Chapter 22

“Ican’t believe that prickhole got away again. How does he keep evading me?” I grumbled as we walked into our bedroom. I was about to faceplant on our bed, but Cos grabbed my shoulders, turned me around, and pushed me into the bathroom across the hall.

“Noooooo,” I whined. “I don’t want to take a shower. I don’t have enough energy. I just want to sleep.”

“I know, baby, but you’re covered in a lot of disgusting things, and I know you. You’ll wake up in a few hours and be horrified and make us shower and change our sheets. And I want to just sleep, straight through the night, with you in my arms. I’m not changing the sheets at three in the morning again.”

I closed my eyes and let my forehead fall onto Cosmo’s chest with a sigh. He was right. I would totally do that and had obviously done it to him in the past. “I don’t want to, either, but I seriously don’t have enough energy to stand that long.”

Despite the grime on me, he kissed the top of my head. “I’ll hold you up.”

“You sure you have the energy?”

“Yep. You’re small.”

I tried to growl at that, but it came out as a grunt. “I’m not small.”

“Uh-huh.” He kissed my hair. “I’m joking. I’m beat, but I can hold you up. I didn’t use a ton of magical energy the way you did, sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

I huffed. “Fine. Let’s shower.”

He helped me get out of my clothes, then pressed my ass against the counter while he turned on the water and undressed himself. I liked watching him, and even though I was beyond exhausted, my cock couldn’t help but give a valiant twitch when my beautiful mate stood bare before me.

It was too bad I could barely keep my eyes open.

Cos pulled me against him, and I couldn’t help but mutter, “You going to have your wicked way with me, naked lion?”

He let out a bark of laughter. “You sound like you’re drunk.”

I tilted my head to the side, considering, and ended up just resting my head against his pec. “I sort of feel drunk.”

He kissed my hair. “Come on, mage. Let’s get you cleaned up and in bed.” He kissed my head again. “No wicked ways tonight. Not until you get some rest, anyway.”

I grunted, already half asleep in his arms.

When Cos moved us into the shower, I didn’t do much to help. I wanted to. I wanted to clean him the way he was me, but I honestly felt like I might pass out, so I just tried to stand there without falling, leaning against him or the wall.

We got out, and my sweet mate wrapped me in a towel and practically carried me back to our bedroom. He set me on the bed, grabbed a pair of sweatpants for each of us, then helped me into mine. While he put his on, I scooted into the middle of the bed and got nestled under the covers.

Cos slid in beside me, and I went into his arms.

I was out the moment my head rested on his shoulder.

Shouts woke me,and I jerked upright, my heart racing. Goddess, my head felt like someone was stabbing me in the skull.

For a brief moment, I thought that the shouts had come from inside my head, that I’d dreamed them. But then I heard them again, and this time, Cos shot up, too.

“What’s going on?” I asked as we both climbed out of bed and scrambled for our t-shirts.

I had to keep blinking my eyes from the pain in my head. Goddess, I’d used so much magic in the fight I now had a headache. Had that ever happened to me before?

More shouting sounded from somewhere on the other side of the house. I couldn’t understand what they were saying—if they were saying anything at all—because my brain was sore or something. I felt weird, but I shook it off because someone needed me.

We ran from the room while shoving on our shirts, and then I heard Haiden yelling, “Wake up! Get up! Lo, get Teo!”

We rounded the corner of the hallway and found Haiden dashing into Elzanna’s room while Logan ran out of Teo’s, carrying the sleepy eight-year-old. Luce and Zara were both out of their rooms, looking as confused as I felt. Dare and Eva came out of their room at the other end of the hallway, Kealoha in Dare’s arms. Both of them had stricken expressions on their faces.

“What’s going on?” Cos asked before I could.

Dare said, “There’s a fire in the woods.” He jerked his head toward the back of the house. Toward our yard. Toward our woods. Shit.

Logan sort of stumbled, and Cos moved faster than expected to get to his side. My mate pulled Teo into his arms and grabbed Logan’s elbow, steadying him against the wall.

Cos asked, “What’s wrong? Or is this just from the fight earlier?”

The pain in my head suddenly spiked higher, and I folded in on myself with a cry I couldn’t keep in. Distantly, I was sure I heard Logan making similar noises, but I couldn’t concentrate on that. I could only try to make this pain go away.

I felt Cosmo’s hand rubbing my back and figured that Eva or Dare were helping Logan. And it sounded like Luce had taken Teo.

Another spike made me cry out again, and I mumbled, “What’s happening?”

Haiden said, “Lo said the house shielding spell is being broken. The fire isn’t an accident. It’s weakening your spell. Lo said there’s witches trying to get through. They’re here. We need to get to that bomb shelter before they reach the house.”

I squinted up at him and saw Elzanna in his arms with Tater Tot, who typically slept in El’s room, already on a leash she liked to keep in there. But I quickly had to close my eyes against the pain.

“Give me El and Tater,” Eva said. “You take Logan. You might have to carry him, and he’s too big for me.”

