He grunted the word, then there was a slurp of his tongue.

“Smells like one of the brats.” She sniffed several times and it was only then that something occurred to me.

How had two humans, horrible as they were, survived what I’d thrown at them? Even as an untrained witch, I’d been dangerous. I knew that now. I’d tried lashing out at them with my powers and they had bounced off their skin like nothing . . . and then after the first few incidents they’d kept my hands bound and jammed behind me.

I swallowed hard, or tried to, because my past had tightened my throat like a noose. I had deliberately not thought about this time in my life and so had not really gone over the possibilities that Boomer and Harriet were not human. They were supernaturals like me. But what were they?

Funny, but thinking of them as supernaturals stole some of the fear away. I’d dealt with monsters before. I could do it again.

“Go see if the kid is still tied down,” Harriet snarled and smacked her lips. “I thought he was dead, but maybe he got away.”

I stood where I was, holding my ground. Maybe if I was being honest I just couldn’t move. I couldn’t go forward and couldn’t go back. Boomer’s steps drew closer and closer. The air tensed around me and I lifted both hands. No . . . they knew magic, or at least how to repel it. I reached over my shoulder and pulled the sword from my back.

If anyone deserved to die, it was these two. No human justice would ever be handed out to them. I coiled my body, ready to spring.

Boomer stepped into the hall, and for the first time, I really saw him. Saw through the layers of falsehood he’d placed on himself to hide from the other humans.

His skin hung in loose, pale blue and green folds from his chin all the way down to his knees. Like someone had given him three people’s worth of flesh and attached it randomly here and there. A mouth that filled most of the lower half of his face had random teeth protruding past oversized, swollen-looking lips. A long tongue flicked out, tasted the air, split in two, then three and wriggled this way and that, left and right. His piggy eyes were as deeply set as ever, but they widened when he saw me. A troll, Boomer was a bloody damn troll.

“Who the fuck are you?” he roared but he didn’t take a step toward me. Maybe he was smarter than he looked.

“Who is it?” Harriet screeched from the other room.

“Some chick with a sword. Looks familiar.” Those tiny eyes narrowed to mere pinpricks. “Wait a tick, I know you. Pamela. You was the one your parents took back and had the demons exorcised at the church.” He laughed and it boomed through the house, shaking the timbers and drawing a scream from the third floor. “How’d that work for you, witch?”

I pointed the sword at him, noting that the tip trembled not because it was heavy, but because my nerves . . . I couldn’t seem to slow them.

He wasn’t afraid of me. Wasn’t afraid of my magic, which told me something vital. Some trolls were Immune, like Rylee. Immune to the touch of magic and that put me at a disadvantage.

But were they Immune to an elemental’s power? A tingle of excitement whispered through me. “Worked fine. The Tracker saved me. And now I am part of her pack.”

Boomer lifted a hand and pointed one of seven thick fingers at me. “The Tracker? Ah, so proud of you to have gone so far.”

“You have a kid upstairs?” I pointed with my free hand to the stairs.

He nodded and gave a huge, rolling shrug that jiggled the layers of skin. “Helping kids, it’s what we do.”

I would have lunged at him then, but I’d been sloppy. Far too sloppy. I heard Oka call out, but her warning was too late.

The back door burst open and Harriet roared through, her form as beefy and overly skinned as Boomer’s, only her coloring was a pale pink and orange and that was all I saw before she got her arms around my upper body, pinning them down to my body.

“Fuck!” I screamed and fought to no avail against the loose folds of her flesh. Twisting my wrist, I tried to flick a ball of flame, but I couldn’t even manage that. She laughed and bounced me up and down in her arms like I was a fussy toddler she wanted to shake into silence.

“What a potty mouth. We didn’t teach you those words, Pamela.” She tsked at me, like a mother to a child. Boomer drew close and I fought to get my sword hand up, to lift the weapon and drive him through the belly.

“Bring her into the front parlor. I want to see her close,” Boomer grumbled. “Maybe we can still get something for her.”

I had a choice. I could try and make a leap through the Veil and possibly take Harriet with me. Or I could fight them on my own terms.

I relaxed in Harriet’s arms. I might be a fool for staying, but I had to see this through. Whatever it meant, I had to finish this task in this place. I had to put the past to bed.

Harriet trundled with me through the hall and as we passed the stairs, the sound of crying drifted down to us. The troll took note of the direction I stared.

“Yeah, that is our last one. She’s a pain in the arse, like you.”

“You aren’t going to survive this.” The words came out calm, clear, and steadier than I could have hoped.

“Funny coming from the one about to be tied to a chair.” She made a kissing noise in my ear and I jerked my head away from her. Seconds later, Boomer had a length of rope and was wrapping me in it. And that was when I realized my mistake.

The rope was spelled to keep me from using magic, so even though Harriet was no longer blocking me with her innate Immunity, I was still helpless.

Wankers and fuck nuggets, this was bad. I blew out a slow breath. I’d been in worse with Milly and Frank, so I could get through this too. That’s what I told myself in an effort to keep the panic at bay.

Only with Milly and Frank, I’d not been dealing with my past and the memories and pain that distracted me to the point of being unable to think clearly.

I kept my eyes on the two trolls as they waddled to stand in front of me. Behind them was the hallway to the back. And from the edge of the hallway peered two pale blue eyes that were narrowed with worry. I shook my head at Oka, just slightly, so they wouldn’t look.

I wasn’t done in, not yet anyway.

“What are we going to do with her, Harriet?” Boomer looked at his mate. She pursed her flabby lips and blew out a fat raspberry noise that splattered me with foul-smelling saliva. I tightened my own lips and glared at her.

Harriet touched a finger to her chin. “Well, nobody is looking for her. We know her parents don’t want her back. What about this Tracker? Maybe she would ransom her?”

I burst out laughing. I couldn’t help it. “You want Rylee to come here and get me? I think that’s a fabulous idea.”

Okay, I shouldn’t have said it like that, but I didn’t really want Rylee to rescue me. Not this time. I wanted—needed—to do this on my own.

They looked to one another and I wormed my arms a little while their eyes were off me. Despite his sloppy looks, Boomer was anything but sloppy when it came to tying his charges up. My wrists were bound tightly together, but they hadn’t considered I might have another weapon on me.

The knife Ajax had given me still sat snug against my lower back, just waiting for me to pull it free.

I shifted in my seat ever so slightly so I could reach into the back sheath. My wrists protested the awkward movement but I ignored the pain. A little pain now could save me more pain later. Carefully, I slid the blade from its hiding spot and turned it so I held the handle.

But I was concentrating so hard, I wasn’t paying attention to the trolls.

“What you doing, girl?” Boomer backhanded me and sent me and the chair flying across the room. I hit the wall hard. Stunned by both the blow and the force of the crash, the knife slid from my fingers. Blood flooded my mouth. I spit it out with a gagging cough.

Weaponless, I lay there and fought to see through the double vision and black spots. I was in trouble, and I knew it. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask for help, not even from Oka. She’d stepped out so I could see her fully—even if she wobbled a little, making two cats for a moment—and again, I shook my head. Her whole body quivered as she stepped back into the shadows of the hall.

“Sit her back up.” Harriet flopped into the extra wide chair across from me. The furniture groaned and creaked under her weight but didn’t scatter apart like I thought it should.

Boomer wound his hands through my hair and yanked me upright. I scrabbled my fingers for the knife one last time as I was dragged toward the center of the room.

There, right at my fingertips was the handle. I strained for it, felt it spin away from me and then I was upright again, without the knife. Now I could only hope they didn’t see it.

I rolled my head forward, resting my chin on my chest as my mind raced. Blood flowed from my lips and the coppery tang sat heavy on my tongue and dripped from my nose.

“Should we kill her then?”

“Too easy,” Harriet muttered. “There was a witch looking for newbies to train. Bet we could sell La-la off to them.”

I cringed with the use of my childhood nickname. I’d never told Rylee or anyone else that La-la was what my adoptive parents had called me. They’d told Boomer and Harriet, and of course, they used it like a joke because we all knew it meant my parents weren’t coming back for me. I’d come to hate the name. La-la was a symbol of everything in my past and of the frightened little girl I’d been.

I swallowed hard, swallowed down blood and snot from the back of my throat and gagged again on the thickness of it. Screw it.

I coughed it up and spat on the floor. Wasn’t like I was going to make the place any worse.

Boomer backhanded me again and sent me flying once more, almost in the exact same place.

“Don’t be spitting on my floors,” Harriet intoned like a schoolmarm instructing a child how to say her A-B-Cs.

I hit the ground hard and used the momentum to push with my feet so I was close to where my knife lay. On my back, the chair dug into my arms, cut off circulation and made it hard to wiggle my fingers. But there, at the edge of my right hand was the knife. I jerked the whole chair, bouncing it hard as Boomer approached, and my hand lay over Ajax’s knife. This was my chance. I just had to take it.

CHAPTER 15

BOOMER STARED DOWN at me and I stared right back up from my place on the floor, my arms still pinned back to the chair. He snarled down at me, spittle splattering my face. But I didn’t close my eyes, even when some saliva hit my eyelid. I needed to be on point for this.

“Bitch. You haven’t changed much. Seems we didn’t break you as good as we could have. We can fix that now, though.” Boomer grabbed my hair again and I gritted my teeth against the pain. I curled my hand around the knife in the split second before he dragged me back to the middle of the room and set me up once more so I faced the hallway and his mate. He turned his back to me, bent and picked up the sword. “Bet we can get a pretty penny for this too, eh, Harriet?”

She reached for the sword and while their attention was off me, I sawed at the rope as fast as I could without moving much. Which really wasn’t that fast at all, but it was better than not having the knife.

I worked the blade across the thin rope, knowing it would be spelled against being cut too. Probably. That would make sense to me. Then again, this was a blade that had belonged to a half demon. Maybe that would help.

The threads of the rope came apart with an ease that shocked me. So much so that I just sat there as the ropes fell from my body.

The trolls’ eyes were on the sword, inspecting it and not watching me at all. I flexed my hands as my mind raced. My only hope was that by using more elemental magic, I could have some effect on them. Slim hope, but I would take it. I brought my hands around even as I called all five elements into a single snapping orb over my palm. The five colors danced and fought as I held them up. Without another thought, I flicked the orb at Boomer’s feet. At least I could take the footing out from under him.

That was the least of what happened.

The orb hit the floor boards and the room vibrated with the impact. A silent thump of power erupted and it threw Boomer straight up through the ceiling. He screamed as he went crashing through all three floors. There was a second thump of his body landing and then nothing but silence.

I stared at Harriet.

She stared back, her mouth hanging open and her eyes, as tiny as they were, bugging out of her head. “Not possible.”

I prepped a second orb and held it out. “You going to go quietly, or am I going to kill you?”

The words were hard and as true as any I’d ever spoken. Her death would not satisfy my anger; I knew that. But it would stop her from hurting anyone else. I narrowed my eyes and stared at her, using my second sight.

It wasn’t just her power I saw, but her heart. The darkness that rolled there, the desire for power and fear and how they fed her strength.

She would never give up hurting children. It was a drug she craved.

“Let me live. I can change. I promise.” She dropped to her knees and the fear on her smelled like oily fish frying in a hot pan, burning. Stinking the place up, making me want to vomit.

Harriet made the choice for me, though. She thought she would fool me. She leapt, her seven-fingered hands the size of catcher’s mitts reaching for me. I tried to dodge her, but only managed to avoid one hand. The other clamped over my arm, and like Rylee’s Immunity, her touch blocked my own magic.

Which left me only a single option. I had to go into a knockdown, drag-out fist fight with a troll five times my size. Thank the gods for Rylee’s training.

I pulled hard as if I would drag her with me. I yanked her, jerking my body, throwing it in one direction with as much strength as I could, putting her off balance a little. She pulled back, a natural reaction.

I flung myself hard away from her once more and when she moved to react, stepping back, I went with her. Using her own momentum, I let her pull me toward her so I was wrenched into the air. I flew at her, my knife aimed for the one place I knew would do the most damage.

Her beady little eye.

My aim was good, and only a little to the left. I hit the edge of her nose first, slid down it with the blade and drove into her left eye. The blade was sharp as a razor and went in all the way to the hilt. Four inches was enough to hit Harriet’s brain unless it was a great deal smaller than the average.

Her body jerked and her mouth flapped open over and over as her body convulsed. Her hand fell from me and she slowly fell backward like a tree that had been cut at the base. I held onto my knife as she dropped away. It slid out of her with a squelching pop and then she thundered to the floor, her huge body rattling the timbers of the house.

My hands shook, trembling so hard, I dropped the knife.

Oka raced in and pressed herself against my leg. “You did it, Pam. Breathe, you did it.”

“Not yet, it isn’t done,” I whispered because I couldn’t seem to get my voice to be any louder. “Boomer is still upstairs somewhere. He could be alive.”

Oka shook her head. “No, I don’t hear him. His heart is silent.”

That meant nothing to me. “He’s a troll with some magic. He could hide himself.” I pushed to my feet. “Shout if he comes down.”

She bobbed her head. “Be careful.”

I made myself walk down the hall and up the stairs without stopping. If I stopped, I wasn’t sure I would get going again. The stairs were wide enough for the trolls to fit, but they felt narrow to me, like they were closing in. At the first landing, I stared around at the open space. It had been something of a rumpus room with no walls.

I had indeed blown Boomer to the third floor. I grabbed the railing and headed up to the top floor. The smell of shit and piss filled the air more and more with each stair. I paused before I took that last step. My room was to the right and the door was open, I could see it from where I stood. The same metal-framed single bed, the thin bumpy mattress that had a sag in the middle so I could feel the springs in my lower back no matter how I twisted to get away from them. The same window with no bars, laughing at me that I couldn’t get to it. That I couldn’t get away.

I clenched my hands and forced my feet up the last few steps, turned my head away from my old room. This landing was small, and Boomer lay on it to one side. From the look of the ceiling, he’d lost steam and bounced off it, then headed back down. Only he’d missed the hole he’d come up through.

The sword had run him through, right into his belly. I could almost see how it happened as if in slow-motion replay. He’d had the sword in his hand and it had spun around when he’d bounced off the ceiling. Then it had twisted and he’d landed on it. A rumbling noise escaped him and I had my hands up so fast, I wasn’t sure I’d even thought about moving them.

Air from both ends of him escaped as his body deflated around the sword. I gagged on the stench, heaved and threw up. Bent over at the waist, I waited for the urge to puke to pass. The stench wasn’t any better, but there was nothing left in my stomach.

I made myself go to Boomer’s side. The handle of the sword was underneath him which was going to be a pain. I put a boot to him and pushed. His body didn’t even budge. I bent and put my hands to the wooden flooring. I pushed a pulse of power through it and used the floor to tip him over. He teetered on the edge of the hole his massive body had created. I reached out and yanked the sword from him as he rolled the rest of the way and fell down the three floors.

“Pamela!” Oka yelled up at me and was halfway up the steps. I beckoned her up.

“I’m fine. Just retrieving the sword.” I pressed the tip into the floor and leaned on it.

Oka stopped with her front feet on the top step. “There is a child here, isn’t there?”

I nodded and turned toward the only closed door. It took so much energy to walk to it and try the handle. It was locked. I wondered briefly if it was an attempt to keep Tim’s ghost from wandering. I lifted the sword and drove it through the mechanism. Like a razor through silk, the blade cut through the metal easily.

I pushed the door open and stepped in. Tied to the bed was a young man. Only he wasn’t alive.

“Hello, Tim,” I said softly. The ghost of my friend looked at me, his eyes as sad as ever.

“Pamela, you came back.” He couldn’t move with all the leather holding him down. Leather that was there, and yet it wasn’t.

I dropped the sword with a clatter and moved to sit on the side of the bed. “Tim, you know you are dead, don’t you? You can leave this place now.”

“I can’t. They tied me down. But you can untie me, can’t you?” His eyes searched my face. Eyes that had peered through the tiny hole between our bedrooms, hands that had held mine whenever we’d had the chance. He’d been older than me with his straw-colored hair and gray eyes that had always seemed so sad. I knew he wasn’t the only one who’d died here.

I knew it.

I’d seen them all. The ghosts of the children not strong enough to survive what Boomer and Harriet had thrown at them.

“I’m going to try, Tim.” A part of me knew that releasing him would lose me any chance of gathering his tears. Though that was something I didn’t understand anyway. How did you gather the tears of a ghost? Impossible. Raven had given me an impossible task, that damn book had given me an impossible ingredient to bring back.

But I could free Tim, couldn’t I?

“Oka, how much do you know about ghosts?”

“A little. If you’re wondering how to free them, there is a surefire way.” She hopped up onto the bed as she eyed up Tim.

I nodded. “Yes. Let’s free them. We’ll figure out the rest . . . after.”

She put her front feet on my chest and butted her head into my chin. I draped an arm around her. “So, how do I do it?”

“They are tied to the house. It is what holds them.”

I thought for a moment. “So if I burn it down?”

She blinked once. “Yes. Fire cleanses.”

Tim looked at me. “You are going to burn the house?”

“It’s the only way to free you, Tim. Do you trust me?” I couldn’t bring my voice above a whisper. The pain of the place we sat was too great, the past too heavy for raised voices now that Harriet and Boomer were dead.

He gave me a smile, showing me where two of his teeth had been knocked out. “I trust you.”

First, I had to check the other room. Boomer and Harriet had said there was another one, like me. I went to the last door and cut through it as I’d cut through Tim’s. There, strapped to a bed was a girl with filthy dark brown hair and brilliant green eyes that had been dulled with pain and fear. She rolled her head to look at me. “Are you going to kill me, too?”

My heart clenched and I shook my head. “No, I’m here to save you.”

She didn’t smile; she didn’t cheer and I knew why. I’d been there. How long had it taken for me to trust Rylee’s word that she would protect and love me? Years. Even now I had moments of doubt.

I went to the side of the bed and crouched. I undid the straps on her legs first, tried not to look at the bruising, the cuts in her skin, the places they’d beaten her. I couldn’t stop the tears trickling from my eyes. There was a strange sensation, like I was unlocking my own bindings to this place.

I moved up the bed and undid the leather strap on her hand, and then the other. She just lay there and stared at me. “What’s your name?”

“Bonnie.”

Her name resonated with me. “And you are a witch?”

“I am.” She still lay there. She was not much younger than me, but they had hurt her so badly. I held my hand out to her.

“I’m going to take you to your mother.”

She didn’t lift her hand so I took it in my own, and thought about Meghan. About the witch I’d saved, the same witch who’d killed my birth mother. If I’d been raised by my birth mother, I would have gone down a dark path. I knew it.

Meghan had saved me.

I pulled Spirit through us both, focusing on Bonnie’s mother.

The scene flicked and we were back in the forest I’d taken Meghan to, the park. A small fire glittered and Meghan was there.

She stood and stared at us. “What are you doing back here—” Her words cut off, and she put a hand to her throat. Bonnie finally moved from my side, letting me go.

“Mom?”

There was a cry and then Meghan flew to her daughter. Gathered her in her arms, touched her face, stroked her hair, kissed her. The reunion was so sudden and intense that I took a step back.

I had to leave. I had things to do. I called Spirit up, and was gone before any words were spoken. I didn’t need them.

There was a brief moment once I was back in the troll house where I just knelt on the floor of the bedroom I’d come back to with my eyes closed. Oka pressed against me, forcing me to gather her in my arms. I clung to her, sobbing.

I didn’t even know why I cried. I’d done the right thing.

Maybe it was because I knew I would never have a mother like that. One that crushed me to her in an effort to keep me safe. Oka’s paws went around my neck.

“I will always be here, Pamela. I will always be here. You are not alone.”

The sobs slowly subsided and I made myself brush the tears away. So much of my past coming to haunt me.

“Let’s finish this.” I put her down. “We need to finish this.”

I stood and made my way downstairs, unable to see past the stream from my eyes. The smells overwhelmed me once more, and took me back to the place I wanted nothing more than to forget. I stumbled through the house until I found the back door, blinded by memories and pain.

In the backyard, it took me a moment to realize that rain fell hard around me, soaking me through my clothes. I didn’t care. I turned back to the house, lifted my hands and flicked my fingers at the dreadful place that had stolen so many lives and dreams.

The tears and the rain fell as the flames ate up the lower levels of the house. I fed the flames with my sorrow, pushed my emotions and grief into it. At some point, Oka leapt up and put herself on my shoulder, but she said nothing.

In the distance came the sounds of the firetrucks as they raced our way.

“It has to burn white hot in order to release them, Pam.”

I redoubled my efforts, letting my body be a funnel for the power that came from a place I was only beginning to understand. A well of power that began in the earth and fed upward through the five elements, a well that could not be emptied.

We are here, child; do not let the fear consume you. The voice was gentle, kind, and soothed away some of the panic in my heart. I would trust the mother goddess.

I held my hands out and the flames rose, they burned high about the top of the three-story house as they flickered through the spectrum of colors until there was nothing but a white flame that swallowed the building whole. It crumbled in on itself with a thunderous crash, emptying the world of one more place of death, freeing those who’d not been as lucky as I to escape.

I dropped my hands and went to my knees, exhausted. From the still burning wreckage, the children appeared. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster. I counted as they went by . . . twelve girls and five boys. They passed by silently, their eyes on me, and their hands raised in goodbye. I didn’t recognize any of them, but they gave me their gratitude.

But no Tim stepped from the burnt ashes of the house.

I was about to go to my feet, to search for him when he emerged. Of course, he would be the last, as he was the last to die. He approached me as the rain fell harder and a bolt of lightning broke the sky above us. When had night fallen? The thought was random, and I knew I was going into shock.

Tim crouched beside me and lifted a hand. “You saved us, Pamela. You freed us from that place.”

“I could have come sooner.”

“You didn’t know.” He shook his head. “No one knew.” A tear slipped down his cheek and I raised my finger to it. The rain fell through his form as he cried. I cupped my hand and the tears of a ghost pooled in my palm.

“Be well, Pamela. And always be brave. It is who you are.” He faded as I stared at him, going translucent and then turning to mist and then he was gone.

I curled my hand to my chest and cupped the tears to me. “Oka, can you get my cloak?”