Haiden didn’t hesitate, and El went easily into her arms.

“Let’s move out and wake the others,” Cos said as he pulled me into his arms. “Evacuate to the fallout shelter. Luce, go ahead and start knocking on doors. Zara, call Scarlett and Ben so they can get to safety.”

Cos pulled me along, and my body went, but I kept my face tucked against his big arm muscles, trusting him not to let me walk into a wall or fall down the steps.

We managed to wake everyone, and Zara had run into my room to grab both Poppy and Licorice since they were still on my pillow, but no one knew where the other two cats were. I wanted to find them, but we didn’t have time, so I had to pray they could stay well hidden if… if anyone got into the house. We all started moving faster down the stairs. I made it halfway down the steps before the pain hit me again and made me stumble and almost fall out of Cosmo’s arms.

I heard Logan, Jude, and Ash’s cries of pain.

But then it started to recede and a new wave of fear overtook me.

I said, “They’re through. They’re through the ward.”

“Oh fuck,” Charlie said. “Let’s go. Go, go, go.”

He was right, we needed to get the hell out of there, so we all started moving even faster. Everything hurt, but I ignored my body and stayed with Cos. Now that the shield had finally been broken, the pain in my head was a lot better.

Unfortunately, I was still exhausted—physically and mentally—so my body wasn’t moving as fast as it should.

Cos hauled me up and started half-carrying me down the rest of the steps and straight to a room we kept locked up tight because of the kids. They knew exactly what was inside, but I was pretty sure Cos and everyone else had scared them enough into actually listening about going inside this room or trying to play with anything we kept in there.

I hated having guns in the house with the kids, but with the witch threat so prevalent, we’d decided to keep them here and teach the kids everything they needed to know to stay safe.

So Cos used the code, then the lock asked for his HID, so he held up his wrist to the reader. Once it confirmed that it was Cos—all the adults were keyed into the room—the latch unlocked, and we all scrambled inside.

As quickly as possible, everyone took their guns, knives, emergency packs, and armor, strapped things on, and headed back out. Because we were TRD and had been fighting on the front lines against the Red Cloth, the NHSO had actually given us government issued weapons and armor after Cos had asked for it.

It wasn’t standard practice, but considering how often we came from home these days and on our days off, they’d agreed to let us keep some here—at least until the witch threat had passed.

We made it through the house to the back door. He stuck his head out to check for the intruders while everyone else stayed silent behind him, wanting him to be able to hear where the enemy was.

He leaned back in, closing the door, and whispered, “I hear them in the woods, but they’re far away, close to the fire as far as I can tell. Let’s go. Stay quiet, but speak up if you hear or see anyone.”

Our pride mates gave him nods, and then he was pulling me through the door. We stopped, and Cos waved the others on, so they’d walk behind the pool area and away from the woods as much as possible. The bunker was in the woods, but it was behind the other house’s yard so we’d head toward the second house before walking into the woods.

From what I could tell, the fire was directly behind the main pride house. So either the intruders didn’t know we’d bought the other house or they hadn’t had a chance to set those trees on fire yet. I was hoping they had no idea about the house or its bomb shelter so we could get our family inside and keep them safe.

Harriet had Lilibeth in her arms, and the mage was visibly trembling. I clenched my jaw. She shouldn’t have to be running from her home terrified in the middle of the night. This was all Anderson’s fault.

I had no doubt he was the culprit.

A scream sounded from across the lawn, and my body found another dreg of adrenaline to push me along. I pulled away from Cos and rushed to the front of the line.

Everyone had frozen, and I saw Eva, Dare, and Luce rushing to the back of our group since they had the kids. They were trying to make them hide their faces, but I couldn’t miss their little terrified expressions.

By the time I made it to the front of the group, Logan had already thrown a shield over everyone, and Ash placed a second one underneath as backup.

“What do we do?” I heard Wren whisper as they joined the front, too.

I didn’t know how to answer because I couldn’t even comprehend what I was seeing.

Because I didn’t want to see it.

Anderson was standing in the other house’s back yard with Ben held tight to his chest. He had a knife pressed against Ben’s throat and an arm wrapped tight around his chest.

The scream had come from Scarlett, who was standing across from them, begging for Ben’s life, begging Anderson to take her instead. But there was no way he’d ever do anything like that, not for a mage.

And there was no way in hell I’d let him take her anyway.

I wasn’t going to let him take Ben, either. No fucking way.

Scarlett yelled, “Why did you do that, Ben?”

“I wasn’t going to let him take you,” Ben grunted out, trying to stay still against the knife while also trying to comfort his girlfriend.

Shit. It sounded like he’d jumped in front of her or something to keep Anderson away from her.

I grabbed Jude’s hand and activated the runes for grabby hands, but before I could throw my spell at them and pull Ben away, Anderson raised a shield around the two of them. Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

If I started throwing spells at his shield, Anderson would know and could simply… slit Ben’s throat.

No. No, no, no, no. That couldn’t happen.

I couldn’t let that happen.