She bounded away and was back in a flash. I curled her in tightly to me with my free hand and clung to the cloak. I didn’t think to go back to the mansion.

I thought only of going straight to Raven, to take him the tears.

That was both my mistake and my saving grace.

CHAPTER 16

I OPENED MY EYES, my hands still cupping Tim’s tears, the tears of a ghost that had once been my fellow prisoner. But I was away from that house now, away from that place of darkness.

I stood outside the library door inside Jack’s home, still wet from the rain, but the warmth of Jack’s home quickly slipped through my clothing.

If I was here, then Raven hadn’t left. I took a step and raised my foot to boot on the door, to announce myself, to gain his help to contain the tears that had cost me so much to find.

Oka stuck me with her claws. “Wait, I hear voices.”

I lowered my foot and leaned in, putting my ear against the crack in the door. “Sylphs?” I whispered and Oka shook her head.

“I don’t know.”

I stilled my breathing and strained my ears. There were two voices besides Raven’s. A woman and a man.

The man’s voice was a deep timbre that made me shiver. “You are going about this wrong, Raven. She won’t be manipulated. We all have seen that she’s too strong.”

“Besides,” the woman said, “we are doing it for the betterment of our people. All of them. You agreed to our plan, you—”

There was a sound of a hand slamming onto something. A table maybe. Raven’s voice was hard. “I will do what I must. There is no cost too high, and you both know it. Even if it means Lark dies, I will go forward with this.”

“It is not a matter of if,” the man drawled, “her death is assured no matter which path you try to force her down.”

I jerked as if I’d been slapped. The tears sloshed over my cupped hand and all I could think about was what did it matter if I could bring someone back from the dead if I didn’t try to save a friend who still lived?

I backed away and down the hall, waiting until I was far enough away that they wouldn’t hear me. I hurried with my hand cupped, all the way to the kitchen. Once there I dumped the tears into a glass tumbler. There wasn’t much, but it would have to do. If I even got that far with Raven.

If I even stayed to learn how to use it.

I paced the kitchen back and forth, Oka swaying on my shoulder.

“You have to warn her,” she said. “Even I know the stories of the Destroyer. She will save our world, and they are planning to kill her.”

“I know, I know. But Lark . . . she isn’t easy to find.” I stopped where I was in the middle of the room. “I could go right to her.”

I made my way out of the back side of the house and onto the lawn.

I closed my eyes and tried to get Spirit to take me to Lark, tried to ride it all the way to her. But something held me back. I opened my eyes and stared at the ground. The soil and grass had wrapped itself around my boots. No matter that I might want to go to her, to warn her.

It looked like I wasn’t supposed to.

And something was stopping me. Something or someone?

“Pamela, why do we not go?” Oka’s eyes narrowed in concern.

“I don’t know. It’s like . . .” I couldn’t shake the feeling that I needed to let things play out. That warning Lark wouldn’t work the way I hoped. My lungs filled with the night air, bracing and cold with the after-effects of the rain. I kicked off my shoes and my feet sunk into the mushy, water-saturated ground.

“What do I do?” I spoke the words, but pushed them with the power of the earth.

Child, you are a fast learner. The voice of the mother goddess spooled around me and a sigh slipped from my lips. Oka sucked in a sharp breath. “I hear her.”

“Lark is being threatened. I could go to her and warn her,” I said. “I should warn her. She is my friend.”

Larkspur’s path will cross with yours. She is aware of those against her. Your warning will do nothing but take you away from your own path, which is here with your father.

That last word hovered in my mind. “My . . . father?”

The mother goddess was gone and I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t breathe. I put a hand to my forehead and all the pieces fell into place. He’d saved me as a child. He’d not punished me when I’d gone back to Rylee to help them. He wanted to train me. He knew my mother. He knew my history.

Raven was my father.

I think perhaps I suspected it, deep down in my heart. When I looked at him, when he smiled I saw my smile. I saw the shape of my eyes in his. I felt something in him that resonated in my own soul.

And I saw the struggle between right and wrong, the light and the dark in him as I saw in myself. “Oka.”

“Your parents have nothing to do with who you are now.” She jumped down so she could stare up at me. When had I gone to my knees?

She put her paws on my folded legs. “Pamela, maybe Raven is your blood, but it is not your blood that makes you strong. It is your heart. Who has influenced your heart?”

“Rylee.” I said her name without hesitation and it was like a wind blew away my fears. “Rylee is my . . . she’s my sister, my mother, my friend.”

Oka bobbed her head. “Then you don’t have to be afraid of him. Maybe he will still try and kill you, but you know things now. You know who he is to you and the mother goddess was clear. Your path, right now, is here with him. For whatever reason. We can see this through. We must because it is your path we walk, no one else’s.”

I scooped her up and hugged her. Her tiny paws went around my neck and she buried her nose under my hair.

“We should go back inside.” I let her go and she bounded across the lawn and peered in the back door.

She looked back at me. “All clear.”

I grabbed my boots and slogged through the mucky mess and into the mansion once more. Jack would have thrown a fit if he could’ve seen the muddy footprints both Oka and I were leaving in our wake. The thought made me smile. I missed Jack and his cantankerous nature, his potty mouth and strange quirks. I missed all my friends we’d lost along the way to saving the world from Orion and his demons.

“Now what?” Oka leapt to the island in the middle of the room and began to groom herself.

I dropped my boots and took a hand towel from the drawer. I brushed off my feet and then walked across to the only phone in the house. “I’m going to call someone. I think . . . maybe I just need to hear a voice I trust.”

She sniffed and narrowed her eyes. I smiled at her. “I trust you, Oka. But you and I are both young. There are others who’ve lived this supernatural life a hell of a lot longer.”

I picked the phone up off its cradle and stared at the rotary dial. Old school, it was the only thing that would even attempt to work around the vibes that supernaturals gave off. But that wasn’t why I paused.

No, I knew the real reason. I’d seen Rylee, gotten her blessing in a way to keep on this path. I didn’t want to worry her. Which didn’t leave me a lot of options in terms of who to call for advice. Because while I trusted the mother goddess, it didn’t change that I had a second choice in front of me. Did I stay or go?

The number I finally chose was one I wasn’t sure would even be answered. Would he be awake? What was I saying, he was always awake. He was a daywalking vampire. One of only two that I knew existed.

The click of the phone going through international lines and then there was a second click before it rang through and on the third ring was picked up.

“This better be good, Pamela.” Doran’s voice was a welcome sound, but I’d never admit it to him.

“Doran, I need some . . . guidance.” I clutched the phone and turned so I could see the doorway through the kitchen into the rest of the house. The last thing I needed was for Raven to sneak up on me when I was talking about him.

“Little witch,” he yawned, “it is very early here. Make it snappy.”

“I’m with an elemental who is training me, and he is making plans to hurt and maybe kill Lark, but he is also the only one who can teach me things I need to learn.”

There was silence for a beat. “Are you sure?” All the sleepiness attached to his words was gone in a flash.

“Yes. I heard him speaking with someone else and they said that no matter what path they sent her down, she was going to die.” I knew I was mucking it up a bit, but I bloody well couldn’t remember the exact words. I tightened my hold on the receiver. “I have been advised not to warn Lark by the mother goddess herself. But . . . so do I stay here with the elemental? Or do I go back to Rylee?”

“You have very little information, Pamela. If you go now, you may lose your chance to learn the plans this elemental has for our Lark. You have a chance to find out more; take it as long as you can and learn all you can while you are there.” His words made sense and they backed up what the mother goddess had already suggested. Okay, suggested wasn’t exactly how I’d put it, but still. I swallowed, the door into the kitchen opened and Raven strode in.

His eyes met mine and I saw myself in him. Saw the lines in my face that echoed his. I cleared my throat. “Thank you, I’ll have my father check the furnace right away and if it needs cleaning we’ll be sure to call you.”

I hung the phone up before Doran could get even a single word in. I didn’t know how good Raven’s hearing was.

His eyes flickered. “Your father?”

I shrugged and looked away. “Young girls are not supposed to tell strange men they are home alone. I didn’t know you were here.”

Lies, they were heavy in my mouth but it was all I could do not to stare at him. To try and see what parts of him were reflected in my own skin. In my own bones. I shook my head, mostly at myself, but he saw.

“What is wrong, Pamela?” The kindness in his voice was too much.

Tears sprang to my eyes. “I got the tears of a ghost.” I waved at the glass on the island.

“Was it difficult?”

I struggled to breathe, to find the words. I needn’t have worried.

“Are you out of your mind?” Oka screeched. “You sent her into a place that held the ghosts of her past, you sent her and she battled a demon, and a shape shifter, and two trolls. And you ask if it was difficult? If you were any sort of a mentor, you’d be there, helping her! Useless like tits on a bull is what you are!” She puffed up and skittered across the island, bouncing on her toes with each word, stopping only when she was close enough to him that she could throw a swat at him.

With great effort, I pulled myself together, straightened my shoulders and nodded. “It was not easy. But it is done.”

“A demon?” The question was clear. He didn’t believe me.

Just like so many others, he would underestimate me, he would believe what I said was done in an effort to make myself look better than others.

And now I would let him wallow in that belief.

And I would let him see all I really was when the time was right.

CHAPTER 17

RAVEN’S LACK OF belief in my abilities hurt me, but I had to remind myself that that would work in my favor. Even if I didn’t like it. I leaned on the counter of the kitchen, let the cool of the granite top ground me.

“No, of course not,” I said softly. “Oka is being protective. There was a single troll. That was enough.” I tapped my fingers on the island, beckoning my familiar back to me. Her eyes widened and I tried to send her a thought.

Let him believe I am weak. Let him underestimate us both.

Her mouth opened as if she would argue and then she clamped it shut.

“Your familiar . . . she believes in you,” Raven said. “Perhaps you should tell her not to spread tales.”

Oka hissed as I scooped her off the island. I cleared my throat. “I’ll do that.”

I would have left the kitchen right then, gone to my room and collapsed onto my bed in order to sleep off the last few hours. Had it only been that many? But that wasn’t to be.

The door opened into the kitchen and Belladonna, Lark’s sister, strode in. I’d only met her once, but I’d remember her anywhere. Dark brown hair fell in loose waves over her bare shoulders and she wore a spider web black gown that clung to her sensuous curves. Her eyes flicked over me. “This is the witch you are training?” Her voice was not Belladonna’s and I realized this was the woman Raven had been speaking with in the library. The woman who’d spoken about Lark as if she were just a chess piece.

I stared, open-mouthed for a moment. Not Belladonna then, but a close relative.

Raven waved a hand between us. “Yes, this is Pamela.”

He did not introduce me to Cassava. She and I stared at each other and I wasn’t sure what it was, but I could not take my eyes from her. She was like a venomous snake coiled in the corner. As long as I watched, she would not bite me.

But I had no doubt the first time I took my eyes from her, she would strike.

I gave her a curt nod. It was the best I could do. She strode toward me and it took all my strength not to back away. Oka cringed against me, liking her no more than I did.

With a single finger Cassava tipped my chin up and stared down into my eyes.

“Perhaps you are right, Raven. She has great strength in all five elements.”

Right about what? About killing me when he was done with me?

I twisted my face away from her. Raven let out a sigh. “Pamela, before we go onto the next step, I have to go and . . . deal with something.”

I almost said Lark’s name. I wanted to. To ask him if it was Lark he had to deal with. But I bit my tongue. And then I realized that it meant he would leave me here with Cassava.

“I don’t want to stay here with her.” I kept my tone even. “You said you would train me, so train me. Don’t pawn me off on someone else like a child who needs a caregiver.”

I arched an eyebrow at him and he sighed. Torn, I could see it in his face that he wanted me to come with him. Cassava snorted. “She is like her mother, foolish and impetuous. That is a shame.”

Raven frowned and for the first time I saw a real anger flash over his handsome features. He held a hand out to me. “Get your boots on, Pam. You can come with me.”

I scrambled to get my boots, not even bothering to buckle them before I put my hand in Raven’s. I grabbed my cloak and tightened it around my neck, made sure Oka was settled on my shoulder.

Raven reached over, took the glass that held the ghost tears and then with a final look at Cassava we were gone.

Her last words echoed around us. “He thinks he is right, little witch. But do not trust him.”

We were gone from Jack’s mansion, and for a moment, I thought we would float longer in the Veil as we rode Spirit, but as fast as ever, we were somewhere new.

A cold wind slammed into me, stealing my breath. My eyes popped open and I stared around, unsure, at first, that my eyes were indeed open. White, everything was white and cold and it took me a few breaths to realize we were standing in snow up to my knees. On my shoulder, Oka shivered. I pulled the hood up, protecting us both from the wind.

“You can only come with me so far, and only if you promise me you will not interfere,” Raven said softly. “Can you do that?”

I wasn’t sure I could so I said nothing. Raven turned and looked at me. “Pamela, I need you to swear to me on the life of your mentor that you will not interfere with what I do here. I know things will look bad, but you must understand that I do what I do for a reason and a cause that is greater than a single life.”

His words made sense, and I didn’t like that I understood what he was saying. “So. This is why you are the bad guy?”

A small smile slipped over his face. “Yes.” He took a step and I followed him, slowly because of the depth of the snow.

“Why don’t you just tell people then?”

“What do you mean?” He turned and held a hand out to me. I took it and he helped me over a pile of rocks slick with ice.

“I mean,” I struggled to find the right words, “why not just tell people what they have to do to make things better? That is what you’re doing, isn’t it? Just that you are going about it in the shadows.” I didn’t like that in some ways I was doing the same thing. Keeping secrets from Rylee, going off on my own to try and help my family. Worrying them.

He sighed. “Yes, I am trying. But there are forces in opposition of what needs to happen. A woman known as the mother goddess has manipulated things for so long that belief in the truth is impossible. If she catches wind of what I am doing . . . then we are all damned.”

His words hit me harder than I wanted to admit. I swallowed hard. “I heard the mother goddess. She spoke to me.”

He whipped around, his black cloak spinning out. In a flash, his arms were on my shoulders. “What did she look like?”

I shook my head. “Look like? Nothing. She was a voice I heard in my head.”

A frown creased his brow. “She did not show herself to you?”

I shook my head. “Does it matter?”

“Yes. There is a true mother goddess, but I believed her to be asleep still, her spirit suppressed by the false one in her place.” He took his hands from my shoulders. “That you heard only a voice is good. I think.”

“She gave me protection while I was at the Pit. And she told me Oka would be there.” I didn’t want to say she’d also told me to stay with Raven, to keep on the path my feet stood upon. Or that he was my father.

We started forward again, though now, I was beside Raven. Our cloaks billowed out behind us as we climbed. Oka shivered against me. “This place calls to me.”

I twisted so I could glance at her. “What do you mean?”

She shook her head. “Like it is speaking to something inside me.”

Raven spoke without looking at us. “Many familiars have a block on them, Oka. Perhaps you were meant to come with Pamela only this far before being handed to a full elemental.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “No. I would not leave her.”

He shrugged. “We do not always have a choice of where we go, or where we stay. Sometimes we just do what we must and that must be enough.” There was a heaviness to his words I didn’t like.

I drew a breath, tasted the cold flurries of the mountains on my tongue. We walked along a narrow ledge and slowly curled around the mountain. Oka had buried her face into my hair. “I will not leave you, Pamela.”

Her words were a comfort, yet I knew they were false. Everyone left me at some point. Mother, father, adoptive parents, friends, loved ones. It was the way of a life spent in the trenches. Battles were fought and there were always losses. I reached up and brushed a hand over her head.

“Don’t fuss about it. We will fight to stay together. That is all we can do.”

My words trailed off as I looked down on the valley that opened before us. A place made of immaterial wonder that I could barely grasp. It looked like a city made of clouds even though it was on the valley floor. Spiraling columns of gold and silver shot into the air, supported at the base by nothing more than insubstantial clouds. Or maybe fog.

The spread of the city was one that filled the valley. If I were to guess, I would say it was easily a couple miles in every direction. “What is this place?”

“Can you not guess? You’ve seen several of the other elemental homes. This is the Eyrie.”

I swallowed hard. “The home of the Sylphs? But why would you come here when they are hunting you?”

“Ah, well, that is a bit harder to explain.” He squinted up at the sky and then looked back at me. “Basically, I’m the queen’s consort. And she has supporters that don’t like me. When I am not here, they come after me. They don’t dare when I am at court for fear of her wrath.”

“Keep your enemies close,” Oka said softly and I had to agree with her.

Raven held a hand out to me. “Come, meet the queen. I think you will like her. She is strong and opinionated like yourself.”

We made our way down the slope and started across the valley floor. I was hard pressed to see any flaws in the Eyrie.

As the wind blew, the clouds and fog that supported much of the city shifted, thickened and thinned. But were always there. I wondered why they would set such a magnificent, glowing city, so close to the ground and I asked Raven about it.

“That’s a story for another time. Do not ask about it while you are here. It’s a sensitive topic.”

We were right in front of what could only be called gates, though they were not closed. A wide glittering-gold path peeked through the cloudy wisps at our shoes, at least thirty feet across. There were large panels to either side, open in welcome. Or maybe not so much.

Three Sylphs dressed in white leathers swooped toward us, weapons raised. I made a move to grab the sword from my back and Raven made a soothing motion at me. “They can’t hurt me here.”

And true to his words, the closer they got, the more they slowed. Until it looked like they were struggling against a headwind, and unable to draw any closer.

Behind them came a woman, not flying like they were. She was petite except for a huge belly that preceded her. Her long dark hair swept behind her and her eyes were on Raven. And they were not happy.

“Samara.” He said her name and I felt the weight of Spirit to it.

Her eyes softened, and a moment later, she was in his arms and they were kissing. He slid a hand to her belly. “How is our son?”

She smiled up at him. “Keeping me awake far more than I’d like, but growing and strong.”

Raven held her one hand and then motioned to me. “This is Pamela. She is a young witch I am training.”

Samara turned her eyes to me and I felt myself flushing. I didn’t want her to think there was anything inappropriate about my training with Raven. “Hello.”

She smiled. “I believe you’ve spoken about her to me before, haven’t you, love?”

He nodded, but his eyes were carefully hooded, hiding any emotion I might have been able to see. “I have.”

“Then she is welcome here in the Eyrie.” Samara swept a hand back toward the city. “Come, and be rested. I expect you’ve had a long journey if you are wearing clothes from the Pit.”

I glanced down at my body. “Yes.”

“Come.” She turned, and with Raven on her arm, led the way into the city. I had no choice but to follow.

As we walked past the gates, a strange feeling settled over my shoulders. I shook my head, tried to push it away, took a deep breath, but that only seemed to bring the feeling further into my lungs and through my body. I looked at Raven and he wasn’t looking at me, but at Samara.

What the hell was I getting myself into?

CHAPTER 18

THE EYRIE WAS as ethereal as any dream I’d ever had. Every turn I took showed me a new wonder. The floating fountains, the sweeping elegant spires of silver and gold, the soft hush of singing that was often heard late at night, the aviary at the top of one of the spires that held birds of every kind. Many of them familiars. Oka and I spent hours talking to them, listening to their stories. On the first day there was a large golden eagle on the uppermost perch that would not speak.

“Are you a familiar?” I held my hand out to him. He turned his head from me, his golden eyes unblinking as he ruffled his wings. A snowy owl shook her head and clacked her beak, reminding me sharply of Eve and Marco.

“He’s not a familiar. He’s a pet that belongs to someone. I think he might have been an elemental at some point.”

I stared at the golden eagle. “But why would he be an eagle now? Did he get stuck as a shifter?”

The owl shook her head. “I don’t know. But he does not speak to us so I assume he cannot communicate.”

The eagle was only there the once, and while I tried to talk to him, he ignored me. “Maybe I could help you?” I held out a piece of meat to him. He fluffed his wings, stretched them and hopped up to a higher perch.

Oka sniffed. “Snobby.”

“I guess.” I handed to meat to one of the other familiars who gladly took it. But my eyes wouldn’t leave the tawny and gold feathers. There was something about that eagle that drew me to him. A depth that was not there in the other birds.

The next day when we visited he was gone and I found myself disappointed.

Three days floated by like nothing. As if we weren’t really existing, but indeed dreaming, and the longer we were there, the deeper that dream went. A part of my brain frantically tried to warn me that things were wrong, that what was happening was not good and I was in trouble because I could not seem to see past the comforts around me. But I felt safe, and I needed to rest. That’s what I told myself. This was a chance to rest.

Most time during the day I slept, waking only for meals and perhaps a walk to speak with the familiars.

Sleeping that much was easy. My bed was made of the softest materials I had no words for, beyond even the cushioning that had been in my boots from the Pit.

We ate, slept, and ate some more. I was given a special closet of clothes that I picked through every morning, even though I ended up just lounging in them. Floating, soft material that clung to me, fitting as though the seamstress had known I would be arriving.

Sometimes Oka prowled the halls, chasing what few bugs dared to appear near her.

Yet in the quiet moments where I would catch a glimpse of the mountains outside the cloud city, I could not put aside the fear that not all was as it seemed. That there was something I needed to remember.

Raven kept himself closeted up with Samara. I did not begrudge him time with his wife. Consort. Whatever. But the long hours left me much time to think and I struggled against the languor of the Eyrie, even while I basked in it.

On the third day, I knew if I did not do something soon, I would stay like this forever. The Sylphs had no interaction with me at meals, or even in the halls. They looked past me as if I were not there.

On the table in my room, I stared at the glass vial that held Tim’s tears. Raven had suggested a stoppered vial once we were here. I’d agreed. The last thing I wanted was to knock the glass over by accident and lose the tears.

And now they were just waiting to be used. That was my task, I needed to bring my family home, to make it whole once more.

The final piece to bring him—Frank, of course—home from a death he had not deserved. I lay on the bed, and made myself consider the situation.

“Oka, what are we waiting for here? Why are we not moving forward?”

“I don’t know.” She stretched out beside me, her back legs sticking out behind her, so human in her positioning. Her head was on her front paws. “Maybe if you could cloak yourself, or make yourself invisible, you could find out?”

I sat up. “That’s brilliant. But I don’t know if I can.”

“You could try.” She dragged herself upright with a big yawn. It seemed it was not only me affected by whatever was going on here in the Eyrie.