Ben was a part of our family, our pride. He couldn’t leave us now.

I wouldn’t let Anderson take him from us.

He’d taken so much from me already. No way could he have one of my new brothers, too.

More witches came around the far side of the second house, and my stomach clenched in fear. We were surrounded, weren’t we?

The witches had finally come for me and my family.

But I couldn’t let them have any of them.

Cos quickly said, “Get the kids to the panic room. Now. Lilibeth, I need you to shield them and stay with them. River, take Kealoha from Dare. Someone grab the cats from Zara. Now.” We needed Zara and Dare in this fight.

No one hesitated, thank the goddess, and River, Luce, and Eva ran with our kids into the other house with Lilibeth covering them while carrying the two cats. That was the best option for now since we couldn’t get past Anderson to the bunker. And if he was already here, who knew how many were in the woods or coming around from the front of the house like Anderson clearly had.

“Anderson!” I yelled across the yard, making my way closer to him with Jude by my side where he was always meant to be. My dyad pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his rune-filled skin so I would have an easier time weaving my spells. “Let him go. Your fight’s with me, not him.”

Anderson turned, pulling Ben with him, to face me with a sneer. “That’s far enough, Madeo Driscoll. Don’t move another muscle.” That’s not my name anymore, assface.

I stopped walking, glaring at him, but it didn’t actually matter how far away I stood. My magic could reach him, even if he made a run for it into the woods, so I wasn’t worried in that sense.

But I was worried about getting through that fucking shield before the prickhole over there hurt Ben.

My gaze moved over Ben’s body.

Scratch that. Before Anderson hurt him more.

Ben had a big blood stain on his shoulder, but I didn’t think it was a life-threatening injury since the stain wasn’t growing and I couldn’t see any blood pouring from the wound.

He was also standing funny, so I was pretty sure he had a sprained or broken ankle.

Plus he had several cuts and bruises on just about every bit of exposed skin I could see.

Fuck. I hadn’t protected my family well enough, and now, Ben was hurt and terrified.

He was really freaking scared but also determined, from the look on his face.

“It’s going to be okay,” I said to Ben even though I didn’t know if it was true. I had to make it true. I had to.

He sent me a sad smile. “Just keep Scarlett safe for me.” He turned to his girlfriend. “I love you.”

He was already saying goodbye, and it was breaking my heart. Scarlett was sobbing and calling for him, and it felt like my heart was being squeezed by a vice.

Anderson shook the human, and his knife cut his throat enough to make a small amount of blood pool on the knife and Ben’s skin. “Enough! No talking, or I slit your throat right here and now.”

Ben didn’t say anything else, which was good. If I’d been in that situation, I probably would’ve told Anderson to go fuck himself.

Ben was clearly far smarter than me.

“What the hell are you doing, Anderson?”

“You killed Rubin. You fucking killed him!” he screamed, sounding like an absolutely insane person—not that anyone thought he was sane before now. It took me a second to realize he was talking about the Supreme Rose. From the look on his face and the sound of his voice, Anderson was pissed, more so than I’d ever seen him.

He continued, sneering at me, his face turning red. “You killed him… you killed my nephew, so now, I get to kill all your little friends. All your… what do you call them? Pride mates.” He said it like they were the two most disgusting words to ever leave his lips.

“Do you actually expect me to believe you cared about the Supreme Rose, about Rubin?” I couldn’t help but scoff. This, coming from a man who murdered people daily. A man who abused, tortured, and raped magi for years in the compound and had pulled me back there so many times over the years so he could keep torturing me for no reason other than he could.

Rage built in his gaze, and I honestly hadn’t thought he could’ve looked angrier than he already had, but apparently, he could. “Of course I cared! He took up his father’s mantle when he died. He was our leader. He was amazing and had so many plans. I vowed to follow him to the ends of the earth, to help him take over this horrible fucking country, and you killed him. You. Killed. Him.” He grinned. “And now I’m going to force you to watch me kill each and every one of your family members before I bleed you to death and eat your life force.” His father’s mantle? Did that mean… that guy wasn’t the first Supreme Rose?

Before I could even react to that absolute insanity, Anderson slid his knife along Ben’s throat, wiped his hand in Ben’s blood, and shoved the bleeding man to the ground.

Anderson licked the blood from his hand, but I barely noticed because Ben was lying there, trying to grab his throat, but there was so much blood. So much blood.

Scarlett screamed, a heart-wrenching sound that made my soul shatter for her, for Ben. I yelled, too, but I didn’t realize I was until I was halfway across the yard, weaving a bullet spell and throwing it at Anderson’s shield.

He laughed and stepped back, moving away from Ben. I glanced at my poor pride mate, blood gushing freely, but Scarlett was already with him, pulling him into her arms and holding him tight. She protected herself and her dying boyfriend by encasing them in a shield.

So I returned my focus to Anderson and took the sorrow filling my heart and turned it into determination. Into anger. Into strength.

Jude stayed with me even though I knew he wanted to go to our sister. But he knew our priority was to take down the enemy and protect our family—something we’d already failed at once.

He lifted his knife and licked at the blood there before holding his palm out toward me. A spell flew at me, and I pulled up a shield to block it, but his spell ate right through it, and I yelled out in pain. But I didn’t care. I pushed through it, sent freeze at his shield, and put together a bomb spell.

He was far enough away from Ben and the others now, and his shield was frozen, so I hurled a bomb spell at him and followed that up with another and another.

It took one more for his shield to shatter, and I didn’t hesitate to throw another bomb spell at him. For a split-second, I thought I had him. I thought I was about to take out my worst enemy and blast him apart. But then the bastard pulled his own shield up quicker than my spell could get to him.

The bomb spell hit his shield, and I growled in frustration.

And I slung another freeze and another bomb and another and another and another.

And Anderson launched his own spells.

He hit my shield with a shield-melting spell, and I clenched my teeth through the burning pain as I hit his shield with another bomb spell.

When he tossed yet another shield-melting spell, I let my scream out, but only because I used that pain as strength for my next bomb spell.

Jude yelled over the noise of the fire, “Drop your shield. I’ll hit his spells out of the way. You concentrate on getting his damn shield down.”

I nodded to him without looking away from Anderson. I couldn’t look away. Not until I killed that prickhole.

He wasn’t allowed to hurt anyone else.

No one else.

I dropped my shield so he couldn’t use his melting spell on me anymore, and having the burning pain gone was a huge relief.

More witches poured into the yard, coming from the front of the house and from the trees, surrounding us so completely, I didn’t know how we could possibly beat them. We sure as hell couldn’t retreat—not that I wanted to.

Cos said to me, “You concentrate on Anderson. We’ll get the rest.” He rushed off before I could respond.

I didn’t want to leave the rest of my pride to fight without me, but I knew I needed to trust them—trust my mate—so I took a breath, and for once in my life, I let someone else rush into battle without me.

My heart was heavy as I concentrated on Anderson.

Cos was yelling orders at everyone else, and I was relieved that we’d thought to grab everyone’s weapons when we’d left the house. My exhausted family was fighting the witches with Ash, Wren, and Logan shielding them and leaving an opening for their guns. They were doing what had to be done, and even though I hated it with every fiber of my being, I was so freaking grateful for their help.

“You know, we killed all the witches in the Great Divide,” I said, trying to hide how out of breath I was.

Anderson’s eyes flashed with anger, even as he shrugged, pretending not to care. “We are everywhere. You can’t stop us. No matter how many of us you kill, there will always be more, ready to take you out. Ready to come for you.” Good goddess, he sounded unhinged. But… that was what messing with blood magic did to a person. It slowly ate away at them until they were crazy with blood lust.

“There will always be more, huh? So you’re like cockroaches?”

He sneered and hurled a spell at me that was so… angry-feeling it glowed red. Jude knocked it out of the air, stopping its trajectory with his energy ball, and the spell hit the grass. There was a loud pop followed by a wave of heat, and I glanced at where the spell hit the ground in shock.

It had left a hole in the ground, and everything inside the hole and around it was burned to a crisp. It looked like a small crater. What the hell was up with his magic?

I winced. Well, he had sucked up the energy of multiple taragorians earlier in the night, hadn’t he? He was probably so hopped up on stolen magic—stolen life force—he was stronger now than he’d been all the other times I’d faced him combined.

That… didn’t bode well for me at all.

Especially not like this. With limited energy, and absolute exhaustion from the earlier battle.

That was why he’d come now. He wasn’t a stupid man, despite how horrible he was. He knew I’d be wiped out. He knew I would’ve used every ounce of energy in my body to take out the Supreme Rose and the rest of those witches in the Great Divide. He knew I wasn’t strong enough to face him.

But I didn’t think he realized how stubborn I was. Or how determined.

I would take him out, even if it was the last thing I did.

He knew a lot of things, but he didn’t realize he was a dead man walking.

I kept my arms and body still so Anderson wouldn’t realize I was building a huge spell. I didn’t need to move my arms around for magic. All I needed was my focus, my Jude, and he was standing right beside me, just as ready and determined to kill this monster as I was.

I propelled my bomb spell at Anderson, and the witch didn’t even flinch.

So I slung another one.

No reaction.

Goddess dammit!

Anderson lobbed a spell at me, but Jude knocked it away.

And then it was like something took over Anderson’s body because suddenly he was throwing spell after spell after spell. They were just fireballs and energy orbs, nothing complicated, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen any witch throw spells that quickly before. Hell, he was casting magic more quickly than a lot of magi did.

Jude knocked the first four out of the way without a problem, but then the spells came even faster. I had to join in or we’d be hit. So I started knocking spell after spell after spell away.

We were on the defense, and I had no idea how we’d gotten there.

A spell slipped past me and hit me in the shoulder, and I hissed in pain as I patted out the fire with one hand while continuing to throw energy orbs at the incoming spells. Another spell hit me in the thigh, and a second later, I heard Jude hiss in pain, and I felt it through the bond.