I jumped off the bed and went to the closet where I’d hung my clothes. The dress I wore was of that same beautiful flowing material I saw on the few Sylph women here. But . . . it did not fit who I was, as lovely as it was. I slipped out of it and pulled on the leather pants, white top, and high leather boots from the Pit. Yes, these fit me much better. It was as though the second the Eyrie’s clothes left my skin, I could think clearer than I had the last few days.

“I think . . . they’ve been trying to keep me quiet. Maybe keep us both quiet?”

Oka sat up and yawned. “I wondered about that, but until now, I didn’t seem able to say anything.”

A spell then?

“How can we clear your mind? I need you at the top of your game,” I said.

Oka blinked up at me and held a single paw up. I took it and she leapt up into my arms. “Better already. It seems that the clothes had something to do with it.”

I touched the clothing hanging in front of me and a smell of lilacs flowed around me, lulling my mind. I took a step back. Maybe this was just how they dealt with visitors?

Slaves. The word echoed through me, and I knew it was from the mother goddess. “They would make us slaves,” I whispered as if they were listening right now.

“Goddess.” Oka shook her head. “You are strong enough to be an asset to them. Do you think Raven knows?”

I shook my head and backed away from the closet like it was a monster ready to reach out and drag me in. “I don’t know.” I wanted to believe he wouldn’t. That he wouldn’t have allowed for me to be used like that, but I couldn’t be sure. He was my father by blood, not by love. I paused and pulled my dark purple cloak out of the closet. With a swirl I whipped it around my back and settled it on my shoulders.

“Any suggestions on how to make myself invisible? I don’t want to do it like Raven.” I glanced at Oka.

She tipped her head to one side. “You can see the colors of the elements as they are being used?”

“Yes.”

“What colors did Raven use when he showed you this trick?”

I had to think. “Air and Spirit.”

“Maybe look in the mirror and do it.” Her suggestion had me moving before she even finished speaking.

The tall gilded mirror was over double my height. I stared into it, and for a moment, I didn’t recognize myself. I hadn’t looked in a mirror in so long, I didn’t realize I’d left childhood behind.

I was a warrior woman with a fierce edge to her face that so resembled Rylee, it would be easy for people to think we were related by blood, even though we most certainly were not.

The black pants and boots, the top, the cloak, it all fed into an image I realized I saw myself as. I was not the pretty witch Milly was, loving the long flowing dresses, and I was not the bad ass of Rylee where nothing I wore was anything but functional. I was somewhere in between.

I raised my one hand and called up the two elements I would need to accomplish what I wanted. Carefully I wove the power of Air and of Spirit together, doing what I remembered seeing Raven doing. Only I couldn’t get it quite right.

“Damn it.” The two elements slid away from me, like water through my fingers. I squeezed my eyes shut and took a slow breath. “Oka, I don’t think I can pull the shadows around me like he did.”

She was quiet a moment. “Could you make it more reflective? So people actually don’t see you?”

“You mean like actually invisible?” I breathed out that last word. “I don’t know. Is it possible?”

“Anything is possible, Pamela. Just a matter of figuring it out.” She patted my cheek with one soft paw.

“Sometimes you sound a lot older than you are.” I laughed and she shrugged.

“Cats are like that.”

I pressed my palms together, thinking about all the training I’d had. If there was a spell I could twist . . . Raven’s that he’d shown me when he’d shadowed himself was the closest I could use as a pattern, but I didn’t want to bring the shadows to me. What pushed shadows away?

Light.

I lifted my hands. “This is either going to work, or I’m going to light myself on fire.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring.” Oka leapt from my shoulder. I frowned at her.

“So little faith?”

She took a few more steps away until she was almost under the bed. Cowering. “I’ve endured being burned once. I don’t think I want to do it again.” Her eyes flicked away from mine.

Right, I’d forgotten about that. “Sorry.”

“Just be careful.” She ducked under the bed completely, nothing visible but her pale blue eyes.

I turned and stared into the mirror. I could do this.

I had to do this. I wiggled my fingers as I called the three elements together. Air and Fire snapped and crackled around one another. “Light,” I whispered. “I need light, not heat.”

Almost immediately the orange-red of the flames changed, shifting into a bright pulsing light that was no longer heating my palm. I curled my fingers around the two elements and then brought Spirit to the forefront of my fingers. Like feeding one drop of water at a time into a bucket, I let Spirit trickle into the other two elements until they were indistinguishable.

I blew out a slow breath, and gripped the cloak on either side of me.

“All or nothing,” I said as I pushed the elements gently into my cloak. For just a moment, the skeins of fabric flared, as though hot embers were lit up within them. The light raced through every fiber of the cloak until the whole thing glowed and I continued to feed the power through the material because it felt like the job was . . . not done.

“Use the other two elements,” Oka said suddenly. “Douse the flames with Water and Earth and Spirit.”

“How?”

“One hand to feed the light, the other hand to douse it.”

I knew she was right, even though there was no way she could have known. I felt it in my very bones that what she said was the trick to this spell.

I kept pushing the first three elements through my right hand, and slowly on my left I gathered Earth, Water, and Spirit. I say that like it was easy. Splitting Spirit between the two hands was hard enough on its own, never mind when I was handling the other elements too.

Sweat dripped from my face as I wove the two distinct magicks on either side of me, all for a cloak? But I knew it was more than that. This was much more than that. My arms shook and the muscles in them contracted and spasmed as I controlled the magic in me to an extent that I’d never done before. Even when I’d healed others, there had always been a wildness to it. Raw power.

This was like . . . threading a needle with a piece of silk while I stood on the bow of a bucking ship. There was a balance, but keeping it was nearly impossible.

Which made it all that much more important that I hold it together. I finally gave in to the urge to close my eyes. My breath came in ragged gulps and I knew I was nearing the end of my ability.

How did I wrap this spell up, though? I was already using all five elements.

“I don’t want to cloak myself in shadows.” The words escaped me as I went to my knees and I lost control of the magick in my hands. The five elements didn’t leave me in a blast, they didn’t destroy my room. No, they just faded, into the cloak, and I sat under it gasping for breath.

Oka padded over to me, put her paws on my thighs and pressed her nose to mine. “You did it.”

I stared at her, then twisted to look at the cloak. The deep purple material was still visible to me. “I can still see it.”

She shook her head. “But I can’t. It is tuned to you. Except for your head, the rest of you is quite hard to see. If I stare straight at you, it is like my eyes want to slide away. Like I’m seeing things.”

I pulled the cloak around me, scooped her up and put her onto my shoulder. I walked to the mirror and stared into the glass.

“Holy shit.” I lifted a hand, but even though my hand wasn’t under the cloak, there was an indistinctness to it. Like seeing something far away under water. You knew it was there, but you could be fooled into believing you were seeing things.

Even as I stared, the cloak shifted and shimmered.

I was not fully invisible, but so close that I was splitting hairs. And the cloak and its ability to hide me were a hell of a lot better than just waltzing out there and trying to snoop. I turned to one side and the movement of the cloak made it look like a breeze had rippled something.

“That’s amazing,” I said.

“No kidding. You think it will fool enough of the Sylphs to get by them?” Oka tipped her head.

“Only one way to find out.” I walked to the door and put my hand on the knob. “You ready for this?”

She gave a purr. “Ready.”

I turned the knob, opened the door, and froze with my feet on the threshold.

In the distance, I could hear yelling, screaming and . . . fighting.

Without hesitation I ran toward the noises. Because there was not one voice I recognized, but two.

Raven.

And Lark.

CHAPTER 19

MOVING THROUGH THE clouds and mist of the Eyrie, my legs could not take me fast enough toward the voices, toward Lark and Raven as they battled. I passed several Sylphs also running the same way. By the time I reached the place with all the commotion, the crowd was huge and I couldn’t see past all the bodies. I shoved my way through and the Sylphs looked around, but their eyes skated over me, not seeing me under my cloak.

A bolt of lightning cut through the sky right before I reach the front of the throng.

Words flowed around us that I heard, but didn’t have time to process.

Lark’s voice above the others. I saw her standing in the middle of the circle of Sylphs, blood on her hands, her back to me, her body tense. Peta was beside her in her snow leopard form and to the right of them both was Raven . . .

I stared at him. Saw the blood on him, the wounds in his belly and the way he was hunched over himself.

“Samara,” Lark said, “do you hear this?”

The queen nodded. “I hear it.” She stepped beside Lark and laid a hand on her arm. “You will kill him?”

“Yes.”

My throat tightened along with my fists. Lark was my friend, and she said she would mentor me . . . years from now. But Raven was my father . . . and teaching me now what I needed to do, and if I let him die . . . then I would once more be years away from mentoring. Assuming that he was right about his skills, though, it would not matter if Lark taught me or not.

“Oka, what do I do?”

Raven’s head lolled to the side, and for a moment, I thought maybe he’d heard my voice. I took a chance and started forward. If he was going to die, then I wanted to at least see his face once more.

“Do you believe in your heart he is your father?” Oka’s question burned through me like a fire I couldn’t put out.

Yes. I didn’t speak the word, but I didn’t need to.

There was another man in the circle with Lark and Raven. I didn’t recognize him but it didn’t matter. He was trying to stop Lark from killing Raven.

My father lifted his head and looked at Lark. “You were always my favorite, Lark. I wanted us to be on the same side, through this all. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

Those words, I felt the truth of them even as Lark raised her spear.

Her eyes were hard, and her body set. “Then you should have tried harder to do what was right.”

He bowed his head and as he slumped to the ground I leapt forward, my decision made.

Raven’s knees hit the stones and I swept the cloak over him, effectively making him disappear.

A scream of fury erupted out of Lark, like no sound I’d ever heard.

Oka’s claws dug into me. “Hurry, or Peta will smell us here.”

I tightened my hold on Raven and helped him move. Hunched over, we barely fit under the cloak and I wondered a few times if Sylphs saw us with the way their eyes narrowed before looking away. Or maybe if they saw the drops of blood on the stone before the cloud covered our path, and wondered where they came from.

I got us all the way back to my room and shut the door. I leaned against it, breathing hard.

With a quick jerk, I swept the cloak from my body and stared at the man who was my father. On his knees, his whole body shuddered, as though he’d been electrocuted.

Words echoed through the room suddenly, sharply. Samara was speaking, and even though she wasn’t with us, her command was.

Raven will be killed on sight.

I closed my eyes and struggled against the tears. Why was I upset? That my father was a monster?

Or that I’d saved him for my own uses?

Slowly, he lifted his head, his blue eyes pain-filled. “Why did you save me?”

I stared at him while I struggled to find the right words and then I finally just spoke the truth. “You are my father.”

We locked eyes and I saw the surprise in his, and the uncertainty. “And you heard everything I said?”

“Some of it,” I said.

“That I plan to take over the world of the elementals?” His eyes were still uncertain. Like he was afraid of me, or maybe just afraid of what I’d say. Or what I’d think.

I nodded, taking a moment to recall the scene between him and Lark clearly. Everything had happened so fast that the words had bounced around my head like white noise at the time. My focus had been getting to the front of the group of Sylphs, and then seeing Raven on his knees had shook me. “Some. That you didn’t really love Samara. But were those lies?”

Raven didn’t move from his knees. “Yes and no. Lark is . . . she is more powerful than I realized when it comes to Spirit. She forced some uncomfortable truths from me. But they were old truths. Remember that, Pam. That you can be forced to speak truth, but you can choose it too.”

I didn’t truly understand what he meant. It didn’t matter. I’d made my choice and saved him after hearing what Lark had forced from him. Even if the words he’d spoken hadn’t registered fully at the time.

He put one hand on his knee and looked down at his belly and the gaping wounds. “This is quite the mess. Are you any good at healing?”

There was a knock on the door, and it started to open before I could say anything. I grabbed my cloak from the ground and swept it around Raven. He was gone from sight as Samara stepped into the room.

I bowed my head, both in deference but also to hide any guilt that might reside in my eyes.

“Pamela,” she said my name softly. “I come bearing bad news.”

I kept my head down. “I was there. I saw . . . I saw him disappear.”

She sucked in a short breath. “And do you know who he is?”

I had to lift my head now. I had to look her in the eye. “He is my father, I think.”

Surprise flickered over her features. “Yes, he is. Which means you are the half-sibling to my child.” Her hands flickered over her belly. “I will give you sanctuary from him, if you would ever need it.”

“Thank you.” The words were hard to utter past the choking feeling of betrayal. She would give me her protection as Raven sat under my cloak only feet from her. “I am sorry,” I whispered, because what else was there to say?

She nodded and closed her eyes. “I must go. But you may stay with us as long as you like. We have Sylphs who could teach you great things. If you are half as powerful as Raven made you out to be.” Her eyes flicked over me and then she turned and left the room as suddenly as she’d come.

Or they would make me their slave. I kept that thought to myself.

From the bed, Oka let out a meow, drawing my eyes to her. “She was checking to see if he was here.”

I nodded. “I know.”

I reached for the purple cloak and dragged it off Raven. His eyes lifted to mine. “That is twice now you’ve stood between me and danger.”

“Don’t make me regret it.” I reached out and put my hands on his belly wounds, closing them over with only a mere push of my abilities. I frowned as I healed him. “Normally this takes more out of me, it . . . is harder.”

Raven dropped his hands to the floor and searched around until they closed over the cloak. “Did you make this?”

I leaned back from him and watched as his skin knitted over with a speed I’d never accomplished before. Not ever.

“Yes.”

He slid the cloth through his fingers and shook his head. “Unbelievable. How did you make it?”

“You really think this is the time?” I snapped the question, fear rising in me that we would not be able to get away. Because just like in the Pit, there was no way to Ride Spirit out of here. We would have to walk from the Eyrie until we were far enough away that we could travel. And just how in hell’s name were we going to do that when Raven was to be killed on sight?

It was as if he read my mind.

“We will be fine. We’ll use your cloak and mine, and they won’t see us.” He pushed to his feet, went to the door, and flicked the lock shut. For just a moment, fear raced through me. This was the man Lark wanted to kill, who I had stolen from her. I stared at his back and slowly pulled the sword from its sheath. I leveled it at him, putting the point in the middle of his spine.

“You said you were one of the bad guys. Tell me why you wanted to kill Lark.”

He went still as a statue, except for his head which he turned so he could look at me. “You would run me through now, after saving me?”

“I want the truth. Not some trumped-up version of it. But the truth.”

A sigh slipped out of him. “I can’t give you all the truth, Pamela. It isn’t for you, and it isn’t for Lark. Not yet.”

“Try.” I spit the word at him.

He lifted both hands, palms up, and slowly turned. “It is the bane of any hero’s existence to be harried and cut at from all sides. From those they love, from those they hate, from strangers who feel nothing. That is what makes a hero great, what burns away the chaff and allows the steel in them to harden to a temper that can do what needs to be done. What is coming for Lark is beyond what any soul should have to bear. I am doing what I can to temper her.”

I noted that he didn’t say he was a hero. “So you are the bad guy still?”

A sad smile flitted over his lips. “It depends on how you look at it. Maybe in the end, some will see me as a hero. But that is unlikely.”

The problem with his words was that I understood them all too well. I, of all people, knew what it was to be the bad guy so that someone you loved could conquer. After all, I’d buried a knife deeply into Liam, had taken his life, all to save Rylee.

A tear slipped from my eye and I dashed it away. “How do you know what’s coming for the world? How can you be certain about so many things that haven’t happened yet? You aren’t a Reader.”

He shook his head. “No, I’m not a Reader.” He squinted his eyes shut. “Cassava started me on this path very young. She found the oldest prophecies and realized what they meant and who they pertained to. I see the look in your eye. These are not the prophecies like the one your Tracker had spoken about her.

“These are older, from the very founders of our elements. Between those and what I’ve searched out in the libraries of our elemental homes, and the things that are happening, I have come to see the patterns that are tightening on us.”

I bit the inside of my lip. His words were yet again so smooth, so well-spoken that they could have been cultured lies, yet the truth in them resonated through me.

“Swear to me you aren’t trying to kill Lark,” I said.

He frowned. “Pamela, I love her. She is not my sister, not really, though we were raised as siblings.”

“Love. Love?” I frowned at him, thinking about how weird it would be to love an adoptive sibling that way. It couldn’t be what he meant.

He laughed softly. “Yes, love, love. You do strange things for love, would you not say that?”

I lowered the sword and let the tip touch the ground as a shudder raced through me. “Yes, I would say that.”

And then the strangest thing happened. He stepped toward me and slid his arms around me, pulling me tightly to his chest.

Stranger yet, I hugged him back.

CHAPTER 20

WE SNUCK OUT of the Eyrie that night, and Raven was right. The whole thing was relatively easy. Of course, the Sylphs on guard were watching for people—Raven in particular—sneaking in, not sneaking out. Oka wrapped herself over the back of my neck and hung like a fur shawl, keeping me warm in the sudden burst of cold that hit us as we left the gilded gates of the city.

When we were far enough away that Raven slid his cloak from his head I finally asked the question that had been burning in the back of my mouth. “Why would they leave the gates open if they thought you would be coming back to finish things?”

“Pride.” Oka and Raven spoke at the same time. He shot a funny look at the cat. She shrugged. “I paid attention to my studies, Raven. Sylphs are known for their pride almost above their ability to bend the air.”

He gave her a quick nod. “And that is why the gate is open. They think they could take me.”

“And could they?” I couldn’t help that question.

He shrugged. “Possibly, if there were enough of them. Again, pride would be their downfall because they believe it would only take one or at best two. As you’ve seen from what they send after me.”

He was right, the assassins that had been sent to take him down had been cocky to say the least, even with the gargoyles. We slogged through the snow, and Oka jumped down to race ahead of us, her tail straight in the air as she zigged and zagged, chasing imaginary creatures. She made me smile, and in this world, that was worth so much.

I stumbled on an unseen rock and Raven’s hand shot out, catching me at the elbow. No words, just catching me.

I bit my lower lip as tears suddenly threatened. “Why did you never come for me before? Why would you leave me with those trolls, with parents who didn’t understand? Why did you let me suffer?”

He stopped, his hand still on my elbow. For a second, I thought he would close his eyes, but he didn’t. “For the same reason I am putting Lark through this. I didn’t want you to suffer, Pam. I wanted you to be strong. I’ve known for years what is coming for this world. I knew you would need to have the heart of a dragon to face it. It is the same reason I did not save your mother. She would have made you into something you are not.”

As he spoke, the sound of jets came from overhead, racing this way and that, the distant rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire. His eyes flicked to the night sky. “This world is dissolving. And if I had protected you as I wanted,” his hand softened on my arm and a tear slid down his cheek, “if I had protected Lark as I wanted,” his eyes did close then and a tremor slipped through him, “all would be lost. There would be no after, there would be no coming back.”

I couldn’t stop the tears that raced down my cheeks even though they quickly froze on my bare skin. “What could be so bad as all that? We have faced the demon hordes.”

“Oh, Pamela,” he whispered, “that was just the beginning.”

CHAPTER 21

SILENCE FELL AS light as the snowflakes that drifted around us on that mountain pass outside the Eyrie. I couldn’t take my eyes off Raven. I didn’t understand what he meant. How could the demon hordes be something he saw as . . . “Just the beginning?”

He looked away. “I have said too much. I only ask that you trust me a little longer.”

Letting go of my arm, he turned away and walked ahead of me. I stood and watched him go, unable to make my feet move for fear of which way they would take me. I didn’t like his answers, but it wasn’t because I thought he was lying. Quite the opposite. I knew he couldn’t manipulate me with Spirit.

And I could tell when he was lying and when he wasn’t. This wasn’t one of those times. Which meant he spoke a truth that was hard, that was terrifying.

Forcing my feet to get moving, I followed him to a narrow path that curled around the mountain. The same one we’d come down. “Won’t the Sylphs see us this high up?”

I turned and looked over my shoulder just as two figures flew up from the gates far below.

“Yes, but we are almost there.” Raven broke into a run, and I followed him.

“Oka?”

Where was she? I stopped and whipped around. The orange cat was nowhere to be seen. How was that possible? “Oka?” I called louder, and I thought for a moment I heard a soft meow, as if muffled by . . . snow.

I raced back the way we’d come, looking for her prints. There they were, where she’d been bounding and leaping and then . . . I slid to a stop over a hole that shot through the snow, only big enough for a kitten to fall. I went to my knees. “Oka!”

“Pamela! I can’t get out!” Her voice was still muffled but not quite as much as before. I dug at the snow with my hands, using my connection with fire to heat them.

“No, you’ll collapse it!” Raven was suddenly there, on his knees beside me, helping me dig. “Just stay with her, I’ll keep them at bay.”

I didn’t dare look up. My hands were cold, icy, and the skin tore as I dug at the chunks of frozen snow. It didn’t matter, I had to get her out. I caught a flash of orange when I was about six feet down and I reached in. “Oka, jump!”

She leapt up and her razor-like claws dug into my palm. I didn’t care. I pulled her up with me, scrambling to get back out of the hole I’d created. How much time had passed? I turned and there were no Sylphs in the air.

Raven strode across the snow, his cloak flaring out behind him. “We have to hurry. They raised the alarm before they came after us.”

“So they are learning.” I clutched Oka to me. As Raven passed, he touched her on the head, gently.

“Yes, it would seem, much to my displeasure.” He held a hand out to me and I took it. Oka shivered and trembled.

“It is my fault if we don’t make it,” she whispered. Her eyes were pinched shut. “I am going to be the death of you.”

“Well, if we’re going to assign blame, then it was the mountain’s fault for making a soft spot for you to fall in,” I pointed out. “And you aren’t going to be the death of me.”

Raven grunted. “We are almost there.”

We crested the ridge, out of breath, with Sylphs flying at us at a speed that told me all I needed. This was going to be close. We ran across a flat section of an ice field. Raven could have gone faster without me, his longer legs easier to navigate the slippery snow. But he clung to my hand, pulling me along even as he looked over his shoulder. We were losing ground, but he didn’t let me go.

I glanced back. The Sylphs were maybe twenty feet behind. I could see their eyes and it was only then I realized what was slowing us down. It wasn’t the snow and the ice.

It was the wind blowing against us, dragging us back to them.