Without a thought, I put another shield up around us and winced when the spells started hitting my shield and sent pain through my brain. Better than taking physical damage, though.

Jude grabbed onto me and said, “We have to fight back. How the hell is he doing this?”

“I dunno, but maybe he’ll wear himself out if we keep letting him.”

Jude cringed but nodded. “We have to keep fighting him, though, or he’ll get suspicious.”

“Agreed.”

After I caught my breath, I made another bomb spell, opened my shield, and sent it through. Jude didn’t need my help with opening my shield to let his magic pass through. I was grateful we’d developed this skill. It made my life easier because I didn’t have to worry about opening and closing holes for him while also doing the same for my own spells.

But then Anderson started moving backward again, and I growled in frustration because we couldn’t stop him. He kept backing up, kept his onslaught of spells going, and kept grinning that maniacal grin of his that I just wanted to punch off his face.

“Put a shield behind him. Stop him from moving,” Jude whispered.

I obliged immediately, even though I knew Anderson was just going to use one of his shield-melting spells on it. Sure enough, after a few failed attempts at getting around my wall-shield, he hit it with a shield-melting spell. It burned almost as badly as the actual burns on my shoulder and thigh.

I held it up as long as I could before finally releasing it. Anderson laughed, and that alone made me throw another wall-shield behind him to stop him from getting to wherever he wanted us to go.

If he didn’t have a damn shield around himself, I’d just trip him with a little magic at his feet, but that wouldn’t work here.

I threw a freeze spell at him, hoping to knock his shield out with my next weave, but the spell didn’t do anything to his shield. Shit. He wasn’t using the kind of shield that the witches at the mall had used.

Which meant I’d have to knock that shield out with brute force.

I glanced around and realized we were back in our yard—not the new house’s—and we were right along the back corner on the edge of the woods and about as far away from everyone else as we could get without moving into the trees.

Had he separated us on purpose? Had I really been so blind to my rage and need to kill him that I’d let him move me away from my family?

How could I have been so stupid?

Anderson hit my wall-shield with another melting spell, and I gritted my teeth against the pain as I weaved a fire spell, then chucked it at him. It hit his shield, so I weaved a double-bomb spell and flung that at him.

His shield cracked, making a loud sound even above the fire that was still raging far off in the distant trees.

As quickly as I could, I weaved another double-bomb spell and slung it at him.

His shield shattered, and I saw a grimace on his face before he started volleying spells at us again. Except… now they weren’t coming quite so fast, and he hadn’t put up a new shield.

It could only mean one thing.

He was running out of power.

I mean, he clearly still had a lot left, but this was the first sign he’d shown that he had limited reserves. For a minute there, I thought we’d be fighting him forever.

Now we just needed to wear him out even more. That was the only thing I could think to do.

The only problem was, I was running on fumes already.

I glanced over my shoulder to check on my pride. My mate was still so far away, fighting a large group of witches in the middle of the yard alongside Wren, Zara, Logan, and Haiden. Scarlett was sort of helping them from where she still held Ben in her arms, a shield around them that she had to keep redoing because of shield-melting spells. Dare, Harriet, Kulani, Charlie, and Ash were making their way over. Ash had a shield around his group. It looked like they’d been able to take out some witches in order to push through the group to get to us.

Unfortunately, that meant they were bringing more witches over to our corner. The enemy had been so focused on the bigger group that they’d left us alone with Anderson. Not anymore.

Anderson saw them, too, and he looked pissed. When his eyes landed on Harriet, he called over, “Traitor! I thought you were different, Gray. I wanted to bring you in, and now look at you. Sleeping with the enemy.”

Harriet looked absolutely horrified that this monster wanted her to join him, but she had steely determination in her gaze. “I’m an Ono-Nai now, Bobby, and I’m proud of it. You’re the one who’s a traitor. You really think killing innocent people makes you better than everyone else?”

Then she lifted her rifle, and Ash had just enough time to open a hole in his shield so she could aim it right at the bastard. Her rain of bullets hit his shield, and the move proved exactly whose side she was on pretty damn clearly to the insane witch.

Without hesitation, I aimed another bomb spell right at Anderson. It hit his shield, making it burst, but he encased himself in another shield. He did it slower than before, but he was still too fast to do any real damage before he was covered.

Ash was covering our backs, but a witch rapid-fired on him, sending shield-melting spells and making my pride mate hiss in pain.

Jude yelled, “Take down your shield. Knock their spells out of the air.”

Ash listened, and the three of us worked together to protect ourselves and our pride mates while we did our best to fight back.

“How does he still have so much energy left?” I asked out loud.

Harriet stepped up beside me, her assault rifle still aimed at Anderson. “Keep at it. We’re wearing him down.” She sent me a wink. “Let’s get this bastard.”

I nodded, and the two of us started shooting together. Jude had to fend off Anderson’s spells, and I had to hit a few away, too. But having Harriet’s help seemed to be distracting him enough that he was slinging spells slower and with worse aim. I’d take it; every little bit helped.

We stepped closer, shooting bullets and spells at him, and I finally felt like we were making headway. We had this. We so fucking had this.

Harriet, Jude, and I made it about ten feet closer, and my magic almost felt… excited. Or maybe it was more eager. Like it knew we were only moments away from fulfilling our promise.

Something in the air was heavy, and I felt power building across the short distance between us and Anderson a moment before that power burst out in a wave of energy. The energy was everywhere so I had no chance of stopping it or knocking it out of the way. It hit me in the chest, and I went flying through the air.

Jude, Ash, and Harriet were knocked from their feet, too. The shifters managed to keep their footing, but they were pushed back several feet behind us. What the hell kind of spell was that?

Dare, Charlie, and Kulani started yelling while I was still trying to get up, and my heart leapt into my throat.

Anderson had lunged forward while we were knocked back, and I watched in shock and terror as he grabbed hold of Harriet and yanked her to his chest.

Instinctively, I threw a shield over the rest of us to stop anyone else from being snatched.

I flung magic at him, trying to hit him and knock him away from her. It hit his shoulder, but he didn’t let go. I scrambled to my feet, trying to use grabby hands on Harriet, trying to yank her out of his arms, but his arms were like steel bands around her, and if I pulled any harder, I’d hurt her.

She struggled. She kicked and screamed and scratched and bit his hand, but he ignored it and enclosed them in a shield. He put himself and Harriet in a fucking shield. Oh goddess.

He spun her to face him with a blade tip right under her chin, making Harriet freeze, making her stop fighting back.

I flung more magic at him, trying to break his shield, trying to get her away from him. Bile boiled in my belly. He was about to do the same thing to her that he’d done to Ben.

No.

No. Not Harriet.

“Anderson,” I yelled. “It’s me you want. Let her go, and I’ll turn myself over to you. I’ll switch places with her.”

He laughed loudly, then abruptly cut his laugh off and said, “No.” From the way he said it and his facial expression, he meant it.

“Anderson, please?—”

He faced Harriet, his voice somehow soft even though I could hear it over the fire and the fight behind me. “I’m sorry it has to be like this, baby girl. I always wanted to bring you with me, but”—he pressed a kiss to her lips—“you chose the wrong side.”

I watched in horror as he pressed his palm against her stomach, and a small flash of light shined from it. Harriet yelled out, her body jerking back away from him, his shield catching her from falling backward. Harriet, my friend, my pride mate, fell to her knees, clutching her stomach.

She looked up at me, and blood poured from her stomach, over her hands, gushing out at an alarming rate. Her eyes met mine, and she mouthed something that looked like, “I’m sorry,” before she coughed and blood poured from her mouth.

Anderson stepped forward and wiped his hand through her blood, then turned to me and licked it off his finger before he closed his fist and began chanting.

I barely processed what I was seeing when something pierced and burned my shield, making me flinch. I realized we were still in the middle of a battle, and I couldn’t just stand there and help my friend—my family. I pulled another shield up to cover us before dropping the disintegrating one.

Oh goddess, Harriet.

I tried not to let my eyes well up, but it happened anyway.

I wanted to run to her. I wanted to use every single clotting cloth I had in my emergency pack to try and save her. But Anderson wouldn’t let me. He attacked fiercely and without hesitation.

He hit my shield with multiple shield-melting spells, and Jude yelled, “Drop it. Ash and I got you. You worry about attacking.”

I obeyed and launched bullet spells at him, but his started coming so fast Jude couldn’t keep up.

“Fuck. Fuck!” my dyad yelled, and I heard the desperation in his voice.

Volley after volley, he threw everything at me, and all I could do was keep knocking them away. I tried to weave my own bullet spells at him—I couldn’t do bomb spells with Harriet so close—but he was faster than me. Because he was using Harriet’s blood and life force to attack.

I was drained. So fucking drained. I’d never felt like this before in my life.

Ash cried out behind me, and Charlie yelled, “Dare! Help!”

I couldn’t turn around to see what was going on, but I heard Ash cry out again, and Dare yelled something I couldn’t understand, not with the blood rushing to my ears. My family was getting hurt. The witches were hurting them.

A spell hit me, and I grunted in pain, blood splashing down my arm from the blade spell he’d used.

More spells came flying, and Jude hissed beside me. Through our bond, I felt an echo of his pain. Oh goddess.

Anderson wiped his hand along Harriet’s bloody abdomen again, and I choked on a sob. She wasn’t moving. She was lying at Anderson’s feet, still as a statue. I couldn’t tell if she was breathing.

Anderson didn’t give me time to collect myself. He launched more spells at Jude and me, and while we were on the defense, a group of witches walked out from between the trees.

They started firing at us, too, but Anderson yelled, “These two are mine! Get the others!”

The group rushed forward, and I tried to stop them. I really did. I hit them with bullet spells, with bomb spells, but their shields were too strong, and they ran right past us, getting in between us and our pride mates.