I didn’t even think, just reacted. A shot of power left me and raced through the earth. They were close to the ground in their efforts to gain on us and the explosion of ice and rock sent them reeling.

The pressure of the wind in our faces was gone and we were suddenly there, on the other side of the invisible line. I started to call on Spirit, to ride it on my own.

“Don’t fight me!” Raven called and I let him take control, let him take us where he thought was best. The brilliant white of the mountain snow under the full moon, under the stars was gone, and I didn’t close my eyes. It was just gone and we were standing on the hard barren earth of a place I knew all too well.

Brown, dusty and packed hard, the wind blew here, too, constantly. The never-ending wind of North Dakota.

I slowly turned, letting go of Raven’s hand. “Why are we here?”

“Where is here?” Oka asked.

“The badlands of North Dakota,” Raven answered. We weren’t far from the mine shaft that had been the center of so many adventures. I let out a breath and slowly the wild rate of my heart eased.

“Why are we here?” I repeated my question as I turned back to Raven.

“Because this place holds much magic. Both elemental, supernatural, and . . . other things even I cannot define. If you truly want to bring back someone you love, then this is as good a place as any to do it.” He put his hand to his back and pulled not a weapon out, but a few sheets of paper.

I leaned forward. “What is that?”

“The pages we need to do what it is I promised you we would do.” There was a note of sadness in his voice I didn’t like. I swallowed hard.

“This is part of my testing, isn’t it?”

Pain shot over his features, as if I’d punched him in the gut. “I am your father, Pamela, and I have done all I can to protect you and teach you in the time we have been together. And yet I am going to let you face this, too, and I know . . . I know it is beyond dangerous.”

I stared at him. “Could I die?”

“Yes,” he whispered the word.

“Will it save those I love?”

He drew a breath and then let it out slowly, a shudder rippling through him. “It will set the stage for the final steps that will save this world. Yet, you will be as outcast as I when your friends realize what you have done.”

His words sent chills down my spine. “What do you mean? Why would they hate me for bringing back someone we all love?”

“Because in bringing him back, it will break the Veil, leaving it ripe for complete destruction.” His eyes locked on mine.

“The demons?” That was the last thing I wanted, and I wasn’t sure I could do this if it meant Orion would be loosed on the world again. Not even for love could I do this.

“They could come through. But I don’t think they will. No one else will realize that. It will look as though you are setting them free.”

I bit my lower lip and looked down at my feet, uncertainty pulling me back and forth. “And you’re sure it needs to be done, breaking the Veil that is?”

He reached out and slid his fingers through a lock of my hair. His eyes were tired around the edges and he was no longer that laughing smiling man I’d first met. “Absolutely. If Lark is to have any chance at success, this must happen.” There was such sorrow in his voice that it pulled at my heart.

“Will they know . . . eventually that what I did was for them?” I had to swallow hard to get those words out.

His jaw twitched and slowly he shook his head. “I do not know. It is what I live with every day. That there may never be a moment of recompense or forgiveness.”

I bit my lower lip and looked at Oka. “I trust you and you are here to guide me. What do you say, Oka? Do I do this thing, or do I walk away?”

Her eyes widened and then she seemed to find the words she sought. “There was a philosopher within the Pit that said this: ‘It is not for us to divine the paths our feet tread, but to go boldly knowing that each step is fate coming home to rest. That even though we be cast out from the places of comfort as we defy convention, that we lose our homes and our families . . . we must be strong and go on.’”

“Well said.” Raven reached out and touched her on the head. “You are a brave one.”

Her eyes shot to him and then back to me. “I will always be here, Pamela. You won’t lose me.” And for the first time I believed her; I felt it in my soul that she would be with me as long as I lived.

Those words of hers echoed around us. The setting sun had set up a glorious swath of color to the west and it highlighted the world around me. I could feel something coming, not a monster, not the dark even, but something else.

Loss . . . I would be asked to give up something for another. I would be asked to cast all I was on the flames to watch the one I loved the most come home and no one else would understand why I did it. Raven had his reasons, and I believed him despite who he was. He’d called himself the bad guy. The villain. And I knew he was that to Lark.

But I also understood that actions didn’t always look to another for what they truly were.

“Pamela.”

I looked at him, his blue eyes mirroring mine. “If you are wrong—”

“I’m not, little witch. I promise you I am not.” His voice was steady, a strength that I wanted to hang onto.

I stared at the ground, feeling the seconds tick by as I went back and forth. Everything I’d learned, all the history that had been unearthed, the demon Ajax that I’d met and found nice, Oka, the sword in my hand, my family, the mother goddess.

The mother goddess. I took a few steps back. “I need a minute alone. Can you give me that?”

Raven held up his hands and was gone, right before my very eyes. I dropped to the ground and dug my fingers into the earth, and pushed all my energy into my words. “Mother goddess, I have been asked to do something terrible. To help break the Veil by bringing home a loved one.”

Yes, I know. The voice was powerful here, the inflection of tones brighter and clearer than any other time.

The dirt was cold and dry under my fingers. There had never been a moment where more fear had wracked me. Oka’s words were not enough. Raven’s were not enough. My own belief was not enough. “What do I do? This is not a mistake I can fix if it is indeed a mistake.”

Child . . . there is a time and a season for everything. The Veil has served its purpose for generations. You have my blessing now in doing this.

Relief, sweet, blessed relief coursed through me. “You would love me still?” Those words were whispered into the dirt, puffing up bits and pieces.

I am with you always, daughter of the elements. Daughter of mine.

The tears came then, dampening the earth below me. “Thank you.”

The voice was gone and I knew Raven would return soon. I drew a breath and pushed to my feet. Oka’s eyes were on mine, but no words were needed. I could feel her love for me through our bond, as I hoped she could feel mine.

Raven reappeared and his eyes narrowed immediately. “Have you decided?”

Shaking, my whole body aflame with fear and trepidation despite the mother goddess’s reassurance, I nodded.

“I will do this. And if my name is cast out of Rylee’s world as the one to be spat on, I will do it still, if it means I protect my family in the end.”

Raven tugged me into his arms, hugged me tightly to his chest. I clung to him, only the second real hug between father and daughter. “I am proud of you, Pamela. You are a warrior amongst the women of this world.”

We were both shaking as he set me back from him. “Pull the sword. And let’s bring your loved one home.”

CHAPTER 22

“WAIT,” OKA SAID, stopping both Raven and me from taking the next step in the spell. We stood out in the badlands outside Bismarck where so much had happened already. The mother goddess had given me permission to do what no other supernatural would or could do. I was ready, right?

“Why Pamela?” Oka asked. “Why can you not do this thing that is so horrific that it brings you to fear for your daughter?” Her question stopped me as nothing else could, a question I should have asked long ago.

Oka leapt from my shoulder and stalked toward Raven, her fur bristled and her tail stiff. Raven glanced at her and then held out the papers from the book. “Read the requirements, familiar. Tell me what they say.”

Oka stood on her back legs and then she slumped. “To be performed by a witch who has mastered the five elements.”

Her head dropped and Raven went to a knee beside her, he bent his head and whispered something in her ear. Slowly she nodded. “You don’t have to ask. I would protect her to the ends of the earth, to the loss of my own life.”

He stood and read from the papers he’d torn from the book. His eyes were on mine, holding me steady. “On the flat of your sword pour the tears of the ghost.”

I pulled the small vial from inside my shirt and held it over the sword. I hesitated, not because I was afraid so much, but because I knew this was likely the only shot I’d get. And no longer was it just about the one that I wanted to rescue. This was about doing what I had to do no matter what.

And maybe that was the core of my hesitation. There would be no going back after this, no forgiveness from Rylee, no homecoming to her arms. The scene of Meghan and Bonnie would be lost to me forever.

“How do you . . . live with knowing those you love hate you?” I stared at Raven. Stared at him and knew there was no one else who could answer that question.

He stared back. “Easily. I know if I didn’t do these things, they would all die. There are things we all must do, Pamela, that we do not like. But for those I love? I would cast my soul into the deepest pits of hell.”

His words echoed my own from what seemed like years ago. What would I do, what was I willing to sacrifice to make sure my family had a chance? That those I loved would survive whatever was coming?

Anything.

I pushed the cork off the vial and poured the tears over the blade.

“Speak this incantation after me,” Raven said and the words flowed from his mouth to mine, blending into one voice as if I knew the words already. They were so simple, not even Latin or some strange language I didn’t recognize.

“Tears of the past, steel of the present, made to rend the future and bring back the one I love.” The words burned on my tongue, burned, and the blade in my hand heated. Oka leapt to my shoulder, and clung to me as a low rumble hissed out of her. I stood unable to let go of the sword’s handle. A part of me wanted to; to let go and run from this hard thing that had been asked of me. But I didn’t, I was not a coward even though I trembled where I stood.

“Slice through the air as you call the name of the one you love. This will open the Veil to him. It must be a true love, Pamela. Or it will not work,” Raven said softly. I stared at him.

“Did you know all along it wasn’t Frank?”

He nodded. “Yes. I knew the name you would call on. I banked everything on it.”

I thought about Frank, about the way he’d kissed me. “I’m so sorry, Frank.”

I held the sword above my head and brought it down as fast as I could as I called the only name I could have ever uttered in all honesty. He was my best friend, and the loss I felt in my heart and soul. He was the laughter in my life that was gone without understanding, without being able to say goodbye.

“ALEX!”

CHAPTER 23

THIS WAS IT. The spell I’d been waiting to complete was done. Alex’s name echoed across the flat desolate badlands around us as the blade doused with tears of a ghost whipped through the air and slammed into the ground. The tip stuck hard in a piece of rock, quivered, and I let go of it. In front of us, the air shimmered and danced. It trembled as though a rock had been dropped into a pond and this was the surface of the water sending ripples outward.

Right before my eyes, the Veil peeled back piece by piece, layer by layer, each one turning like pages in a book being opened until it stopped at the sixth level, where the heroes of the world resided and stood guard against the demons in the seventh level behind them.

I stared at the faces I knew, the faces I’d trusted and loved. Erik, Jack, Deanna, Blaz . . . Frank. His face I stared at the hardest. He was not in pain, he smiled at me and gave a wave.

I looked at Raven. “He is not in pain.”

He shook his head. “No, I had to make sure you would go through with it.”

My heart twisted with the stab of manipulation he’d pulled on me. Raven had shown me my worst fear, that someone I loved was in pain. And I’d fallen for it.

“For the cause, Pamela, I would even bring you to hate me,” he said.

I turned my back on him, unable to look at him a second longer. Those who’d died in the quest to see Orion and his demons pushed back stood a distance away. Close and yet far. Like a camera moving in tightly and then pulling out wide. I’d see a face in fine detail, and then nothing but blurred bits that were many, many bodies.

On the tighter angles, they just stared back at me, mouths hanging open. Except for Faris, who winked at me. When he spoke, I was able to focus on him.

“Little witch, I see you are causing trouble again.”

I shook my head, unable to see past the tears. Where was he? “Alex?”

Their faces softened with grief, and it was a woman I didn’t know except from the one photograph I’d seen of her. Giselle stepped forward. “Child, he is the lynchpin. He is holding the demons back.”

I sucked in a sharp breath and the air quivered. “You mean he is trapped in the seventh level?”

Giselle shook her head. “No, he is between the two. He is the barrier between them. No harm is being done to him. He is not in pain.”

But that would mean he was all alone. Alex, the outgoing gregarious soul that he was, had been confined to his own hell.

My jaw dropped open. Raven put a hand to my lower back, steadying me. “This is why you must call him again, Pamela. We need him to be free of the Veil.”

Those who’d been my friends took a step toward us, but they could not pass. Faris was the one to speak, though.

“Why would you unleash the demons on the world again? Pamela, do not do this. For Rylee, do not do this.”

Raven stood his ground. “Not the demons, they will stay where they are. That is the beauty of this spell. They will remain, his sacrifice will hold them back. But the lynchpin is holding more than the demons. He is holding the Veil itself together.”

I swallowed hard, knowing what was coming before Raven even said it. “And if we are going to survive what is coming, we need the Veil to be shattered, the ties that hold it together weakened beyond repair.”

The uproar was immediate and I knew without looking that they stared at me, that their eyes begged me that this would not be true. I stared past them at the dark writhing mass that stood between us and the final level. The barrier that held the demons back and that Alex was trapped within.

I stared at it and I thought maybe I could see him staring back, a flicker of golden eyes. I looked past those who were my friends and I trusted Raven, though it scared me to do so.

“Alex.”

So softly that maybe only Raven heard me, but the Veil quivered, and from the darkness, Alex emerged, one foot, then the other, then his upper body and his face. Dark brown hair, golden eyes, a smile like the sunshine peering out from behind the clouds. My heart lurched.

“Alex. Come home.”

He looked around him and it was then I realized the others had stepped back. They had stepped back because there was something else coming out of the Veil.

Not a demon.

A monster.

The thing moved on four legs, but it had three forked tails that shot above its back, waving around. That was where the eyes were. In the tails. One eye per tail. I held my ground and Raven breathed out a single word.

“Shit.”

“Shit? You say that now?” I couldn’t help the disbelief.

“Guardian of the Veil. It’s coming to stop us.” He glanced at me. “No matter what, you hold your position here, keep close to the sword. You are what is holding this open.”

He backed away and my heart pounded so loudly I was sure he could have heard it. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to draw it away.” He whipped his cloak around and his body shimmered in the shadows. Night had fallen in the time it had taken to crack open the Veil.

And that was when the worst thing that could have happened, happened.

There was the sound of an engine, and shouting . . . then Rylee was there. Striding toward me.

No, no, no. Not this, anything but this. I put my hands on the sword and grounded myself to the earth. I went to one knee and bowed my head. “Oka, I . . . I need you to keep them from me if they try to take me from here.”

She stretched upward and pressed her nose against mine. “Thank you, Pamela, for believing in me.”

This was for the world, to save more souls than we lost. I had to remind myself of that as the monster raced out of the Veil past me, so close I could smell the death on it. It took after Raven, he put his hands on the monster and they were gone as if they’d never been.

Leaving me to face my family alone.

They would never understand this.

“Pamela, Giselle said you would come here and try to free the demons but I told her she was wrong.” Rylee’s voice. The pain in it. “Pamela, tell me she is wrong.”

I kept my back to her, my shoulders hunched. “She is wrong. I’m not freeing the demons.”

“She is breaking the Veil, far worse,” Giselle said from her side of the Veil.

Rylee tried to draw closer to come up beside me, but Oka let out a low hiss. “No closer.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Rylee hold up her hands. Saw the twist of hurt on her face, pain I was causing her. I stared into the Veil at Alex. “I can bring him home, Rylee. I can bring him back. Would you want me not to try?”

I knew I was manipulating her emotions, but I had nothing left in me. Perhaps I was my father’s daughter after all.

Her eyes looked past me and landed on Alex. “What is the cost?”

I shook my head. “A thing that must be done.”

“That elemental put you up to this, didn’t he?” The heat in her words was like a burn on my skin. I shook my head.

“I did it of my own choice,” I whispered the words. “For my family.”

“Pamela! This is going to break the Veil, you can’t possibly believe—”

“I do believe it!” I stood and faced her with my hands on the sword still. “You had your calling to save the world, and I have mine. And I know you will hate me. I know you will think I’ve done the wrong thing, but I would cast my soul into hell to save all of you. I would let you hate me forever thinking I was evil to save you.” The words poured out with the tears. “Do you not realize that you are my world? That all of you are the reason I am as strong as I am?”

Rylee stared at me, her mouth partially open. “Pamela.”

I knew they were going to try to stop me when I saw the blur of black fur coming from the side. Rylee had distracted me.

Liam would take me down and the Veil would close.

Oka leapt forward, a screech on her lips, her tiny body nothing to Liam’s mass.

Time slowed. I stared at her, knowing he would kill her, that he wouldn’t understand how important she was to me. Knowing that she was my other half. I pushed all the energy I had to her, to give her speed and strength the way she’d done for me in the Pit.

Oka’s screech turned into a roar as she shifted from one second to the next, her body sliding into a size that matched Liam inch for inch. My heart swelled with pride. She was special, she just hadn’t believed in herself until now.

The two huge beasts collided, and went down in a snarling tangle of claws and teeth. This was it. “Alex, if you’re going to come, now would be the time!” I yelled for him as my world tore apart at the seams for him.

Now was the time. Either he came or I would have to let the Veil close. It was his choice and I realized in that moment it had always been his choice.

Alex was still the lynchpin.

Raven had banked on Alex’s love for me that he would come home, that he would defy the Veil and set our world on fire.

For love.

For me.

I held to the sword and stared into the Veil, locked eyes with him.

“Come home.”

CHAPTER 24

ALEX

I STARED AT THE scene in front of me. Heroes of the realm, the Veil split open, Pamela, Rylee and Liam waiting on me. Okay, not exactly waiting, but I’ll call it that for now.

But I didn’t think it would be as easy as just walking out of the Veil. No . . . this was going to have ramifications.

“You can’t go.” Giselle put a hand on my arm, stopping me as I stepped forward. “You are holding the Veil together and if you go . . .”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” I glanced at her, but my eyes were drawn back to the scene in the realm of the living. It was as if something had slowed things down. Rylee and Pamela were still exactly as I’d seen them only a moment before. Faces frozen, bodies unmoving. Liam and the large cat that could have been a tiger if there had been black stripes, were locked in combat. Liam had his mouth on the tiger’s throat. But his teeth hadn’t sunk through yet.

Giselle sighed. “There was much wrong with the Veil when the demons came through. Did you not wonder why they could break through in the first place? Why any of them could get out? The Veil itself is weakening, the levels are beginning to blend and if you go . . . you must go through all the levels to escape.”

“And why is that bad?” The pull on me was sudden and hard to deny, the draw to Pamela as she called my name. Giselle kept her hand on me.

“Because with each step you take, the Veil will grow weaker yet. Dragging yourself through is the surest step to bring it to its breaking point because you are not supposed to leave. It is worse than calling a demon through the levels of the Veil.”

I didn’t doubt her, but there was something else. I could see it in Pamela’s eyes. We were so far apart and yet I felt as if I stood right in front of her. Fear, determination, and sorrow so heavy, I knew she wouldn’t have done this, wouldn’t have called me home unless she had to. This wasn’t just Pamela reaching out for me. Her words echoed in my ears. Come home.

This was Pamela doing what she believed was right.

I swallowed hard and nodded at Giselle as I brushed her hand off my arm. “I don’t understand why I’ve been called back, and maybe you are right and it will break the Veil. But maybe too that has to happen. I trust Pamela.”

Giselle sucked in a sharp breath.

I stepped away from her and toward the place I’d left willingly to save those I loved.

Now, it was time to go home.

No matter the cost.

Click on the cover to meet

Larkspur and explore her world in

RECURVE (The Elemental Series, Book 1).

NEWSLETTER

For a list of all of Shannon’s other novels along with purchase links, see the NEXT page in this book.

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ALSO BY SHANNON MAYER

THE RYLEE ADAMSON NOVELS

Priceless (Book 1)

Immune (Book 2)

Raising Innocence (Book 3)

Shadowed Threads (Book 4)

Blind Salvage (Book 5)

Tracker (Book 6)

Veiled Threat (Book 7)

Wounded (Book 8)

Rising Darkness (Book 9)

Blood of the Lost (Book 10)

Alex (A Short Story)

Tracking Magic (A Novella 0.25)

Elementally Priceless (A Novella 0.5)

Guardian (A Novella 6.5)

Stitched (A Novella 8.5)

THE RYLEE ADAMSON EPILOGUES

RYLEE (Book 1)

LIAM (Book 2)

PAMELA (Book 3)

THE ELEMENTAL SERIES

Recurve (Book 1)

Breakwater (Book 2)

Firestorm (Book 3)

Windburn (Book 4)

Rootbound (Book 5)

Ash (Book 6)

Spirit Sown (Book 7)

THE VENOM TRILOGY

Venom & Vanilla (Book 1)

Fangs & Fennel (Book 2)

Hisses & Honey (Book 3)

THE BLOOD BORNE SERIES

Recombinant (Book 1)

Replica (Book 2)

THE NEVERMORE TRILOGY

Sundered (Book 1)

Bound (Book 2)

Dauntless (Book 3)

A CELTIC LEGACY

A Celtic Legacy Trilogy

Dark Waters (Book 1)

Dark Isle (Book 2)

Dark Fae (Book 3)

THE RISK SERIES (WRITTEN AS S.J. MAYER)

High Risk Love (The Risk Series, Book 1)

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES (WRITTEN AS S.J. MAYER)

Of The Heart

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Thanks for reading “PAMELA (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 2)”. I truly hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Rylee and the gang’s lives after the Final Battle. I heard you when you asked for more Rylee, and the characters ended up having more to say as well. If you loved this book, one of the best things you can do is leave a review for it. Most of my books are available across all platforms, so feel free to spread the word.

Again, thank you for coming on this ride with me, I hope we’ll take many more together. The rest of The Nevermore Trilogy, along with most of my other novels, are available in both ebook and paperback format on all major retailers. You will find purchase links on my website at www.shannonmayer.com.

Enjoy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shannon Mayer lives in the southwestern tip of Canada with her husband, dog, cats, horse, and cows. When not writing she spends her time staring at immense amounts of rain, herding old people (similar to herding cats) and attempting to stay out of trouble. Especially that last is difficult for her.

She is the USA Today Bestselling author of the The Rylee Adamson Novels, The Elemental Series, The Venom Trilogy and many other paranormal romance, urban fantasy, dystopian, mystery and suspense novels. Please visit her website for more information on her novels.

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PAMELA (The Rylee Adamson Epilogues, Book 3)

Copyright © Shannon Mayer 2016

Copyright © HiJinks Ink Publishing, Ltd. 2016

All rights reserved

Published by HiJinks Ink LTD.

www.shannonmayer.com

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a database and retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise)without the prior written permission of both the owner of the copyright and the above publishers. Please do not participate in or encourage the piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Original illustrations by Damonza.com

Mayer, Shannon

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Acknowledgments

Quote

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Link to Recurve

Newsletter

Also By Shannon Mayer

Authors Note

About the Author

Copyright