I pulled a shield over Jude and me so I could turn around and yell, “Ash! Behind you!”

That was all I had time for before those witches attacked Dare, Kulani, Charlie, and Ash. I heard them yelling, I saw magic being flung around, heard bullets flying, but I couldn’t help them. Not when Jude and I were being attacked. I turned back around and launched more bullet spells at Anderson.

And he kept on firing at us, never seeming to lose speed or energy. But I was wavering from exhaustion and magic overload. I’d used way too much magic in the past twenty-four hours. Hell, the past twelve.

Jude got hit again, and panic made my chest tight. I threw a shield over us, but Anderson took care of it in only a handful of seconds, burning it away until I couldn’t hold onto it anymore.

“Anderson!” I growled out as I covered Jude—not myself—with a shield, trying to distract him away from the shield.

He laughed maniacally.

A blade spell hit my thigh, and Jude yelled, “No! Mads, pull the shield over yourself. Now!”

But a shield wouldn’t stop the evil witch. It would only hurt me more when he melted my shield. If I could keep his attention on me, I could keep Jude covered.

“Mads! You’re hurt, and I can’t—” He cut himself off when Anderson flung too many spells in a row for us to block and talk at the same time.

I took a hit to my calf. When a third spell grazed my opposite knee, and a fourth hit my stomach, I fell to my knees.

“Mads!” A hand clamped on my shoulder, trying to steady me, and I leaned into the touch, to the feel of the one person who’d been in my corner my entire life.

I looked down at my blood, almost feeling numb to it.

My armor wasn’t strong enough to stop a witch-blade spell. It cut right through it. Slowed it down some, made it so it didn’t go as deep, but it didn’t stop it. It was still a bad, deep wound. So glad the NHSO cared enough to protect us. For crap’s sake.

“Mads, we need to retreat,” Jude said, concern and love shining through our bond.

I agreed with him, but there was nowhere to go. Anderson was in front of us, a fire blazed in the trees to the right of us, and there were witches all over the yard. Plus, Anderson would just follow us if we tried to run.

I blocked a few more spells and tried to send one back, but I was pretty sure I missed.

“Fuck,” Jude yelled as if coming to the same conclusion about being trapped. “Fuck, you’re so hurt. I don’t… fuck. How do I fix this?”

“We just gotta kill the fucker.” It was the only way.

I blocked three more of his volleys before one got past me and went straight through my upper arm. In my distraction of pain, another grazed my hip. Then the bastard hit me in the same place on my stomach, which intensified the pain because it was already injured. Only a moment later, I tasted cooper in my mouth.

“No! Mads! Fuck!”

I coughed when I felt like I was choking on liquid, and some of it dripped out of my mouth. Shit. Was I coughing up blood?

But I’d take every last hit if it kept the prickhole’s gaze on me and away from Jude.

But my dyad wasn’t having any of it. He was just as stubbornly protective of me as I was of him. Even though the last thing I wanted was for him to bring the monster’s attention to him, a wave of fondness for him swam through me when he did.

Jude used his assault rifle on Anderson’s shield, and the human’s eyes went to him. It only took Anderson two spells to realize Jude was under a shield, and the man threw a melting spell at it.

“Fuck.” More blood came out with the word, but I ignored it and released the spell, and Jude chucked energy balls at the man while continuing to shoot him.

Anderson let loose another wave of blade spells, and I did my best to knock them out of the way, but he was too fast. He’d had that power boost whereas Jude and I were losing energy—and speed—with every passing second. There were too many blades coming at us. Some of the spells got through, and I felt the echo of Jude’s pain as they hit his legs and torso.

He didn’t have armor covering his body the way the rest of us did. He was shirtless to make it easier for me to use his runes. So the magical blades hit him harder, went even deeper, and blood ran down his skin and pants.

“Jude,” I coughed out on a whimper, trying and failing to get to my feet.

Anderson continued his assault, throwing so many spells at my dyad, I couldn’t even see them all. I volleyed spells right back at him.

I made sure to hit the same exact spot with my bullet spells over and over and over again until, finally, his shield burst.

To my surprise, he didn’t throw another one up right away.

Maybe he was finally losing power and tiring out, too. Maybe we could wait him out.

That gave me the boost I needed to keep shooting at him while trying to keep as many spells away from Jude and me—mostly Jude—as possible. One of his spells hit my forearm, but that was okay because one of mine hit the side of his neck.

We were hitting the shit out of each other, all three of us covered in wounds, bruises, and blood. We just had to wait him out.

If I could just stop the blood from pooling in my mouth and pouring out of multiple wounds…

Now that Anderson’s shield was down, his own attacks slowed down because he had to block my and Jude’s spells. But he couldn’t actually see our spells, so he kept throwing out energy waves from his body to knock anything out of the way. It was working well, but we were able to get some of our spells past him.

I got him in the ribs, Jude took one in the biceps, and Anderson was hit in the shoulder.

Digging down inside myself, I pulled the last of my reserves up and increased my attack speed. This needed to end. Now.

Anderson growled out as another of my spells hit his arm, and I thought he was going to turn his attention to me, but instead, he focused that much harder on Jude again.

I kept lobbing spells at him, but my main focus was on protecting Jude.

My dyad got hit in the belly, and I screamed as he doubled over in pain.

It made me lose my focus for only a few seconds, but in the middle of a battle, a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death.

Anderson slung more and more blade spells at my dyad, aiming for his head. I swiped them away with an energy ball, but before I could rally, Anderson threw four more spells.

I knocked one, then two, then three out of the air, but the last one got through, and my dyad made a choking noise.

Blood burst from his neck, and he crumbled to the ground at the same time that pain like I’d never felt before shot through my chest. It wasn’t just an echo of Jude’s physical pain. It was our bond.

It was breaking.

Our bond was breaking.

Because Jude was…

“Nooo!” I screamed as I scooted on my knees to get closer to my dyad.

Even though I had no energy left, I managed to throw up a quick and dirty shield around us. It would only keep us safe for seconds, but… but that was better than nothing.

Slowly, I rolled Jude, my sweet Jude, onto his back, a cry coming out of my lungs when blood poured from his mouth and the horrible wound on his neck. He met my eyes, and I could see it in his face.

He was dying.

We were both dying.

Because I wouldn’t survive without him, and I had no doubt that the second I could no longer attack with big magics, Anderson wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.

“Bu-bubba,” he coughed out, and tears ran down my face in streams.

“Judikans. Goddess…” I coughed, blood spraying out. “I’m so… sorry I couldn’t… protect you.”

Even with the little energy he had, he managed to scowl at me. “I… cou-couldn’t… you… either.”

Anderson’s magic hit my shield, and I cried out in pain. “He-he’s gonna… get through soon.”

“I know.” Jude sent me a bloody smile. “I love you, bubba.”

I ran my hand through his hair and bent down to kiss his forehead, leaving a bloody lip print there. “I love you, too, my sweet… amazing dyad. It’s been… my absolute pleasure to be… be bonded to you. I… I wish we had more time.”

“Me, too. It’s been… a good… ride.” He gurgled on blood and blindly reached for my hand.

I gripped it tight in mine, shaking my head, as I flung another dirty shield up to buy us more time. The backlash of the witch magic hit me immediately, but I did my best to push it to the back of my mind. Out of all the pains on my body, that was probably the least of my concerns.

He whispered, “Love you,” before his hand went slack in mine, and his eyes closed, his head falling to the side.

“No! Jude! Judikans! Wake up! You have to wake up!” I screamed and coughed through my words, shaking him, trying to get him to wake up. “Jude!”

Anderson’s cruel laugh cut through the grief wrapping its way around my heart, and I turned my attention to him.

“You killed him! You fucking disgusting bastard! You killed him!”

He smiled manically. “And now I get to kill you. I’m collecting the set.”

He thrust another spell at my shield, and I felt it ripping it away. I tried my best to pull another shield up, but I couldn’t. I didn’t have the energy, and Jude… Jude…

I sucked in a breath and turned my face toward Cosmo. I knew exactly where he was. He was across the yard, fighting a group of witches with Logan. I knew he could feel my sorrow and pain, just as I could feel his. But he was too far away to help.

And I… I couldn’t get to him. There was no way.

As if sensing my attention on him, he looked in my direction. My beautiful, wonderful, amazing, kind, tender mate met my gaze, and I had never been more grateful for the wonderful life he’d given me these past five years. I’d known a love I never thought was possible, all because of him. I’d had a family, a real family, all because of him. I’d known happiness and peace and comfort. All because of my Cosmo.

All I could do was cry harder as I mouthed, “I love you,” to him.

His eyes widened in horror, and I saw him more than heard him scream, “Nooo!” I watched him try to push through the surrounding enemies to get to me, but I knew he wouldn’t make it.

As difficult as it was, I turned away from him to face the man who’d brought so much death, destruction, and hatred to the country, to my life. He was so close to getting through my shield, to killing me, and the terrible smile on his face showed that he knew it, too.

Taking as deep a breath as my injuries would allow, I gathered every last ounce of magic I had left in my body. I drained my muscles, my bones, my very cells of every bit of it, and then… then I did the same to Jude. I hated doing it, but he… he was already gone, and he would’ve wanted me to do this even if he was still here. He was gone, but his magic still lingered inside of his still-warm body.

Squeezing his hand tight, I pulled on it, my tears making Anderson blurry.

“I made you a promise, prickhole,” I breathed out. “And I intend to keep it.”

And just as my shield finally failed, I pushed a huge wave of my love toward Cos, making sure he could feel every bit of affection I felt for him, every bit of appreciation, every bit of the love he’d shown me over the years, every bit of the love I’d felt for him since he’d walked into my life and turned it upside down.

And then I weaved my and Jude’s magics together for the very last time, and thought blast, blast, BLAST!

Anderson’s eyes went wide.

If I went down, at least I was taking that bastard with me.

BLAST!

And then the world exploded.